ArRiT., 191S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



23; 



stance, ask such a man as Dr. Miller, who is 

 as old as the hills and still young. Why not 

 a world-wide propaganda be started ' Eat 

 Honey and Cure Eheuniatisni. ' " — Jas. Bach- 

 ler, Madison Co., Mo., Feb. 7. 



' ' For the purpose of honey production we 

 have found Maryland physically fit. While 

 not up to the standard of the larger pro- 

 ducing states, Maryland is nevertheless in 

 the first rank of fine beekeeping regions. The 

 climate is particularly favorable and the sea- 

 sons last practically from April to the first of 

 NovcTuber. An abundance of nectar-produc- 

 ing plants, coming in the proper sequence, 

 large crops of honey are assured." — G. H. 

 Gale's address before Maryland State Bee- 

 keepers' Association. 



' ' Lost all of my bees this winter with plen- 

 ty of honey in each hive. The bees froze and 

 scattered all thru my hive, showing that they 

 were not clustered as usual in extreme cold 

 weather. Think I lost them on Jan. 11, 

 when it was 34 degrees at midnight and 12 

 degrees below zero in the morning. My 

 theory is that it caught them scattered over 

 the frames. About 90 per cent of the bees 

 in this locality that I know of are dead, and 

 were found in the same condition." — Chas. 

 H. Eogers, Holmes Co., Ohio, Feb. 20. 



Eleanor J. Kreitler, Practice Teacher, of 

 the Kent, Ohio, schools had a score of her 

 pupils write the A. I. Eoot Company re- 

 garding bees and beekeeping after the little 

 students had been studying bees for a time. 

 Here is one of their letters, typical of them 

 all: "I would like to know something about 

 beekeeping. I want to know how much honey 

 about 4,000 bees can make in a year. How 

 you keep the swarm in the winter time? 

 How much you get from one hive in a year? 

 I would like very much to have you send me 

 a live bee. I would like to have a queen." 



"I had eczema on my leg for five years. 

 Doctor made it no better. Itch! Oh, my! 

 It was spreading. I thought I would try 

 binding on some honey. In a couple of days 

 it itched so I took it off, and washed my leg 

 with soap and warm water, and put some 

 more honey on, binding it up again. In about 

 a week it began to itch again. I gave it an- 

 other good scrub and put on some more hmi- 

 ey. It did not itch any more. I left the 

 bandage on two weeks and the skin became 

 nice and smooth. That was two years ago 

 and the disease has not returned. I uyf'd the 

 fall honey gathered from the aster and gol- 

 denrod. Whether that would make any dif- 

 ference or not I don't know." — F. .1. liCe, 

 Lee Valley, Ont., Feb. 18. 



"Even tho you have great things over 

 there, yet we obtain results here that would 

 make Americans' mouths water. The year 

 1916 was a bumper year, when one of our 

 members, with 16 hives, made a net profit 

 of over £100 ($500) from extracted honey. 



. . . Foul brood and Isle of Wight dis- 

 ease possess no terrors for us. The proper 



application of 'Bacterol' and a good queen 

 in the hive is all that is required. I observ- 

 ed when the Isle of Wight disease was spread- 

 ing over the country it followed the rivers, 

 and we on the hills were the last to be at- 

 tacked, and I suppose the first to be free. 

 Look to the hills for aid. ' ' — Alexander 

 Mackie, Supt. of Police, Marlborough, Wilk., 

 England, Feb. 5. 



They Say It Isn't So. 



"And even John H. Lovell is just as 

 far wrong in some of his sayings and doings. 

 For instance, in January Gleanings, page 20, 

 in his article on ' Bird Flowers, ' two different 

 times he mentions the fact that we have 

 only one species of humming bird in the 

 United States. This is very misleading to 

 the young nature student, especally in orni- 

 thology, for any bird student of intelligence 

 will tell you that there are about a dozen 

 sjjecies of humming birds in the United 

 States. The State of Maine has only one 

 species, and that is the ruby-throated. Mr. 

 Ijovell must remember that the borders of 

 the United States extend far beyond Maine. 

 I must call Mr. Lovell 's attention to the 

 fact that the ruby-throated humming bird is 

 the only member of the family Trockilidae 

 inhabiting the part of the United States 

 east of the Rocky mountains; but from the 

 Eoekies to the Pacific Coast and to the 

 borders of Mexico, there are from eight to 

 10 other distinct species of this family. And 

 Mr. Lovell 's statement that there are 'more 

 than 500 species in tropical America' is also 

 highly exaggerated, and in about the same 

 proportion as his statement that only one 

 variety of Trockilidae inhabits the United 

 States." — E. C. Davis, Saint Helena County, 

 La., Jan. 21. 



' ' Please do not think I wish to criticise 

 John Ijovell in his article, January 

 Gleanings, on 'Bird Flowers Often Listed 

 as Honey Plants. ' I read the article with 

 much interest. Yet I think he is in error 

 when he states that the only humming bird 

 in the United States is the ruby-throated. 

 We have no less than 16 species in the Unit- 

 ed States. The ruby-throated may rule su- 

 preme east of the Mississippi river, but there 

 are more than a dozen others that breed in 

 California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. 

 Do the birds get some honey from 

 the 'bird flowers?' Last summer while the 

 summer bee school was held in Dalton we 

 went over the very fine gardens of Hon. 

 W. Murray Crane's estate. The gardener, 

 Herman Schmeiske, a man that it does one 

 good to meet, showed us how the bumblebees 

 gnawed into the cups of the "bird flowers" 

 to get at the sweet secretion. The honey- 

 bees, far more numerous, would drink a 

 "lion's share" of the nectar. I have seen 

 the corolla opened, but do not know to what 

 extent my bees work on such flowers." — 

 Walter H. Leonard, Bristol Countv, Mass., 

 Jan. 27. " ■ 



