1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



589 



establishments I coulda't pet my orders filled. I 

 have, however, learned a little. Top bars X inch 

 thick, accurately spaced /^ apart, do not prevent 

 burr combs. Top-bars reinforced with separator 

 stuff making- them 'g deep are a great improve- 

 ment but not perfection. To my surprise, even 

 after I have scraped top-bars off clean, I do not find 

 slat honey-boards work as well as In former years. 

 That makes me more than ever anxious to learn 

 how to get along without them. 

 Marengo, 111., July 21. C. C. Miller. 



Why, friend M., we do send out directions 

 for using the solar wax-extractor — that is, 

 we intend to do so ; but I presume during 

 the rush of business last season, somehow 

 or other the sheet was left out. The same 

 directions, or essentially the same, are 

 given in " Wax," under '' Solar Wax-ex- 

 tractor," in the ABC which you have. 

 But you have added some items which we 

 are glad to have. Yes, sir ; when bee-keep- 

 ers know more about the solar extractor 

 they will use it more than they do. Ours is 

 in use in the apiary constantly, when the 

 sun shines, and we should hardly know how 

 to get along without it now. Instead of 

 having lumps of wax stuck about' here and 

 there, and more or less litter in the honey- 

 house, we have instead several nice cakes of 

 yellow wax. We do not bother to have it re- 

 "raelted in the oven. If your pan has slop- 

 ing sides (and I presume it has) the cake 

 ought to lift out after it has hardened. I 

 am glad to get your testimony in regard to 

 honey-boards and thick top-bars. I have 

 not heard any thing positively against them, 

 except that a few having never tried them 

 won't use them because " they are too much 

 wood." E. R. R. 



BEES AND CEREALS, AGAIN. 



PROF. KOON8 REVIEWS THE QUESTION; ANOTHER 

 OF AGASSIZ'S BLUNDERS. 



My object in asking Prof. Cook a question through 

 Gleanings, see page 449, was to get confirmation 

 on the point of the usefulness of bees on wheat, 

 etc. I ran across the statements of M. Jobard, a 

 French writer, in his "The First Hive," where he 

 makes such positive statements concerning the 

 utility of bees on the cereals; and they were so 

 contrary to my previous understanding of the sub- 

 ject that it fairly stunned me. I jumped up, shook 

 myself, rubbed my eyes, and gave myself a pinch 

 just to reassure me that I had not been asleep. 

 Rip Van Winkle like, all these years, and allowed 

 the world to get so far ahead of me in the natural 

 history of common things on land, while I, with oth- 

 ers, during summer vacations and spare moments, 

 have been poking our noses, or, rather, machinery, 

 several miles down into the old Atlantic, to the 

 bottom of the Gulf Stream, to learn what new and 

 hidden treasures ocean depths contain. I think, by 

 the way, that some time I must tell the readers of 

 Gleanings something of our experiences and finds, 

 out there, but not this time. 



Immediately upon reading Monsieur Jobard's 

 opinions concerning bees and cereals, I said, "1 

 shall ask A. I. Root, or through him Prof. Cook, 

 just for reassurance; yet I know that I am right, 

 for I was reared among the Ohio wheat-fields, and 



have observed nature somewhat closely all these 

 years, and have never yet observed a bee at work 

 upon wheat, rye, oat, or grass." 



The statements of M. .Jobard run like this: "There 

 are some districts in Saxony where the farmers 

 raise no other crops than wheat; and a wheat of 

 such superior quality as to be always sold at a high 

 price as seea wheat. In these districts all farmers, 

 without exception, have bee-houses; but these bee- 

 houses, instead of being fixed, are mounted on 

 wheels. Some days before the wheat blossoms, 

 each farmer hitches his team to his movable bee- 

 house, and conducts it during the night into the 

 middle of his wheat-field." . . . "I have a bee- 

 house in the middle of a field, and it is always the 

 field surrounding my bee-house which furnishes my 

 seed-wheat." 



But here, most likely, as is so often the case, the 

 overzeal for a theory, or the want of a little re- 

 search, led the writer to make these statements and 

 others like them; and all the more pity, because 

 some of his errors have been finding their way into 

 some of the leading publications of New England, 

 and my first step was to be absolutely sure of my 

 ground, and then expose the errors. 



Like this Frenchman, the great Louis Agassiz 

 once wrote a very learned (!) essay upon "The 

 Mode of Motion of Certain Sea-Urchins," when if 

 he had gone to the water's edge half a mile from 

 his study-window, by a little judicious research he 

 could soon have proved that all his theorizing was 

 entirely erroneous. Zeal for a theory sometimes 

 leads very great men astray. 



Some flowers produce only stamens, or the male 

 organs, while others, sometimes on the same plant 

 in certain species, and^in other species on entirely 

 distinct plants, produce pistils, or the female parts 

 of the flower; and still other species produce both 

 stamens and pistils in the same flower. Those pos- 

 sessing only pistils must, of course, have pollen 

 brought from the stamens or they will not produce 

 fruit; and, again, some of those possessing both 

 stamens and pistils can not be fertilized by the pol- 

 len of the same flower in which it grew; or if fer- 

 tilization does take place it is very imperfect, hence 

 must have pollen brought from another flower to 

 Insure the perfect growth of the fruit; hence the 

 need of the aid of insects or the wind to insure 

 the productiveness of some of four plants. Ordina- 

 ry red clover is a good illustration of a plant need- 

 ing the aid of insects, and in this particular case the 

 bumble-bee is the insect that performs the work of 

 cross-fertilization. 



Again, there are other plants which reproduce by 

 what Gray calls elose or self fertilization; that is, 

 the stamens of any particular flower fertilize the 

 pistil of that flower; and in these, bees can play no 

 Important part; and conspicuous among these, as 

 Prof. Cook well says, are^wheat, oats, etc.; hence 

 we can readily understand the blunder of our 

 French writer. 



I have no bee-men near me who have had a long 

 experience, and my residence in the State is not 

 sufficently long to enable me to judge of the merits 

 of this year as compared with the best of the white- 

 clover harvest In this State; yet this has certainly 

 been a very good season thus far, as white clover 

 bloomed early, and the rains have been sutticiently 

 frequent to keep it fresh and in the greatest profu- 

 sion, and bees have gathered ailarge quantity of 

 houey. Basswood is so scarce here In Eastern Con- 



