November, 1916. 



881 



American ^cc Joarnal j^^^ ^^^win 



he finds medicine and help. They ap- 

 ply at once to Don Rafael in case of 

 any need or whenever in any difficulty. 

 The majordomo and the overseers I 

 found to be very intelligent men. They 

 were born and educated on the ha- 

 cienda. 



The Porto Rican honey that I have 

 seen is rather dark in color but of line 

 flavor. The war conditions have kept 

 this honey from its regular market and 

 it is now being sent to New York where 

 the price is very low. Some of the 

 larger apiarists claim that they are find- 

 ing it more profitable to raise wax un- 

 til times and markets become normal 

 again. 



Among the citrus fruit plantations 

 nectar comes in from this source and 

 from the trees and shrubs which are 

 planted for windbreaks to protect the 

 orchards from the hurricanes. At the 

 cofifee plantations the main source of 

 nectar is from the shade trees planted 

 to protect the cofTee plants. Tobacco 

 also yields a heavy flow under certain 

 conditions. These are the main sources 

 pointed out to me, but I also saw dozens 

 of other shrubs and plants upon which 

 the bees were working. 



The intelligence of the native apiary 

 managers is remarkable. They are 

 anxious to learn and adopt new meth- 



place. or I would tell the readers some- 

 thing more of the wonders of the trop- 

 ics, the waterfalls, the mountain scen- 

 ery, grottoes, subterranean passages of 

 volcanic origin passing through be- 

 neath the mountains ; of the hotels and 

 the life in the towns. I found the 

 most interesting things and the gen- 

 uinely typical conditions far away from 

 the regular tourist route. When the 

 apiary hands found that I was inter- 

 ested in the natural phenomena in the 

 flora and the fauna of the island, they 

 were willing to show me new sights 

 and wonders in exchange for the little 

 help and hints I gave them in improv- 

 ing their methods of apiculture. 

 Seguin, Tex. 



Honeydew— Its Origin 



BY J. A. HEBERLE, B. S. 



. / fr/'t' rondensed translation of a lecture of Jiile 

 Frei. Sehw. Bzte. 



OPINIONS as to the origin of honey- 

 dew differ even today. It was a 

 long time before men of science 

 began to investigate the question. 

 Pliny mentions honeydew and was 

 of the opinion that it dropped as gen- 

 tle dew from heaven. For centuries 



A PORTO RICO GROUP 



Left to right— I. Sr. Domingo Serra, 2. Sr. Rodulfo Del Valle. 3. Henry Brenner of Texas 



4. The Mayor of Porto Rico. 5. Sr. Rafael Serra. The Serras and Del Valle are the most 



extensive beekeepers on the South Coast 



ods. It was a pleasure to me to in- 

 struct these bright, eager men in queen- 

 rearing, introducing, swarm control, 

 wax production, etc., as we practice 

 them in Texas. 



Very important business called me 

 home in June and I did not have the 

 pleasure of meeting several other bee- 

 keepers who had invited me by letter 

 to spend a poriion of my time with 

 them, and I shall certainly look them 

 up when I return next winter. 



It would take too much space, and a 

 bee journal is perhaps not a proper 



this was the general belief. The Eng- 

 lish and German name seems in accord- 

 ance with this belief. About the middle 

 of the 16th century it was noticed that 

 honeydew is very unequally distributed 

 in the same locality. Some plants and 

 trees are completely covered, while 

 trees near by show no trace of it, 

 while if it fell from heaven all th ; 

 plants and their immediate surround- 

 ings would be covered with honey-dew. 

 In the year 1742 the Swedish Acad- 

 emy offered a prize for the solution be- 

 cause Reaumur had noticed that 



aphides and honeydew occurred to- 

 gether on the same plants. In Switzer- 

 land about 40 percent of the honey 

 crop is from honeydew. principally 

 from the weisstanne (Pinus abies) a 

 fir tree. From this fir tree the bee- 

 keepers in the Vosges mountains, the 

 black forest and in parts of Switzer- 

 land, harvest large crops of honeydew, 

 also called waldhonig. Notwithstand- 

 ing its greenish black color it is much 

 esteemed by the population. 



[From all I have heard and read 

 (personally I have had no opportunity 

 to make observations) about this wald- 

 honig, the evidence points to plant ori- 

 gin, especially since the meteorological 

 conditions seem of paramount impor- 

 tance, while the aphides surely are not 

 quite so sensitive as to flourish only 

 under special climatic conditions. — H ] 



Mr. Frei considers all honeys which 

 are collected by the bees outside of 

 blossoms and flowers, on various parts 

 of the plants, as honeydew honey. He 

 frankly admits that there are two kinds, 

 one of purely vegetable and one of ani- 

 mal origin. In Switzerland, the lec- 

 turer said, they have almost exclusively 

 honeydew of vegetable origin, pro- 

 duced by peculiar climatic conditions. 



Toward the end of the last century 

 and only the last few years has the 

 question of the origin of honeydew 

 been settled in favor of those who con- 

 sider it of vegetable origin. 



The following observations have had 

 a determining influence in deciding the 

 question : 



We know from observation that 

 honeydew comes very irregularly and 

 then suddenly, over night and some- 

 times in such profusion that it can for 

 that reason not exclusively be produced 

 by aphides. These could not in so 

 short a time multiply to such enormous 

 numbers necessary for such a result. 

 Then, again, honeydew usually disap- 

 pears as promptly as it came, when the 

 weather suddenly changes. 



The appearance of honeydew de- 

 pends principally on the weather which 

 may cause a rapid movement of plant 

 juice toward the leaves; light and heat 

 and reduced evaporation may cause 

 such a tension that considerable quan- 

 tities of the sweet iuice exude. 



It is a fact that where honeydew is, 

 aphides are often present, butthis pres- 

 ence is not the cause of the honeyflow, 

 but is an accompanying circumstance. 

 If the great tension of the sweet juice 

 has set in, the excess must exude, no 

 matter whether aphides are present or 

 not. 



In fact, several scientists have 

 pointed out that especially by the fir, 

 beech and alder they have, notwith- 

 standing a careful search, been unable 

 to find aphides in numbers sufficient to 

 account for the liberal quantity of 

 honeydew. The aphides could not dis- 

 appear by moving when the honeydew 

 was still present. Where a considera- 

 ble number of aphides are found their 

 presence is easily explained by their 

 preference for juicy, succulent young 

 growth. 



Honeydew, :. e., the sweet plant juice, 

 shows in its composition a surprising 

 resemblance to the nectar of blossoms. 

 Mr. Frei said the main opposition to 

 the acceptance of honeydew as of veg- 

 etable origin is from Buesgen, Botan- 



