December, 1916. 



407 



American ^ae Journal 



'^^^¥ 



try with a warm climate. It freezes but 

 little in any part of Italy, and the cli- 

 mate is certainly less severe than that 

 of Texas. — Editor] 



The beginner is generally puzzled to 

 know whether to choose goldens, 

 bright 3-banded, or leather-colored. 

 Let it be distinctly understood that all 

 goldens are not exactly alike, neither 

 are all leather-colored. The three kinds 

 mentioned are all Italians, and they all 

 vary. So a man may have a colony of 

 goldens and a colony of leather-col- 

 ored, and the goldens are the better of 

 the two, while another may find that 

 his own goldens are not so good as his 

 leather-colored. The matter of looks 

 has no small bearing, and breeders 

 find that other things being equal the 

 brighter the color the better customers 

 will be pleased. Yet a large proportion 

 of experienced producers of honey 

 seem to prefer the leather-colored, with 

 the belief that in general these rank as 

 the better honey-gatherers. c. c. m. 



Bees and Fruit 



The "American Fruit Grower" in 

 October, page 34, has this to say about 

 the usefulness of birds and bees: 



" Do you know what the birds and 

 bees do for horticulturists? Here are 

 hints. In Massachusetts, it is estimated, 

 that the birds eat 21,000 bushels of in- 

 jurious insects daily. In Tennessee, 

 an orchardist writes : ' I have noticed 

 that when a fruit tree was in bloom, 

 during a damp, cool spell of weather, 

 and the bees did not get to fly very 

 much while the tree was in bloom, that 

 the tree did not have very much fruit 

 on it that year.' 



"These States are mentioned because 

 we happen to have the simple facts 

 handy. The help of bird and bee is 

 the same in every State. Are you tak- 

 ing advantage of this friendly service 

 given by Dame Nature ? ] 



" Consider the bees, if you had to 

 take a brush and fertilize all your fruit 

 blooms, wouldn't it be a job ? Yet here 

 is the busiest spirit in the universe, 

 whose whole social life, structure, and 

 ideal, is to gather honey and pollen, 

 thus carrying fertility to plants. Are 

 you using the bees ? Of course, wild 

 ones will do their utmost, but why not 

 have your own hives in the orchard ? 



"Of course we know, as you have 

 already thought, that birds peck cher- 

 ries, and bees sting grapes and apples, 

 and hawks steal chickens. But Nature 

 does not work perfectly. She needs 

 help. Moreover, we doubtwhether the 

 damage done is one-tenth what these 

 creatures save us. Last of all, it is a 

 far easier task to protect fruit and 

 seeds and chicks against bees and 

 birds than against insects and mice." 



Will the "American Fruit Grower' 

 permit us — while applauding his wise 

 remarks on the usefulness of bees for 

 the fertilization of fruit — to protest 

 against his statement that " bees sting 

 grapes and apples." In the first place, 



if bees did "sting" grapes and apples, 

 they would at the same time poison 

 them, for the sting of the honeybee is 

 so constituted that it emits poison 

 whenever it is used. But perhaps our 

 friend the " Fruit Grower," only means 

 that bees bite or puncture the skin of 

 those fruits with their jaws. If this is 

 what he meant we call his attention to 

 the fact that the mandibles of the hon- 

 eybee are unable to cut the smooth 

 skin of healthy fruit, for they are made 

 of a smooth, horny substance which 

 cannot pierce the skin of fruits. It is 

 true that they tear cloth, paper and 

 other similar articles, even tearing 

 wood, when it is old and soft. But 

 they do not cut these substances. They 

 take hold of minute projecting parti- 

 cles and pull them until the texture is 

 more or less lacerated. This may be 

 readily ascertained if a string is placed 

 within the hive. In a short time it is 

 pulled to shreds. But the skin of grapes 

 and apples is smooth and firm, and that 

 explains why the bees have no means 

 of perforating it. The damage is origi- 

 nally done by birds or wasps. 



How do we know it ? By experi- 

 ment. Any one may try it. Place a 

 bunch of perfectly sound grapes or a 

 sound apple within a hive and examine 

 it 24 hours afterwards. In some cases 

 the fruit may be left for weeks and 

 will remain uninjured if it does not 

 decay. The writer has actually starved 

 bees on a bunch of grapes. 



The reason why so many people 

 imagine that bees injure grapes is that, 

 when the grapes have been punctured 

 by birds, at daylight, the bees come 

 later to gather the remnants. When 

 the owner of the vineyard appears, the 

 birds have flown away, but the little 

 bees remain, without fear, and are ac- 

 cused of the mischief. 



Freight Rates Again 



In our June number we warned our 

 readers that unless more care was used 

 in packing honey for shipment the 

 freight rates would be increased. How- 

 ever, we were not expecting such im- 

 mediate action on the part of the rail- 

 roads nor such a high rate as shortly 

 went into effect in western territory. 

 Beginning Sept. 1, comb honey was 

 raised to double first-class rate in the 

 western classification. This rate prac- 

 tically shuts the man in remote sec- 

 tions of the West out of the eastern 

 market unless he is prepared to ship in 

 carlots which carry a lower rate. 



There was a very general protest and 

 a hearing was arranged in Chicago for 

 Oct. 26. At the urgent request of Iowa 

 honey producers, who were affected by 

 the new rate, Mr. Frank C. Pellett, ou' 



staff correspondent, was sent to Chi- 

 cago to represent the Iowa beekeepers. 

 Iowa is fortunate in having a State 

 commerce counsel, whose duty It is to 

 assist the shippers in that State in pre- 

 senting such matters to the railroads 

 and to the interstate commerce com- 

 mission and other bodies having au- 

 thority over rates. So .Mr. Dwight N. 

 Lewis, assistant counsel, of DesMoinesi 

 also went to Chicago to represent the 

 Iowa people. 



Prof. Francis Jager, president of the 

 National Beekeepers' Association, made 

 the trip several days in advance of the 

 hearing, and did what he could to in- 

 fluence a favorable decision on the 

 part of the committee, though he did 

 not remain for the hearing. Mr. E. J. 

 Baxter, president of the Illinois Bee- 

 keepers' Association, and Mr. J. T. Cal- 

 vert of the A. I. Root Company, both 

 were present at the hearing. 



During the hearing it developed that 

 there has been a very large amount of 

 loss of honey in shipment during the 

 past few months, and the railroads 

 were compelled to raise the rates to 

 enable them to pay the numerous 

 claims for damage. 



The Iowa shippers had a large 

 amount of evidence to show that where 

 shipments have been properly pro- 

 tected the loss was very slight, and 

 this was borne out by the Root Com- 

 pany, who have shipped millions of 

 pounds with very little damage. The 

 committee seemed to wish to be en- 

 tirely fair in the matter and agreed 

 that the shipper who prepares his pro- 

 duct for shipment in proper manner 

 should not be compelled to pay the 

 losses caused by the careless man. 

 While it is possible that unprotected 

 shipments will remain at the same rate, 

 of double first class, the committee 

 promised that they would make a dis- 

 tinction, and that when comb honey is 

 packed in carriers with at least four 

 inches of hay or straw in the bottom it 

 will be given a lower rate. These car- 

 riers should be provided with handles 

 so that they can be handled easily and 

 a caution tag should be placed on top 

 of the package. No single package 

 should weigh to exceed 240 pounds. 

 The reduced rate will go into effect 

 when the next schedule is published 

 which will probably be before Jan. 1. 



Our readers who keep the files of 

 their journals will do well to look up 

 the June number and read again the 

 article on "Getting Your Honey to 

 Market." This matter of freight rates 

 is a vital one, and unless the beekeepers 

 pack their honey properly, freight rates 

 will naturally rise to cover damages. 



