70 



GLEANINGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



ANOTHER FEEDER. 



*cjP AST fall, 1 needed some feeders; and, having; 

 j'Jl V| | but few tools, I tried the following- plan, and 

 found it worked well: 



I took small pieces of hoards of clear pine lumber, 

 ti by 8 inches in size, and cut in each a trough f by ti 

 inches, and over half an inch deep; T then waxed 

 them by pouring' in melted wax and pouring- it out 

 immediately, to make them perfectly tight, and 

 tacked a piece of wire cloth, such as is used here for 

 door screens, over the trough, and in the center 1 

 drove a tack, springing the wire down tight to the 

 bottom of the trough. If the center of the trough 

 is made a little deeper than the edges, the bees will 

 take all the feed. These feeders gave me satisfac- 

 tion. I never found a fead or disabled bee about 

 them, and I find them easily and speedily made, with 

 but few tools. I bore holes across each end, and 

 then split out the wood with a chisel. Should the 

 screw of the bit go through, I stop the holes with 

 putty before I wax them. They can be covered like 

 Shuck's feeder, and used for feeding during the 

 day, at the entrance. I think they answer as well as 

 the Simplicity, and arc more easily made by ABC 

 scholars. \V. D. Hai.ston. 



Scotch Grove, Iowa, Dec. 23, 1879. 



Many thanks, friend R., for your novel 

 and ingenious device. It is quite similar to 

 the plan I have given in the A 13 C, of lay- 

 ing cheese cloth over a milk pan. No doubt 

 the boys will thank you many times for an 

 idea that will enable them to make good 

 feeders for three cents each or less. 



P. S. — A piece of tinned wire cloth, sol- 

 dered to one of our cheap tin plates, would 

 make a feeder for about two cents. 



— »~ »»« m 



HONEY DEW AGAIN. 



DO THE LEAVES OF TREES, AS WEDD AS BLOSSOMS, 

 SOMETIMES SECRETE HONEY? 



VM D1TOU OF GLEANINGS: - In December num- 

 Jjfjj ber, you ask me what kind of an oak it was on 

 ~~ which I found such an abundance of the honey 

 dew. It was the Qucrcus nigra. 



In reply to the question, is it really a fact that 

 trees sometimes bear honey from their leaves, as 

 well as blossoms, I say, they do. As evidence of this, 

 I offer the following: 



Virgil stated, prior to the Christian era, " Hard 

 oaks shall distill the dewy honey." 



Mr. Weimeo, of this county, has seen the honey 

 dew on the leaves of the Quercus macrocarpa (Bur- 

 Oak), and also on the leaves of the beech in Ohio, 

 and, in the state of Virginia, on the leaves of other 

 trees and shrubs; but he never saw it till some of 

 the leaves began to don the yellow or purple hue of 

 autumn. 



Mr. J. Taylor has seen and tasted the honey dew 

 on the leaves of the Nyssa mult iflora (Gum tree). It 

 was so thick that, by pressing the leaf with the fin- 

 gers, it would adhere enough to raise the leaf. 

 These leaves had begun to assume that beautiful 

 rosy tint so common to this species of tree, in the 

 nst of the summer or beginning- of the fall months. 



He also noticed the bees working on the heads of 

 wheat in the time of harvest. He said to me, "Six of 

 us went to harvest wheat. When we arrived at the 

 field we noticed quite a dew on the heads of the 

 wheat; every beard had a small drop on the outer 

 end, anu ix-es were ayiug, and working on some of 



the heads. On close inspection, I found, near the 

 grain, a tenacious fluid which was touched and tast- 

 ed by all of us, and found to be quite sweet. This 

 was not found on all the heads but on occasional 

 ones." 



Mrs. Dr. Noble, a botanist, has found the honey 

 dew several times on the leaves of the beech, in nu- 

 merous, small drops. 



My neighbor, Mr. Simeon F. Teal, has a large, state- 

 ly tree, Quercus alba, or white oak, standing alone 

 in an open field, the only remaining, living monu- 

 ment of the primeval days of the forest. From its 

 colossal trunk, stand a few offshoots, or short 

 branches, the longest of which is about ten feet from 

 the ground. While Bro. Teal and son were passing 

 by the tree, in Sept., 186S, they heard the hum of 

 bees; they halted and found them working on the 

 leaves. Mr. Teal's description of the numbers of 

 bees on the oak reminds one of the ancient bard wh<, 

 sang, "And from the sacred oak, nwarms of bees re- 

 sound." He said, "I never saw so many bees on one 

 tree in my life, as there were on that oak." 



The writer of this has seen the bees work on the 

 leaves of Salix nig ra (Black willow), long- after the 

 flowering season had passed, and many times has he 

 watched the bees as they sipped the dewy nectar 

 from its leaves. He has seen them work on the ri- 

 pened grain at or near the time of harvest, and has 

 seen the inspissated nectar on the leaves of the wild 

 cherry and sycamore trees. 



These instances are enough to establish the fact 

 that leaves.as well as blossoms furnish honey for the 

 bees. J. B. Cline, M. D. 



Perm's Mills, Clermont Co., O. Dec. 17. 187!). 



THE ORIGIN OF HONEY DEW. 



The last number of your magazine has an article 

 on this topic. I have seen many cases of "honey 

 dew" on many kinds of plants. Some have been 

 sent me by letter. I have never seen one, in which I 

 thought the leaves exuded the sweet. Under a high 

 magnifying power, I could not detect openings 

 where it had escaped, nor were there any glands 

 which could secrete the honey. The dew is usually 

 on the upper side of the leaf, while the Stoma'a, or 

 little breathing pores, are on the under side of the 

 leaf. 



On careful observation, for some days, I believe 

 that, in all cases, honey dew will be found to be the 

 exudations of small insects, known as plant lice. 

 J The lice may not be seen for sometime. Some of 

 them move about quite freely, and hide under pieces 

 of bark. A case of this kind occurred the pa t sum- 

 mer, on some larch trees near my door. Professor 

 A. J. Cook and myself, after a while, fully satisfied 

 ourselves that all the honey came from lice which 

 we did not find for a week or more after the bees 

 found the dew. The same was found on our Nor- 

 way spruces. Of course, there may bo cases unlike 

 any I ever saw. 



Many species of plants are furnished with glands 

 and glandular hairs which secrete a liquid or viscid 

 substance. It may be that, in some cases, this se- 

 cretion drops on to the leaves below and causes 

 "honey dew," but I believe the above statements 

 are near the truth. In American Naturalist for 1878, 

 the writer illustrates some of these glands on the 

 leaves of snow-ball, and fruit of trumpet creeper. 

 Other plants have glands. It is not likely that I 

 know all about this subject. W. J. Bead. 



Mich, Agricultural College. 



