234 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



peated tests with the wire-cage method I find 

 that the full length of tongue is put out by 

 the bees through the wire. 



[The general scheme of your measuring- 

 device is very ingenious ; but after all it would 

 measure only the longest tongued bees in a 

 colony. There is a slight variation in tongue- 

 reach in bees of the same colony, and this va- 

 riation is more with the bees of some queens 

 than with others. But for real accuracy I 

 question whether so much machinerj' would 

 give the results as satisfactorily as a more sim- 

 ple device. For instance, the dial pointer 

 would have to be very nicely balanced on a 

 delicate hair- spring, with a sliyht tendency to 

 move toward the zero-point. Then the string 

 or thread reaching from the top of the needle 

 to the point in the dial might vary a trifle in 

 length. Any fibrous filament will vary in 

 length according to the weather ; and while it 

 might be possible for you to use a fine wire, 

 yet the stiffness of it would destroy to a cer- 

 tain extent the freedom of movement of the 

 pointer on the dial 



You say that, by repeated test by the wire- 

 cloth method, you find that the whole length 

 of the tongue is put out by the bees through 

 the wire cloth. From a physiological point of 

 view I do not see how this is possible, any 

 more than it is possible for us to stick our 

 tongues the entire length clear out of our 

 mouths. But perhaps you measure from one 

 point of view, and we from another ; and, 

 again, your wire cloh may be sufficiently 

 coarse so that a bee can actually stick its nose 

 or mandibles down through the meshes. This 

 would add somewhat to the tongue-reach. If 

 so, this would hardly be a fair comparison, 

 for the corolla-tubes of red clover that I have 

 examined would not admit any portion of the 

 mandibles with the tongue. — Ed.] 



PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT. 



Longevity vs. Long Tongues. 

 BY J. O. GRIMSLEY. 



An invalid is not expected to be very im- 

 pressive in the discussion of even the most in- 

 teresting subjects ; but I, for one, -am like the 

 good old woman at a camp-meeting, especial- 

 ly when I am devouring (mentally) the last 

 few copies of G1.EANINGS. I "get full, and 

 must have a say." But you all are not around 

 to hear the expressions of approval, and to 

 see the accompanying smile, and I have to re- 

 sort to the columns of Gi^EANings. 



MEASURING TONGUES. 



Well, that's business. Seems to me I said 

 something once before on the same subject. 

 But, oh what a crank I am on long tongues ! 

 Long-tongued women are an — an — abomina- 

 tion ; long-tongued bees, the ideal of the bee- 

 keeper. But, had you thought how queer the 

 people are ? We have a long and tedious road 

 ahead, and the by-paths are numerous, and 

 catch many travelers. The most prominent 

 by-path has a large sign marked, " Color ; " 



another says " Gentleness ; " another, " Comb- 

 building, " and besides these we find various 

 signs. However, to those looking ahead — in 

 the straight and narrow way — is visible, in 

 unmistakable letters, the ideal, "Long 

 tongues." 



In the first place. The A. I. Root Co. will 

 not — can not, in fact — sell even a majority of 

 the queens sold in the United States. If they 

 could, then they could aflord to say, "No 

 queens will be sold which are not from a 

 breeder whose workers have a reach of at 

 least y-|ffy inch, and no breeding qneen will be 

 sold whose workers show a reach of less than 

 Too Or ijjj men. 



The various queen-breeders have their cus- 

 tomers. In order to be successful at any busi- 

 ness a man must " cater to the whims " of his 

 patrons, who generally have ideas of their 

 own, and it is no small undertaking to set 

 their heads straight on their shoulders. For 

 that reason most of the queen-breeders are 

 making a specialty of golden Italians. 



Now, don't understand me to say that j el- 

 low bees do not have long tongues. From 

 personal experience I can't say, having given 

 them only a limited trial, and I do not feel 

 justified in condemning them unless I know. 

 In fact, I can not see why they should not he 

 well developed in that point. Why not ? 

 They are color sports ; and if they have a ten- 

 dency to sport in one point, why not in an- 

 other ? But for a success with long tongues 

 we should not let color or any thing else be in 

 the way. Line breeding — from both drone 

 and queen — will eventually establish a long 

 tongue, and then if there are undesirable 

 traits they can be bred out by selection. 



Now, who is going to do that? The Root 

 Co. can't do it by themselves, neither can any 

 other breeder or small number of breeders. I 

 mean that it can't be done in any reasonable 

 length of time. 



Those who buy queens must put their shoul- 

 der to the wheels, and demand queens from 

 long tongued stock. Or, let's see ; can't the 

 breeders take one step forward by breeding 

 from long-tongued stock, and "talking it" to 

 their customers ? Why not ? 



But there is another thing that puzzles nie 

 to some extent. It is plain to me that some 

 bees — I will say strains of bees — are longer- 

 lived than others, and it seems to me that 

 short-lived long-tongued bees would be no 

 better than long-lived medium-tongued bees, 

 especially during a continued or even an aver- 

 age honey-flow. Now, how are we to deter- 

 mine whether a strain of bees are short-lived 

 or long-lived ? But may be I am carrying my 

 quiz too far. However, there is a point to con- 

 sider. In talking about long-tongued bees 

 we notice that they are often called " red clo- 

 ver bees," which is, in a sense, misleading. 

 It is true that red clover would become a lead- 

 ing honey-plant if we had a strain of bees 

 with tongues that would reach the nectar ; 

 but there are certainly hundreds of other nec- 

 tar-secreting flowers that are barely out of 

 reach at present, and would furnish honey if 

 we had the long-tongued bees. For that rea- 

 son I think the term " red clover " should be 



