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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 





American Gardening, and a good many oth- 

 ers. Truth is mighty, and bound to prevail. 



NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Object: — To promote and protect the interests of its mem 

 bers; to prevent the adulteration of honey. 



Officers:—!; R. Root, President, Medina. O.; R. C. Aikin 

 Vice-president, Loveland, Col.; Dr. A. B. Mason, Secre- 

 tary, 3512 Monroe St.. Sta..B, Toledo, O.; Eugene Secor, 

 General Manngf-r, Forest City, Iowa. 



Board OF Directors:— E. Whitcomh, Friend, Neb.; W. Z 

 Hutchinson. Flint, Mich.; A. I. Root. Medina, O.; E. T. 

 Abbott, St. Joseph, Mo.; P. H. Elwood, Starkville, N. Y.; 

 E. R. Root, Medina, O.; T. G. Newman. San Francisco, 

 Cal.; G. M. Doolittle. Borodino. N. Y.; W. F. Marks, Cha- 

 pinville, N. y,; J. M. Hambaueh. Escondido, Cal.; C. P. 

 Dadant. Hamilton. 111.: C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Fees:— Annual membership fee, :;i.OO. Remittances may be 

 sent here or to General Manager as above. 



General Manager Secor has lately issued 

 a pamphlet, giving the objects of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association and also the consti- 

 tion. I presume a copy of this will be sent to 

 any one who may apply. Those who are not 

 members should know something of what this 

 organization is and has been to bee-keeping 

 during the last fifteen or twenty months, and 

 what it proposes to do in the future. 



So far the reports of wintering have been 

 generally favorable, although there is one re- 

 port from Wisconsin that seems to indicate 

 that in that section, at least, there will be f>0 

 per cent loss or more. The season generally 

 will be late. It has been running all the way 

 from cool to cold, with very little warm 

 weather for brood-rearing. This, fortunately, 

 has kept brood rearing down, so that the bees 

 have not wasted their strength before actual 

 warm weather comes on. 



"THE AMERICAN GARDENING" ON THE 

 QUESTION OF BEES PUNCTURING FRUIT. 

 In the above-named publication for Feb. 9 

 there is an article headed " Do Bees Puncture 

 Fruit?" It seems that one B. L. Ryder, in 

 the issue of that paper for Jan. 12, intimated 

 that bees were guilty of "puncturing and 

 feeding on our finest peaches." This was vig- 

 orously denied by Mr. R. E. Huntington, who, 

 among other things, said it was " painfully 

 evident that the writer has not read up much 

 on that subject within the last five years." He 

 also referred to the findings in the case of 

 Utter V. Utter, at Goshen, N. Y. The editor 

 of the American Gardening, in commenting 

 on this, while not assuming to deny or afiirm 

 that bees may puncture fruit, yet says, " The 

 balance of evidence, as we see it, is proof in 

 favor of the bees, and the little insects are 

 honorably acquitted by the editorial court." 

 He also refers to the experiments that were 

 conducted at Aurora, 111., where the bees were 

 confined in a building where there was an 

 abundance of sound fruit ; and yet, although 

 brought to a condition of hunger, thirst, and 

 starvation, they could not be induced in any 

 instance to attack the fruit unless it was first 

 punctured. 



Besides all the bee-journals, the little bees 

 have on their side such stanch advocates as 

 the Country Gentleman, the Farm Journal, 



THE new FOUL-BROOD LEGISLATION IN 

 MICHIGAN. 



I AM pleased to announce that the foul- 

 brood bill which passed the Senate of the 

 Michigan State Legislature has now gone 

 through the House, and at last advices was 

 awaiting the signature of the Governor. If 

 he signs it, as I presume he will, the bill will 

 become a law. Great credit is due to the Hon. 

 George E. Hilton, a former member of the 

 lower House, and who, by the request of bee- 

 keepers, engineered the measure through both 

 Houses. Several times the bill would have 

 been "amended" or " shelved in committee " 

 but for the energetic promptness of our old 

 legislator who insisted on having just what 

 the bee-keepers wanted, and he got it. 



This piece of legislation was enacted none 

 too soon, for foul brood has of late been mak- 

 ing fearful progress through the State. The 

 old law, now superseded, was defective in that 

 it did not provide for a competent State in- 

 spector under the pay of the State. The bee- 

 keepers of Michigan can now select the best 

 man available ; and such a man, if he be like 

 the inspectors of Wisconsin and New York, 

 will see that a sudden check is placed upon 

 the further spread of the disease. 



SPRAYING TREES IN BLOOM ; MORE EVI- 

 DENCE AGAINST THE PRACTICE. 



I HAVE already reported that the Experi- 

 ment Station at Geneva, N. Y., counseled 

 against spraying trees while in bloom ; that it 

 not only killed the bees, but also affected the 

 delicate organs of the flowers ; that in some 

 cases those who had been most active in urg- 

 ing spraying during blooming-time had fuund 

 to their sorrow that such spraying had serious- 

 ly cut down their fruit crops. While these ex- 

 periments were being conducted at Geneva 

 and in that vicinity, the same kind of experi- 

 ments were being carried on at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, N. Y. ; and now we have a report from 

 John Craig, of that station, confirming the 

 findings of the Geneva station. This report 

 is published in the American Gardetiing for 

 April 6. 



It has been urged by the advocates of spray- 

 ing in bloom, that, during seasons like that of 

 1900, when the trees are heavily loaded with 

 blossoms, spraying at such times has the effect 

 of thinning away the superabundance of fruit. 

 Regarding this, Mr. Craig very pertinently 

 says : " It seems that, when this admission is 

 made, the strength of the argument is very 

 much weakened. If it is a thinning process, 

 then it could be practiced with safety and ad- 

 vantage only in seasons of heavy bloom." 

 Elsewhere he says, under the head of " Dis- 

 advantages of Spraying while in Bloom," that 

 that the " researches at Cornell and elsewhere 

 have indicated that the copper salts are very 

 injurious to tender tissues ; and that, the 

 more delicate the structure, the more likely 

 is injury to ensue. . . The thinning which 

 follows spraying trees in bloom is probably 



