1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



401 



will have a tendency to wet the ground up in 

 good shape for clovtr. For about two weeks 

 back it has been getting to be very drv — too 

 much so for the interests of bee keepers and 

 farmers alike. 



WINTER LOSSES. 

 Cool weather, with but few days for the 

 flight of bees, has held on so long throughout 

 the Northern States that I am fearful there 

 are going to be losses in some sections. So 

 far reports have indicated that the bees have 

 wintered well in Minnesota ; rather poorly in 

 Wisconsin, and not extra well in Michigan. 

 In New York the bee-keepers entertain some 

 fears as to what the results will show when 

 settled warm weather comes on. J. E. Crane, 

 of Vermont, says bees have wintered poorly 

 in his section. From the great mass of re- 

 ports, I gather that, while the loss numerical- 

 ly of colonies in the apiary will not be so 

 great, yet the strength of those colonies will 

 he reduced down to nuclei in very many in- 

 stances. I am rather of the impression that 

 stimulative feeding will have to be practiced 

 this spring. The season will be late, so also 

 the natural nectar supplies. If we should 

 have, from now on, steady warm weather, the 

 bees will probably be able to make up for the 

 losses they have sustained during the past 

 month or so. As to our own apiary, while our 

 loss of colonies has been very light, yet our 

 Mr. Wardell reports that there are a large 

 number of weak colonies in the apiary. 



A DISTINCTION BETWEEN TONGUE-REACH AND 

 WHOLE TONGUE-LENGTH. 

 Judging from the variety of advertising 

 that is now current, it is very apparent that 

 some of the advertisers are talking about the 

 whole length of the tongue, and others of 

 only the tongue-reach. One advertiser in 

 particular talks about tongue-reach when I 

 know he means the whole length of the 

 tongue. Customers, unless breeders are care- 

 ful in this matter, are bound to be disappoint- 

 ed, and declare that the advertiser is a fraud. 

 Let us all be careful to distinguish between 

 tongue-reach and the whole length of the 

 tongue. As I have before explained, tongue- 

 reach includes only that portion of the pro- 

 boscis that extends beyond the jaws of the 

 bee ; in other words, it is the available length 

 that the bee can actually use in reaching down 

 to the flower-tubes of clover. So far as I 

 know, the longest tongue reach yet recorded 

 is T^%^^. What the longest actual whole 

 tongue- lefigth is I do not know, and I don't 

 believe it makes much difference. But it is 

 important to know how far- a bee can reach 

 into a flower-tube with its tongue. 



DOES length OF TONGUE-REACH HAVE A DI- 

 RECT RELATION TO AMOUNT OF HONEY 

 SECURED ? A PLAN TO PROVE OR DIS- 

 PROVE IT. 

 We have had considerable proof thus far to 

 show that the honey-yields of certain colonies 

 is in direct proportion to the average tongue- 

 reach of the bees. While the evidence thus 



far received points that way, yet there is one 

 thing that has not yet been done, and that is, 

 to measure the tongues of poor workers If 

 their reach is short, then we shall have fur- 

 ther proof. 



Now, I wish to suggest a plan that will en- 

 tirely eliminate any prejudice or favor. I 

 would request that a number of our subscrib- 

 ers send us one cage of bees from the very 

 best workers in their yards, and another from 

 the very poorest. But this test will have no 

 value if there has been a recent change of 

 queens in either hive. The bees of either col- 

 ony must all be from one mother, of course. 

 If brood has been exchanged so that the bees 

 are from two different queens in the one hive, 

 we can prove nothing. Then I should like to 

 have some others send another pair of cages, 

 one of which contains bees that distinguish 

 themselves on red clover ; and the other one, 

 bees that do absolutely nothing at such times. 



At the time of sending these bees in, letter 

 or number the cages, and do not tell which 

 are the good workers and which poor ; but let 

 me (blindfolded, as it were) send in a report 

 of their tongue reach. After you get my re- 

 port, send it, with the information of which 

 are the good and poor workers, to Dr. C. C. 

 Miller, Marengo, 111. I'll give him instruc- 

 tions to tabulate the report and send it to 

 Gleanings. 



It is so easy for any us to be swayed in the 

 direction we wish to believe, that I want to 

 make sure in this case that both prejudice and 

 favor shall be entirely eliminated. While I 

 think /could be unbiased enough to give the 

 plain facts, yet there may be a good many of 

 our subscribers who, believing me to be in- 

 tionally fair, would nevertheless feel that I 

 would be unconsciously prejudiced in favor of 

 the long-tongue theory. But when the re- 

 turns are all in, I suspect that we shall find 

 that tongue-reach does not always bear a di- 

 rect proportion to the amount of honey that a 

 certain colony will gather ; but we may prove 

 that it is an important factor along with other 

 factors. 



PROF. COOK'S review OF THE ABC RE- 

 VIEWED. 



In the American Bee Journal Prof. Cook 

 has another installment of criticisms on the 

 ABC. These criticisms are not upon the lat- 

 est edition, and the editor says, with good rea- 

 son, that this may be preferable because of 

 the large number who have older editions. 

 Instead of taking the criticisms in the order 

 in which they occur, it may be well to take 

 them in classes. 



In the first class are three palpable errors 

 that have been corrected in the latest edition. 

 Under the first two figures that occur in the 

 article on Honey-comb, the letters A and B are 

 wrongly placed. A should be under the cir- 

 cles, and B under the hexagons. In the first 

 paragraph of the article on Honey-dew, "scab 

 insects" should be "scale insects" Prof. 

 Cook is good-natured enough to say that this 

 error may be due to his own poor writing. In 

 the list of honey-plants, "motherwort" ap- 

 pears as " motherwork." 



