116 



April, 1915. 



American Hee Jonrnal 



that there are places where at times 

 the honey is very unwholesome for 

 winter food; indeed, there may be 

 places where it is always so. In such 

 cases sugar syrup is surely the better 

 winter food. But I suspect that cases 

 of that kind are quite exceptional, and 

 that in the great majority of cases bees 

 will winter all right, so far as food is 

 concerned, if allowed to gather their 

 own stores. 



I lay no small stress on the thought 

 that honey is the natural food, the food 

 universally supplied, and so there is 

 little chance for mistake about its be- 

 ing best. I will be told that we can 

 improve upon nature. Yes, so we can, 

 at least in a certain way. Witness the 

 latest flowers and fruit. But has there 

 ever been a case in which the skill of 

 man has gotten up a better food than 

 that supplied by nature for a whole 

 class of beings? 



For many years able minds have 

 been devoted to devising some substi- 

 tute for the natural food of the young 

 of the human family, and we are all 

 familiar with the pictures of plump 

 babies brought up on "What-you-call- 

 him's Baby Food," yet in an able article 

 in the March number of " Good House- 

 keeping," occurs this rather startling 

 statement: "Statistics have shown 

 that ten artificially fed babies die to 

 one naturally fed." If that is so may 

 it not well be questioned whether any 

 substitute can be food for the produc- 

 tion of vigorous baby-bees ? 



What is the difference between sugar 

 and honey ? 



The sugar fed is cane sugar, and be- 

 fore it can be properly appropriated by 

 the bees it must be inverted by them. 

 Are we sure that such inversion is 

 always completed ? And if it is, is not 

 the extra burden thus laid upon the 



bees detrimental to their best interests ? 

 There is another difference between 

 sugar and honey that is perhaps not 

 generally recognized, and yet which 

 is probably greatly more important. 

 In a German bee journal, Bztg. fuer 

 Schleswig-Holstein, occurs this pas- 

 sage: "Besides invert sugar, honey 

 contains pollen, ethereal oil, tannin, 

 malate, tartrate, oxalate, and nitrate 

 of potassa, several phosphates, man- 

 ganese, natron, silica, sulphur, lime, 

 iron. Hence sugar cannot replace 

 honey. Sugar feeding is to blame that 

 bees do not timely develop in spring. 

 The colony reaches its strength only 

 toward the end of the harvest. The 

 bees reared upon sugar syrup in spring 

 are not so effective as those reared in 

 harvest." 



If any one of these elements, how- 

 ever minute in quantity, be lacking in 

 the food of the bees, it looks reason- 

 able that not quite so fully developed 

 a bee shall result. Since they are all 

 absent in sugar syrup, what question 

 can there be that bees reared thereon 

 are lacking, perhaps greatly lacking in 

 vigor and effectiveness ? It may be 

 said that sugar syrup is all right for 

 winter food so long as it is used only 

 as fuel to keep up heat. But who can 

 gauge the feeding and have it so placed 

 in the combs that it shall be certain 

 that all of the syrup shall be used first 

 and so be out of the way when brood- 

 rearing begins, if indeed the amount 

 be so limited that it is possible for it to 

 be closed out before brood-rearing ? 



As a witness to the good results of 

 sugar feeding, Mr. Byer subpoenas a 

 man with hundreds of colonies, who 

 for 15 years has managed to have his 

 brood-nests in fall with very little 

 honey, and then has fed each colony 

 about 20 pounds of sugar or 30 pounds 



of syrup, and he says : " I would like 

 to take the two professors to these 

 apiaries at any time of the year, and 

 ask them to detect any kind of weak- 

 ness in these bees, caused by the heavy 

 sugar feeding," adding that this man 

 a/ivays winters successfully, and that 

 his crops are probably second to none. 

 I have great faith in Mr. Byer, and 

 would as soon trust his judgment as 

 that of two professors. I cheerfully 

 accept his statement that no kind of 

 weakness would be at any time de- 

 tected in the bees under consideration. 

 And yet that is not fully convincing 

 that said bees might not have done 

 better if they had had good honey in 

 place of sugar. I have many times 

 known a colony with 20 percent more 

 effectiveness than another colony in 

 the same apiary, and I could detect no 

 difference in the bees bythe most care- 

 ful inspection. 



I have serious question whether two 

 professors could tell by any sort of in- 

 spection whether there was any kind 

 of weakness in an apiary, even though 

 the effectiveness of the bees had been 

 lessened considerably by the use of in- 

 complete food. However great the 

 success of the bees Mr. Byer puts upon 

 the witness stand, it's up to him to 

 prove that it might not have been just 

 a bit greater — say 10 percent greater — 

 if they had not at any time been sub- 

 jected to a ration of incomplete food. 



c. c. M. 



Coinineuclable Work 



We herewith give a picture of the 

 Geneva Red Cross Prisoners' Agency, J 

 organized in Switzerland, with the 1200 f 

 voluntary helpers in charge of this 

 useful work. Our dear friend, the de- 

 voted Mrs. Bertrand, whose name is 

 well-known to our readers, is one of 

 them, in spite of her age, 72. 



Up to Feb. 1, over 83,000 families had 

 been informed of the fate of their lost 

 sons or husbands through this humane 

 agency. War brings out the finest 

 traits in human character, as well as 

 the ugliest. Devotion is as much in 

 evidence as brutality. Praise and love 

 to the charitable, but shame upon the 

 vandals. 



VOLUNTEEKS tN THE AGENCY FOR LOCATION OF PRISONERS OF WAR 



Sweet Clover v.s. Cattle Bloat 



We are in receipt from our well- 

 known friend, E. S. Miles, of Dunlap, 

 Iowa, of a lot of testimony concerning 

 the use of sweet clover and its effect 

 on cattle. It consists of a dozen let- 

 ters coming from cattle growers as far 

 apart as Dayton, Mont., and Falmouth, 

 Ky., thereby covering a scope of coun- 

 try extending over two-thirds of the 



