378- 



November, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



aster flow up north causes the bees to 

 cut down brood-rearing and fill tbe 

 broodnest with honey. It also cuts 

 down the field force very rapidly, and 

 the bees up north go into winter quar- 

 ters with smaller clusters than they do 

 here. I have been wondering if this is 

 a condition peculiar to all northern 

 localities where there is a September 



flow. 



*-»-*^ 



That Escape Board 



I have read Mr. Holtermann's article 

 on page 307 with interest. I am glad 

 that the escape board described has 

 given perfect satisfaction in his hands, 

 but from impartial reports from some 

 others, it seems that all have not had 

 the same success. Mr. Krouse, of 

 Guelph, says that with him the bees are 

 not cleared as fast from the supers as 



"^vtrv 



'^oardl 



ja 



tscap 



\>^'\.x:e ?)cxeex\ 



Vi'^pev SvAe oi« t3Co.^c 



with the old style board escapes. But 

 even if it does not work so rapidly, the 

 fact that the honey does not cool off is 

 a factor that more than compensates 

 for any minor defects in other ways. 



In response to my request for re- 

 ports on wire-cloth escapes, Mr. O'Neil 

 of Minnesota, kindly sent me a diagram 

 and description of the wire-cloth es- 

 cape board he has been using with suc- 

 cess for some time. A rim with gen- 

 erous bee-space on both sides is nailed 

 around the edges of the escape board, 

 and at one end a strip three inches 



long runs full width of the board, and 

 in this the Porter escape is inserted. 

 The escape is cut off at one end, across 

 the hole where the bees ordinarily go 

 duzi-i! before going through the springs. 

 Thus, the bees walk straight into the 

 exit instead of first going down and 

 then turning as they have to do in the 

 ordinary escape. 



The accompanying cut will explain 

 the construction fairly well. At the 

 north yard we cut down about 25 of 

 our solid board escapes, and fixed 

 them as recommended by Mr. O'Neil. I 

 am sorry to say that they do not work 

 as rapidly as the old style boards, but 

 we shall by no means abandon them, 

 for the valuable feature, as before men- 

 tioned, is that the honey does not cool 

 off. We used single exit escapes, and 

 next year if all goes well we shall try 

 the double ones and see if it improves 

 matters any. 



The Alexander Veil 



There is a bit of humor to that pic- 

 ture on page 301, where Mr. Pleasants 



is " showing the queen to the visitors." 

 The visitors, most of them ladies, are 

 bare headed while the apiarist is inside 

 of something which looks like a barrel, 

 the same size at each end, which barrel 

 I presume is named the Alexander veil. 

 Admitting that this "contraption" is 

 " a joy forever," is there any one who 

 will affirm that it is "a thing of 

 beauty ?" How any one can wear with 

 comfort such a head gear is beyond me, 

 but "tastes differ" no doubt. 



There is one thing about it that is 

 commendable, it must surely be bee- 

 proof, in fact, almost bomb proof. But 

 it must be cumbersome and in the 

 road a great deal. Anyway, I prefer 

 the light veil on the straw hat when a 

 veil is necessary, and this is only when 

 extracting is in progress. A few extra 

 stings will be taken with good humor 

 rather than have my head done up in 

 wire-cloth every time I look into a hive. 



[We have no liking for the Alexan- 

 der veil either, but we found it has 

 many adepts among European bee- 

 keepers — Editor ] 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



The Place of Botany in a Bee- 

 keeper's Education 



BY L. H. PAMMEL. 



{Rt:ad at I he Inspectors^ Conference in Keokuk 

 finua. Sefit S.) 



THE State Bee Inspector, Mr. Frank 

 C. Pellett, invited me to address 

 you on the topic as announced in 

 your program. I can assure you that I 

 gladly accepted his kind invitation to 

 address you, not that I can bring you 

 much of a message, but I am always 

 glad to help Mr. Pellett, who has done 

 so much for the Iowa beekeepers and 

 those who are interested in study of 

 the great out-of-doors. In other words, 

 Mr. Pellett is trying to lead a lot of us 

 to study nature. I am, moreover, un- 

 der obligations to Mr. Pellett for hav- 

 ing postponed this meeting to Sept. 7 

 so I did not have to hurry back from 

 my summer vacation. 



Botany, I need not tell you, should 

 occupy an important place in a bee- 

 keeper's education. It is, next to the 

 subject of entomology, an important 

 one for you. 



To me, it is a fascinating subject, 

 and we could make much more of it 

 than we do. It goes without saying 

 that a beekeeper should begin his 

 botanical training at an early age. It 

 is not merely sufficient to know a few 

 plants that are useful to obtain honey. 

 So I would begin the botanical work 

 by studying the morphology of plants; 

 namely, the structure of the root, leaf, 

 stem and flower. In other words, be- 

 fore the beekeeper can become pro- 

 ficient in the identification of plants he 

 must know something about the struc- 

 ture. Let a study of the form of plants 

 be taken up thoroughly. Should you 



not have had the pleasure of a college 

 or high school education, get some 

 book like Leavett's Outlines, a revised 

 edition of the old Gray's Lessons. 

 So' far as the general morphology 

 of flowering plants is concerned, 

 nothing better has ever been published 

 than the admirable and simple books 

 of Dr. Gray. Th-re are, of course, 

 other books, splendid in their way, it 

 does not seem to me that they meet all 

 of the points Such books as the Ber- 

 gen and Davis' Foundation of Botany, 

 Atkinson's Text Book of Botany, Coul- 

 ter's High School Botany were not 

 written primarily for the taxonomist. 

 They are splendid as general botanical 

 works, but they do not meet the re- 

 quirements to become familiar with 

 the terms in systematic botany. The 

 student should have at least one semes- 

 ter of morphology. 



I would follow morphology with a 

 course in systematic botany, "The 

 mother of all botanies." I place sys- 

 tematic botany or taxonomy second 

 because it should naturally follow 

 structure. I think it a wise policy to 

 have the student of plants become 

 familiar with our common plants as 

 soon as possible. The plant life about 

 us is always of interest. To know the 

 early blossoming plants, the first har- 

 binger of spring, the hepatica, willow, 

 wind flower, bloodroot, and many 

 others is always a delight. It makes a 

 person young, to greet the old friends 

 by name. Itcpntica acutiloba or Ane- 

 mone ncmorosa, etc. There is a practi- 

 cal side for the beekeeper. We want 

 to encourage the growing of plants 

 that are useful to us in our business. 

 We want to know what plants of the 

 Ranuncukueae furnish honey, or the 

 Compositae or the l.cguminosac. The 

 beekeeper above all should be familiar 



