170 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



honey may be kept in good condition for an indefi- 

 nite time. 



I hope I shall not be thought egotistical if I re- 

 mind some who have written of this plan as if it 

 were their own, that I was the first to recommend 

 artificial heat for ripening comb honey. " Honor to 

 whom honor is due." Surely, brethren, it does not 

 cost much to give proper credit for an idea. 



After you have your honey in good condition for 

 the market, do not ship it off to commission men in 

 large lots unless you are sure it will receive proper 

 care until it is sold. Keep all who handle your hon- 

 ey, whether commission men or retail dealers, con- 

 stantly supplied, but let their stock on hand be 

 gauged as closely as possible by the running re- 

 quirements of their trade. Any amount beyond 

 this is safer in your own hands. J. A. Green. 



Dayton, 111., Jan. 30, 1889. 



Friend G., I can attest to the truthfulness 

 of every point you make. I have seen comb 

 honey after it had been kept a year or two, 

 and we have had some experience ourselves. 

 I am pretty sure it will pay the owner to 

 examine and fix up any honey that is held 

 over a year or two on commission. 



THE SILK-MOTHS OF AMERICA, ETC. 



PROF. COOK DESCRIBES THEM. 



ISS EVA M. WATROUS, Lake, Mich., sends 

 in a strong tin box the cocoon of one of our 

 largest silk-moths— Lelea polyphemus, or 

 cocoon of the oak-tree silk-moth. She 

 says, " We found it on a lilac, under an 

 oak-tree. Mother thinks it comes from a long 

 ' worm ' which feeds on the oak." 



Bless these mothers! Tliey are usually correct. The 

 lilac-bush grew close beside an oak-tree. The 

 teacher, she says, said it was a tomato-worm. Bless 

 the teachers! but, as this shows, they are not al- 

 ways correct. Miss Eva closes with, "Please 

 oblige and instruct us, and perhaps many who are 

 interested in nature's wonders, and who are read- 

 ers of Gleanings." 



This cocoon is more compact than is that of the 

 silk-worm that feeds on apple, etc. It is dark gray, 

 three inches long, and nearly half as wide. The 

 dried-up larva is inside; but it would never have 

 produced a moth, as parasites have devoured its 

 substance. These little parasites, whose life-histo- 

 ry I hope soon to give in Gleanings, are ever on 

 the alert, and bring to naught many a large insect. 

 Hac our friend placed this cocoon in a close box, 

 she would have reared some of these parasitic 

 flies. 



The oak silk-moth is one of our largest American 

 silk-moths. They are buff in color. A heavy black 

 stripe, bordered with a narrow white line, cuts off a 

 strip of buff on the margins of the wings, which 

 trims up the moth in fine style. A transparent 

 eye-spot marks the front wings. This is bordered 

 by a narrow ring of white and black. A larger 

 similar spot on the hind wings has a large blue 

 patch inside of it. The beautiful green larva has 

 deep red tubercles, which bear hairs. 



These insects form an excellent silk, perhaps 

 equal to the Chinese silk-worm. Indeed, a Boston 

 gentleman had a plantation devoted to their cul- 

 ture a few years ago. Disease, however, got 

 among them and cut short a very interesting ex- 



periment. All of these large silk-worms, of which 

 we have several species, spin their cocoons in the 

 trees, attaching them to twigs. One of them, the 

 ailanthus silk-worm, fastens to the large compound 

 leaf. But this leaf falls, so some provision is nec- 

 essary to keep the cocoon up in the tree where all 

 is high and dry; hence the larva, before spinning 

 its cocoon, goes to the base of the leaves and fast- 

 ens them securely by silk threads which are firmly 

 attached to twig and branch. Where this is not 

 necessary, it is not done. Is such discrimination 

 mere instinct? To call all such actions mere in- 

 stinct is making instinct a greater thing than is 

 reason. Instinct is only inherited habit. 



A. J.Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich., Nov. 6, 1888. 



DOOLITTLE'S CAVE. 



will such a cave answer on clay soil, with- 

 out SPECIAL PROTECTION ? 



fRIEND DOOLITTLE has persisted that bees 

 can be wintered without any sub-ventilation, 

 and without any attention whatever to ven- 

 tilation. Now, if it can be done as easily and 

 at as little expense as he says, there would 

 be a good deal of saving of time and expense. His 

 last article (p. 41), and the remarks under it, with 

 the foot-notes on p. 46, and especially the fact of 

 his success, make me have a good deal of hope that 

 he may be all right. To me it would be a very de- 

 lightful thought to think that I could put my bees 

 away in the fall, without care, and with no anxious 

 thought about them till spring. 



To the last question in the foot-notes, " Would it 

 do to shut up a cellar tight, in a damp clay soil?" 

 I should very much like an answer, for that's just 

 the soil I have. Most rose-cultivators approve of 

 covering roses, before freezing, with soil. One 

 year, just before freezing up, I covered my hardy 

 roses with soil, and in the spring not more than 

 five out of a hundred were alive. The soil was 

 clay, and very wet at the time, and I think the 

 roses were smothered. I suspect bees would 

 smother if shut in the same soil. But if it be the 

 covering overhead that allows the ventilation, as 

 you suggest, friend Root, then the case is not so 

 bad; for material could be hauled from some dis- 

 tance. Possibly some other material than soil 

 might answer. I do not know that it is any thing 

 strange that Doolittle's cave keeps " as low as from 

 43° to 46°." You say Mammoth Cave holds at 56°, 

 summer and winter. I suppose Doolittle could find 

 a depth at which he could hold, say, 54° summer 

 and winter, the temperature outside ranging be- 

 tween the extremes of 3(1° below and perhaps 95° 

 above. At a trifle less depth it would slowly vary 

 from 53° in winter to something like 55° in sum- 

 mer, and at a still less depth the variation would be 

 still more, until we reached a point where, instead 

 of 54, summer and winter, we might have perhaps 

 9° lower than 54 in winter, and 9° higher in sum- 

 mer, only at this poiut we should have slight varia- 

 tions with the weather, making it in winter from 

 43 to 46 instead of staying uniformly at 45. 



I don't know but I'll have to give under to Doo- 

 little in this whole matter of wintering; but to 

 save his chuckling over it, the printer needn't print 

 this in the copy of Gleanings that is sent to Doo- 

 little. 



