140 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



though not absolutely necessary, I like springs, tor 

 then you don't need to drive so carefully. A com- 

 mon hay-rack answers very well to haul bees on. 

 Some use a hay-rack witb a considerable depth of 

 hay or straw on it, say a quarter of a ton. This 

 acts much the same as springs. It adds to the 

 weight, however, and has the disadvantage that the 

 hives don't sit down flat and regular, but are likely 

 to be in all sorts of shapes. I have used with en- 

 tire satisfaction a common lumber or farm wag- 

 on, with a hay-rack on it, without hay and without 

 springs. Possibly on very rough roads this might 

 not answer so well; but with careful driving I think 

 I would risk it anywhere. I put on a few extra 

 boards and blocks to fit the rack for holding hives. 

 I have seen hives piled on wagons and tied on with 

 ropes, and with some kinds of hives this will ans- 

 wer very well. Indeed, the kind of hives may have 

 much to do with the arrangement for hauling. 

 Marengo, 111. C. C. Miller. 



When we moved our bees to the basswood 



really friend Root brings you and me squarely face 

 to face as antagonists, and then asks the old ques- 

 tion as to procedure when doctors disagree. I am 

 glad that, in this case, my opponent is so warm a 

 friend. Now, I do not speak ex nithrdra. I do not 

 say that honey-bees never cut into flower-tubes; 

 but I feel very positive that this is the case. 1 pre- 

 sume friend Root simply quoted in this case. I 

 have often seen this statement in print. Larger 

 wild bees certainly cut into flowers, and honey-bees 

 certainly avail themselves of such openings. I 

 know this, for I have seen it repeatedly. I have 

 watched very carefully to see honey-bees do the 

 same, and always without success; so both from 

 observation and the habits of bees— they go to open 

 vessels, not closed ones, for their nectar— I feel per- 

 suaded that in this case brother Root is wrong. 

 How is it, dear brother? did you write from person- 

 al knowledge or from hearsay? 



In reply to E. J. Shay, p. 357, I would state that al 

 larval wasps do cap their cells; so do bees. The 



orchard the boys borrowed our wagon, made larval bee first caps the cell, and later the imago, or 



specially for carrying fruit and vegetables ; adult bees, add a second or wax cap. In many 



and it answered the purpose SO nicely that I families of wasps there is but the one cover to the 



think we Shall have to give you an engrav- larva-its cocoon. In the paper-makers, the larva 



ing of it, perhaps in the next issue. 



APIARIAN MOSAIC. 



PKOF. COOK SETS US RIGHT IN SEVERAL MATTERS. 



J«\ EAR MR. EDITOR:— I dub this article a "mo- 

 ffl pi saic," as I shall speak of several matters and 

 |jg| say but little of each. 



■^^ I was very much interested in the article 

 from A. E. Manum, p. 340. The clear de- 

 scription, simple, clear style, and familiarity with 

 the subject in hand, are each and all most admira- 

 ble. How easy it is to tell, simply by reading an ar- 

 ticle, whether the writer knows what he is talking 

 about! As Mr. Langstroth once said to me, in 

 speaking of Virgil and Columella, "Virgil," said 

 he, " writes as a poet who gleaned his facts at sec- 

 ond hand; Columella as one who had handled the ment you pay me in calling me a " warm 

 things of which he wrote." friend," for I hope and verily believe that 



in reference to the cardinal flower, as I said be- we shall be warm friends, no matter what 

 fore, I never saw a bee on this species of lobelia, may transpire or come up, while God sees 

 though I have often seen them on the blue species, fit to let US both live. Your quotation from 

 it came to me as a fact from friend Hilton, that father Langstroth sounds exactly like him ; 



bees did really work on it and gathered much fine and I have a great mind to feel hurt, be- 



honey from this source, it seemed to me that cause, right in the next sentence or two, 

 there could be no doubt in the matter. The fact you ask if I did not write from " hearsay." 

 granted, then, to quote President Cleveland, " we It revived the matter in another column in 



spins its cocoon just as the larval bee does; only in 

 this case the cocoon is thick, and serves exclusively 

 for capping the cell. In the large paper nests, the 

 capped cells will be seen, and, as all know who have 

 observed them, they are very white, and so con- 

 trast strongly with the gray of the paper cells. 

 The fine fibrous silk of the larva is white, while the 

 coarse pulpy paper is gray. The mud-wasps cap 

 their cells with mud before the eggs hatch. Yet 

 even here the larvse spin a cocoon of silk which 

 surrounds them all through the pupa state. 



Our bees have been roaring on the fruit-bloom 

 for three or four days. They commence work be- 

 fore it is fully light, before four o'clock. The flow- 

 ers are being well fertilized, and we may expect a 

 good crop. A.J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Thank you, friend Cook, for the cornpli- 



were confronted with a condition, not a theory." 

 True, as friend Gould says, the corolla-tube of this 

 beautiful flower is long; yet the very fact of the 

 brilliancy of the flower makes it clear that it se- 

 cretes much nectar. Is it not probable, then, that 

 the nectar may, in times very favorable to secre- 

 tion, rise up so as to be in easy reach of the honey- 

 bee? I take it that this is just the explanation. 

 Usually there is not enough nectar so that the bees 



regard to what the Enci/clof>edia Brittanica 

 has said from hearsay. Now, old friend, I 

 do not believe it is one of my failings to 

 make statements in print from hearsay. I 

 love nature too well to take the statement 

 of somebody else, when the bees and the 

 flowers are accessible to me almost every 

 day of my life. When I discovered that the 

 article on the cardinal flower had gone into 

 print, and that I had made no reply what- 



can reach it; occasionally, as in the case mention- eveTi t f e lt a little sad about it ; but I am 



ed, it rises up so that it gives a bountiful harvest to very glad you have straightened it all out. 



Like you I have seen the bees sucking nec- 

 tar through holes in the tube, or, rather, lit- 

 tle horn, of different kinds of flowers, and I 

 took it for granted that the Italians them- 

 selves made the holes. I do not think that 

 anybody ever told me so. As you state it, 



the bee 



I also believe that fertilization by some bird or 

 insect is quite necessary. True, the wind might 

 bear the pollen to the waiting stigma, but the 

 chance of failure would be too great by far. Aided 

 by insects there is scarcely a chance for failure. 



Mr. G. asks about bees eating jntq flowers, and however, I think that my fault was in draw 



