1889 



GLEANINGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



707 



must act as the so-called " marriage-priest." We 

 have only to know the structure of such plants, to 

 know that they are honey-plants. We may be glad 

 that this clematis is a honey-plant, as it, like the 

 goldenrod, willow hern, and clover, is exceedingly 

 beautiful. 



SPRAYING AND POISONING BEES. 



Do not think me over-sensitive. I am sure I am 

 not. I do not believe I have a morbidly sensitive 

 hair in my capillary covering; but when I say that 

 I was dumbfounded to read Mr. Alley's censure, in 

 the last Apiculturist, of my earnest endeavor to in- 

 form all the people of the wroug and evil of spray- 

 ing fruit-trees while yet in blossom, is to put it 

 mildly. Think of an American, in the nineteenth 

 century, and a Massachusetts man at that, urging 

 against giving information on an important practi- 

 cal question because, forsooth, some person might 

 make use of this information to work evil! Mr. 

 Alley says I have informed the people how they may 

 destroy bees; and thus the enemies of bee-keepers 

 will have opportunity, and will use this opportunity 

 to injure those whom they dislike. This is certain- 

 ly a sorry opinion of our people. I believe it is a 

 wholly unwarranted suspicion. The truth that it is 

 dangerous and wrong, and utterly unnecessary to 

 spray fruit-trees with poisons while the blossoms 

 are still on, should be sown broadcast. Every fruit- 

 grower should know and keenly appreciate the fact 

 that, to poison the nectar in the blossoms, is to in- 

 jure both his neighbor bee-keeper and also himself. 

 He needs the work of the bees no less than does the 

 apiarist. I would have laws enacted against this ear- 

 ly spraying, and make the punishment both fine and 

 imprisonment. Not that this is necessary to secure 

 against the evil, but it would be a very rapid edu- 

 cator. I believe it is very important that bee-keep- 

 ers take all pains to make the truth in this case 

 generally known. If people know the consequences, 

 they will practice the correct method. 



Agricultural College. Mich. A. J. Cook. 



Friend Cook, as a rule we prefer not to 

 publish any thing criticising other journals 

 or writers of other journals ; but we trust 

 that our good friends of the American Bee 

 Journal and the Apiculturist will excuse us 

 this time, especially as it comes from Prof. 

 Cook, and as you give us so much truth. 

 One little remark you let drop caused me to 

 smile ; viz.. " Almost all our green peas are 

 wormy." Some time ago my sister inform- 

 ed me that the peas we were selling had 

 little worms in them that could be seen with 

 a magnifying-glass. These worms are doubt- 

 less the larvae of the pea-weevil. Of course, 

 the peas planted contain no weevil, because 

 we get them from northern localities where 

 the weevil has as yet been unknown. Now, 

 the question came up, " Shall we sell peas 

 to people, knowing that the peas contain 

 little worms that could be found with a 

 magnifying-glass?" I said at once just as 

 you say. If the peas are good, and no one 

 can possibly discover by the taste the pres- 

 ence of these embryo weevil, without the aid 

 of a magnifying-glass, 1 would certainly 

 pay no attention to them. In fact, there is 

 such a thing as making one's self disagree- 

 able by being over-fastidious. At one time 

 our folks in charge of the lunch-room in- 

 formed me that there were worms in the 

 rice. T suggested that it was probably near 



the mouth of the bag, aud that they could 

 easily be removed. Then we could heat the 

 remainder of the rice in the oven until all 

 the germs were killed. Some of the board- 

 ers found it out, however, and there was go- 

 ing to be quite a breeze because we used 

 articles for food that should be thrown to 

 the chickens or into the compost-heap. 

 Now, T have no doubt that good food has 

 been thoughtlessly thrown away because of 

 a certain foolish notion that nothing should 

 ever be used where the worms have been 

 found in it, even near the mouth of the bag. 

 I attempted a little remonstrance; but pub- 

 lic opinion was against me. In a few days 

 after that, we had some high-priced chest- 

 nuts. Somebody found a wormy chestnut; 

 whereupon I suggested that the whole bag- 

 ful, which cost between five and ten dollars, 

 be given to the pigs. They opened their 

 eyes in astonishment. Wormy chestnuts 

 and wormy apples are so very common that 

 folks are used to them ; and even if the 

 worms should get into your mouth, there is 

 no need of fainting away or of sending for a 

 doctor. Now, I heartily agree with friend 

 Cook. If people will refuse to eat honey be- 

 cause we teach that it is taken in at the 

 m<mth of the bee, and then thrown up in 

 the same way, when it is put into the honey- 

 cells, let them refuse ; and the same way with 

 green peas or with oysters; and I think ex- 

 actly the same way about the dissemination 

 of information in regard to spraying fruit- 

 trees. I am sure that I have no neighbors, 

 or, rather, no enemies, that would willingly 

 poisou my bees ; and when it becomes nec- 

 essary for me to keep the community in the 

 dark, or in ignorance, I shall have a poorer 

 opinion of my fellow-men than I now have. 

 It is this same ignorance that lias caused 

 the foolish and wide-spread belief that comb 

 honey is manufactured. 



MORE ABOUT THAT INTERESTING 

 EXPERIMENT. 



KUUTHEK FACTS UPON HOW IT WAS DONE. 



TN answer to the queries which you raise in 

 M Gleanings, p. 618, 1 will say it is true that 1 

 W commenced June 7 with a single colony and its 

 "*■ swarm, each of which contained nine frames. I 

 divided the said colony, six days after it swarm- 

 ed, into three colonies, and I also made one out of 

 the swarm shortly after the brood was sealed, by 

 taking the queen and the three frames which had 

 the least brood, and a small share of the bees, leav- 

 ing the remaining six frames ten days longer to 

 make queen-cells, when I divided it again, making 

 use of all the queen-cells. This made six colonies, 

 so that 1 had not less than three frames in any of 

 them. This brought me to the 2Tth of .1 une. About 

 the 5th of July I made three more colonies from 

 the six, making nine in all. 



You say you presume I did not get any brood 

 from othtr colonies. No, not an egg nor a queen- 

 cell, nor any stimulation whatever, other than the 

 sujrar 1 led them, for that is what I set out to do, as 

 I stated in the beginning of my report; viz., to 

 compel them to draw out their own combs, lay their 

 own eggs, build their own queen-cells, and hatch 

 their own queens: and 1 did so. 



