July, 1912. 



201 



American ~Bae Joarnal 



I 



the National. We will be glad to have 

 this matter discussed by them in a brief 

 and practical manner. 



Mr. E.J. Ba.xter. ok Nauvoo. III.— (See page 210.) 



to me. I have no wife, but would 



give " the rest was drowned in a 



roar of laughter. 



The chairman of the publication 

 committee promised to take the matter 

 up and do his best to remedy e.xisting 

 conditions. — Exchange. 



Missouri State Association vs. the 

 National. — We have received the fol- 

 lowing from Mr. J. W. Rouse, Presi- 

 dent of the Missouri State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association : 



We notice in tiie American Bee Journal 

 for May. page i?5. the action of the Califor- 

 nia bee-keepers in regard to affiliation with 

 the National. That is about the condition 

 with Missouri liee-keepers. 



Since the establishment of the new order 

 of things, the beekeepers of Missouri 

 hardly know where they are. and what is 

 best to do regarding the National. 



The writer, as well as some others in our 

 State, had paid up for a year or more ahead, 

 but the Secretary of the National has re- 

 turned to our Secretary what had been sent 

 him from our State, asking us to join the 

 National in a body. Our State Secretary. 

 Mr. J. K. Diemer. of Liberty, has written me 

 several letters asking for instructions. At 

 our last meeting in .September, in Kansas 

 City, it was our intention to continue with 

 the National. Since the affiliation rules 

 have come into effect, it has been suggested 

 to call a meeting of our State association to 



consider the matter, but only a small num- 

 ber would attend a meeting called at this 

 time of the year. 



From first to last, we have secured about 

 300 bee-keepers as members of our State 

 association, but there is not a third that 

 keep up their membership. 



I fear that the higher dues will keep many 

 from affiliating. 1 should think it much bet- 

 ter to have 300 members at Si than one-third 

 or less at S2. One dollar is a popular amount 

 for membership, if more many will keep out 

 even if it were only $r25 or Ji.io. I think 

 also that it was a mistake to require a mem- 

 bership of at least 25 to secure affiliation. 



In order to perpetuate our State associa- 

 tion, it may be necessary to have two rates, 

 one at 50 cents for membership in our State 

 and one at the higher rate for affiliation. 



Some are not sure of the advantages of be- 

 longing to both associations, whether we 

 are to have any help in protecting our rights 

 as formerly: few have much honey to dis- 

 pose of, and think the National would not 

 help them in that. Tfiere will be no action 

 until we can get another meeting; not be- 

 fore fall. 



So far as the writer knows, the former 

 Manager of the National gave splendid sat- 

 isfaction, and we are at a loss to know why 

 he was not given a try out in the new order 

 of things. This is not casting any reflection 

 upon the present officers, as they all Iiave a 

 tirst-class reputations. 



We would like to hear from others in Mis- 

 souri with suggestions. J. W Rouse. 

 Pres. A/issi>tiri Slate Bee- Kccjiers Association. 



Mexico. Mo.. May 17. 



We hope the Missouri State bee- 

 keepers will see their way clear to join 



Something About Flowers. - P r o f . J o h n 



H. Lnvell has an interesting article in 

 Cileanings In Bee Culture concerning 

 the colors of the North American flow- 

 ers, in which he says : 



Some years ago I began an inquiry as to 

 how many (lowers there are of each color in 

 the flora of North America. In northeastern 

 ■America, north of Tennessee and east of 

 the Rocky Mountains, there have been de- 

 scribed 4020 species of flowering plants, or 

 arigiospernis. Partly by direct examination 

 and partly by reference to various syste- 

 matic works I have tabulated the entire 

 number according to their predominant col- 

 ors—a labor which, I need hardly say, ex- 

 tended over several years. I find that in 

 this area there are 1244 green, osh white. 801 

 yellow. 21)0 red. 434 purple, and 325 blue 

 flowers. 



TMie green, white, and yellow flowers num- 

 ber 3001, or three-fourths of the entire num- 

 ber; while the red, purple, and blue amount 

 to only loio. Though there are many excep- 

 tions, the first group usually have regular or 

 wheel shaped or cup-shaped flowers with 

 the nectar easily accessible, and are visited 

 by all flower-loving insects— a miscellaneous 

 company of beetles, flies, butter flies, wasps, 

 and bees. 



The probability is that very fevv bee- 

 keepers would make anything like a 

 fair guess as to the proportion of 

 flowersof different colors. llike enough 

 quite a number would say off-hand that 

 there were no green flowers, unless 

 attention were called to the grasses, 

 and even then probably very few would 

 make the estimate that nearly a third 

 of all the flowers are green. Moreover, 

 if a dozen different persons were asked 

 to give a guess as to how many species 

 of llowers in each hundred are green, 

 white, etc., the dozen guesses would 

 vary widely. In order to make a test 

 of the matter, two experienced flower- 

 lovers were separately asked to make a 

 guess as to the percent of each color, 

 with the following result: 



ist 2d Lovell's 



guess guess figures 



Green 4 15 3o,o 



White 5 25 23.8 



Yellow 20 8 ig.9 



Red 30 40 6.4 



Purple 5 10 10.9 



Blue 8 10 8. 



One thing likely to lead to error in 

 estimating, is that attention will be 

 fixed upon the total number of flowers, 

 instead of the number of kinds. Mil- 

 lions of red-clover blossoms will be 

 thought of, whereas red clover only 



One of the Apiaries of Abbi? Warr<5. Curate 

 of Martainneville. France. 



counts one among -4020. Because there 

 are nearly 4 times as many white spe- 

 cies as red, it by no means follows 



