742 



that the presence of young hatching hees 

 does make all the difference in the world. 

 He therefore seeks to avoid having them in 

 a nucleus into which he is. letting loose a 

 virgin. 



We asked him why they should be the 

 cause of trouble. He did not know how to 

 account for it unless young queens do not 

 know the difference between a baby worker 

 and a baby queen. He has repeatedly seen 

 these young virgins, as soon as let loose, 

 pounce on and sting bees just hatched, one 

 after another. 



The trouble apparently arises, not from 

 the young bees, but, rather, from the queen. 

 She starts the trouble, and it is evident that 

 all the bees then take a hand in the fracas, 

 with the result that she loses out as a 

 matter of course. 



Why Some Should Advertise at County 

 Fairs 



Now is the time for beekeepers to adver- 

 tise their honey business at local fairs. 

 Li\e-bee demonstrations and exhibits will 

 draw a big crowd, sell a large amount of 

 honey, and pave the way for future sales. 

 It is the kind of advertising that pays Avell; 

 and the hone^'-producer who does not take 

 advantage of it is losing money. 



We should hardly expect, however, that 

 an old veteran like Dr. Miller, at the age 

 of 84 years, would give live-bee demonstra- 

 tions at his county fair. The fact is, he is 

 able to sell his honey, usually, before it is 

 off the hive, at a price that is highly satis- 

 factory, for he sometimes has more than 

 one buyer in [)rospect — not because he goes 

 after that buyer, but because the buyers 

 come to him. The quality of his honey, his 

 careful grading, and his prominence as a 

 bee-writei'. create a good demand for his 

 product. But not all have this reputation; 

 arid it will, therefore, be necessary for them 

 to create a demand by letting their local 

 consumers know that thej'^ have honey for 

 sale. 



A Rose by any other Name 



WiTATEVER may be the facts in this in- 

 cident, it points to a fundamental principle 

 in the scientific method, the necessity for 

 exactness in names. A householder cut 

 down four handsome basswood-trees which 

 had shaded his lawn for a generation. He 

 had heard of the linden-tree, its value for 

 ?hade, for nectar, and for timber, and in 

 his desire to secure some of these he de- 

 stroyed the basswoods. A nursery set out 

 the lindens according to his order. He was 

 r.aturall}' somewhat surprised when, four or 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



five years later, he discovered that basswood 

 and linden are one. 



How often much confusion arises in the 

 discussion of honey-plants, all of which 

 could be avoided by the use of the Latin 

 names, as a contributor has suggested in a 

 for)ner issue. The willow-herb {Epilohium 

 ongusti folium] is sometimes known as the 

 fireweed. But the evening primrose {Oeno- 

 thera biennis) is also called the willow-herb. 

 Similarly the wild lettuce {Lactuca cana- 

 <iensis) sometimes called fireweed. Plenty 

 of room for confusion here. 



There are two dog-fennels, one of which 

 is an aster (Aster ericoides), and the other 

 Anthernis cotula. A variety of sneezeweed 

 (Ilelenium autuinnale) and the common 

 field daisy {Chrysayithemum leucanthemum) 

 are each sometimes called the oxeye. 



While a rose by any other name would 

 smell as sweet, it is likely to cause confusion 

 by any other name than the Latin one. 

 These names are in the language common 

 to science. Latin is to botany and other 

 natural sciences what Italian is to music. 



We endeavor to add the Latin names of 

 plants in articles in Gleanings where there 

 is a possibility of confusion, but when these 

 are not supplied by contributors we are 

 often at a loss for them, simply because the 

 common name is strange to us, or because 

 there may be several closely allied plants, 

 and we cannot tell which is meant. When 

 a writer attempts to deal with a scientific 

 subject such as a honey-plant, he should 

 use the language of science, the Latin ter- 

 minology. 



The Question of Fall Uniting ; When 

 Should it be Done ? 



It is the usual practice to unite just 

 before putting bees into their final winter 

 quarters; that is, a little before freezing 

 weather sets in; but it has been observed 

 over and over again that a late-united colo- 

 ny is \\e\ev quite as normal as a regular 

 colony that has sufficient strength without 

 the infusion of other bees. Several united 

 nuclei, if put together late in the fall, look 

 like a good colony at the time of putting 

 together ; but very often these combinations 

 die out before spring. For some reason 

 tliey do not seem to be able to get together 

 as one working unit, like a regular colony. 



Every fall we have been in the habit of 

 uniting our queen-rearing nuclei, and this 

 uniting has generally taken place pretty 

 late, because we desired to keep the queens 

 for late orders, even though we might lose 

 the bees that were of much less value than 

 the queen. 



