1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



145 



the candying- process to help their trade. 

 But the time came when I was obllg^ed to 

 go more slowly, and do less; so I decided, 

 some years ago, to sell nearly all my out- 

 put to a wholesale firm. It does seem to 

 me that we are now in a down-grade move- 

 ment in this liquefying business. 



I know that many good men are now en- 

 gaged in the process; but I feel sure that 

 time will tell that they are making a mis- 

 take. 



Aylmer W., Ont., Can. 



[I am with you in believing that we ought 

 to push candied honey more than we do, 

 for it is a fact that rank honey, when can- 

 died, is a little nicer eating than when in 

 the liquid state. On the same ground we 

 should educate consumers to the fact that 

 extracted honej' put up by a bee-keeper is 

 always pure — that is, I think we may state 

 that, as a rule, no bee-keeper will adulter- 

 ate, so I fear nothing on that score. — Ed.] 



LENGTH OF TONGUES OR LENGTH OF TONGUE 

 REACH. 



Prof. Gillette's Tables of Measurements Reviewed ; 



Some Phases of the Question that have Not 



been Considered. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Interest in long tongues seems to hold its 

 place for a g-ood many years. In the first 

 place it was a sort of dreamy, speculative 

 interest, with no thought of nearly ap- 

 proaching realization — only the thought 

 that it would be a great thing if by any 

 means we could obtain bees with tongues 

 long enough to work on red clover. That 

 interest began a good many years ago. 

 Then there came a special interest in the 

 big- Indian bee. Apis dorsafa, and some 

 were quite sanguine that the problem would 

 be solved if said big bees were introduced. 

 But the years have gone by, and no one has 

 ever seen a single living specimen of the 

 giant Indian in this country. Perhaps there 

 would be little real gain if it could be do- 

 mesticated and introduced, for, according 

 to Prof. Gillette's measurements, we have 

 plentj' of bees already with greater tongue 

 reach than Apis dorsata. His measure- 

 ments, however, were upon alcoholic speci- 

 mens. 



Then there came something in the nature 

 of a real boom, when measurements were 

 made, and it was found that there was a 

 marked difference in tongue lengths, and 

 reports were made to the effect that some of 

 the tongues were actually long enough to 

 work on red clover. Now that there seems 

 something like a lull, the question is wheth- 

 er the interest is to be longer sustained, or 

 whether it shall gradually fade out entire- 

 ly, as in the case of many another fad with- 

 out foundation. 



One thing that seems to be settled is that 

 tongue reach is not determined by tongue 

 length, there being no fixed relation be- 

 tween the two. Prof. Gillette's figures 



show this clearly, in one case tongues hav- 

 ing 40 per cent greater reach than other 

 tongues of exactly the same length. That 

 seems to show that, if there is to be any 

 measuring at all, it should be measurement 

 of reach rather than length. It is possible, 

 also, that, better than measuring either of 

 these, would be the plan of measuring in the 

 live bee what it actually does reach. Still 

 further, it is possible that, better than mea- 

 suring any tongues, would be the measur- 

 ing of the amount of honey stored. For it 

 may easily be, in spite of the fact that some 

 believe that length of tongue is a sign of 

 greater value in other respects, that there 

 may be such a thing as lazy bees with long 

 tongues. Not only is this now recognized 

 at least b3' some, but, like the swing of a 

 pendulum in many another case, there seems 

 a gravitating toward the belief that length 

 of tongue is a thing of no value whatever. 



Is this belief to be accepted as the ration- 

 al one? Are all the longings of the past for 

 tongues long enough to reach the nectar of 

 red clover, all the testimony to the effect 

 that tongues long enough have done work in 

 that line, to be considered as but " the base- 

 less fabric of a vision "? Let us not lose 

 our common sense. So long as there is nec- 

 tar beyond the reach of ordinar3' tongues, 

 just so long will it be a desideratum to have 

 tongues that will reach that nectar. Let 

 us not go to the one extreme of thinking 

 that, if we have tongue length, we have 

 every thing, nor to the other extreme of 

 thinking that we can by any possibility 

 dispense with sufficient length of tongue if 

 we are to have the nectar of deep-tubed 

 honey-plants. 



G. M. Doolittle has given in different bee 

 journals details of the work of two colonies 

 during the past summer, in which it was 

 clearly shown that the colony with shorter 

 tongues did very much the better work, and 

 this seems to warrant him in concluding 

 that there is no value in long tongues, say- 

 ing, in Anier. Bee Joninah "And this also 

 proves that the long-tongue fad was not 

 only premature but a mistake as well." In 

 coming to this decision it seems to ine that 

 Mr. Doolittle has not exercised his usual 

 judicial level-headedness. If he had a scrub 

 cow that gave a large yield of milk, and a 

 Jersey cow that gave only one-sixth as 

 much, would he feel justified in relating 

 the case in different dairy journals, and 

 g-ravel3' announcing that this proves that 

 Jersey cows are not superior as milkers to 

 cows of scrub breed? 



"I am led to believe," says Mr. Doolit- 

 tle {Am. Bee Journal, 775), "that Italian 

 bees from various parts of the countr3% and 

 from colonies that gather little or much 

 honey, all have tongues of practically the 

 same length." It is difficult to understand 

 how he can believe this in face of the differ- 

 ent measurements that have been given for 

 months, and (I think) for years. If he will 

 look at Prof. Gillette's table {Amer. Bee 

 Journal, p. 793) in which are given tongue 

 lengths 8 per cent greater than others, and 



