146 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



tongue reaches 46 per cent greater than oth- 

 ers, will he say these are all "tongues of 

 practically the same length "? 



In the two colonies that Mr. Doolittle 

 compares, the poor colony with the longer 

 tongues had tongues not quite one per cent 

 longer than those of the good colony. What 

 of the tongue reach f This, Mr. Doolittle 

 does not give. As variation in tongue reach 

 in Prof. Gillette's table for Italians is near- 

 ly six times as great as variation in length, 

 there x's, ^ possibility that the better bees, 

 notwithstanding their one per cent shorter 

 tongues, had a reach greater than that of 

 the poorer bees. Indeed, the reach may 

 have been considerably greater without pre- 

 senting any thing more remarkable than 

 appears in Prof. Gillette's table, where can 

 be seen a tongue 2 per cent shorter than an- 

 other, but with a reach 12 per cent greater, 

 and there may be cases still more striking. 



Granting, however, that the reach of the 

 poorer colony was the greater, is it at all 

 proven that length of tongue cut no figure 

 in the case? The average length of Italian 

 tongues given by Prof. Gillette is 25.47 

 hundreiiths of an inch, not quite the aver- 

 age of Mr. Doolittle's two colonies. It 

 seems reasonable to believe that this is con- 

 siderably above the average of Italian 

 tongues ; for, in responding to Prof. Gil- 

 lette's call for tongi'es to measure, bee- 

 keepers would be likely to send in their 

 best bees. So I think it not unreasonable 

 to believe that both colonies had unusual- 

 ly long tongues, and one colon}'^ did poor 

 work in spite of its long tongues. The 

 practical question is not so much as to the 

 comparative tongue lengths of the two colo- 

 nies as this: '" Would that better colony 

 have done just as good work with shorter 

 tongues?" In a field of red clover with the 

 depth of tubes varying from 12 to 37 hun- 

 dredths, would bees having a reach of 21.5 

 (Mr. Doolittle's bees may have had that 

 according to the table) have no advantage 

 over those with a reach of 15 or 16? That 

 depends altogether upon how plentiful were 

 the tubes measuring only 12 hundredths. If 

 all tubes were of that depth, there never 

 would have been any red-clover problem, 

 and likely no long-tongue fad. But ordina- 

 rily such tubes will be very scarce, most of 

 them being beyond a reach of 17 or 18, and 

 so beyond ordinary reach (I think the aver- 

 age Italian reach given by Prof. Gillette is 

 17.85, which I suppose to be above the ordi- 

 nary). In such fields it seems reasonable 

 to believe that there might be a very great 

 advantage in having tongues with a reach 

 exceeding 18 hundredths. 



As I have already intimated, it is not the 

 part of wisdom to go wild over long tongues, 

 and count nothing else important, and I 

 would put more stress upon a record for 

 storing without any measurement; j-et I do 

 believe the man is off who says length of 

 reach is a matter of no consequence, wheth- 

 er it be the editor of Gleanings or any one 

 else. 



Marengo, 111. 



NOTES OF TRAVEL. 



Prospectors for Gold ; Wisconsin Bee-keepers in 



Arizona ; a Visit with Wm. Lossing and Pam- 



ily, of Phoenix ; Bee=keeping for Women. 



BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



While Mr. Wm. Rohrig and mj'self were 

 on the road to visit bee-keepers, we saw in 

 the distance two donkeys (^ burros, I sup- 

 pose) loaded down with camp equipment, 

 and a solitary man straggling along with 

 them on foot. 



"What is that?" I said. 



" Oh! He is one of the gold-prospectors 

 with his mules and camp equipment," said 

 Mr. Rohrig. 



As tliey drew near, the sight, though 

 common in this country, was very nosel to 

 me, and I was wondering how I might get 

 a snapshot of the trio unawares. But the 

 trouble was, one of the animals was away 

 ahead of the other, and the man came along 

 behind with the rear beast, prodding him 

 along. Finally Mr. Rohrig called out: 



" Say, stranger, this is a tenderfoot from 

 the East, and he would like to get a picture 

 of you and 3'our equipment." 



"All right, pard; where do you want 

 us? " said he good-naturedly. 



At first one of the burros seemed indis- 

 posed to get into the "group," and finally 

 his owner grabbed the halter of each and 

 held them while I pulled out my pocket ko- 

 dak and took a snapshot. The result is be- 

 fore you. 



All through this western country may be 

 seen prospectors a good deal like the one 

 here seen. The country is warm, and they 

 dress merely for comfort. So far, as a rule 

 they have not "struck it rich," but are 'aI- 

 wa.ys, expectins^ to. Their scant means do 

 not permit them to travel in palace cars, 

 and consequently they procure a couple of 

 burros at a small cost, camping-outfit, 

 cooking-utensils, etc., and then "rough it" 

 on the mountain-sides. Their faithful ani- 

 mals will live on almost any thing, and the 

 cost of keeping them is almost nothing; 

 while the man with his spade, pick, shovel, 

 and pans, di^'s and pans as long as his 

 "grub" lasts in the hope of some day 

 striking it rich. When his diggings do not 

 "pan out well," he will pack up and start 

 off on the road for new fields, and that was 

 what our "pard" was doing when we 

 asked him to stop long enough for us to take 

 a picture. 



Speaking of " panning out," I was quite 

 interested in noting that this expression 

 originated among the gold-diggers in early 

 times. After digging for a considerable 

 length of time the prospector takes a pan 

 with a sieve bottom, dips down into the 

 mixture of diggings, with the water, and 

 washes and washes until he finds the pre- 

 cious metal. Perhaps his diggings pan 

 out well, but more often they do not. But 

 these gold-hunters, even if they do not "strike 

 it rich" (and that is another expression 

 from the gold-diggers) generally manage to 



