422 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May )5 



This experience made me fearful of results, 

 and led me to make some careful observa- 

 tions. I found that the bees that collected 

 around one flight-hole had a habit of run- 

 ning' over to a neighboring flight-hole, and, 

 to my surprise, they were, as a rule, well 

 received, and went in and out, and seemed 

 in a way to make themselves at home. I 

 tried to prevent this by surrounding the 

 flight- holes with section boxes, but without 

 effect. I believe this visiting habit was 

 one cause of the loss of queens. Further 

 inspection showed that, in some cases, even 

 fertile queens left the colon}', and, after 

 circling, returned in some instances to the 

 proper colony, but oftener to the wrong one. 

 I now very carefully examined the 100 nu- 

 clei designed for warranted and tested 

 queens, etc., and found evidences of queen- 

 lessness in a large number, which, upon 

 examination, proved that at least 60 per 

 cent were queenless. These queenless col- 

 onies I supplied with virgins. The re- 

 maining 40 per cent were left until the 

 brood had hatched, and, on inspection, 24 

 <l'jeens were found in good condition, while 

 the remainder were missing, and this con- 

 dition of things prevailed until I had lost 

 more than 200 queens, when I began to re- 

 duce the reduce the number of nucleus colo- 

 nies under the Svvarthmore system, and 

 unite them on four-frame nuclei. 



You will remember I had quite a num- 

 ber of little colonies that I had supplied 

 with virgins. These I watched, and gave 

 careful attention, but with no better results 

 than I have already narrated. 



I will not weary you with all the details 

 — the fussing with covers, the conditions of 

 sunlight and shade, the shrinking and 

 swelling of the light section boxes incident 

 upon the changes of weather; and, later in 

 the season, the fight with robbers and the 

 invasion of bee-moths; the changes in tem- 

 perature, hot days and cool nights, etc. ; 

 but I will say that these and many others 

 are points of practice that are serious ob- 

 stacles in the way of the Swarthmore sys- 

 tem. I do not wish to be understood as 

 condemning without reserve the Swarth- 

 more system, nor as saying any thing de- 

 rogatory to Mr. Swarthmore, as I am bound 

 to accept his statement in substance, that 

 the sj'stem (in his hands) is a success. 



In this article I have given you facts as 

 they occurred in my experience in carefully 

 carrying out the details, with what knowl- 

 edge I could get from the Swarthmore arti- 

 cle in Gleanings, and my own experience 

 as a bee-keeper. 



[The Swarthmore system of queen-rear- 

 ing is all right, except in the matter of 

 having the queens fertilized, and the re- 

 ports regarding this part have been any 

 thing but satisfactory. The fact is, small 

 one-frame nuclei, not much larger than a 

 section box, are not a success with the av- 

 erage person, either for the purpose of hav- 

 ing queens fertilized or for keeping them 

 or the bees after the wedding - flight. 



Swarthmore could not have tested this fea- 

 ture on a very large scale or he would nev- 

 er have launched it on the public. — Ed.] 



SPRAYING TREES WHILE IN BLOOM. 



What Remedy in Law Have Bee=keepers ? 



BY HARMON SMITH. 



71/r. Editor: — Let me say a word or two 

 about Wm. Stahl and his advice about 

 spra3nng trees when in bloom. Lawyers 

 know there is no wrong without a remed}'. 

 Any man injured b)-^ his neighbor can find 

 a remedy, ample and sufficient. If I had a 

 neighbor who was about to spray to my in- 

 jury, the courts of equit}^ would grant me 

 an injunction, restraining him from doing 

 so — no doubt of this, and he would have to 

 pa}'^ the costs. 



I am not so sure, but I think the law 

 (in equity) would or could be made to apply 

 to Mr. Stahl so as to restrain him from us- 

 ing the mail through which to disseminate 

 his poisonous literature— at least this prop- 

 osition is worth looking up by the National 

 Bee keepers' AssociEitiou. 



We have a law in Michigan making it a 

 criminal offense to spra}' trees in bloom. 

 Let us enforce it, if we are afflicted with 

 those following Stahl's advice. At section 

 5689, Howell's Compiled Laws of 1897, we 

 read: "No such spraying shall be done 

 while said fruit-trees or vines are in blos- 

 som," except in special exceptions. There 

 is no special penalty attached to this pro- 

 hibition, but the statutes make this a mis- 

 demeanor, and we find the punishment pro- 

 vided for at section 11330 id., which reads : 

 "When the performance of any act is pro- 

 hibited bj' any statute, and no penalty for 

 the violation of such statute is imposed, ei- 

 ther in the same section containing such 

 prohibition, or in any other section or stat- 

 ute, the doing of such act shall be deemed 

 a misdemeanor;" then the next section 

 makes such offense punishable "bj' impris- 

 onment in jail not more than one year, or 

 by fine not exceeding two hundred and fiity 

 dollars, or both." 



Here is our Wolverine remedy: 



1. Injunction to prevent the meditated in- 

 jury. 



2. An action for private damages. 



3. It is a criminal offense, punishable as 

 above. 



Is not this sufficient? There is no wrong 

 without a remedy; but don't let us be in 

 haste. Law is a very vexatious, precari- 

 ous, and generall}' unnecessary business. 



Orleans, Mich., Apr. 5. 



[These are questions in law on which I 

 am not posted, and I should be glad to hear 

 from some of the bee-keepers of the legal 

 fraternity as to what course could be pur- 

 sued. In some States there is a direct law 

 against spraying fruit-trees while they are 

 in bloom. In others there is no such law. 

 See editorials. — Ed.] 



