1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



779 



which way the wind would blow to-mor- 

 row. — Ed.I 



A METHOD OF STAVING TRANSFERRED 

 COMBS. 



I send you a cut of my wire hooks used 

 for holding combs in frames. Last year 

 when transferring' some bees from boxes to 

 frame hives, I used these hooks and found 

 them all right. The wire of which these 

 hooks are made is about the size of a knit- 

 ting-needlcy and came from bales of hay. 

 They can be made very fast wuth a pair of 

 cutting-pliers. 



In using the hooks, adjust as many as 

 you wish to one side of the frame by first 

 hooking over the bottom-bar and then the 

 top. P^it in your comb, and use as many 

 hooks on the other side as are necessary to 

 hold the comb in place. When whole combs 

 are used, from four to six hooks are suffi- 

 cient, but when pieces and crooked combs 

 are put in, of coiirse more hooks are re- 

 quired. 



After the bees have fastened the combs, 

 the hooks can easily be removed without 

 taking out the frames, by simply unhook- 

 ing from the top-bar and pushing down till 

 the bottom hook is free from the bar. 



Trough, S. C. T. Lipscomb. 



[Your method of staying up the combs is 

 very good; but nowadays we do not consid- 

 er it advisable, since the advent of founda- 

 tion, to try to use up pieces or scraps of 

 comb. In modern practice it is the rule to 

 transfer only such combs as are perfect and 

 nil worker, and will fill the frame without 

 piecing out. The difficulty with small 

 pieces in one frame is that drone-cells will 

 be built along the line of union. — Ed.] 



planted. Nearly all pear-trees near here 

 on black soil are badly blighted. My pear- 

 orchard is on high clay land; and, although 

 some trees were white with blossoms, I 

 have no blight whatever. I have only such 

 varieties as are not subject to blight — Keiflf- 

 er, Garber, Duchess; and now to have good 

 fruit of any kind we must have bees or 

 some insects to mix pollen. Take away 

 bees and other insects, and we should have 

 practically no good fruit. Major Holsing- 

 er, of Kansas, has Kieffer and Leconte pear- 

 trees, planted 15 years, side by side. Bees 

 have hummed from one tree to the other. 

 Result — Leconte trees are all 

 dead from blight ; Keiflfers are 

 sound, and bearing heavily eve- 

 ry year. Now, if men will 

 plant the right varieties on suit- 

 able land they need not worry 

 about trees or blight. Too rich 

 soil will cause blight to any va- 

 riety ; but some varieties are 

 more proof against it than others. 

 A few years ago, golden or yel- 

 low bees were the craze. It is a 

 wonder some fruit-growers did 

 not accuse them of giving the 

 peach-trees the peach-j'ellows ; 

 and now here comes the July 15th issue of 

 Gleanings. Looking over it I see Dr. Mil- 

 ler has fed 1000 lbs. of sugar, and Dr. 

 Gandy is rolling in honey. Well, all doc- 

 tors are not alike; but I think it is the duty 

 of our editor to investigate. 



J. E. Johnson. 

 Williamsfield, 111., July .25. 



THE CAUSE OF PEAR-BLIGHT ; SOME VARIE- 

 TIES IMMUNE TO it; THE OPINION OF 

 AN EXTENSIVE FRUIT-GROWER. 



I have been thinking of adding my opin- 

 ion on a few points brought up in Glean- 

 ings. In the first place I have an orchard 

 of 1800 fruit-trees, just coming in bearing, 

 of which 900 are pear-trees. I have 13 col- 

 onies of bees, and am on a deal for 16 more. 

 Italians, at S2.50 per colony, in ten-frame 

 L. hives, so you see they are not paying 

 their present owner. Now, we have had a 

 very wet season, and, only for a dry winter 

 and spring, crops could not have been 



the sting-trowel CONTROVERSY. 



Dr. Miller tells an apocryphal and ab- 

 surd story as an answer to Stenog's ques- 

 tion about bees injecting poison in a cell of 

 honey just before sealing it over, June 1, 

 1902. With a wonderful accuracy of mem- 

 ory he quotes what I said years ago, and 

 says that, when he remonstrated with me 

 privately, as if I had been doing something 

 criminal, I said I saw the bees working at 

 the cells, and what else could they be do- 

 ing? If Dr. Miller remembers correctl}', 

 he said, Cheshire says the formic acid gets 

 into the honey through the blood of the bee. 

 Well, Cheshire says nothing so absurd ,as 

 that in the whole two volumes of his books. 

 What he does say, and what I am willing 

 to accept as the opinion of a scientist on the 

 subject, is as follows: Vol. II., page 587: 

 "Herr K. MullenhofF* and the Rev. W. F. 

 Clarke have pointed out that formic acid is 

 provided by the bees by depositing droplets 

 from their stings, which they touch on the 

 face of the honey; Herr K. Mullenhoff add- 

 ing that thus the presence of formic acid, 

 absent in nectar, is accounted for." 



W, F. Clarke. 



[This was submitted to Dr. Miller, who 

 replies:] 



Mr. Clarke is quite right as to what Che- 

 shire says, the trouble being that I did tiot 



* " Archiv fuer Anatomie Physiologie," LSSli, p. ;?2C. 



