1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



553 



ther knows what it is or does not know 

 enough to know any thing about it. It is 

 surprising how little people know about 

 some things. 



HOW TO REMOVE W^AX CAKES FROM CANS. 



Sometimes through rapid cooling the cake 

 cracks, and the outside portion adheres tight- 

 ly to the side of the can. 



Mr. R. L. Taylor, at the last Michigan 

 State convention, gave a good and simple 

 method of loosening the cake in such a case. 

 He advised turning the vessel upside down 

 and pouring over it boiling water out of a 

 tea-kettle spout. I find that this works well. 

 The tin expands at once, being metal, and 

 down drops the cake. Simple enough, but 

 many have not learned it. [If the can is 

 larger at the top than at the bottom, and if 

 the sides are well brushed with thick soap- 

 suds, the wax will almost never stick. — Ed.] 



APICULTURE IN OUR AGRICULTURAL COL- 

 LEGES. 



And why not? Yet it is true that in only 

 a very few has any special attention been 

 given to this branch of agriculture. In Mich- 

 igan, bee-keeping has been taught since the 

 'go's. In several other States, especially in 

 Colorado, good work has been done. That 

 Michigan has set a good example appears 

 from the fact that such men as Benton, Por- 

 ter, and Hershiser are among her graduates. 

 Bee-keeping is most worthy, and should no 

 longer be neglected. It conserves the vast 

 deposits of most wholesome nectar which 

 otherwise must go utterly to waste; it gives 

 a profitable and very delightful occupation 

 to scores of our most worthy citizens; and, 

 best of all, it insures cross-pollenation of our 

 plants, which is indispensable to the most 

 successful agriculture, and without it, and 

 that by our honey-bees, in many lines of fruit 

 and vegetable growing, there would be no 

 success at all. If all our agricultural col- 

 leges, which are doing such admirable work 

 in other lines, would give to apiculture the 

 attention that its importance demands, we 

 should not only advance the industry by 

 spreading information regarding bees and 

 the production of honey, but we could cap- 

 ture men of rare ability who else will nev- 

 er be attracted to bees at all. There are 

 many Clutes, Phillips, and Hershisers, could 

 we only get them trended beeward, who 

 would be Tjright and shining lights in the 

 apicultural world. 



I suppose that the first class in bee-keep- 

 ing ever taught west of the Rocky Mountains 

 was taught by me here at Pomona College, 



in 1894 — as fine and enthusiastic a group of 

 young ladies and gentlemen as ever delight- 

 ed a teacher. 



BEES SPREADING SCALE INSECTS. 



Mr. R. F. Weir, Sunnyside, Washington, 

 writes that at their "farmers' institute," at 

 Sunnyside, much was said regarding the 

 spreading of scale insects by the honey-bee. 

 The special pest was the San Jose scale, and 

 the fruit-men were loud in their complaints. 

 There were very few bee-men present, and 

 so the matter was very much one-sided. 



This is another case where ignorance is 

 loud with complaint, and where a little 

 more knowledge would have made a very 

 different showing. Like the case of the 

 spread of pear-blight, there is some truth; 

 but the conclusions are utterly misleading 

 and wrong. It is true that all scale insects 

 are spread while very young, and while they 

 are crawling about on leaf and twig before 

 settling down to their real business, which 

 consists of sucking and growing. It is also 

 true that most of this spreading is done by 

 insects and birds. The bird or insect alights 

 on the tree where the young scale insects 

 are crawling about in search of the right 

 place to locate, and these latter crawl upon 

 the feet of the bird or roving insect; and as 

 the latter fly to other trees, the young tiny 

 scale pest is carried along. It is possibly 

 true that, in rare cases, the bees may do 

 some of this mischief; but surely it is very 

 little that they do. The bees do not alight 

 on leaf and twig, nor even on the fruit; and 

 as the young lice are very rarely on 

 the bloom, they are but little likely to be 

 carried by bees. The little scale insects are 

 so tiny that they walk about very slowly, 

 and so would rarely crawl on the blossoms, 

 and hence would almost never crawl on 

 to the feet of bees. I have never seen the 

 wee scale lice on flowers, though I am wont 

 every year to examine flowers daily and 

 most carefully with a good lens; and as sel- 

 dom do I see bees on any part of the plant 

 except the bloom, and so we may rest as- 

 sured that bees are scarcely ever wrong-doers 

 in this work of scattering the young scale. 

 This accusation has even less foundation 

 than that of the spread of pear-blight. There 

 the bees do their part; but there are enough 

 other insects so that the mischief would be 

 as effectually done were there no bees at all. 

 Here we may feel very sure that the bees do 

 almost none of the evil. 



We have before us Vol. I. No. 1 of The 

 Guide to Nature, a magazine devoted to na- 

 ture study, by Edward F. Bigelow. It is a 

 beautifully gotten-up journal of 40 pages 

 and cover; price $1.50. It is well illustrated 

 from original photos, and contains a range 

 of subjects that will be of more than ordina- 

 ry interest to nature students. It is seldom 

 that the initial number of any magazine 

 presents a nicer appearance than this, and 

 we congratulate its editor. For particulars 

 apply to Edward F. Bigelow, Stamford, Ct. 



