580 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



have been lost by the bees leaving it and 

 going back to the old stand. 



If Mr. Coveyou finds that more increase 

 is needed than he can get from the colonies 

 having cells, the required number of cells 

 are provided by the plan already described. 



Remus, Mich. 



BEE KEEPING IN NEW MEXICO. 

 Some Problems not Ordinarily Met. 



BY THE NEW^ MEXICO CHAP. 



Couldn't Mr. Alexander and others, in giv- 

 ing dates, refer to an expected honey-flow, 

 to the time when bees first begin to get nec- 

 tar, to a killing frost, or to some such terms, 

 instead of May 1, etc. ? I am down hei'e in 

 New Mexico where the bees fly every day in 

 the year. To-day, Dec. 28, I saw a great 

 number of them follow a load of honey two 

 and a half miles, and swarm around the 

 wagon for a long time after it was unloaded. 

 I have just been reading Gleanings for Dec. 

 15, p. 1594, whore Mr Alexander is quoted 

 as having said he began extracting from the 

 brood-nest May 1. Reference to a certain 

 day of the month, or even to a certain month 

 in your locality, means little in the way of 

 actual information to me. Not having the 

 conditions of climate, season, and flora tabu- 

 lated in my head for the whole United States 

 the phrase "May 1 " for Ohio leaves me to 

 guess when 1 should do the same thing in 

 case I wish to try the plan. I believe Mr. 

 Alexander did in the original article specify 

 so many days before the first flow; but if such 

 explanations were more generally used they 

 would help me. Could you not, in some 

 place in your columns, explain this point to 

 the kind writers of Gleanings, and thus help 

 your readers of the Southwest? 



Many of the articles I read leave the im- 

 pression that the writer had never conceived 

 of such conditions in the bee business a^ con- 

 front me. For instance, 1 wonder if " Crudh ' ' 

 would be thinking and writing the same as 

 he did for Dec. 15, pages 1592 and '93, if he 

 were here, where English-speaking help is 

 hard to get, working to put 1500 run-down 

 colonies, scattered over ten square miles (one 

 yard even 45 miles away), in shape to breed 

 up to 2500 next spring, and to produce a 

 given number of pounds each, in order to 

 meet interest and principal where you must 

 have gilt-edged security to get money at 10 

 per cent. 1 wonder if he would figure long 

 whether or not a queen was too black to 

 keep, or whether she was one or three years 

 old. Perhaps his mind would be on where 

 he was going to establish those new yards; 

 how he was to get the wells put down, wheth- 

 er he would have to have a horse here, etc. 



If the gentleman who opposes Dr. Miller's 

 idea of controlling bee-ranges had to " buck " 

 this sort of proposition from twelve to eigh- 

 teen hours per day, I wonder if he would 

 call it pastime, or if he would get some strong- 

 er words for it. 



Now about taking off honey in the after- 



noon so the bees will not sting you and the 

 neighbors. What about taking it oft' from 

 daylight until dark, and working at the ex- 

 tractor away into the night with the bees ly- 

 ing idle for weeks at a time for want of emp- 

 ty combs where help can not be had? 



I should like to hear more about "going 

 Mr. Alexander one better" by taking out 

 combs and letting bees carry the honey back 

 to empty ones in the hive. We have several 

 thousand pounds of honey candied in the 

 combs, so white and dry that all the power 

 extractors in the United States would not 

 throw it. Suggestions thankfully received. 



Mesilla Park, N. M. 



INJURY TO LEAVES OF BASS WOOD 

 TREES. 



BY PROF. H. A. SURFACE. 



Can you tell me what to do with my bass- 

 wood-trees? Every year something eats the 

 leaves full of holes. I fear it hurts the bloom 

 and prevents secretion of honey. 1 have 25 

 trees, one foot in diameter. They bloom full 

 some years, and the bees woi'k on them ten 

 days or two weeks, some years two days. 

 What causes the injury is so small that it is 

 impossible to see it. Sometimes I see a very 

 small worm. They make a perfect sieve of 

 the leaves. J. V. N. House. 



Spring Hill, Kan. 



[This was referred to Prof. H. A. Surface, 

 Economic Zoologist at Harrisburg, Pa., who 

 replies:] 



It is evident that the injury to the leaves 

 of the basswood-tree described in the above 

 inquiry is due to beetles, which are. no doubt, 

 either rose- bugs or June beetles. The latter 

 are sometimes called May beetles and drone 

 beetles. The work of making the leaves full 

 of holes is indicative of these creatures. 

 Worms or larvte may eat holes in the leaves 

 when they are very young, but they soon go 

 to the edge and eat away the tissue from the 

 margin of the leaf. Also if the work were 

 done by worms or larvt>3 these pests would 

 be present in great numbers and quite con- 

 spicuous. The beetles feed after night, and 

 the June bugs or May beetles may disappear 

 entirely in the daytime, finding concealment 

 in the grass and soil. If the damage be done 

 by beetles, remedies will be difficult to ap- 

 ply, for the reason that these pests are so 

 slow to poison that it is generally considered 

 impossible to kill them by poisons. The best 

 material to apply as a spray would be arse- 

 nate of lead, two pounds dissolved in fifty 

 gallons of water. This would stick better 

 than any other poison that could be used. 

 It will not be washed off readily by rains, 

 and will be present when needed. It should 

 be applied upon the first appearance of such 

 injury. If the damage be done by worms or 

 larvjc this would undoubtedly be the best 

 remedy to use, and spraying with Paris 

 green would be next in order. 



Sometimes it is possible to catch the leaf- 

 eating beetles on cloths soaked with kerosene 



