298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



grass is kept down by them. We fence all our 

 apiaries with smooth wire, and then keep down 

 the weeds and grass. 



TRAITS OF THE HOLY LANDS. 



W. H. Laws says this of the Holy Land bees: 

 "This race of bees has some superior qualities. 

 They are great breeders, fine honey- gatherers, 

 not given to swarming, as many suppose, and 

 build the straightest and nicest sheets of all- 

 worker combs of any bees that I know. On the 

 other hand, to offset their good traits they are a 

 little irritable, and their comb honey is capped 

 to show a watery appearance; but they are lead- 

 ers where honey is to be had." Exactly as we 

 have found them. The question with us was 

 whether the extra stings that had to be borne, 

 and the undesirable cappings, would be over- 

 balanced by their good traits enough to justify 

 keeping them. Our inclination has been against 

 them for these reasons; yet we certainly like their 

 fine comb-building, honey-gathering, and other 

 get-up-and-get qualities. 



THE TEXAS FOUL-BROOD APPROPRIATION. 



This is hanging fire in the Legislature at this 

 writing, April 16, and the bee-keepers are anxious- 

 ly waiting for the results. It was lost in the 

 House, but it was found by the members of the 

 Legislative Committee of the Texas Bee-keepers' 

 Association that there was one more chance to 

 get it in the Senate appropriation bill, which has 

 not yet come up for consideration. With hard 

 work it is hoped that the Senate will include it, 

 and that the House will pass favorably on it when 

 it goes back to it. 



This appropriation is needed most urgently, 

 and it would be a pity if it should be lost now, 

 at the very last moment. The writer has spent 

 months of labor on it, assisted at times by F. L. 

 Aten and T. P. Robinson, who, with the writer, 

 compose the legislative committee of the State 

 Bee-keepers' Association. W. O. Victor is also 

 assisting in the work at present, and many others 

 have aided by speaking or writing to different 

 members of the legislature. 



The appropriation is asked for by Prof. G. W. 

 Herrick, State Entomologist at A. and M. Col- 

 lege, in whose control the Texas foul-brood law 

 rests. He asks, in addition to the appropiiations 

 for his department, $5000 for two years, or $2500 

 a year, to be used for the salary of a chief inspec- 

 tor and other expenses. "1 his is inadequate, but 

 it was deemed best not to ask too much and get 

 nothing. As the territory in Texas is so great it 

 requires a good deal more money than in other 

 States 



Later — The Senate Finance Committee has 

 passed favorably upon the appropriation, allow- 

 ing the sum of $3000 for the first and $2000 for 

 the second year, to be used for the suppression of 

 foul brood. The House committee has promis- 

 ed to pa'.s favorably upon it as presented by the 

 former, and we are now quite certain about get- 

 ting the money so badly needed. It becomes 

 available on Sept. 1. Some inspection work is 

 being done at present out of funds set aside for 

 this purpose at A. and M. College, and it is hoped 

 that this work (an be kept up until the regular 

 approp iation can be used. 



GLEANINGS FROM OUR 

 EXCHANGES 



By W. K. Morrison, Mefina, O. 



ALFALFA IN ROWS. 



Growing alfalfa in rows is nothing new. As 

 long ago as 1795, in a work published in Wil- 

 mington, Del., a Mr. John Spurrier advocated 

 growing it in rows. The Spaniards often plant 

 it so with good results. They also plant grass 

 in that manner, and immediately after cutting it 

 they hoe in between the rows. The effect is ex- 

 cellent, and they get great crops of grass such as 

 are seldom or never seen on an American farm. 



■^ 

 In answer to Mr. J. E. Crane, I would say 

 there are many recipes for making honey bread. 

 That sold in New York is probably " raised " 

 by means of ammonia. Making honey bread in 

 Europe is a trade. All the bakers seem to prefer 

 buckwheat honey, though with us sage and tu- 

 pelo would be even better. In this country 

 baking-powder would probably answer the re- 

 quirements. Honey bread is very light, and is 

 considered excellent for invalids and persons of 

 weak digestion. The new ABC has a recipe. 



4?- 



RATS VS. BEES. 



In some places rats are very troublesome to 

 bee-keepers. A friend of mine recently lost $500 

 worth of bee-supplies by rats gnawing into the 

 crates. They destroyed all his extra hive-bodies, 

 sections, frames, and fences. They like honey 

 and gnaw at beeswax. In the West Indies they 

 are held in check by the mongoose, which is a 

 kind of ferret. Some have proclaimed the mon- 

 goose a nuisance, but the editor of the Journal of 

 the Agricultural Society of Jamaica comes to its 

 defense in this wise: 



Mongoose. — We have often written that there is no plague 

 of mongoose and never has been. It isauseful animal, and keeps 

 rats in check; but it has been without reason blamed for almost 

 every evil in Jamaica. If hens' eggs are scarce, it is the mon- 

 goose to blame; if pigeons are scarce, through a bad breeding 

 season or over-shooting, it is the mongoose; because quails have 

 been shot out for lack of preserving, it is the mongoose that is 

 blamed. As a matter of fact, we are just as scarce of flying birds 

 which seldom venture on the ground as we are of ground birds; 

 and wherever lands have been shut up and no shooting allowed, 

 there are plenty of quails and pigeons. Great Britain swarms 

 with game, even though it is thickly peopled, and weasels and 

 stoats abound — at any rate, are just as plentiful as mongoose are 

 here. The estates here that boast of trapping hundreds of mon- 

 goose a year will, within a short time, require to fight plagues of 

 rats, use poisons by the hundredweight, traps by the score, and 

 spend several hundred dollars a year. 



Really the mongoose is a friend of the birds 

 because it can not climb the smallest tree, but it 

 does kill rats that climb the tallest trees and 

 wage incessant war on the birds by eating their 

 eggs and young. Rats are dreaded by pineapple- 

 growers and cacao-planters. They propagate 

 with great rapidity in some tropical countries. 

 They carry the virus of the bubonic plague so 

 that the mongoose is a public benefactor. 



<?!- 

 NEW LANDS EXPOSITION. 



The Chicago Tribune will have charge of an 

 exposition devoted to the subject of our ne-v 

 lands, the intrntion being to s ow what crops 

 a'C raisvd on them. Tnis will be an eye-opener 



