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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in California 



p. C. Chadwiok, Redlands, Cal. 



I believe much of my failure in direct 

 introduction was due to the trouble I was 

 having with robbers at the time. When a 

 hive is opened long enough to allow the 

 robbers to get in, there is going to be some 

 trouble, and that trouble will fall on a 

 strange queen as quickly as on a strange 

 worker. • • » 



In the November issue of the American 

 Bee Journal I notice that Mr. C. I. Graham 

 was convicted in Nevada for violating the 

 foul-brood laws and scattering the disease. 

 This gentleman, I believe, is the same per- 

 son who scattered disease in many parts of 

 this State, and was prosecuted once that 1 

 have knowledge of, being convicted and 

 fined the sum of fifty dollars. 

 » * * 



November has laid the foundation for our 

 next year's honey crop, heavy rains having 

 fallen over the entire State — nearly three 

 inches for the month so far, and I believe 

 that is a fair average over the State. An 

 abundance of filaree has already started ; in 

 fact, the whole earth is becoming a sward. 

 Such a heavy rain at this time in the season 

 is sure to be a lasting benefit, and an insui-- 

 ance of early bloom for spring breeding. 

 There is a general feeling of encouragement, 

 as well as belief that we have received only 

 a little of our winter's moisture. 

 * * * 



Dr. Miller, I am not sure that the food 1 

 eat has no effect on the color of my blood. 

 Any way, I have heard of " blue-blooded " 

 Yankees and " red-blooded " Southerners. 

 Are you sure that it was the soil that made 

 the difference in the color of your apples? 

 At the present time I am laboring under the 

 impression that a plant, its nectar or its 

 fruit, does not acquire its color from the 

 soil but from the air. There is a common 

 belief that all plants come from the soil 

 entirely, when the fact is that only a com- 

 paratively small amount of plant substance 

 is taken from that source. Plant life and 

 growth are for the most part comprised of 

 matter taken from the carbonic acid in the 

 air, and that, according to my knowledge, 

 is the chief source of the solid matter of 

 plants. Through the leaves the carbonic 

 acid is taken from the air, then transformed 

 into carbon, hydrogen, with a little oxygen, 

 by various stages into starches, sugars, etc., 

 the chief mission of the roots being to fur- 

 nish water, nitrogen, sulphur, and phos- 

 phates in solution, which are combined in 

 the plant structure to complete it. Aside 



from the water, which is later almost elim- 

 inated by the other elements taken from the 

 air, the roots furnish only a small portion 

 of the plant structure. The composition of 

 honej' is said to be four-fifths carbohydrates 

 and one fifth water. The water may be taken 

 all or in part from the soil; but the carbo- 

 hydrates are taken mostly if not entirely 

 from the air; hence the conclusion that hon- 

 e}" is for the most part from the air and not 

 the soil. Now, if honey is from the air 

 Ijrincipally, it appeals to my reason that it 

 is the chemical action of the particular 

 plant from which it is produced that colors 

 the nectar. Conditions being largely the 

 same in the plant food of the air, I fail to 

 see where the difference in the soil on this 

 or the other side of the fence would affect 

 the color of the nectar, for that, so to speak, 

 illustrates the change of soils in some local- 

 ities. 



Here in my own city there are two kinds 

 of soil divided abruptly by a low ridge not 

 originally more than fifteen feet high. On 

 one side of the town is a long slope of red 

 decomposed gTanite soil, and on the other 

 a sandy gravel soil, evidently made by the 

 deposits of the Santa Ana River from years 

 and perhaps centuries of overflows. Every 

 plant has its peculiar methods of manufac- 

 turing the elements it gathers into the parts 

 that constitute its life substance; and if it 

 should deviate from that process it would 

 cease to be the same plant. If the coloring 

 matter of honey is taken up by the roots 

 promiscuously, as some seem to believe, it 

 may vary in color; but if formed by the 

 action of the plant's own little manufactur- 

 ing establishment, as I believe it is, from 

 elements derived principally from the air, 

 then I see no hopes for those who claim the 

 soil makes the change. I do not believe the 

 soil changes the color of your apples, doctor. 

 The influence of the sun and light may be 

 the cause, for sunlight is the deciding ele- 

 ment in the coloring of plant life; and no 

 color can be produced in them without its 

 influence. Look at the colorless apples on 

 the inrer branches of your trees that ha' e 

 had no sunlight, and have received only that 

 portion of the air that has been drained of 

 the carbonic acid by the outer leaves. It 

 may be that the elements taken up by the 

 roots, combined with those collected by the 

 leaves, have the deciding action in coloiing 

 (he nectar and fruit. On that point I am 

 not fully decided, and am open to convic- 

 tion. The above, however, is my opinion at 

 the present time. 



