AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 495 



dew has appeared this season. I feel anxious to learn in what localities in this 

 country it has been most abundant, and where it has appeared in any form. 



Pkevention of Swarming. — I think Dr. Miller's query, " Why not leave a hole 

 for the drones to get out without any ' escape ?' in that plan of W. C. Lyman's," is 

 well put. I should say, why not ? 



In practicing my plan to prevent swarming — whicli consists in the simple 

 manipulation of raising the brood above the zinc excluder, and starting the queen 

 afresh below — I make a hole in the upper story for the drones to escape from the 

 upper story, as they cannot pass out at the entrance because the excluder is between. 



In my experience of five years, I have never had a young queen mated above 

 the excluder. The reason why young queens do not mate above the queen-excluder, 

 is because, in my practice, I use plain sheets of perforated zinc strung taut in wood 

 frames, and while the excluder effectively excludes, it ventilates so thoroughly that 

 the two departments of the hive are practically one, and therefore the bees will not 

 permit a young queen to mate unless they are ready to supersede the old queen. If 

 wood and zinc honey-boards are used, they practically divide the hive into two de- 

 partments, and the young queen may be permitted to mate from the flight hole made 

 for the drones in the upper story. 



Water for Bees. — In all my experience I have never seen bees make such a 

 scramble for water as they have since the middle of July. So many of my bees 

 have been drowned and otherwise killed about the watering-places, that it has told 

 visibly upon their normal strength. Putting out water for them proved no remedy 

 whatever. 



Bee-Paralysis. — I have not seen a sign of bee-paralysis among my bees this 

 hot summer. There were no blooming plants to secrete opiated nectar, to produce 

 the trouble. Christiansburg, Ky., Oct. 1. 



VAI^UE OF B£BS XO BI.OSSOMS. 



BY W. H. MORSE. 



Almost all bee-keepers are aware of the great value the honey-bees are in the 

 economy of nature, but the general public, and even the agriculturists, in many 

 cases, are sadly Ignorant on this point. In fact, some plants are so constructed 

 that without the aid of the bees and other insects of its class, the plants in time 

 would cease to exist, because not being able to reproduce their species, the old 

 plants would die, and, no seed being produced, the result would be extinction of the 

 class. As all vegetation has a limit to its age, and no matter how we may propa- 

 gate, we only extend the growth of the individual unless we start with the seed, 

 which will give us a plant endowed with the vitality of the parent. 



Again, there are varieties of fruit-trees which our California friends well know 

 that are barren of fruit, owing to some defectiveness in the pollen becoming ripe 

 previous to the stigma, or vice versa ; or, as I am inclined to think, through a dis- 

 ease in the pollen. But be that as it may, the bees will overcome that difficulty, as 

 we all know who have given the subject careful thought. 



For instance, suppose we have any fruit-tree which blooms but fails to set a 

 crop of fruit. In such a case, if the trouble is in the pollen, which it generally is, 

 the bees visit a healthy tree and load up with pollen, and then carry the healthy 

 pollen to the tree which has the diseased pollen, and the result is a healthy set of 

 fruit, and in all cases it benefits the fruit. And if the honey-bee and other insects 



