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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 3. 



queen and drones as well, is a secretion from the lower- 

 faead glands. Experiments which I tried some years ago 

 prove conclusively that this food of the larvae, etc., is digested 

 pollen, and it Is most reasonable to conclude that the lower- 

 head glands furnish the digestive ferment that acts upon this 

 pollen, converting it into the royal jelly and nitrogenous food 

 which is fed to the larvse, and no doubt to the queen and 

 drones. 



I took a colony composed almost wholly of nurse-bees, re- 

 moved all honey from the hive, and fed them syrup mixed 

 with finely-pulverized charcoal. I removed the queen and 

 gave them frames of eggs. In two or three days it was easy 

 to find this charcoal in the royal jelly in the food fed to the 

 larvae. We all know that charcoal is not capable of being 

 absorbed — it is entirely insoluble in the body liquid. This 

 proves conclusively that were the royal jelly, etc., a secre- 

 tion, instead of digested material, the charcoal could not be 

 found in the food of the larval bees. 



Poisonous Honey. — In a recent number of one of the 

 bee-papers I find that I am spoken of as dogmatic because I 

 wrote something like the following: It is well known that in 

 many regions where the mountain laurel grows abundantly, 

 and where the flowers are visited freely by the bees, there is 

 never any complaint of poisoned honey. (I quote from mem- 

 ory.) I did not mean in writing this to say that there were 

 no cases of poisoning by such honey ; I simply meant that 

 there was no report in those localities. I got my information 

 not only from frequent communications in the bee-papers, but 

 also from quite an extended correspondence from people in 

 such regions. I do not say that such honey is never poison- 

 ous. I simply gave reasons which seemed to me to leave the 

 in .tter in doubt, and left for others to decide in yiew of the 

 facts. 



Good Honey County. — It is probable that San Diego, 

 the southernmost county of California, is one of the most 

 wonderful honey regions of the world. It is reported that 58 

 carloads of honey were shipped from that county in 1895. 



Rainfall in California. — As is well known. Southern 

 California has produced almost no honey during the season of 

 1896. It seems a pretty well settled fact that unless the 

 rainfall equals 15 inches, there will be a very slight honey 

 crop. The rainfall in 1895 and 1896 at Claremont was 

 hardly more than 10 inches. During the past week we have 

 tad an astonishing rainfall, which is the more of a surprise as 

 ■It has come before the rainy season usually sets in at all. The 

 Government rain-gate at Claremont registered over five inches, 

 •or half the entire amount of last year. " Old Baldy," a high 

 mountain, which is plainly in sight, and only a few miles from 

 ■our place. Is capped with snow. This makes the prospect of a 

 large rainfall this season very flattering. Thus it is that the 

 farmers, no less the bee-keepers, are feeling very happy. 



Honey Crop of 1897. — The prospects for a good honey 

 crop in 1897 make it all the more desirable that all our Cali- 

 fornia bee-keepers make frequent and thorough examination 

 of their bees to see that all have plenty of honey. The fact of 

 the present honey-drouth makes it almost certain that many 

 bees will starve unless special pains are taken to give them 

 additional stores. 



A Senseless Attack. — I have been specially pained of 

 late to notice a bitter attack upon one of California's honor- 

 able and most honored apiarists. The victim in this case is 

 Mr. George W. Brodbeck, of Los Angeles. It is well known 

 to all California bee-keepers that Mr. Brodbeck is not only a 

 man of most thorough integrity, but that he is also v.'jry un- 

 selfish, and devoted to the interests of California apiculture. It 

 is doubtful if any California bee-keeper has done more for our 

 bee-keepers than has Mr. Brodbeck. He is not only a Chris- 

 tian gentleman, hut he is always courteous and interested in 

 every good word and work. Any such attack would make no 

 impression at all where Mr. Brodbeck is at all known. 



Amiable Bees. — The fact of the large and numerous 

 orchards of Southern California, together with the fact that 

 pollination by bees is often essential to a full crop of fruit, 

 makes it almost certain that very soon fruit-growers will very 

 generally be bee-keepers as well. This makes it very desir- 

 able that the bees of California should be very amiable — those 

 not likely to sting. Would it not be well then for our enter- 

 prising breeders of queens to introduce into Southern "alifor- 

 oia the very quiet Carniolan bees ? At present the bees of 

 Southern California are very largely blacks or hybrids. Such 



bees are proverbially cross. Only last week we read in the 

 papers of a horse being killed by being stung by bees. I be- 

 lieve our bee-keepers should consider the matter of the intro- 

 duction into our State of the most amiable races. 



Claremont, Calif. 



A Paradise for the Houey-Bee. 



dan h. hillman. 



The bee-papers contain an occasional article from Utah, 

 but as yet I have failed to see Ashley Valley mentioned. Per- 

 haps but few if any of the readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal ever heard of this valley, and, even if they have, they did 

 not know that it was a paradise for the little honey-bee and 

 the apiarist. 



Ashley Valley proper is about 20 miles long by 10 wide, 

 is situated in the northeastern part of Utah, 120 miles north 

 of the nearest station on the Rio Grande Western railroad, 

 and 100 miles south of the Union Pacific, with but few 

 ranches between, and has a population of about 4,000. 



Stock-raising being the main industry of the country, of 

 course hay is the principal crop, and thousands of acres are 

 seeded to alfalfa, or lucern, which yields two and three crops 

 of hay each season, besides affording good pasture during the 

 forepart of the winter. In the Rocky Mountains alfalfa is 

 allowed to bloom profusely before each cutting, and as it is a 

 valued honey-plant, bee-keepers can readily see why Ashley 

 Valley is a paradise for the honey-bee and the apiarist. 



Besides alfalfa, we have an abundance of sweet clover 

 growiiig along the irrigating ditches and roadsides, but the 

 bees do not work on it as they are reported in other parts of 

 the country, and it is but seldom that stock feed on it here. 



We also have the Rocky Mountain bee-plant, which, in my 

 estimation, is equal to alfalfa as a honey-plant where it grows 

 in abundance. The bees gather nectar from various other 

 plants and shrubs of smaller note. 



According to the bee-Inspector's report for 1895, there 

 were over 2,400 colonies of bees in the valley — principally 

 hybrids — and up to date there has never been a case of foul 

 brood. The one drawback to the honey-industry here is a 

 market. Being cut off from the outside world by mounta,ins 

 and bad lands, our market is not as extensive as it might be, 

 and our surplus is hauled by team over rough mountain roads 

 to the mining camps of Colorado, from 100 to 300 miles dis- 

 tant, where it brings the small price of from 10 to 15 cents 

 per pound. Honey is a staple article in this valley, and a 

 large quantity is used yearly in canning and preserving fruit 

 — more than it would be, I fancy, were it not for the fact that 

 sugar sells at 10 pounds for a dollar. However, with the 

 opening of the Uncompahgre and Uinta reservations — located 

 in this county and adjoining the valley on the south and west, 

 on which there are homes for as many people as there are in 

 the State of Utah to-day — there will be a good market for 

 more honey than this valley will produce. It is true there are 

 several hundred Indians and two regiments of colored soldiers 

 on the reservation, but as a rule the Indians do not use a 

 great deal of honey. One beggar, when given a "hunk "of 

 bread with two " hunks " of honey on it, said : " Make heap 

 sick. Ute likeum little much honey." 



We have had a fair crop of honey this season, although 

 not up to the standard on account of the heavy rainstorms. 

 This seems to be a favored clime for the apiarist on account 

 of the extensive bee-foliage and the mild winters. Bees win- 

 ter on the summer stands without any extra protection what- 

 ever, and with but little or no loss. Those bee-keepers who 

 are seeking " greener fields and pastures new " would do well 

 to cast their optics in this direction as soon as the reservations 

 are opened for settlement, and we get a railroad, all of which 

 we look for within the next two years. 



Uinta Co., Utah. 



A Reply to Mr. Newman's Criticism on the New 

 Constitution. 



by db. a. b. mason. 



Friend York: — Our friend, Mr. Thomas G. Newman, 

 has kindly sent me a copy of what he calls "Criticism on the 

 Constitution ;" and in a letter with which it was enclosed he 

 says he has mailed copies "to all the bee-papers, and a lively 

 discussion should be the result if they publish it." I have no 

 doubt they will publish it, and perhaps a lively discussion of 

 his criticism "will be the result." — [We published it op page' 

 742.— Editor.] 

 His criticism is addressed, "To the Officers and Members of 



