566 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 6, 1900. 



rearing- queeus. A few, half-starved bees will not rear good 

 queens. Large colonies of bees should be used in cell- 

 building, and the bees should be put in condition for such 

 work several days before they are set to cell-building, by 

 feeding, unless there is a natural flow of nectar. 



One more point I wish to touch upon : A man ordered 

 a queen from me, but before I could fill the order, in fact, 

 the next mail, brought a countermand. The man said that 

 he wanted the queen for a colony that had swarmed. But 

 after he ordered the queen some one had said in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal that " he did not approve of requeening at 

 such a time !"' Is it better to have colonies queenless than 

 to have them all supplied with queens? The g-ood bee- 

 keeper will never permit a colonj- to go queenless any 

 longer than is actually necessary. No queenless colo- 

 nies are allowed in my yard over three days at any one 

 time. I have always made it a point in cases of swarming 

 to remove the queen-cells and introduce a queen three days 

 after the swarm issued. 'Tis the only proper way to man- 

 ag-e an apiary. 



Queenless colonies are like lame horses standing in a 

 stable — you have the horses, but what are they worth for 

 any practical use ? Keep all colonies supplied with g-ood 

 queens, then your apiary is always in condition for busi- 

 ness. 



A Review of Bee-Books—" Lang-stroth Revised." 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 

 (Continued from pa^e 550.i 



I WAS pleased to read on pag-e 18, as follows : " A g-lance 

 at these figures is enoug-h to convince an)' intelligent 



horticulturist of the truth of Aristotle's remark, made 

 more than two thousand years ago, that bees hurt no kind 

 of sound fruit, but wasps and hornets are very destructive 

 to them." Strange that a truth promulgated so long ago 

 should have failed to win credence even in our day. 



On page 27, in discussing the digestion, in the second 

 and third paragraphs, it is evident that the recent views of 

 digestion are not well understood. It is doubtful if it is 

 wise to use the words chyme and chyle at all in discussing 

 this subject. Again, on the next page, the Malpighian 

 tubes are referred to as glands. True, in the past they have 

 been thought to act as hepatic organs, but now we are 

 pretty certain that they are renal in their function. 



In speaking of the heart, on page 30, Cheshire is quoted 

 as stating that the blood soaks thru the bodj-. Surely, this 

 is a very strange and misleading expression. 



On pages 61 and 62, Mr. Root is quoted favorably as ex- 

 pressing the view that smaller cells promote the fecunda- 

 tion in the egg-laying of the queen. Mr. Dadant further 

 adds that he believes the queen finds itpleasanter to lay the 

 impregnated egg, and so generally deposits worker-eggs. 

 I doubt both these propositions. I have often seen worker- 

 eggs in cells too shallow to compass the abdomen, and I be- 

 lieve the queen works intelligently, and lays the eggs to 

 suit the needs of the colony. I believe this is much more 

 in harmony with the animal economy generally. 



On page 63 the well-proved fact is given that chilling 

 the queen will often result in producing a drone-layer. This 

 is further proof that drones come from unimpregnated eggs. 



In speaking of aphid honey-dew, the author states that 

 the bees prefer the "true honey-dew or exudation of the 

 leaves, and adds that he has seen them gathering both from 

 the same trees at the same time. This is on page 117. I 

 am sure that bees prefer nothing to some aphid honey-dew, 

 and wisely, too. as the nectar is often very excellent. I am 

 very skeptical regarding this honey-dew from the leaves — 

 Mr. Dadant's " true honey-dew." I am seeking hard, but 

 vainly, in its pursuit. 



It is strange that Mr. Dadant objects to clipping the 

 wings of the queen. Tho I believe Mr. Heddon was, or is, 

 likeminded. Mr. Dadant, as a producer of extracted honey, 

 and as one who uses very large hives, may have so little 

 swarming that this may color his opinions and practice. 



_ On page 284, it is stated that when the Italians are 

 irritated they are very cross. I have not noticed that this 

 was more true of them than of others. I prefer the Ital- 

 ians to any bees that I ever handled, on the score of amia- 

 bility, every time. 



On page 384. viper's bugloss, Echium vulgare, is clast 

 with Canada thistle as a plant hard to get rid of. I do not 

 think that this is true. I have not so observed. 



Mr. Dadant, on page 406, gives .50 pounds of honey as 

 the average per colony per year. This is founded on an ex- 



perience of 20 years. Surely, this is very valuable experi- 

 ence. 



On page 413, the practice of "reversing" is discour- 

 aged. The danger of leaking of honey and of taking too 

 much out is emphasized. It is stated that the practice is 

 abandoned in France, where it was formerly in vogue. 



Mr. Dadant is a strong advocate of the production of 

 extracted honey, and gives his reasons in his usual vigor- 

 ous style, on page 431. Every bee-keeper should read 

 the pages and study the reasons. He also prefers half- 

 frames for extracting. It is to be remembered that he uses 

 very large brood-frames. 



I think that Mr. Dadant would hardly say now, as he 

 does on page 443, that the automatic reversing extractor 

 " ha^not been sufficiently tried to be proclaimed decidedly 

 superior." 



The bee-moth is referred to on page 4S8 as Tinea mello- 

 nella. It has long been known to science as Galleria 

 mellonella. The clothes moths, of which there are several 

 species, belong to the genus Tinea. These belong to a dif- 

 ferent family, even from that of the bee-moth. 



The idea given on page 475, that bees are swallowed so 

 quickly by toad and bird that they do not thrust out their 

 stings, is certainly not true of the toad, as I have found the 

 stings of the bees swallowed as many as five at once in the 

 throat of the toad that did the swallowing. I doubt if it is 

 true of the kingbird. Who will be the first one to find out 

 the exact truth in this last case? 



Mr. Dadant expresses the opinion, on page 481, that it 

 is cold air that causes extracted honey to granulate. We 

 know of a certainty that cold favors granulation. The fact 

 that sealed liquid honey and comb honey is so slow to granu- 

 late would lend favor to the statement. We know that 

 honey is made up of two kinds of sugar — dextrose and 

 levulose. The first is quick to crystallize, while the latter 

 is very slow to do so. I presume that the varying amounts 

 of these two kinds of sugars will often explain the differ- 

 ences that we may observe in the granulation of honey. 



The author, on page 482, discusses coarse and fine 

 granulation. He thinks that the kind of granulation or 

 size of crystals is due to the kind of honey. Is it not true 

 here, as it is in all crystallization, that slowly formed crys- 

 tals are large, while those that form quickly are small ? 

 Would it not be true, then, that cold weather, or a prepon- 

 derance of dextrose in the honey, would favor fine granula- 

 tion ? Mr. Dadant adds that in France the fine granulated 

 honey is held in higher esteem, and he thinks with reason, 

 as he says that it keeps better. 



In closing this review of this admirable work, I wish 

 again to apologize for the criticisms. The points criticized 

 are mosly of small importance, and the errors, if such they 

 be, are of no great import, and many of them are such as 

 would easily creep into any such work. I feel assured that 

 the bee-keeper can not read too widely of the matters ob- 

 taining to his business. I can heartily recommend that 

 among the books which he should prize for his study, may 

 well be found "Dadant's Langstroth." Certainly, all 

 those who are to engage in the production of extracted 

 honey, in the manufacture of comb foundation, or in the 

 cleansing of beeswax, will find this work invaluable. 



I feel persuaded that for the average bee-keeper in the 

 United States no hive will serve better, all points consid- 

 ered, than the Langstroth, yet it is quite possible that for 

 those who are to engage exclusively or largely in producing 

 extracted honey, a larger hive and frame may have merits 

 worthy of consideration. I believe every bee-keeper would 

 profit by a thoro reading of the arguments which Mr. 

 Dadant gives in favor of such hives. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Shall We Work for Long'-Tong-ued Bees or Short- 

 Tubed Red Clover? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



THERE is no good reason why work should not be pusht 

 with vigor in both directions. Suppose it should take 

 ten years to secure the necessary increase in the length 

 of tongue to work on ordinary red clover. It is probable 

 that half that increase of length could be secured in much 

 less than half the time necessary to secure the full length, 

 for it is the extreme that costs effort. Probabh' in the first 

 year could be gained as much as in the succeeding nine 

 years, or, in other words, if the desired length could be ob- 

 tained in ten years, half that length could be obtained 

 in one year. Suppose, also, that ten years should be 

 necessary to secure red-clover tubes sufficiently shortened 



