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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 18 1900 



orado ; also the honey from the second crop of alfalfa is 

 darker than the first crop g^athered when it is cooler. But 

 Mr. Hatch argues that if the difference in color were due to 

 temperature, then a very hot spell should darken the honey, 

 whereas in the same field the color is the same regardless 

 of temperature. He asks the pertinent question whether 

 white clover honey is darker in Kentucky than in Minne- 

 sota, or whether horseraint honey is darker in Texas than 

 in Wisconsin. The darker color he attributes to mixture. 

 The bees work at the same time on flowers that yield darker 

 honey, so the second crop of alfalfa has in it enough honey 

 from darker sources to color it. 



A Boy for Bees to Cluster On is the story told in the 

 Austrian-Hungarian Bee Journal. A bare-headed 10-year- 

 old boy stood near by as a swarm issued. After circling 

 about for a short time, the swarm began to settle on the 

 head of the boy. The father took in the situation at a 

 g-lance, and called to the boy, who had often watcht the 

 operation of hiving a swarm: "Don't stir, Hans; shut 

 your mouth and eyes, and I'll hive the swarm in a jiff)'.'' 

 The boy obeyed ; the father drencht with water the bees 

 that envelopt the boy's head, which he bent forward while 

 he gently brusht the bees into a straw skep held beneath. 

 Not a sting did the bov receive. 



Developing Short-Tubed Red Clover Editor Root 



has been advocating the production of a strain of red clover 

 ■with corolla-tube.s so short that ordinary bees can get the 

 aiectar out of them. E. E. Hasty, a few years ago, made 

 some effort in that direction, and tells something about the 

 work in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. What he says is not 

 extremely encouraging, but valuable in directing any one 

 who may desire to take up the work. On the whole it may 

 be easier to fit the bees to common red clover than to fit the 

 clover to the bees. Mr. Hasty says in part : 



And what can I tell the new volunteers which will be to 

 their profit ? Perhaps not very much. I'll advise them to 

 keep distinct in their minds the three kinds of work to be 

 done. Call them, if you please, A work and B work and C 

 work. The A of it is to go into the fields and select short- 

 tubed clovers. Better take plenty of time and do lots of 

 this, as this is likely to be the most encouraging part of it 

 (perhaps all the encouragement you'll get). Field clovers 

 vary greatly — vary in the line of being lots of long-tubed 

 •ones and lots of short-tubed ones, and also vary in the line 

 of their being few and rare specimens, which can be found 

 by long hunting, much more hopeful than the easy-found 

 ones. 



Work B is the slow and tedious work of raising seed- 

 lings year after year, and keeping them from backsliding, 

 as they will probably disgust you by doing, and slowly, 

 with careful selection, getting a little shorter and shorter 

 a.s the years go by. It was this work that tired me out. It 

 is going to take a great many years. Five years, or ten, 

 ■will be only a '■ circumstance " in it. 



Work C is a sort of diamond-hunting work. Most plants, 

 besides their capacity for gradual change, show from time 

 to time sudden and great changes in a particular seedling 

 or a particular bud. These almost startling manifestations 

 are called " sports." If the desired bee-clover arrives dur- 

 ing the present generation it will be by finding and render- 

 ing permanent one of these sports. During the years I was 

 in the work I found two sports, or plants, which I called 

 such. One of them I lost my grip of so completely that I 

 have nothing to show for it — couldn't be sure that it would 

 •ever have filled the bill anyway. The other one seemed to 

 be pretty much all one could ask, gained at one leap — but 

 with one lamentable shortcoming. It was about as near to 

 being i<;cr//6'ii as a plant could be without being absolutely 

 so. I never had a dozen seeds at one time. 



There is also a sport which frequently appears in red 

 clover, having white seeds and pure-white blossoms. I 

 made easy progress in breeding this down to a fixt variety ; 

 but had I kept on to completion it would have been of the 

 same use as stripes around our bees' tails, no use at all — 

 tubes no shorter than ordinarj' reds. 



But in fussing with the white sports I think I made a 



discovery which perhaps ought to be understood and con- 

 sidered by all those who work in such work as this. It is, 

 that progress tends not to go on regularly with each gen- 

 eration, but by regular altertiation of generations. A little 

 hard to describe this so a reader will catch on readily. 

 Say you are trying to get a white variety from a white 

 sport. First generation you raise 100 seedlings, and say 3 

 of them are white and 97 backslidden and red. (Think you 

 have got a tough job before you.) Second generation, 100 

 seedlings pan out SO white and only 50 backsliders. (Think 

 you are getting on swimmingly.) Third generation you 

 find IS white to 8S backsliders. (Half inclined to give the 

 thing up as impossible.) Fourth generation, however, pans 

 out SS white to 45 reds. And so it goes on, with regular 

 oscillation back and forth with each g^eneration, but on the 

 whole manifestly getting ahead. I have come to feel that 

 something like this afi^ects nearly all work of the kind with 

 seedlings. 



Convention Proceedings. \ 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicago, 111., 



Aug-. 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



By DR. A. B. MASON, SBC. 



Coiitiuued from pa^'e (i4(i.) 



We have the question-box, of which Mr. R. L. Taylor 

 has charge, and will introduce it now. 



Mr. Taylor — Any one who desires to disagree or to 

 make any remark will have the privilege. 



Cues. — Are the best imported Italian bees superior to 

 home-bred Italians for honey-gathering ? Are the best 

 American -Italian bees superior to imported stock for honey- 

 gathering ? 



Mr. Taylor — No. Don't be afraid of offending me, if 

 you have anything to say. 



QuES. — What does the cocoon of a larva look like ? 



Mr. Taylor — It is a very fine, gauzy substance, shape 

 of the cell. If you can get hold of it properly you can pull 

 it out and it will retain its shape ; it is a very fine, semi- 

 transparent substance. 



OuES. — Can not larvie be transferred to cups with a 

 quill tooth-pick successfully ? 



Mr. Taylor — I don't know how they transfer them. I 

 never tried to transfer them ; perhaps some one here has 

 done it, but I should not think a tooth-pick would be apt to 

 get the cocoons out in good shape. 



W. J. Lawrence — I have transferred a good many larva* 

 with a quill, not a tooth-pick. The quill is formed some- 

 thing like a tooth-pick, a little bit duller, and narrow at the 

 end, perhaps 1 16 or 1-32 of an inch ; bend that over so it 

 comes down about '4 inch ; you can see the larva readily, 

 and put this right under and take it out. 



Mr. Taylor — That is the answer to the question. I 

 think I read this wrong —at least I understood it wrongly. 

 I took it that it was the transferring of the cocoon. The 

 larva can be transferred very readily with a tooth-pick. 



QuKS. — Should the average honey-producer try to rear 

 the bulk of his queens, or would it be better and cheaper for 

 him to buy them when the price is lowest, in dozen lots, of 

 good breeders ? 



Mr. Taylor — Rear your own queens: it doesn't pay to 

 buy them, e.xcept perhaps now and then one for breeding 

 purposes when you know you can get a good one. You can 

 rear just as good queens as you can buy — no question about 

 it. I have bought $6 queens, and queens that my bees have 

 reared under the swarming-impulse were just as good. 



OuES. — Should a large honey-producer engage in raising 

 Belgian hares, poultry or fruit, or some other side line ? 

 If not, why not ? 



Mr. Taylor — He should if he wants to. 



OuES. — Why do bees make honey when dark bees of the 

 same stock make dark honey ? 



Mr. Taylor— Why, they don't. 



Dr. Mason — I don't believe the one who askt the ques- 

 tion askt it as he wisht to have it askt. I presume it is the 

 same one who askt me this morning. Why is it that one 



