THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



In reading Mr. Pringle's article on 

 page 73, 1 was not a little pleased to 

 tind that his experience was so nearly 

 like mine during the lirst three years. 

 I commenced on the improved plan, 

 took a bee-paper, and read many 

 books on the subject, but my bees for 

 three years were dead in ttie spring. 

 During the last of the three winters, 

 when I thought of my bees, it was 

 with satisfaction that I contemplated 

 their comfortable situation for I haft 

 packed them according to the most 

 approved plan ; but, lo 1 when spring 

 came they were all dead except one 

 colony, and that was worthless. To 

 say I was disgusted, would not begin 

 to express my feelings. I then went 

 to work with a perfect contempt for 

 everybody's methods, and "made hives 

 such as I thought the bees needed, 

 and I can say ttiat I have not lost a 

 good colony in them, that I was not 

 satisfied luul starved. 



Sherman ,x> Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Pollen Theory. 



16— DK. A. B. MASON. 



I would like to add my " say " to that of 

 Mr. Coriieil's, on paje .55, that "The pol- 

 len theory must go," but my " must go" is 

 a little (litt'erent from his. I say that I be- 

 lieve it " must go" into more general use 

 if the heavy losses from which bee-keep- 

 ers are now sutferiiig in wintering bees, 

 are to be avoided. There are but few who 

 practice wintering bees without pollen, 

 that say aiijthius; about it in writing for 

 the bee-periO(iic.als. 



This makes the sixth winter that I have 

 wintered my bees on this plan, and with 

 uninterrupted success. So tar as I Ijnow,. 

 1 was the first to try this plan, but I claim 

 no honor for it, as it was not original with 

 me. In the Bee Journal for June, 1879 

 (page 277), 1 saw what seemed so reason- 

 able a statement of the case, by that thor- 

 oughly scientific man, Mr. Frank R. Che- 

 shire, that I had read but a few lines of 

 the article referred to, before I saw the 

 "pollen theory ;" not " in all its glory," 

 but the statement in the first 13 lines were 

 just what 1 had learned 3.5 years before, in 

 regard to nitrogenous or tissue-forming, 

 and uou-nitroKenous or heat-producing 

 foods. I had heard these terms often re- 

 peated during the winter of 18.57-58 by the 

 the professors in the Medical Department 

 of the University of Michigan, and Mr. 

 Cheshire's article seemed to tell just how 

 to prepare bees so they could be wintered 

 without loss. I put the theory (shall I call 

 it " theory ?") in practice with part of my 

 colonies during the next winter, and it 

 was a perfect success, and it has been 

 during every winter since. Each winter I 

 try some colonies with pollen so placed 

 that they are very sure to eat at feast some 

 of it, and sometimes they fiave the diar- 

 rhea, and sometimes they do not. Some 

 of my colonies tliat had ijolien during tfie 

 past winter, showed signs of diarrhea, but 

 tliose witiioutpolfen are in splendid con- 

 dition. On Feb. 14, 1 cleaned the dead 

 bees from all the hives and swept up all 

 from the floor (I always winter them in 

 the cellar), and they would not measure 

 to exceed ten quarts to 100 colonies. On 

 March 0, I examined them again, and 

 there was a still smaller proportion of 

 fi p 3.fi h p p *? 



If Mr. Heddon and Prof. Cook (and 

 where can we find better authority on 

 this subject ?) do say " that bees can win- 

 ter vvell with (ilenty of pollen in the hive, 

 if all other conditions are right," it does 



not follow "that we have a direct admis- 

 sion from the author of the iiolleu theory 

 that it is not correct." The assertion by 

 Mr. Pond, that "this, of course, etuis ffie 

 controversy, and bids farewell to the sub- 

 ject," does not end it by any means ; and 

 it wont "rest" even it Mr. lleddon does 

 say, " let it rest with future experiments." 



" Our wintering troubles " are the great 

 "drawbacks" to bee-keeping, and feel- 

 ing very nuicli interested in tfie matter, I 

 i-ead witli great interest all I see on tlio 

 subject iu the bee-pajiers, and when read- 

 ing some of tlie articles,! have repeated 

 the old saying, " iu)ue so blind as those 

 that won't see." All kin<is of causes are 

 given as the cause of loss, such as cold, 

 confinement, cold aiul confinement, mois- 

 ture, too much ventilation, not enough 

 ventilation, brood-rearing, not hibernat- 

 ing, bad lioney, starvation, etc., hut the 

 most that perish liave the "diarrhea." 



For several days I huve been spendiui; 

 a good share of the time in looking over 

 the back volumes of the Bee Journal to 

 see when and by whom (he pollen theory 

 was first advanced, and who have given in 

 "their testimony " on its side, and 1 am 

 surprised at the amount of such testimony. 

 Should all such as are practicing the 

 theory, and those who believe in it, give 

 in their "vote," 1 am not sure but Mr. 

 Pond, and in fact all of those who are for 

 no pollen in winter, woidd be completely 

 surprised at the throng of intelligent bee- 

 keepers who have accepted the pollen 

 theory as the preventive of such heavy 

 losses in winter as are now so prevalent. 



It seems to me that the opponents of 

 the "theory" do not understand it. Nearly, 

 if not quite all tlie evideiice which tliey 

 bring forward, is simply to prove that col- 

 onies do winter well with plenty of pollen 

 in the hive, haviuK but little or even no 

 diarrhea. Why, we all know that ! But 

 are they sui-e that when colonies are put 

 away for winter with a gooil supply of it, 

 that they will come out all right iu the 

 spring ? " Aye ! there's the rub !" 



I wintered bees iu Iowa during several 

 severely cold winters, without loss, and I 

 suppose that they had a supply of pollen, 

 but! never lookfdto see. 1 have won- 

 dered how many " pollen men " know the 

 amount and location of pollen iir their 

 hives, or whether there is any at all. I 

 liad several colonies last fall that had but 

 a tew cells of pollen, so few that I did not 

 take the trouble to remove them iu pre- 

 paring them for winter, and some colonies 

 were loaded down with it. Mr. Cornell 

 brings forward the kind of evidence we 

 can all give, that bees do frequently win- 

 ter well without any pollen having been 

 removed from the hives ; but who can tell 

 how nuich pollen was there, or how much 

 was consumed by the bees ? Bring forward 

 the evidence that the "theory" does not 

 hold good iu practice, by proving that bees 

 jsecome decimated when they have no 

 pollen— nothing but pure honey or sugar 

 syrup. Let us have the evidence from 

 such as have honestly, with a desire to 

 get at the truth, tried to winter bees with 

 good honey or sugar syrup and no pollen, 

 and have failed ; and if they have failed 

 let them give all the minutia of prepara- 

 tion, where wintered, and the temperature 

 and condition of the repository, etc. ; and 

 then let us hear from those who have 

 tried and succeeded. It does not seem 

 possible that so much has been said by 

 such piactical bee-keepers as Prof. Cook, 

 Mr. Heddon and others, on this subject, 

 without many trying the plan. 



"A short discussion ensued on the ' pol- 

 len theory,' which received no endorse- 

 ment, ; tfie speaker's being Rev. L. John- 

 sou, Dr. Jesse Oren, C. P. Dadant, C. F. 

 Muth and others," is the report in the Bee 

 Joui;n.\l of what was said of the 

 " theory " at the late International Con- 

 gress at New Orleans. Is that any evi- 

 dence that the "theory " is not correct? 



Are not such men as the Rev. L. L. Langs- 

 troth, Prof. A. J. Cook, and Messrs. Frank 

 K. Cheshire, James ne<ldon, O. M. Doolit- 

 tle and K. L. Taylor theoretically and 

 practically the peers of any in our spe- 

 cialty ? and they ai-eon the side of the pol- 

 len theory ; and I might name others 

 equally well known. 



We know that bees must have nitrog- 

 enous food in order to rear brood, and 

 that strong colonies do sometimes rear a 

 large amount of it in winter without hav- 

 ing the diarrhea; Init is not that easily 

 accounted for ? and i< it not additional 

 evidence, and that of the strongest kind, 

 too, that the theory is correct ? Is it not 

 pretty universaily admitted that bees use 

 pollen or its ecpiivalent, honey or its 

 equivalent, and water-, with which to make 

 the chyme on which the larvEe are fed? 

 Mr. G. M. Doolittle says about four parts 

 pollen, two parts honey, and one part 

 water-. So we see that the bees digest 

 most of the pollen that they use iu rearing 

 brood, and it does not go to over load them 

 with diarrhetic material. 



Since writing tire above, I have received 

 the Bee Jouknal for March 4, and on 

 page 134, I tind the best of testimony on 

 this subject-in fact ttie best I ever saw. 

 In the article by Mr. Doolittle, near the 

 centre of that page, I tind the following : 

 " That the larval bee subsists wholly on 

 this creamy food or chyme, I think no one 

 will deny, and if fronr my observations I 

 am correct, the largest element in this 

 food is pollen. As the larva absorbs this 

 food, the grosser part of tlie pollen forms 

 itself into the yellow streak seen in 

 all larvic when taken out of the comb, but 

 most pfainlv in the droue-larvre, which 

 streak is finally enclosed by the intestines 

 of the newly hatched bee, and evacuated 

 on its first flight." Here is evidence from 

 one of our best experimenters, And it 

 shows just where the undigested pollen 

 goes to. . , , 



Again, on page .5, is another article by 

 the same painstaking experimenter ; and 

 in the first column lie says : " The in- 

 testines of the newly hatched bee are 

 filled with pollen when it emerges from 

 the cell ; in fact, this pollen is easily seen 

 with the naked eye, in the larv?e, before 

 it is sealed over in the cell, and the first 

 thing tliat the young bee desires to do on 

 the first flight (which occurs, where all is 

 favorable, when the young bee is about 

 six days old), is to relieve the abdomen of 

 this pollen mass, which acciuuulated 

 when fire bee was consuming food in the 

 larval state." Here we again see what 

 becomes of the pollen which the old bees 

 use. Farther on iu the same article we 

 find what becomes of the young bees that 

 were supplied with the undigested pollen 

 fed in the larval state. If they had no 

 opportunity for discharging it within a 

 few days, the result was— diarrhea and 

 death. 



But here another thing comes rn : Mr. 

 Doolittle's breeding or ohi bees and those 

 that were reared died. Now, do we not 

 all know that bees often breed in winter, 

 and have no chance for a cleansing flight, 

 and come out in the spring clean, bright 

 and strong, and in the very best condi- 

 tion ? What makes the difference ? I 

 wish that we had a small army of such ex- 

 perimenter-s as Messrs. Doolittle, Heddon, 

 and Prof. Cook. I like to see them cross 

 swords and tfien finafly find out that they 

 are fighting on the same side. 



I do not call to mind a single ease that 

 has been brought forward to confirte the 

 pollen theory, but that can be accouirted 

 for on that theory. In Prof. Hasbrouck's 

 essay, read at the International Congress, 

 and found on page 1.55, he says : " When- 

 ever anything new and useful is discov- 

 ered, tliere are always those who, witboirt 

 any consideration, are ready with an 'I 

 doii't believe it.' Sometimes they attempt 

 to verify conclusions, or to follow pro- 



