434 



THte MMERICSM MmM JQ^KHMl^. 



past year or two, and I never saw a 

 case of that kind. It is all bosh. Thej' 

 do nothing of the kind. Let no one 

 get discouraged because some of the 

 early forms of escapes are not entirely 

 satisfactory. The horizontal escape 

 has come to stay, and will be a vahia- 

 ble acquisition to bee-keepers. 

 Milan. Ills. 



BEE-FORAGE. 



Virgirs Kiio^vledgc of Bees Com- 

 pared Avitli ]VIodei'n Ideas. 



Rcud ut the Ohio State Convention 



BY S. F. XE^\'MAN. 



For more than 1,900 years, this sub- 

 ject has engaged the attention of men 

 interested in apiculture. Such men as 

 A'irgil, editor of the " Georgics ;" 

 Thomas G. Newman, editor of the 

 American Bee Journal ; A. I. Root, 

 editor of (Tleaninr/s ; and many other 

 lesser lights have written much and 

 exhaustively upon this subject. In 

 fact, it has been discussed, re-discussed, 

 and essayed at nearly every conveu- 

 tiuu of bee-keepers, county, State and 

 Kational. held during the last 20 or 2.5 

 years, and yet, I sujiposcit is expected 

 that I will present something nav at 

 tliis time, pertaining to this subject. 



'■There is nothing new under the 

 sun."' In proof of this statement, so 

 far as bee-keeping is concerned, I will 

 be pardoned if I digress a little. 



SOME ANCIENT BEE-LORE. 



In the year 70, Virgil gave minute 

 directions as to the care of bees, show- 

 ing a ver}' accurate knowledge of their 

 habits, and of the economy of the hive. 

 He told how to select a suitable site for 

 the location of an apiary ; how to make 

 hives ; hovv to prevent loss from drown- 

 ing in early spring-time ; how to pre- 

 vent loss of swarms ; how to cure dis- 

 eases to which bees were then and are 

 now subject ; how to take off surplus 

 honc}' ; how to secure a good crop of 

 honey ; how to winter bees success- 

 fully ; and, I think, there has been but 

 little improvement in mat;^ of these 

 matters since the days of Virgil. 



Virgil says: -'Apiaries must be 

 placed where winds do not have access, 

 for winds do hinder bees in carrying 

 home their food." Our modern bee- 

 masters give the same advice. They 

 say. "Surround your apiarie|l witii 

 high board-fences and hedges, 1)0 pro- 

 tect them from wintry blasts, and the 

 chilling winds of spring.'' 



Virgil says : •' Compact your hives 

 of hollow bark or cork wood, and let 

 the inlets be narrow to keep out the 

 winter's cold and summer's heat, for 

 winter congeals the honey with its 

 cold, and summer dissolves it with its 



heat." Our modern bee-keepers say : 

 "Place a chaff division-board on each 

 side of the cluster, and a chaff cushion 

 above it, to absorb the moisture, and 

 keep the cluster warm." In my opin- 

 ion, the ancient plan was by far the 

 most sensible, and the least trouble- 

 some. The bark or cork-wood hive 

 absorbed the moisture and kept the 

 bees warm, and the bee-keeper did not 

 then, as now, have to make an extra 

 building in which to store his chaff 

 cushions, chaff" division-boards and 

 other "traps." 



The ancient poet says : " Place 

 your hives by cool springs fringed 

 around with moss, and whither the 

 water runs swiftly, or is quiet, throw 

 in willows or rocks so that the bees 

 may have bridges to rest upon, and 

 spread their wings to the summer sun 

 when the east wind has immersed 

 them in the flood." Our modern bee- 

 keepers say : "Place fish-kegs filled 

 with water on vvhich float little chips, 

 on which the bees can rest in the warm 

 sun, and drj- their wings if, perchance, 

 they maj' have accidentally slipped ofl' 

 the little chips and wet themselves." 



Some of us practice what many 

 think is a modern device — clipping the 

 queen's wings to prevent swarms from 

 absconding. The ancients did the 

 same, although not quite as artistically 

 as we do it. Virgil says that when 

 the swarms fly about and sport in air, 

 and despise their hive, they must be 

 restrained from their vain play, ^'ec 

 magnus prohibere labor : Ter regibus 

 alas cripe — and not one will dare, 

 while the kings stay behind, to fly aloft. 

 Mr. A. I. Root says : Having a pair 

 of silver-steel scissors, catch the queen, 

 hold her carefully between the thumb 

 and forefinger of your left hand, and 

 with the sharp scissors in the right 

 hand, clip oft" about one-quarter of her 

 wings ; place her back in the hive, and 

 you will have no trouble with runaway 

 swarms. 



Again, Virgil says: "When you 

 intend to rob the busy workers, of 

 their treasures, bear in your hand the 

 searching smoke, for at such times 

 the bees are wrathful, and, w'hen pro- 

 voked, breathe venom into their stings, 

 and leave the liiddeu dart fixed into 

 the veins, and lay down their lives in 

 the act." Our modern supply dealer 

 would say : "Buy one of my double- 

 acting, patented smokers, that will 

 throw a stream of smoke at least ten 

 feet ahead of you, and you can take 

 oft" surplus honey all da}-, and not get 

 stung once ; the bees will run when 

 they see you coming !" I do not know 

 whether or not Virgil ever invented 

 or patented a smoker — he does not tell 

 us ; but he certainly understood the 

 efl'cctiveness of smuke in preventing 

 bees from stinging:. 



He tells us also how to cure the dire 

 diseases to which bees were subject : 

 "Mix their honey with the juice of 

 pounded galls ; boil I'oots of herbs in 

 fragrant wine, and present it as food 

 in full baskets at their door." No 

 doubt from the medicine given, galls, 

 which are a powerful stringent, Virgil's 

 bees were afflicted with the diarrhea, 

 the same as ours. He knew how to 

 cure it ; we do not. 



HONEY-PLANTS OF THE ANCIENTS. 



Now I come to the subject of my 

 essay, and I find by reading the fourth 

 book of the " Georgics," that Virgil 

 was pretty well posted as to bee-for. 

 age. He tells us of an old man, a 

 Corycian, who lived in the southern 

 part of Italy, and took a good deal of 

 interest in ioees. 



This old man owned a farm which 

 had been much neglected, with soil too 

 poor to plow, not proper for flocks, or 

 commodious for vines, and so the old 

 man planted his farm with lilies, and 

 esculent poppies, and various other 

 honey-plants. I doubt not that he had 

 among his plants sweet clover, about 

 which so much has been said and writ- 

 ten now-a-days. Certainly he had the 

 right kind of land on which to grow 

 sweet clover, if what our seedmen — 

 those who have sweet clover seed to 

 sell — tell us is true. 



As a result of this old Corycian's 

 planting for honey, we learn that he 

 was the first " to stream the frothy 

 hone}- from the pressed combs." He 

 had in his collection of honej^-plants 

 the lime-tree, which is our linden, and 

 is the best honey-plant in the world — 

 about the only one, in my estimation, 

 which pays to plant for honey alone. 



Fruit growers can learn a very impor- 

 tant lesson from this poem of Virgil's. 

 This Corycian had fruit-trees in great 

 abundance, and Virgil tells us "that 

 as many fruits as the fertile tree bad 

 been clothed with in early blossoms, so 

 many it retained ripe in autumn," i. e., 

 on account of the worth of the bees in 

 fertilizing the flowers, every blossom 

 produced perfect fruit. The only ob- 

 ject nature has in the secretion of 

 honey, is to attract bees and other in- 

 sects to the flowers, in order that they 

 may be fertilized. 



In our part of Ohio (Huron county), 

 our sources of honey and pollen are 

 the maples, elms and willows during 

 Marcli and April ; fruit-blossoms dur- 

 ing May, white and Alsike clover dur- 

 ing the month of June, and basswood 

 for the first half of July. Of course, 

 we do not have a continuous flow of 

 honey during the months mentioned. 

 It is about two weeks from the time 

 the maples cease to bloom, to the open- 

 ing of fruit-blossoms ; and two weeks 

 from the time fruit-blossoms cease to 



