March 16 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



205 



ing an apple order for a A No. 1 fruit, 

 I could scarcely find a perfect Tolman 

 Sweet. They were covered with little 

 punctures — small, black specks. These 

 trees are in the bee-yard. None of our 

 other varieties showed these spots. I 

 remembered noticing^ bees crawling 

 over apples and tap, tapping on the 

 skin with their tails, and when I saw 

 these spots it seemed as if they might 

 have punched the holes with their 

 stingers, and then turned around and 

 licked up the nectar. 



A friendly bee keeper in Saratoga, 

 to whom I confided my suspicions, 

 wrote me that she had a similar experi- 

 ence in her orchard, only more so. Her 

 fruit was badly punctured, and the 

 bees were so thick on her windfalls that 

 they drove her away when she tried to 

 gather the fruit. 



Our Farmers' Institute sent us last 

 week, among other speakers, Prof. 

 Stewart, of the Geneva Station, whose 

 specialty is the diseases of fruit, es- 

 pecially apples and trees. I privately 

 told him my tale, and gave him two 

 sample apples, which he took away, 

 and after careful testing will report to 

 me results, which he expects will 



simply show whether the defects in the 

 apples are due to disease or the sting 

 of an insect. 



Usually, YOU know, when the apples 

 are growing mellow, the buckwheat 

 bloom is at its best, and after the frost 

 the bees take only short flights at 

 about noon. At that time in the fall 

 we gather our app'es. This is the first 

 fall, in my 10 years' experience here, 

 that we have had so early a frost fol- 

 lowed by such beautiful weather, and 

 if my surmises are correct, this may 

 account for the experience. 



I will send you Prof. Stewart's re- 

 port as soon as it is received. 



(Miss) Frances E. Wheeler. 



Clinton Co., N. Y. 



That report of Prof. Stewart will be 

 awaited wiih much interest. But, 

 surely, the finding will not be that the 

 bees had any hand (or sting) in punc- 

 turing the fruit. At one time Rev. W. 

 F. Clarke gravely asserted that bees 

 used their stings as trowels with which 

 to work the wax in building their 

 combs, but no particle of proof was 

 ever given for such statement, and no 

 one takes it seriously nowadays. It is 

 extremely doubtful that the bee ever 



uses its jaws to puncture fruit, and 

 still more doubtful that it uses its sting 

 for that purpose. 



It is true that bees do make a sort of 

 tapping with their tails that you have 

 been observant enough to notice ; but 

 when you saw them doing so did you 

 ever see one thrust out its sting ? It 

 ought easily to be seen, if the sting is 

 thus thrust out. Did any one, in any 

 case, ever know a bee to thrust out its 

 sting while in the act of searching or 

 taking a lunch 7 It might be sug- 

 gested, also, that if a bee should sting 

 an apple and then turn around to lick 

 up the escaping juices, the act of turn- 

 ing around could be plainly seen. 

 Please note next fall whether such 

 turning around really occurs. 



It may be interesting to some of the 

 sisters to know that Miss Wheeler is a 

 member of the faculty of the Columbia 

 School of Poultry Culture in New York 

 State. She makes a specialty of rear- 

 ing high-grade Pekin ducks, most of 

 which she sells at good prices as breed- 

 ing stock. She also devotes a consid- ■ 

 erable portion of her time to bees, hav- 

 ing found the combination of bee-keep- 

 ing and poultry culture both profitable 

 and pleasant. 



ONTARIO BEE-KEEPERS' CONVENTION. 



REPORTED BY MORLEY PETTIT. 



(Continned from page 152 ) 



Mr. R. F. Holtermann read a paper on 



THE PAST WINTER'S LOSSES AND THE DEDUC- 

 TIONS TO BE DRAWN THEREFROM. 



In the Canadian Bee Journal for September appears a 

 letter from the veteran statistician in the Department of 

 Agriculture for the Dominion, Mr. George Johnston, which 

 reads in part as follows : 



"We certainly had a severe loss in our bees here. I lost 

 all I had in Nova Scotia. East of the Ottawa I think more 

 than 75 per cent of the colonies were lost. That would mean 

 53,000 or 54,000 colonies dead, leaving not more than 17,000 

 that came through the winter, while 50 per cent loss west 

 of the Ottawa would leave the stock of bees not more than 

 60,000, giving in all 77,000 where the census of 1901 ga\ e a 

 total of 190,000. This is a terrible death-rate, and at .^i.OO 

 a colony the loss through the winter's action would not be far 

 from a quarter of a million dollars for bees alone, to say 

 nothing of the loss of honey through not having the bees. 

 If the whole 77,000 give off two swarms this season, we wuuld 

 still be 69,000 to 70,000 colonies short of what we were- in 

 1900." 



The above statement, coming from such a source, has upon 

 it the stamp of authority. I had previously placed tin- per- 

 centage of loss at 70, which in my estimation is not too high. 



In estimating the financial loss, we must remember that a 

 great many of the combs and hives in which the beej per- 

 ished have become useless, the combs having been destinyed 

 by that enemy (and friend) of the bee-keeper — the moth. 

 The hives sometimes find a market at a loss, but quite nften 

 the moth renders them partially valueless, carelessne=- and 

 time completing the work of destruction. Three or four dol- 

 lars per colony would be a very conservative estimate f the 

 loss in bees and hives. .'Vgain, the majority of the cc jnies 

 that survived were in too weak a condition to take propc- ad- 

 vantage of the honey-flow when it came, resulting in thr loss. 



through lack of workers, of a large percentage of nectar 

 which might have been harvested. 



Looking at it from a national standpoint, there would be 

 a financial loss to the country of at least half a million dol- 

 lars, and a blow to the industry from which it w-ill take years 

 to recover. So much for the fact. Next in my address I am 

 called upon to make deductions. 



Webster's Dictionary gives as the meaning of deduction, 

 "That which is deducted or drawn from premises by a process 

 of reasoning; an inference; a conclusion." Let me confess that 

 this is a line of work I like, however feeble my powers may be 

 to perform. Looking at bee-keeping as a whole, I see in many of 

 the articles which are written for bee and agricultural papers 

 in general, in the items in the general press, even in the 

 addresses at conventions, and in the discussions which take 

 place, a great many statements as to what the exponent does, 

 or informing others what they should do, but painfully little 

 as to how he should act under given conditions, and showing 

 why it should be done in that way. There are laws in Phvsics, 

 in Chemistry, in Nature, which can be explained and made 

 intelligible to even a simple-minded individual. Without the 

 above, in connection with instruction, there can be no intelli- 

 gent action and no solid, intelligent progress. 



Conditions studied are of prime importance, and the 

 foundation of successful action, and such a course would 

 lead to greater harmony in our discussions, greater intelli- 

 gence and greater progress in the bee-keeping industry, and 

 vastly benefit us individually and collectively. 



To learn to think truly, and not merely imitate or ape 

 would not only lessen the per cent of winter loss, but would 

 revolutionize many of our lives for time, yes, for eternity. 



May we from last winter's e-xperience come to the con- 

 clusion that Canada is not suited to this, the aesthetic branch 

 of agriculture, or may we even say that it is not a safe branch 

 of agriculture in Canada? Far be the thought frorii us. As 

 to quality, wherever shown, the quality of Canadian honey 

 has proved itself to be unsurpassed. Judges — not Canadian, 

 even foreigners — have again and again pronounced in favor 

 of our honey. British experts, honest men, who had a love 

 for and a fostering interest in the development of bee-keep- 

 ing in their own land, have told me and others that our 

 Canadian honey leaves nothing to be desired. 



As far as the winter i.^ concerned, we have among us 

 those who winter bees with as great certainty and success 



