212 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Basswood, or linden as it is some- 

 times called, is one of om- finest 

 shade trees. It is hardy and bears 

 transplanting well, is a rapid grower, 

 and seldom fails to yield large quan- 

 tities of honey, which, when well 

 ripened in the hive, is in every re- 

 spect as good as that made from 

 white clover. Buckwheat comes 

 into bloom directly after basswood 

 in this locality ; it can be raised on 

 almost any soil, but yields more 

 honey if the soil is well cultivated. 

 This is true of almost any honey 

 plant ; one acre of buckwheat, on 

 rich soil, well cultivated, will yield 

 more honey than several acres would 

 on poor soil. Although buckwheat 

 honey is of an inferior quality, and 

 does not command so high a price 

 in market, yet it is a source of much 

 profit to us, for we extract the early 

 honey and let the bees fill their 

 combs with buckwheat for winter 

 stores. The ras])berry is quite an 

 important honey i)lant, and although, 

 in this locality, it blossoms about the 

 same time as white clover, it is a 

 much more valuable honey plant, 

 for its drooping blossoms protect 

 the honey from moisture, and the 

 bees work upon it when the weather 

 is so wet that they can obtain noth- 

 ing from upright blossoms. No one 

 should think of giving up beekeep- 

 ing as a poor business because of 

 poor locality, until he has tried to 

 improve it by sowing honey plants, 

 for I believe that beekeeping can be 

 made profitable in almost any place 

 by a little judicious management. — 

 O. G. Russell. 



Chenango County, N.Y. 



BEES POISONED BY GLUCOSE. 



Professor A. J. Cook of Michigan 

 Agricultural College says in regard 

 to glucose — We had come to regard 

 the dictum of the Naticjnal Academy 

 of Science as conclusive on whatever 

 it pronounced an opinion. Its 

 recent decision, however, in refer- 

 ence to glucose may well shake faith 



in its infallibility. If glucose is al- 

 ways " entirely wholesome," why 

 does its use so often bring such wide- 

 spread disaster in wintering bees? 

 Granulated sugar is better for bees, 

 many think, than honey ; no one- 

 doubts that it is equally good. Glu- 

 cose, on the other hand, has given 

 such fatal results with so many, that 

 it is everywhere condemned. An 

 actual case of poisoning in Michigan, 

 by the use of table syrup, led to an 

 analysis, which showed the presence 

 of sulphuric acid. 



BEES IN ORCHARDS. 



It is said a larger crop of apples 

 is raised when a hive of bees is sta- 

 tioned in the orchard. The bees 

 visit every flower, busily flying from 

 one to another, and then passing to 

 an adjoining tree. The pollen on 

 their bodies is rubbed against the 

 pistils of myriads of flowers, which 

 become fertilized in this way. Many 

 of the strange modifications in the 

 form of flowers ai-e due to insects, the 

 transfer of pollen from different va- 

 rieties resulting in hybrids. Darwin 

 remarks that " all experimenters 

 have been struck with the wonderful 

 vigor, height, size, tenacity of life 

 and hardiness of their hybrid pro- 

 ductions." He was the first to 

 show that, from a flower fertilized by 

 pollen from a different plant, the 

 seedlings were much stronger than 

 from its own pollen. The wind and 

 insects are Nature's great agents in 

 performing this act of cross-fertili- 

 zation. The stamens and pistils of 

 the pines, birches, poplars, grasses, 

 corn, etc., are so arranged that the 

 wind fertilizes them — but in a large 

 number of flowers they are so situ- 

 ated that they can be reached only 

 by the agency of insects. The 

 moths, many of which have tongues 

 five inches long, probe the long tu- 

 bular flowers of orchids and other 

 plants, and withdraw them loaded 

 with pollen, to leave it on the pistil 

 of some other plant. 



