1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



208 



honey. Now we will suppose that 

 just as this queen was fertilized, you 

 had extracted that honey, you would 

 not have secured a single lection of 

 honey, unless it was from buckwheat 

 or fall flowers. "Prove all things 

 and hold fast to that which is good," 

 is as trite % saying today as it ever was. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



^ ■■■ >.^— 



The Passing of the Bee. 



BY WILDER (JRAHAME. 



Much complaint has been heard of 

 late concerning the partial or entire 

 absence of honey in many of our later 

 flowers, white clover, buckwheat, etc., 

 and more than one bee keeper is in- 

 quiring for the cause. When one has 

 on apiary located in the very midst of 

 buckwheat fields in abundance and 

 still fails to secure hardly a pound of 

 honey therefrom, it is certainly time 

 to inquire the cause. As a side re- 

 mark let me here call attention to the 

 fact that farmers complain of their 

 seed not forming about in proportion 

 as the bees are disinclined to work 

 the flowers of the plant, a strong argu- 

 ment in the favor of bees being beni- 

 ficial as fertilizers of flowers. 



For some years scientists, backed up 

 by theory and experience, have been 

 warning us of the results to be expect- 

 ed from the destruction of our native 

 forests, and while I am not aware 

 that they have particularly mention- 

 ed bee keeping as a vocation likely to 

 suffer from this violation of nature's 

 strong-holds, I believe a good deal of 

 the difficulty complained of may be 

 directly referred to the same cause. 



Complaints in regard to our early 

 spring flowers are rare, or at least much 

 less common than those which bloom 

 later in the season. Where the weath- 



er is at all favorable to honey gather- 

 ing during fruit bloom we hear most 

 encouraging reports, to' be followed 

 later by complaints of no honey in the 

 summer and fall flowers. So much 

 for fact. Now for theory. 



The difference in our soil and the 

 effect upon it of a rain between now 

 and previous to the day of so much 

 cutting down of forests cannot but be 

 distinguishable to all thoughtful ob- 

 servers of nature. How often we hear 

 the remark, " How quick the ground 

 dries up this season after a rain ! " 

 And every season seems to be an ex- 

 ageration of the last one in this respect. 

 The reason for this is easily determin- 

 ed by a simple experiment. Throw a 

 pail of water upon a mass of sponge 

 and it is at once absorbed and held to 

 trickle down in little streams for 

 hours. Throw one upon a board and 

 it dashes off in a mass leaving the 

 board, if exposed to the hot sun, as 

 dry as ever in twenty minutes or less. 



A thick forest is usually carpeted 

 with moss, or some similar porous 

 sponge-like sod. When rain falls 

 this sod absorbs and holds it, thus 

 guarding against freshet and drouth 

 alike. The water is treasured up and 

 given out for weeks only as needed. 

 But when the same rain falls on soil 

 baked so hard and dry that it cannot 

 penetrate, every water-course is filled 

 to overflowing in carrying off the 

 precious liquid as fast as possible. 

 Everything is overcome more or less 

 by the surface flood while one may at 

 the same time dig into the ground 

 and find it dry. The porous sod, the 

 tree-roots, at once leading the way 

 from the surface to innumerable un- 

 derground passages made by other 

 tree-roots, and, by occasionally cross- 



