204 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



ing and interfering with the water- 

 courses, creating numerous surface 

 reservoirs, known to the small boy of 

 a few years ago as swimming holes, 

 but known today as getting more and 

 more scarce, all the provisions af Na- 

 ture for the economic diffusion of her 

 life preserving fluid, are wanting in 

 our sun-scorched fields and we are lit- 

 erally given a treatment of flood or 

 (water) famine. 



It does.nt matter if the particular 

 small patches of forestin our immedi- 

 ate vicinity do remain exactly as they 

 did, say fifteen yerrs ago, though I 

 will wager that they do not. But 

 where large tracts of moist forest land 

 have been replaced by similar tracts 

 of sun-baked soil, the passing winds 

 that come to us across them, instead 

 of being charged with cool moisture 

 as formerly are now themselves hot, 

 dry and destroying. It is Nature's 

 protest against her admirable water 

 system. 



" But what," you ask, "has all this 

 to do with honey?" Much! And if 

 we knew more of the exact process 

 by which the nectar is secreted in the 

 flower we might be able to understand 

 the why and the what perfectly. 

 This we can only conjecture, that any 

 plant removed from its native haunts, 

 stripped of its accustomed supplies 

 and forced to be dependent on entire- 

 ly different sources from which Na- 

 ture had intended, will also be chang- 

 ed in its habits. The winds, dry and 

 unbroken by the numerous lines of 

 forests, do much toward fertilizing 

 flowers that hitherto depended almost 

 wholly on the work of insects ; hence, 

 honey secretion is not as essential for 

 self- preservation as formerly. Again, 

 the unatural conditions of alternate 



flood and draught cannot but influ- 

 ence to a degree the habits of the veg- 

 etable world, and may, for aught we 

 know, be unfavorable in the extreme 

 for the secretion of honey. 



It is true the winds do not entirely 

 supply the place of bees in the ferti- 

 lization of flowers, as rnany a farmer 

 can, if he understands the subject, 

 testify to. The question of chance is 

 a much more prominent one ; still 

 there is a pretty good chance of 

 enough good seed resulting from this 

 means to replace another season, the 

 plant that now bears it, which is about 

 all Nature requires. She is not work- 

 ing in the interest of man's graineries 

 and feed-stores. Let him take care 

 of his own as best he can. 



It is also true that the theory I 

 have advanced of a change in the 

 habits of the plant detrimental to the 

 bee-keeper's interest, is but a theory. 

 None the less indications are not want- 

 that point to the reasonableness of 

 such a theor}'. And I am not afraid 

 to say that unless we can convince 

 people that the future water supply 

 rests in their own neighborhoods ful- 

 ly as much as in the headwaters of 

 some great stream, the secretion of 

 honey will be regelated to the chem- 

 ist's workshop and the vocation of the 

 faithful bee will have passed away. 



'• She Bee Fakirs." 



W. M. EVANS. 



I fully endorse Mr. Dilworth's 

 comments under above heading in 

 July Beekeeper. Many are swindled 

 by buying of pious frauds, old queens 

 as well as poor young ones. 



But I think the whole business of 

 improving bees is turned " wrong end 

 to,'' by first trying to breed queens 



