1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



2 9f 



cluster of basswood blossoms, dip them in liquid 

 honey, hang- them up to drip, and you will have 

 an idea of the state of things as I found it ; and 

 every basswood tree I visited, both great and 

 small, was in the same condition. I called the 

 attention of some thirty witnesses to this state 

 of facts ; and this condition of the blossoms con- 

 tinued about eight days. Here we have thou- 

 sands of acres containing more or less basswood 

 trees, and have two varieties of them — one va- 

 riety blossoming some ten days later than the 

 other, thus pi'olonging the season for basswood 

 h<mey. The weather was hot and moist at the 

 time, and the air full of electricity, with heavy 

 tliunder showers both north and south of us ; 

 and slight sliowers here, accompanied by heavy 

 thunder, twice during the eiglit days (at night). 

 The reader will understand tiiat basswood blos- 

 soms being pendant, a slight shower does not 

 wash out the nectar. We have repeatedly seen 

 bees at work on basswood and red raspberry 

 blossoms, when it was raining quite smartly. 

 During this immense yield, tlie whole atmos- 

 phere for miles was imi)regnated with the scent 

 of basswood honey. 



I have seen this same state of things for two 

 or three days in succession ; at ditt'erent times, 

 while living in Lower Canada. 



Another matter, which the reader should un- 

 derstand is, that drouth does not effect large 

 trees, deep rooted, iu the same manner that it 

 does small plants. 



Now I wish to ask the question how many 

 colonies of bees it will take to overstock our 

 basswood orchard, at such a time as the above ? 

 I am with our editor about this overstocking. 

 We have a neighbor just one mile from us, who 

 ]iad some ten stocks of bees ; and less than one 

 hundred (lOOj pounds would cover his entire 

 crop of surplus. He was ovekstocked over-the- 

 leftf E. Gallup. 



OrcJiard, Iowa, 



The Honey-Bee Gleaning after the 

 Oriole. — Two little girls, the elder scarcely six 

 year.s of age, were jjicking the flowers of the 

 Buffalo or Missouri cuvmnt i ribes aureum), "to 

 get the honey." They saw houey-bees around 

 the bushes. They observed that many of the 

 tiowers had one or two little holes at the base of 

 the calyx tube, and that such liowers were not 

 as sweet as the others. They said the bees had 

 torn them open with their jaws, and sucked out 

 the honey. 



For two reasons I have examined large num- 

 bers of these flowers iu different parts of the 

 village, and found many of them had been torn 

 open. Several times I have seen the Baltimore 

 Oriole rapidly going over the bushes, giving- 

 each fresh flower a prick with the tip of his 

 beak. No other birds have been seen doing 

 this ; nor have I been able to see a honey-bee 

 attempt to make a hole at the side of a flower. 

 The calyx tube is too long for the honey-bee, 

 so she contents herself with gleaning after the 

 Oriole, selecting the injured flowers, and leav- 

 ing the fresh ones for birds and humble bees. — 

 W. J. Beal, Union Springs, N. Y., iu the 

 American Naturalist. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



"Cross Bred Bees."— A Eeply. 



Mr. ED.'Ton :— I find on page 149 of vol. 7, 

 American Bee Journal, an article under the 

 above heading which the writer manifestly 

 intends as a criticism on my article in October 

 No., on "The Coming Bee." 



I thank Mr. ]\Iahiii for what he has said ; 

 what we want in bee matters is facts, or as 

 Goethe has expressed it : "Light, more Light," 

 and in order to receive more light, we must like 

 all lesser, orbs, borrow from more favored ones, 

 that which we lack within ourselves. 



So if Mr. Mahin or any otlur one can illumi- 

 nate my understau'ling upon this matter of cross 

 bred bees, I shall be very glad to harn wherein 

 my error lays ; for I wish to deal only in facts, 

 and impressions drawn from facts. 1 shall not 

 stop to que.->tion Mr, Mahin' s capacity for correct 

 conclusions on the matter upon which he speaks 

 so very positively ; for a man, to say the least, 

 when he is so certain somebody else is wrong. 



As Mr. jMahin has expressed great " curiosity, 

 to know how we have ascertained that his ^'■mon- 

 grel race'''' are greatly superior to the pure Italians 

 in their range of flight and acuteness of scent, 

 " I will say in answer, that I own a farm on 

 the prairie 2^ miles directly east of my apiary. 

 The east side of the farm is upward of three 

 miles from my bees. For the past two seasons, 

 since my attention has been directed to cros.s 

 bred bees, during the blossoming of the Golden 

 Rod, I have taken special pains to note the dis- 

 tance travelled by my bees, to work upon it, and 

 in every instance, have found the cross bred bees 

 further from home, than any others. On one 

 occasion I took the trouble to count the bees 

 passed on my way in from the east side of the 

 farm ; and on the first quarter of a mile I 

 coun'ed five cross bnd bees and no Italians. 

 After the first quarter of a mile was passed, the 

 Italians began to increase ; and at the house, 

 two and a half miles away, they were quite 

 numerous. Possibly you might conclude that I 

 keep more of the mongrel race t\\^n Italians, but 

 not so ; my Italians outuumber them five to 

 one. In regard to their acuteness of scent, I 

 will say that during the past season my atten- 

 tion has been particularly called to it, from the 

 annoyance they frequently gave me. whilst open- 

 ing hives and handing honey. Whenever the 

 forage failed from any cause, they were sure to 

 be first to show it, by presenting themselves 

 wherever there was the least exposure of honey, 

 in doors or out ; even entering a dark cellar to 

 obtain it ; and besides they have yielded me, 

 the past two seasons nearly double the honey 

 that any of my pure Italians have. 



Mr. Mahin again says. "I have several colo- 

 nies now, a majority of which are somewhat 

 less than ha'f Italians. They have received 

 pure Italians queens this fall, and within a few 

 days the pure Italian in tho.se hives, have been 

 bringing in loads of pollen, procured somewhere, 

 I know not where nor from what, while only 

 now and then docs one of the mongrels bring in 

 auy thing and yet the latter outnumber the 



