282 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[June, 



liar industries of these, although small, yet very 

 attractive insects. 



Ainoiitrst the early blossoming flowers most in 

 request with the bees, and which therefore seem 

 to be great favorites, we find tlie duckweed 

 {Alsine midia\ the primrose, and tlie catkins of 

 the sallow ; and these in succession are followed 

 by all the flowers of the spring, summer and au- 

 tumn. Their greatest favorites would appear to 

 be the Atnentacece, or catkin-bearing shrubs and 

 trees ; the willow, hazel, osier, &c., from the 

 male flowers of which they obtain the pollen, 

 and from the female the honey ; all the Rosacea, 

 esi^ecially the dog-rose, and the Primulacese. the 

 Orchideaj, Caryoi:)hyllace8e, Polygoneaj, and the 

 balsamic lilies. Clover is very attractive to 

 them, as are also tares ; and the spots on those 

 leaves of the bean which appear before the 

 flower, and exude a sweet secretion ; the flowers 

 of all the cabbage tribe. Beneath the shade of 

 the Linden, when in flower, may be heard above 

 one intense hum of thrifty industry. The blos- 

 soms of all the fruit trees and shrubs, standard 

 or wall, and all aromatic plants, are highly 

 agreeable to them, such as lavender, lemon- 

 thyme, mignonette, indeed all the resedas; also 

 sage, borage, &c. ; but to mention separately all 

 the flowers they frequent would be to comijile 

 almost a complete flood. 



Bees are also endt)wed with an instinct that 

 teaches them to avoid certain plants that might 

 be dangerous to them. Thus they neither fre- 

 quent the oleander nor tlie crown imperial, and 

 they also avoid the Ranunculacece, on account of 

 some poisonous property ; and although the Me- 

 liunthus major drops with honey, it is not sought. 



Bees may be further consorted with flowers 

 by the analogy and parallelism of their stages of 

 existence. Thus the egg is equivalent to the 

 seed ; the larva to the germination and growth ; 

 the j;«/.;i'i to the bud, and the imago to the flower. 

 Tlie flower dies as soon as the seed is fully 

 formed, which is then disseminated by many 

 wonderful contrivances to a propitious soil ; and 

 the wild bees die as soon as the store of eggs is 

 wonderfully deposited, according to their sev- 

 eral instincts, in fitting receptacles, and pro- 

 vision furnished to sustain tlie development of 

 the progeny. Thus each secures perpetuity to 

 its species, but individually ceases. 



CFor the American Bee Journal.] 



Gallup hits Somebody. 



Mr. Editor : — "We have the April No. all right. 

 The first on the docket that claims our attention, 

 is Dr. Bohrer. He infers that we disagree witli 

 Mr. Langstroth, and condemn the two-story 

 Langstroth hive, because we said there was 

 any quantity of worthless hives at Cleveland. 

 The reader will readily see that we did not say 

 that there was no good hive there. By no 

 means. Now, Doctor, never again use such a 

 shallow excuse to get in your F. R. Allen hive. 

 Old birds are not often caught with chaff. The 

 next is T. F. Bingham. lie is afraid he will 

 have to hear for the next five years about Gal- 



lup's hive. Now the reader knows that Mr. B, 

 has a patent hive, and it galls some of those 

 patent hive fellows terribly to think that after 

 all the boasting, the old Langstroth princi- 

 ple IS STILL AHEAD. 



Some of them would give considerable, if 

 Gallup jyid the AMfc;RicAN Bee Journal were 

 dead ana buried, but it is our sincere desire that 

 the influence of the American Bee Journal liiay 

 never be less. Now will the reader please take 

 notice that in giving a description of the hive 

 we use, we have no other motive than to illus- 

 trate a principle in beekeeping. 



We have already forwarded an article illus- 

 trating how to use the Langstroth hive on the 

 same principle. We certainly believe we could 

 have obtained the same results from a regular 

 Langstroth spread out horizontally in such a 

 season as the past. I have already cautioned 

 others not to go into the large Gallup hive exten- 

 sively, but make one or two for trial. We 

 always prefer a good season for getting a large 

 yield of honey. 



This buying up extracted honey and feeding 

 to one or two stocks, so as to be able to report 

 an extra large yield per hive, and thus create a 

 demand for a particular hive, is not what Gallup 

 believes in. We Jiave no hives for sale, and conse- 

 qucntly no axe to grind. 



The next is Novice, and oh how we are going 

 to hit him ! He says he I'eally likes the Quinby 

 frame or a large one. Now, Novice, warrant us 

 just such seasons as the past two and we are 

 with you ; but how is it in a cool wet season, 

 when our stocks are only medium sized. All of 

 the honey gathered is thin and watery and needs 

 a great deal of evai^oration, and we liave no 

 extractors, but are compelled to use a hive in 

 which we can condense the bees into a small 

 compass or compact mass ; or our honey is 

 sealed up before it is half evaporated, and the 

 consequence is. our bees all die over winter from 

 dysentery. We have paid dearly for our knowl- 

 edge on this subject. AVe have seen a number 

 of such seasons in our northern climate. We 

 have always said that a larger frame would be 

 preferable farther south, at least it is our opinion 

 that it would be preferable. We guess you mixed 

 that a trifle, when you said our bees were brood- 

 ing sticks. The fact is in this cool backward 

 spring, our bees are in the best possible shape 

 for keeping up the animal heat for developing 

 brood, and there is no sticks in the centre of 

 that brood. After our stocks become strong 

 and numerous, and the weather becomes warm 

 or hot, then our sticks or division in the centre 

 of the frame is not one particle of detriment in 

 practice, although it appear to be in theory. 



To-day, April 15th, 1872. the sijring has come 

 in cold and backward. No natural pollen yet, 

 and no forage from natural sources. Now you 

 know some of our reasons for small combs. 



Elisha Gallup. 



Orchard, Mitchell Co., loioa. 



Dzierzou says, " the first day the bees fly in 

 spring is a day of great jubilee for me ;" I trust it is 

 for the many readers of the Journal. HuLLMA>f. 



