1036 



Dec. 20, 1906 



American Ttee Journal 



sions and io on the other. Average 

 size of these spots about one-fourth the 

 area of a cell-top. Not all the same 

 shape. Tried picking another such spot 

 with a pin to see if it would look the 

 same. About the same as most of tliem. 

 From a few it is possible that tiny sips 

 of honey have been extracted to taste it. 

 Don't look at all like the usual work 

 of mice on a pile of honey. (Another 

 surprising thing is the low estimate they 

 put on chestnuts. They didn't even 

 play with the slices given in this ex- 

 periment.) 



Sunday, Oct. 21 — The section with 

 another night's exposure (one side 

 pushed against the wall) has the num- 

 ber of abrasions on the exposed side 

 increased from io to 16. Out of about 

 3 of them tiny sips of honey have ap- 

 parently been taken — to the total bulk 

 of about one or two big drops of watei 

 — and these three breaks are a triflt 

 larger than those described yesterday. 



Monday, Oct. 22. — A third night of 

 exposure of the section increases the 

 abrasions on the exposed from 1 6 to 

 20. One cell, so situated that two sides 

 and an end are exposed, is now so 

 broken that the honey runs out. And 

 the amount of two or three drops more 

 have been taken apparently. 



It remains to see how they will treat 

 the section when they have no other 

 food. I overhauled and cleaned their 

 inner premises, to remove any food un- 

 eaten which they may have carried in ; 

 and to-night they are to have water 

 and the section of honey, and nothing 

 else. Alpha seemed surprised not to 

 find the usual food in the dining-room 

 when he came in. 



Tuesday, Oct. 23. — Well, one day's 

 fast is not enough to make my mice eat 

 anything like a meal of honey. They 

 did about the same as previous nights. 

 Abrasions increased in number from 

 20 to 24. The side cell that was leaking 

 now has its sides entirely broken away- 

 honey, much of it spread over the face 

 of the comb — some very likely eaten. 

 Total eating not more than three or 

 four drops, apparently. (By creatures 

 accustomed to eat one-third their weight 

 at one banquet.) 



Wednesday, Oct. 24.— Another day of 

 fasting passed. I saw them sip honey 

 quite eagerly when let in. But the 

 amount taken, both then and during the 

 whole night, was small— a trifle com- 

 pared with what mice eat of things they 

 like. Abrasions increased from 24 to 

 27. Now think the teeth and not the 

 toes make the abrasions. I estimate the 

 total honey taken in 2 days of fasting, 

 plus 3 days of full feeding, at 12 cells. 

 A section has room for nearly 800 cells, 

 containing 14 ounces actual honey— 57 

 cells to the ounce— y l / 2 grains to the 

 cell. Then their total eating, if I figure 

 right, is about 92 grains— a little more 

 than the weight of two dimes. 



Well, what now? I was wrong in 

 claiming, that mice never eat honey till 

 starved; and my critics were wrong in 

 claiming that they eat enough to amount 

 to anything. And pretty severe starv- 

 ing doesn't make them eat a meal of it, 

 either. Apparently they regard honey 

 as a man regards, say cloves, as not 

 food at all, but a pleasant et cetera to be 

 tasted of now and then. I didn't want 



these mice to rat one another — wanted 

 them for more experiments — and so did 

 not push them quite to the alternative 

 of — eat honej 01 'He. 



My section after 5 nights of expo- 

 sure looks so totally different from the 

 usual work of mice on a pile of honey 

 that I am confirmed in my previously- 

 expressed opini'in that the usual peeling 

 off of cappings is to lap the surface for 

 water. 



And the practical, What shall we do, 

 therefore? Well, don't pile sections 

 where mice can go if you can help it. 

 But if you kind o' have to do so, just 



put a saucer of water by your pile and 

 don't worry. If you can add a trap 

 or two, so much the better. I wish 

 some time to repeat this experiment with 

 other mice, and also to try their opinion 

 of "bee-bread," and to try them on comb 

 full of dead bees crawled in, but I 

 haven't found time yet. Can't give them 

 many moth-larvae till next year— and it 

 hardly needs experiments to prove that 

 they do a good job in cleaning combs 

 of worms. Mousie, although not count- 

 ed among the carnivora, has a ravenous 

 longing for an occasional treat of animal 

 food. 



Canadian 

 ISoedom 



Conducted by Mobley Pettit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



Ontario Association's Officers 



Unadorned Flowers 



The following were recently elected for the 

 ensuing year: 



Directors for Districts. 



No. 1.— W. J. Brown, Chard. 



No. 2. — A. A. Fewer, Renfrew. 



No. 3.— M. B. Holmes, Athens. 



No. 4. — R. Lowey, Cherry Valley. 



No. 5.— Jas. Storer, Lindsay. 



No. 6. — Wm. Couse, Streetsville. 



No. 7. — J. F. Switzer, Orangeville. 



No. 8. — Jas. Armstrong, Cheapside. 



No. 9.— R. H. Smith, St. Thomas. 



No. 10.— G. A. Deadman, Brussels. 



No. 11.— J. F. Miller, London. 



No. 12. — Denis Nolan, Newton Robinson. 



No. 13.— Prof. Sherman, O. A. College, 

 Guelph. 



Next place of meeting, Toronto. 



Auditors— J. L. Byer and E. Grainger. 



Representative to the Toronto Exhibition— 

 E. Grainger, Toronto. 



Representative to the Ottawa Exhibition — J. 

 K. Darling, Almonte. 



Representative to the London Exhibition — 

 J. B. Hall, Woodstock. 



Revising Committee — Morley Pettit and H. 

 G. Sibbald. 



Crop Report Committee— H. G. Sibbald, 

 W. J. Craig and Wm. Couse. 



Transportation Committee— R. F. Holter- 

 mann, Wm. Cousse and J. D. Evans. 



President, elected by the directors, R. H. 

 Smith. 



Improvement of Bee-Stock 



D. M. Macdonald wisely says this in 

 the British Bee Journal : 



If bee-keepers would only spend half as 

 much time over this question as they do over 

 6ome other things, the whole bee-keeping 

 world would bo better off. 



Neither does that mean that a few of the 

 greater lights should turn their attention to 

 it, for every betikeeper with only 5 colonies 

 can make a difference in .his yields by seeing 

 that new queens come from his best colonies. 

 And as has been heretofore shown, he may do 

 no little in this direction without ever seeing 

 a queen— even with box-hives. 



While adornment is so universally 

 the measure of worth, it is natural that 

 flowers should be prized for their 

 bright and rich decorations rather than 

 for the vital parts for which the gay 

 trappings exist. Decorations have the 

 universal charm that makes them 

 measures of value for all time, and 

 this is true alike of the wampum shells 

 of the Indian and the gold of the He- 

 brew and his imitators. It is not un- 

 natural that the unadorned flowers 

 should be passed unnoticed when many 

 that are rich in color and perfume will 

 soon be crowding for recognition ; but 

 the early flowers, even if lacking the 

 richer colors and forms of vesture that 

 command attention and win admira- 

 tion unstinted, are worthy of an eager 

 welcome as the earliest offerings of the 

 season. 



The maples are now masses of flow- 

 ers, insignificant if casually observed, 

 but early, eager, and touched with the 

 spirit of the season. On the male-trees 

 of the silver maple every branch and 

 twig is decorated with many bristling 

 tufts of pale yellow. These buds are 

 ready to fall and strew the pavements 

 with the first vigorous wind or rain 

 storm. The female trees are richer in 

 color, but the delicate little threads of 

 dark red are too small to give the mul- 

 titude of buds a decorative aspect. 

 They give the tree a decided tint, and 

 their quick, rough growth closes the 

 tracery that seemed so open against 

 the sky during the naked winter. The 

 red maple is still richer in the coloring 

 of the opened buds that give it a dis- 

 tinctive name. These are spring flow- 

 ers, filled with the spirit of renewed 

 life, and worthy of the admiration 

 freely bestowed on later and more gaily 

 decorated arrivals. 



The sugar maple is far more back- 

 ward, its little bunches of drooping 

 flowers remaining in their sheltering 



