AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



211 



In this line. It certainly had much to 

 do with educating foreigners as to the 

 forward part taken by Americans in this 

 Industry, notwithstanding the display 

 was hampered by restricted space. The 

 success of the exhibit was largely due to 

 the efforts of Mr. McLain. 



In 1890 I felt that the appropriations 

 to the Division of Entomology justified 

 further effort to do something for bee- 

 culture. It was my purpose to continue 

 experimentation more especially in lines 

 which individual efforts could not so well 

 reach, as indicated in the previous work. 

 The conditions around Washington are 

 very unfavorable for this kind of experi- 

 mentation, and three methods of carry- 

 ing it on remained. One was, to estab- 

 lish a station controlled and worked en- 

 tirely by the Department, as had been 

 done under Mr. McLain, previously. 

 Another was to establish a number of 

 sub-stations in different parts of the 

 country, representing different climates, 

 but all under the general management 

 of some one especially in charge here at 

 Washington. The third was to estab- 

 lish one or more stations in connection 

 with some of the State experiment sta- 

 tions created by the Hatch Bjll. 



After visiting a number of prominent 

 bee-keepers in the South, and consider- 

 ing the matter fully in connection with 

 the limited means to be devoted to the 

 subject, the last of these methods was 

 chosen. Prof. A. J. Cook and Mr. J. H. 

 Larrabee were commissioned early in 

 1891 to conduct the experiments at the 

 apiary of the Michigan Agricultural 

 College. The results of the work of that 

 year are reported in Bulletin No. 26 of 

 the Division of Entomology. They in- 

 cluded a continuation of the earlier ex- 

 periments, especially planting for honey; 

 observations and experiments In regard 

 to the fertilization of plants by bees ; 

 selection in breeding ; the amount of 

 honey consumed In the secretion of a 

 pound of wax ; the effects on bees of 

 spraying fruit-trees while in blossom ; 

 and other minor experiments and obser- 

 vations, some of them a repetition of the 

 work that had previously been per- 

 formed by others. 



There was not much that was original 

 in the apiarian work of the year, and 

 perhaps the most important were the 

 results in reference to the poisoning of 

 bees by arsenical sprays. Moreover, the 

 policy of dual interest in and control of 

 the work at the station was not the most 

 satisfactory as a working policy, because 

 of the diflBculty of separating the De- 

 partment's interests from those of the 

 station, and the feeling which developed 



on the part of others, and which I could 

 not very well overcome myself, that the 

 funds furnished by the Department were 

 utilized primarily to improve a somewhat 

 neglected apiary, and to add to the in- 

 come of the station. 



Prof. Cook's commission expired June 

 30, 1891, and Mr. J. H. Larrabee was 

 appointed to continue the work, which 

 he did up to June 30, 1892, when, by 

 virtue of the great reduction in the ap- 

 propriation for the Division of Ento- 

 mology for the ensuing fiscal year, all 

 the bee-work had to be abandoned 

 there. Mr. Larrabee's report will soon 

 appear, and will, I think, make a cred- 

 itable showing for the season, consider- 

 ing the means which he had at command. 



Early in 1891 I had considerable cor- 

 respondence with Mr. Frank Benton, 

 whose Interest and work in apiculture 

 you all know, and who had made a 

 personal effort to introduce Apis dor- 

 sata. The failure of his effort was due 

 to over-exertion and undue exposure, 

 and I have little doubt that, under 

 more favorable circumstances, and with 

 the aid of the Department, the effort 

 would prove successful. I felt that of 

 all men he would be the most desirable 

 agent to employ in the effort to intro- 

 duce Apis dorsata, because of his famil- 

 iarity with the subject, and his acquain- 

 tance with the countries to be visited ; 

 but in addition I had some important 

 incidental work that I wished him to do 

 in that connection, namely, the intro- 

 duction also of certain parasitic forms 

 of injurious insects, and particularly the 

 introduction of the caprifig insect, Blas- 

 tophaga psenes, to colonize in those parts 

 of California where the Smyrna fig is 

 cultivated. 



I had made all due arrangements, In 

 consultation with Assistant Secretary 

 Willitts, fully expecting to be able to 

 send Mr. Frank Benton on this pro- 

 posed trip, and had so economized the 

 appropriation that there was means to 

 doit. Mr. Benton, also, had been led 

 to give up other plans in anticipation of 

 this mission. The project was never 

 carried out, however, for the simple rea- 

 son that the Secretary finally refused to 

 endorse it. There seems to have been 

 some promise made to the Senator who 

 had charge of the appropriation Bill 

 that no one should be sent abroad, or at 

 least this was the chief reason given for 

 the refusal to carry out my recommen- 

 dations and wishes. Professor Cook was 

 made aware of these circumstances, and 

 it is consequently somewhat surprising 

 that, in a recent communication to the 

 Amekican Bee Jouknal (Oct. 13, 



