American Bee Journal 



DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEE CULTURE. 



Vol. X. 



CHICAGO, FEBRUARY, 1874. 



No. 2. 



C<tm^pn4ttwf 



Correspondents should write only on one side of 

 the sheet. Their best thoughts and practical ideas are 

 always welcome ; no matter how rough, we will cheer- 

 fully "fix them up." 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Gallup's Corn as a Honey-plant. 



In I'opl}^ to persons who have made 

 iipplication for corn, we will say that it 

 is climatic or atmospheric influence that 

 •causes a plant to produce Bee-forage in 

 ■one locality, and not in another. For 

 example, Mr. Adair and others say that 

 buckwheat never produces anything in 

 the shape of Bee-forage in their climate, 

 while in my climate, both here and in 

 ■Canada, it never fails to produce an 

 abundance in ordinary seasons. The 

 partridge pea is highly esteemed around 

 Washington, while here Bees did not 

 visit it at all. Timothy or herds' grass 

 produces large quantities of pollen 

 while in bloom here and elsewhere. We 

 have seen fields of it literally covered 

 with Bees while in bloom, yet we have 

 never seen it mentioned as a Bee-plant. 

 In 1870-71 our fields or patches of pop 

 corn, smelt corn, or flint corn, were 

 alive with the hum of the " little busy 

 Bee," while it was in bloom. They 

 seemed to gather pollen from the blos- 

 soms and honey from the silk at the 

 same time. Then the corn silk glistened 

 with sweet, yet in 1872 not a single Bee 

 did I see visit it ; and in fact white 

 clover produced nothing in my vicinity 

 in 1872. 



Our old stand-by, the basswood, only 

 produced forage for eight days in 1872, 

 while in 1870, it lasted twenty days; 

 and in 1871, it lasted in all, nearly thir- 

 ty days; all owing to climatic and at- 



mospheric influences. If the atmosphere 

 is moist and warm, and well charged 

 with electricit}", then is the time our 

 flowers produce the most forage. On 

 the contrary, the atmosphere may be 

 dry and warm, or hot, and flowers pro- 

 duce nothing. But bj' heavily manur- 

 ing a i^iece of land for white clover or 

 buckwheat, we can cause it to produce 

 honey in a dry or cool season. Manure 

 warms up the land, and it also causes a 

 .vapor or moisture to arise from the soil, 

 which does not arise from an impover- 

 ished soil. We have noticed this re- 

 peatedly. We have seen a row of cur- 

 rent bushes alive with Bees, that had 

 been heavily manured the season pre- 

 vious, while a row that Avas not manured 

 was not visited by the Bees. We have 

 seen a four-acre patch of white clover 

 that had been heavily manured the 

 season previous, covered with Bees, 

 while the clover field by the side of it 

 was not visited by a single Bee. We 

 have had some buckwheat on poor land, 

 and on rich land at the same time. — 

 That on the poor land was not visited, 

 while that on the rich land was alive 

 with Bees, and fairly scented the at- 

 mosphere with sweet around it. White 

 clover on warm sandy land, produced 

 abundance of forage the past season, 

 while on clay soil it produced nothing. 



Now, Brother Bee-Keepers, you can 

 easily see from the above why you do 

 not want m}' kind of corn, or my kind 

 of hay, &c., for Bees. E. Gallup. 



Orchard, Iowa. 



DziERZON watched a queen Bee when 

 laying, and noticed that she laid eigh- 

 teen worker eggs in three minutes. 

 She appeared to dispatch business still 

 more expeditiously when laying drone 

 eggs. 



