20 GUAM AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



BOTANICAL COLLECTION. 



Aftor considerable correspondence during the preceding fiscal year 

 between Mr. E. D. Merrill, botanist of the Bureau of Science of the 

 Philipjnne government, and the special agent in charge of this sta- 

 tion in an effort to secure a native collector from the Phihppines, it 

 was found impossible to obtain the services of a satisfactory man 

 from that place, consequently !Mr. R, C. McGregor, of the above- 

 mentioned bureau, came to Guam and with a native laborer from this 

 station as helper collected specimens of the flora of Guam during a 

 month of his vacation period. The material collected during that 

 period amounted to 283 numbers. At the end of this time the native 

 laborer had received sufficient training to enable him to continue the 

 work, and material amounting to 480 numbers was subsequently 

 collected and this was forwarded to Mr. Merrill for identification. In 

 this work each number taken included sufficient material for several 

 sheets, and Mr. IMerrill very liberally agreed to return to this station 

 one identified specimen of each number mounted on a standard 

 herbarium sheet. This arrangement has given the station possession 

 of an incomplete but valuable herbarium collection of the plants of 

 Guam at a very nominal expense. The work has been very inter- 

 esting in that not only has a large number of species not previously 

 known to exist in Guam been found, but that one new genus of the 

 myrtle family and some forty odd species of different famiUes pre- 

 viously unknown to science have been described from the collection. 



WORK WITH THE HONEYBEE. 



During the fiscal year to which this report apphes considerable 

 prominence has been given the work of encouraging the adoption of 

 modern and improved methods of handling the honeybee. As was 

 mentioned in the report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, all 

 the honeybees on the island of Guam have descended from a single 

 queen bee introduced by the naval government from Honolulu in 

 the 3-ear 1907. In order to infuse new blood into the stock the sta- 

 tion has introduced several queens during the course of the past 

 fiscal year. An equipment of modern supplies suitable for the man- 

 agement of a small apiary has been obtained by the station and the 

 use of these suppfies is being demonstrated for the benefit of those 

 interested in the work. 



A simple method of transferring bees from the crude box hive in 

 common use to the modern movable frame hive has been devised by 

 the modification and adaptation of a method ^ in use by some apia- 

 rists for hiving colonies from hollow trees. The preparation for trans- 



' Root, A.I. and E. R. A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. Medina, Ohio. 



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