448 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June l. 



professional carpet-cleaners in Chicago cleaning 

 carpet with half a loaf of stale bread. 



"As SOON as bits of white wax are seen along 

 the top-bar, put on supers," is the rule gener- 

 ally given. It wouldn't do for me to follow it 

 this year, for many of my colonies showed the 

 white wax before apple-bloom. They had not 

 been fed at all, and some were rather scarce of 

 honey. I never saw the like before. 



Stephens' spacers have one advantage over 

 the Hoffman frames. The Hoffman will not 

 allow a bottom -bar IV, accurately spaced, and 

 the Stephens will. I don't agree with you, 

 Ernest, that the Hoffman is better because it 

 sticks more. The less "stick "the better for 

 me. But the Hoffman is less trouble and ex- 

 pense. [But we want our frames to stick a 

 little.— Ed.] 



" Bee-paralysis yields to mild measures in 

 the North," says the editor, p. 425. I can go 

 farther than that, and say that, in Northern 

 Illinois, it needs no "measures" whatever. 

 I've had a little of it every year for years; never 

 did a thing for it, and I think it's hardly as bad 

 as it was years ago. [Yes, we have seen less of 

 it in the North, but have heard more of it in 

 the South.— Ed.] 



A WISE WIFE, who wants to do the most good 

 in the world, will plan to sit as much as possi- 

 ble when doing her work. Potatoes don't taste 

 a bit better when pared standing. Dishes can 

 be wiped just as dry sitting. The woman who 

 sits as much as possible in preparing a meal 

 will furnish just as sweet a meal, and she'll 

 look a good deal sweeter herself as she sits at 

 table. Don't let your wife waste her strength 

 standing. 



Smoking bees out of supers, as given by S. 

 S. Kissel, p. 422, works just as he says. I've 

 taken thousands of sections in that way; and 

 when you're in a hurry to get home from an 

 out-apiary there's no quicker way unless it be 

 to pile a dozen on a hive and smoke the bees 

 down. But when you can wait, it takes much 

 less work to pile up 8 or 10 and put a Lareese 

 escape on top; and the sections don't smell and 

 taste of smoke. 



Yes, indeed, friend Root wanted me to run 

 one of those two-wheeled affairs.- I thought 

 I'd commence gradually, and tried a one-wheel- 

 ed concern. It tuckered me all out before I 

 pushed it around half an hour. If one wheel 

 was so hard on me, wouldn't two just aboiat 

 kill me? No, sir; I'll try no bicycle till lean 

 run a wheelbarrow. [Your logic tears us all 

 up. But seriously: In the case of the bi- 

 cycle you ride one wheel and push the other. 

 In the case of the wheelbarrow you not only 

 push the wheel, but walk and carry one-third 

 the burden. 'I Come, now, get off that "fence," 

 and get on to a bicycle— not a wheelbarrow.— 

 Ed.] 



SYMPOSIUM ON BEES AND FRUIT-FERTIL 

 ZATION, AGAIN. 



additional facts on the side of the r.K 



[During the early part of this spring, it w 

 be remembered that we had quite an ext'-n^i 

 symposium on this subject in two differ^ 

 numbers. We had not intended at that tinn^ 

 give any more until fall; but so many new a i 

 valuable facts have developed that we ha 

 decided to give them to our readers while t li 

 are fresh. As usual, they show very coiul 

 sively the valuable part played by the bei's 

 the fertilization of blossoms. Indeed, with t 

 new evidence and the evidence presented li 

 fore, no reasonable sane man can longer qu( 

 tion the important work they do in this gri' 

 problem of fruit-growing. The first artii'l(> 

 from Prof. Cook, and is a strong one. — Ed.] 



I presume, Mr. Editor, that you did not ex\)t 

 so soon to open again the subject of honey -be 

 as friends of the fruit-grower; but we have m 

 and important data which are of too much iiit 

 est to keep back. Early in April, just as t 

 blossoms of our deciduous trees were opening 

 inclosed twigs of the same number of blosso. 

 in two close bags, and marked a third contig 

 ous twig with the same number of blossoi 

 One bag was left untouched till the blossoms 

 wilted. The others were opened when flow 

 expanded, and bees were caught and put 

 This was done when the bees were worki 

 freely on the bloom not under experiment. Cli 

 examination showed the bees well dusted w 

 pollen. The bees were seen to work on i 

 flowers in the bag, and pollen was seen on i 

 stigmas of the flowers. The trees experimcni 

 with were cherry, plum, pear, and apricot, 

 will give in brief only the results at this tinic 



In every case where bags were used, ami 

 bees put in it, there is not a single fruit exii 

 on apricot. In every case, with bees in i 

 bags, there is fruit, and in some cases more i li 

 where no bags were on the twigs. In the up 

 cot there is more fruit on the twig covered aw 

 from the bees than on either of the others, a 

 more where a bag was used, and bees put in 

 than on the uncovered twig. This shows c( 

 clusively that apricots do not all need iii 

 pollenation. These experiments prove cone 

 sively that a sack over the fruit does no liai 

 but that bees or other insects, to cross-pollrn; 

 the flowers of many of our fruits, are absolut< 

 essential. Other insects will answer, but tl 

 can not be depended upon. There can be 

 doubt that many kinds of fruit are sterile wi 

 their own pollen, or even that from any flov 

 on their own tree or any tree of the same vaf 

 ty. That is, for a blossom to fruit, pollen im 

 be brought to it from blossoms of another vai 

 ty of the same kind of fruit. Myself and st 

 dents are now trying a large number of expe 



