1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



467 



ter — Dr. Planta among them — tell us that for the first three 

 days the food Is exactly the same to a worker as to a queen 

 larva. Doollttle takes the safe ground that there Is no dif- 

 ference for the first 36 hours, but cautiously says, "Some- 

 where from this to the time the larvie are three days old, the 

 bees begin to stint them as to food," that Is, the worker-larv;v>. 

 He says : "Hundreds of experiments in using larva) from 

 three hours old up to those of 30 hours, prove that queens 

 from the former are In no way superior to those from the lat- 

 ter, while the bees always choose the latter where the choice 

 is left to them."— (Doollttle on Queen-Rearing, page 43.) As 

 your as yet unsupported dictum stands against the many ex- 

 periments of so careful and painstaking a man as Doolittle, it 

 will be necessary for you promptly to furnish the proof for 

 your assertion, unless you wish to be cataloged in the list of 

 those you so severely condemn, and who have called forth from 

 you the exclamation, "Oh, if we could only be content to 

 write what we know to be actual facts, instead of poisoning 

 the minds of the seekers after knowledge with our imagina- 

 tions, we would be a blessing instead of a curse to humanity !" 

 You have so plainly called me out by name, in making the 

 first count of your indictment, quoting words that In careful 

 reading I have seen from no other pen than mine, that I feel 

 warranted in asking how you know that I do my writing from 

 imagination and not from actual experience. And while I 

 am at It, I will ask how you know that any one of .those you 

 condemn are in the habit of doing that thing. Has not your 

 imagination dwelt so long upon the thought that it is now 

 " stampt on your brain " as true, just as that deer lie was ? I 

 frankly confess that there are very many things in bee-keep- 

 ing that I don't know much about, but, until your expose, I 

 was laboring under the impression that I was writing largely 

 from experience. That experience dates back 36 years, dur- 

 ing which time bee-keeping has been my careful study, and 

 for the past 20 years I have had no other means of livelihood 

 but from the sale of honey, except the amount received from 

 writing. I do not know how much greater your experience 

 may be than mine, but I think I may claim at least some 

 experience. At the present time I am working from 

 early morning till dark, with the aid of an assistant doing the 

 work of 239 colonies, spring count, workt for comb honey, 

 getting up at 3 to 4 o'clock so as to get in the writing I have 

 to do. Would it be asking too much if I should ask you to 

 give us your larger means of observation that saves you the 

 necessity of drawing on imagination ? In the meantime, 

 would It not be well to more earnestly cultivate that virtue 

 commended in the Book we both revere — that virtue which 

 " tbiuketh no evil," " and is kind ?" McHenry Co., III. 



Atmospheric Conditions and Nectar-Secretion. 



BY REV. M. MAHIN, D. D. 



Some few years ago there was quite a controversy in the 

 American Bee Journal concerning the relation of bee-keeping 

 and strawberry culture. I remember that I had a little hand 

 in it, aud said, in substance, that bees did not work on straw- 

 berry blossoms, and that the bees were of no use to the straw- 

 berries, and the strawberries of no value to the bees. That 

 was in harmony with my observation up to the present season. 

 Last year I had a strawberry patch 24x70 feet in extent, and 

 I observed very closely to see if the bees would work on the 

 blossoms ; and I never saw more than two bees in the patch at 

 a time. 



This year the case has been widely different. From morn- 

 ing until night the hum of the bees among the strawberry blos- 

 soms was constant. They workt as freely on them as they 

 usually do on white clover ; and their distended honey-sacs 

 gave evidence that their labor was not in vain. Whether 

 there is any relation between the visits of the bees to the 



strawberry blossoms, and the very extraordinary crop of fruit, 

 1 will neither afSrm nor deny ; but in size and number I never 

 saw anything approaching it. 



What Is said above of the strawberry will apply without 

 any modilication to the blackberry. In most seasons bees 

 scarcely touch blackberry blossoms; but this season they lit- 

 erally swarmed upon them. And they left them with heavy 

 loads, and the hives were rapidly filled with honey. There 

 must be a cause for these facts, and what Is It ? I think the 

 cause must be iookt for in the fact that the spring has been 

 unusually damp and cool. I can imagine no other reason. 



In regard to white clover the reverse Is true. When the 

 white clover began to bloom here, the wet, cool weather con- 

 tinued, and the bees, if they visited it at all, quickly left In 

 disgust. But now we have clear days and hot sunshine, and 

 the greatest white clover crop we have bad for many years is 

 yielding a good honey crop. I have many times observed 

 that bees do not visit white clover early in the morning. The 

 sun must be well up, and the air warm, that nectar may be 

 produced by it. Buckwheat, dn the contrary, requires a cool, 

 moist atmosphere. In a dry, hot season, it is of no value for 

 honey ; and as in this country, in the season of Its blooming, 

 the weather is generally dry and hot, the buckwheat bloom is 

 of very little value. Yet once in many years it yields well. 



The golden-rod is, In this country, another capricious 

 plant. The only variety that Is at all plenty where I am ac- 

 quainted Is SoUdago Canadensis. This is the 27th year that 

 I have kept bees, and in that time golden-rod has yielded 

 honey twice. The first time was in the early '70's, and the 

 second was, I think, in 1881. I am not prepared to state the 

 atmospheric conditions of those years. 



The facts and observations stated above are very interest- 

 ing from a scientific standpoint, and they would be of great 

 practical value, if we could only control the weather; but so 

 far we have not been able to do that even in the smallest de- 

 gree. So we must do the best we can In existing conditions. 



Henry Co., Ind. 



Apiarian Self-Help and the Scrap-Box. 



BY S. A. DEACON. 



Few callings would seem better calculated to develop 

 latent mechanical skill or to quicken the inventive faculties 

 than that of bee-keeping, in which emergencies so frequently 

 arise calling for some little dexterity in the use of a few sim- 

 ple tools; and, with a couple of bad seasons at the start, the 

 tyro — who conceives himself endowed with a special mission 

 to increase the world's honey supply — becomes a jack-of-all- 

 trades and general botch ere he has probably produced a sin- 

 gle pound of honey or owns a dozen colonies of bees. He has 

 perhaps essayed to make his own hives, and may even with 

 that " vaulting ambition which oft o'erleaps itself," have had 

 the temerity to invent some new gira-crack or device to ease 

 his labors and expedite the acquisition of expected wealth — 

 and, to exhaust the patience of his long-suffering brother api- 

 arists by making more complex an already far too complicated 

 calling. 



His smoker he will not unlikely have evolved from a super- 

 annuated coffee-pot and an old kitchen bellows, and which, 

 while It is warranted to subdue the most vicious and refractory 

 of bees, fetches out the fire-brigade each time its services are 

 called into use. 



His " starters," you will probably find, are cut by a self- 

 feeding miniature guillotine, into whose construction have en- 

 tered sundry parts of an eight-day clock, the handle of a 

 coffee-mill, and the blade of a table-knife, all evidence of the 

 fact of his having establisht that indispensable requisite to 

 successful apiculture — or, at least, to successful amateur 



