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166 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 13, 5902 



Contributed Articles. 



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No. 1.— Desirability of Lon§-Ton$ued Bees. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I have read with no small interest the late articles in 

 the several bee-papers on the advantages of bees with long 

 tongues, and the practicality of working in the breeding of 

 bees to develop those with the ligula longer than the same 

 in ordinary bees. I was specially interested in Prof. Gil- 

 lette's article. The Colorado Agricultural College is to be 

 congratulated in having so able, painstaking and thorough 

 a scientist among her corps of instructors ^ and the apiarists 

 of the country are to be felicitated, in that he gives a part 

 of his valuable time and research to matters which so deeply 

 interest them. His work in 1900, in connection with comb- 

 foundation, no less than these researches to determine the 

 real facts regarding the bee's tongue, are of great value. 



I was the more interested as Prof. Gillette's results were 

 so nearly a duplicate of my own, as determined and pub- 

 lished years ago. Put Syrian in place of Cyprian, and we 

 have a very close duplicature of my own conclusions. I 

 proceeded a little differently from Prof. Gillette in tnaking 

 the measurements, though. I gave the length of the entire 

 tongue, including the mentum, as I think this should be 

 done. The bee stretches its tongue, undoubtedly, to the 

 very utmost when probing the long flower-tubes' for the 

 coveted nectar. A longer mentum will permit a farther reach. 

 Thus I think in all our microscopic work we should measure 

 the entire length of the labium or tongue, from the base of 

 the sub-mentum to the tip of the ligula. For obvious rea- 

 sons, I would also include the sub-mentum. It is so con- 

 nected with the braces at the base of this important organ, 

 that It also serves to elongate the tongue proper though its 

 measurement would not affect to materially change results. 



As we know, the tongue, or ligula, rather, is a double 

 tube. The inner smaller tube— which, by the way, is slit- 

 ted on the under side nearly the whole length, though it is 

 so rigid as to be practically a tube— is open at both ends of 

 the hgnla. and is the channel through which the nectar from 

 deep flower-tubes must all pass. At the base of the ligula 

 on the upper side is an opening through which the ftectar 

 passes to the mouth, and thence on through the resophagus 

 to the honey-stomach. The outer tube is closed at the 

 outer end, but opens at the base of the ligula into the men- 

 tum, and so into the blood-chamber of the brdy. The bee 

 extends its ligula by forcing the blood into this outer tube. 

 We can copy this action by laying the ligula on a glass 

 or board, and then pressing on the mentum, with a scalpel 

 or our knife-blade. Immediately the ligula will shoot out 

 just as it does when the bee extrudes it. 



In my measurements. I took the bees off the frames by 

 the wings, cut the heads off by use of scissors, carefully 

 removed the tongues, laid them bottom up on the micro'- 

 scopic slide which had been previously covered with a 

 little thin transparent glue, and then by pressing on the 

 mentum the ligula was extended to its full length. I think 

 no other way so good to insure correct results. 



I also used a glossometer. or tongue-measurer, which I 

 placed in the hive. This was exhibited at the Paris Ex- 

 position and received favorable mention and a medal. It 

 consisted of a piece of glass one inch by three, and a sim- 

 ilar piece of wire-gauze, each held by wooden side-pieces. 

 At one end the gauze touched the Mass, at the other it was 

 one-half inch from it. The glass slid in grooves So it 

 could be pulled out. and returned. Wood also closed the 

 thicker end of this wedge-shaped implement. To use it 

 we simply have to draw out the glass slide, coat it thinly 

 on the inside with honev. replace it. and suspend all in the 

 hive. As the distance from the gauze to the glass increases 

 as we recede from the sharp edge of the w;edge. the dis- 

 tance which marks the removal of the honey marks most 

 accurately the maximum tongue-length of the bees of that 

 hive. I found, as of course I must, that the glossometer 

 and microscope told the same story. 



. The black bees had the shortest tongues, the Italian 

 next, and the Syrian bees the longest of all. The micro- 



scope showed that there was very little variation in the 

 length of the tongues of the bees of the same colony, and 

 not much, though more, in bees of the same race. 



I was not surprised to find that the Italians varied a 

 little more than did either the blacks or Syrians. We have 

 worked more in breeding our Italians. Selection has been 

 made from our best colonies, in securing brood for our 

 queens. Thus, as we should expect, these bees would vary 

 more than blacks and Syrians, which have been left almost 

 entirely to nature. 



The fact of this variation undoubtedly explains in con- 

 siderable part, the varying amounts of honey secured by 

 different colonies. Mr. Hawley. of San Diego county. Calif, 

 secured queens from a noted breeder in the East, and the 

 product from these bees was surprisingly in advance of 

 that from his other bees. Thus there is a practical side to 

 this question, rich with promise, which I will reserve until 

 my next. Los .'\ngeles Co., Calif. 



Selling Comb Honey by the Piece vs. Pound. 



BY J. A. GREEN". 



In the recent discussion of the rhatter of selling comb 

 honey by the case, the Editor has shown one side' of the 

 question, the Colorado bee-keepers another, while still others 

 have endeavored to show that we can not all be bound by 

 the same rules. It is an important subject, and we need 

 all the light we can get on it. . 



Those bee-keepers who market honey by the case with 

 as much variation in the net weight of the cases as has 

 been reported in some instances, are certainly guilty of a 

 carelessness that will react severely on the interests of bee- 

 keepers in general. If a case of honey is figured as 21 

 pounds, and the average weight of a lot of cases is 21 pounds, 

 it is quite true that there has been no dishonesty practiced 

 as between the producer and the wholesale buyer, even if 

 there is considerable variation in individual weights ; but 

 where this variation exists, unless the wholesale buyer re- 

 grades the honey, or sells by weight, there is bound to be 

 more or less injustice and dissatisfaction before it reaches 

 the consumer. 



This results in inevitable injury to honey-producing in- 

 terests. Bee-keepers as a class are too apt to lose sight of 

 the fact that the sale of the crop is quite as important as 

 its production. • They are too apt to think that once they have 

 got their honey off their hands their interest in the matter 

 ends. Compare their attitude with the scrupulous care taken 

 by the producers of most other articles, tliat their product 

 gets into the hands of the consumer so that it is satisfactory 

 and pleasing to him. 



If the consumer is not pleased with the honey he buys, 

 he can, and frequently does, do without any more honey. 

 If the retailer gets honey that he can not handle conveniently, 

 satisfactorily and profitably, he may drop the sale of honey 

 altogether in the future. I have frequently found such men who 

 have become disgusted with a poor lot or two of honey they 

 have become "stuck" on, and have quit the sale of honey 

 entirely on that account. Honey is not the necessity or the 

 staple article that we would like to see it, so he loses little 

 or no trade thereby in other lines, as his customers, if they 

 do not see honey, will not usually ask for it or go elsewhere to 

 hunt it up. 



It is a short-sighted policy that does not consider the 

 fact that the interests of the retailer and consumer must be 

 taken into account, and that to practice any injustice on 

 either of them must inevitably injure our trade. This is true 

 of all branches of trade, but particularly so in ours, where 

 the consumer may readily dispense with our product if he 

 wishes. 



There are great and undeniable advantages in buying and 

 selling honey by the case, or by the section, which amounts 

 to the same thing. Grocers almost invariably sell honey by 

 the section if its condition will at all admit of it, and after 

 they have once experienced the advantages of the plan, they 

 generally prefer to buy as well as sell by the piece. 



To enable them to do this advantageously, there must be 

 a certain uniformity, not only between sections in each case, 

 but between different cases. 



It is quite possible to have this uniformity. For years I 

 have been selling my honey in our local markets by the sec- 

 tion instead of by the pound. It has been most satisfactory 

 to me, and that it has been so to the grocers is evidenced 



