May 16, 1907 



415 



ognized authority on the subject in 

 this State. While he may be trans- 

 ferred to another sphere of the insti- 

 tution, I hardly think the Regents will 

 allow so valuable and worthy a profes- 

 sor to sever his couaection with the 

 college altogether. 



I first made the acquaintance of Prof. 

 Wickson in the fall of 1876, I believe, 

 when I was a student of the Univer- 

 sity. I think I wrote an article for the 

 Rural Press, showing that some alleged 

 moth-proof bee-hive, extolled by one 

 of the paper's correspondents, was not 

 what it was claimed to be, and it could 

 not be. Later, I disproved (or think 

 I did) that a certain variety of eucalyp- 

 tus near Los Angeles killed honey-bees 

 wholesale when they quaffed of the 

 nectar contained in the flowers thereof. 

 Since then, nothing has been heard of 

 the alleged honey-bee-killing eucalyp- 

 tus. The story came through one of 

 the Los Angeles dailies, and was 

 copied by the Rural Press. 



Prof. Wickson, though not a practi- 

 cal apiarist, has always taken quite an 

 interest in bee-matters, and had quite 

 an apiarian department in his weekly. 

 I believe it was in 1875, when he was 

 connected with the Utica (N. Y.) Her- 

 ald, that he was appointed on a com- 

 mittee of the American Bee-Keepers' 

 Society, which met, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, in the city just named, for the 

 purpose of investigating the alleged 

 adulteration of honey. One of the 

 other members of the committee was 

 the great American bee-keeper, Moses 

 Quinby. The Professor tells an amus- 

 ing story of his visit to the veteran 

 apiarist's home. 



A more unassuming, yet agreeable, 

 gentleman than Prof. Wickson, never 

 lived. He was held in such high es- 

 teem in his home city, Berkeley, that 

 he was retained as a member of the 

 School Board for over 20 years, and he 

 would probably be looking after the 

 interests of the children yet if he did 

 not insist upon having his name with- 

 drawn from further elections of the 

 position. 



American Vae Journal 



are most abundant, we get the most 

 delicious honey of the year. This is 

 the latter part of April and during the 

 first half of May, when the weather is 

 warm. 



<l^-'^,^r^^ 



Where All Is Golden 



The Golden State ! Golden in its 

 most precious metal ; golden in the 

 color of its countless acres of wild 

 flowers 1 In a short trip down the 

 county recently I noticed vast fields of 

 yellow flowers— a cloak of gold seemed 

 to bo spread over a large section of the 

 earth within the reach of one's vision. 

 There was the thrifty mustard, and 

 there were turnips. The last-named 

 seemed to vie extermination, for grain- 

 field, truck-garden and pasture were all 

 taken possession of, as it were, by this 

 earliest blooming of flowers. Then 

 there were some rape and radish— all 

 yellow as the gold of Ophir, except the 

 latter. These all grow in a wild state 

 in luxuriant profusion— so much so at 

 times that they are a sore annoyance 

 to the cultivator of the soil. This sea- 

 son they seem more numerous than 

 ever; I suppose the long, wet winter 

 and spring was the cause. But to the 

 apiarist they are more of a joy than a 

 sorrow— they all yield richly in nectar, 

 and, I believe, of a very fine flavor. I 

 know that in years when these flowers 



Advertise, Ye Bee-Caterers 



The closing lines in another para- 

 graph impel me to add a few more 

 words upon the subject of advertising. 

 No merchant nowadays hopes to make 

 a success of his business unless he 

 devotes a portion of his profits or capi- 

 tal to advertising. As proof, just look 

 at the vast acres of advertising space 

 used in the papers — daily, weekly, and 

 monthly — and to the broadsides printed 



or painted upon dead walls, fences, 

 etc. If your business is young and 

 your capital small, advertise moder- 

 ately ; if well established, advertise 

 generously. Big ads sell little biscuits 

 for the greatest baking concern in the 

 world ; heavy advertising built up the 

 most pernicious tobacco trust known 

 to English speaking people. The 

 queen-breeder, the hive-maker, the 

 honey-seller, may all find their several 

 businesses expand under the magic of 

 the impress of cold type and printer's 

 ink. Try it in the " Old Reliable," if 

 you are not doing so ; thousands of 

 bee-keepers are in need of what you 

 have to sell ; perhaps I, myself, may be 

 in need of the very article you are hid- 

 ing in the dark. 





The " Old Reliable " as seen through New and Unreliable Glasses, 

 Bj E. E. Hastt, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



Winter Hivk-Entrances— Clipping 

 Queens' Wings. 



Thanks to Mr. Byer for evidence 

 that entrances contracted for winter 

 all on one side do not always prove 

 disastrous. 



And he is setting a record when he 

 gets his bees to roar at night in maple- 

 sugar time. (A sleet had torn maple 

 branches everywhere, and then it came 

 warm.) 



And the Byer method of clipping 

 queens is likely to prove very catching 

 among spry-fingered operators who 

 delight in doing something other folks 

 can't do. (Curved surgical scissors, 

 which can be had for about 60 cents a 

 pair. And deftly whisk up the wing 

 and clip it without touching the queen 

 elsewhere.) "No use o' talkin'," the 

 scent of human fingers does sometimes 

 cause queens to be attacked and killed. 

 Thus the improved way is a life-saver. 

 One heavy objection to the usual way 

 is that the queen at once throws a foot 

 upon one of the blades in the effort to 

 push it away, and loses a foot in the 

 process. The Doolittle way with a 

 keen pen-knife is vastly safer, as well 

 as being a good way otherwise. 

 Whether the Byer method is splendid 

 or bad depends partly upon whether 

 the queen is, or is not, going to notice 

 the thing enough to " put her foot in 

 it." I hope she will not ; but it needs 

 lots of watching — and lots of examina- 

 tion of queens afterward — to be sure of 

 it. Very desirable to obviate the scent 

 of fingers which the Doolittle way puts 

 on. I don't clip. If I did I think I 

 should use wire forceps— made of such 

 fine wire as frames are wired with. 

 Loop on each tip sized and shaped like 

 a bean. This wire, when doubled and 

 twisted, is just still enough to hold the 



queen, and just flexible enough that 

 you can't pinch to injure her. Once in 

 the forceps, you can focus her in your 

 specs and proceed so deliberately that 

 the danger of amputating feet and legs 

 is minimized. Alas, she is so quick, 

 and the human nerve-telegraph so 

 slow, that the foot tnay go in just as 

 the blades close by any scissors method 

 — unless, possibly, by the method 

 which uses a West cage and pulls a 

 wing through the wires before cutting. 

 Page 317. 



The Sad Mix Up of Names of 

 Plants. 



Yes, Mr. SchoU, it's a sad nuisance 

 that in the popular names of plants it 

 so often happens that totally different 

 plants have the same name in different 

 localities. The sage of Texas is not, 

 by a mile, the sage of California. The 

 poplar of the South is about as differ- 

 ent as you can well get from the poplar 

 of the North — and so on around. Use 

 the botanical names ? Ah, yes — if only 

 our jaw-bones would not break in the 

 process — and if only the angels were 

 white, and didn't have such big black 

 spots on them ! Botanical names pretty 

 badly mixed, too. From the sheer 

 vastness of Nature, the same plant in- 

 nocently got two or more botanical 

 names. Competent botanists worked, 

 and worked hard and wide, and didn't 

 always see each other's work in time. 

 But mending the trouble, and getting 

 down to one name, was a tedious affair 

 not yet fully over. Also some dupli- 

 cates were given on purpose. The big 

 trees of California had to fight it out 

 between Wellingtonia (biggest British 

 general) and Washingtonia (biggest 

 American president), and Sequoya (big- 

 gest Indian thinker), the last finally 



