1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAI! 



maturity of the flowers. Many, like 

 cotton, golden currant and horse- 

 chestnut, change color as this period 

 of sexual functioning and maximum 

 nectar secretion passes, and bees 

 often are quick to catch the signal. 

 Extra nuptial nectar is secreted in 

 greatest quantity while near-by flow- 

 ers and foliage of the plant are 

 young. 



Nectar differs from time to time 

 in quality as well as in quantity. In 

 damp weather the increased quantity 

 commonly causes a greater dilution 

 of its contents of sugar, and the 

 bees have been shown to store a 

 greater weight of honey several days 

 after a rainy day than immediately 

 following it. Though the greater part 

 of nectar is water, its essential part, 

 for the bee-man, is sugar, chiefly a 

 mixture of two kinds of sugar that 

 possess a different molecular ar- 

 rangement though containing the 

 same number of carbon, hydrogen 

 and starch atoms, which causes them 

 to behave differently when examined 

 by polarized light and materially af- 

 fects other of their physical proper- 

 ties. 



The flow of the water of nectar 

 seems to be like that of water 

 through water pores, an infiltration 

 under pressure when root-absorption 

 is active and leaf evaporation 

 checked; but thoroughly and repeat- 

 edly washing the glands sometimes 

 puts a stop to it. Beating rain does 

 this as effectively as experimental 

 washing. Change of position and 

 closing in dark rainy weather char- 

 acterize some flowers, and keep the 

 rain from washing away their ac- 

 cumulated nectar and checking its 

 replenishment. This was Sprengel's 

 explanation of the fringe of hair on 

 the petals of the wild geranium. In 

 proportion as such nectar guards are 

 effective, they preserve the supply 

 and contribute to its continuance; in 

 proportion as rain has opportunity 

 to beat upon the nectar glands it 

 wastes, and may even check, the pro- 

 duction of nectar. 



This stopping of nectar flow by 

 washing away the secretion of the 

 glands, is connected with the affinity 

 for water of sugars. The flow of 

 water appears to be started by the 

 osmotic force of the disintegrated 

 part of the walls of the secreting 

 cells; it is stopped when the result- 

 ing substance has been removed from 

 the outer surface of the secreting 

 cells. 



If this were all, unless the degen- 

 erating cellulose were replenished in 

 sufficient quantity, there would hard- 

 ly be such a thing as honey produc- 

 tion. Indeed, some e.xtranuptial 

 glands secrete a nectar containing so 

 little sugar that even ants may not be 

 attracted by it, as is said to be the 

 case with climbing smartweeds cul- 

 tivated in England, though it is noi 

 usually true of such plants growing 

 wild here where they are at home. 

 Commonly, however, the sugar in 

 nectar is replenished while the se- 

 cretion of fluid continues. 



The passage out of sugar from a liv- 

 ing cell is very different from the es- 



cape of water; the latter may result 

 from pressure on the one hand or 

 osmotic draft on the other, because 

 the outer protoplasm is permeable to 

 water but not to sugar. When sugar 

 is secreted, this protoplasmic layer 

 becomes to a greater or less degree 

 permeable to the escaping sugar. 

 This is one phase of the activity of 

 the living protoplasm, for secretion 

 is a vital phenomenon. What greater 

 or less permeability of protoplasm 

 actually consists in is a matter of 

 theory rather than of observation, 

 but the phenomenon is a subject of 

 observation and experiment. Alter- 

 nating warmth and cold, within lim- 

 its, affect it; it has its optimum at 

 a rather high temperature, as well 

 as its minimum and maximum. 

 Through an adequately permeable 

 membrane, the flow of either water 

 or sugar may be outwards — as it is 

 in normal secretion, or inwards — 

 when the secretion is absorbed — as 

 e.xperiments show to be true under 

 some conditions. 



Water for nectar secretion is ob- 

 tained in the first place through the 

 roots of the plant and travels from 

 the point of absorption to the point 

 of secretion. Sugar for nectar se- 

 cretion is manufactured within the 

 plant, very close to the point where 

 it is secreted. It is primarily a prod- 

 uct of the carbon-fixing or photo- 

 synthetic activity (or in other words, 

 assimilative activity. — Editor.) that 

 marks green plants as the food mak- 

 ers of the world. Sugars appear to 

 be among the earliest formed of such 

 carbon-containing or organic sub- 

 stances in the plant; but usually they 

 are changed into starch for storage, 

 and this is subsequently digested or 

 transformed into a sugar when the 

 time of its use comes. The cells 

 about some nectar glands are stor- 

 age repositories of sugar; in other 

 cases they accumulate a reserve of 

 starch, as raw material, before their 

 activities begin in supplying sugar. 



Evidently, back of the nectar-pro- 



duction of a given day or season, 

 very closely related to its own opti- 

 mum conditions of temperature and 

 humidity, lies the earlier vegetation 

 of the nectar-producing plants. 

 Strength and vigor of growth, a good 

 reserve of stored food from the year 

 before, or favorable sprmg season, 

 these would seem logically to affect 

 the activity of the plant in perform- 

 ing this as well as others of its func- 

 tions. 



Kenoyer's conclusions, from 



Strong's honey-gathering statistics, 

 give support to this expectation : 

 "There is an evident alteration be 

 tween good and poor years," as in 

 ample production; "a good year has 

 a rainfall slightly above the average, 

 preceded by an autumn, winter and 

 spring iwith more than the average 

 precipitation," affording adequate and 

 lasting soil moisture; "a rainy May 

 scarcely fails to precede a good 

 honey season," for the same reason; 

 "a cold winter has no detrimental ef- 

 fect on the yield of the succeeding 

 season, but a cold March reduces it," 

 through preventing a fair early 

 growth of the honey plants; "a win- 

 ter of heavy snowfall, in the great 

 majority of cases, is followed by a 

 larger honey yield," because of its 

 contribution to the soil moisture and 

 the protection afforded the plants 

 during their hibernation. 



Of these conclusions, most bear di- 

 rectly on the conditions favorable for 

 nectar secretion by the plants; some 

 bear as directly on those favorable 

 for the wintering in prime condition 

 of the bees. Honey production rests 

 upon both, not only in June and July 

 and on individual days in those 

 months of greatest honey storage, 

 but on preceding days and rnonths of 

 preparation. Perhaps the suggestion 

 may be made, even, that it goes much 

 further back, through long centuries 

 of selective evolution, side by side, 

 of nectar-yielding plants and honey- 

 storing insects, gradually coming into 

 mutually helpful harmony. 



M. D. Johnson of Webster, Iowa, uses cement walks for hive stands. Last year 108 colonies 

 were increased to 150 and 6,600 pounds of comb honey secured. 



