ISSB 



GLeA:NINGS in bee CtlLTtltlE. 



G.5S 



also fairly alive with the bees. The bees work on 

 these, both for pollen and honey. I have often seen 

 bees loaded with pollen, sipping the nectar. Poor 

 fellows! how tired they must get to thus go doubly 

 loaded! I have seen the poor bees drop to the 

 earth, and rest for quite a time, then rise and slow- 

 ly make for their hives. T have often se^en them 

 also gather pollen from two species of these sun- 

 flowers during the same trip. Is not the old notion, 

 that bees visit only one species of flowers during a 

 single trip to the fields, due rather to the fact that 

 flowers " of a feather flock together," than to any 

 special option of the bees? 



I should like to discuss many others of these in- 

 teresting plants, but will wait. In the meantime I 

 give j'ou, my good friend, a most hearty invitation 

 to come and see that the half is not yet told. 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., July 23, 1886. 



Miiny tluinks, fiiend C'ook, for your kind 

 invitation, and I may accept it pretty soon. 

 We missed you sadly at our recent meeting 

 at friend Chapman s, wliich 1 liave men- 

 tioned elsewhere. jS'ow please have your 

 pupils tie a little paper bag over those heads 

 of teasel and balls of bloom on other plants, 

 keeping the l)ees away for L'4 or 48 hours, 

 and then see what you find. Where bees 

 are allowed to work on the tlowers from 

 morning till night, we have no opportunity 

 of getting any knowledge at all of the quan- 

 tity of lioney the flowers secrete. What you 

 say about the teasel is new to me. I con- 

 fess I did not know that it secretes water in 

 the way you mention, although we have 

 plenty of wild teasels growing round all 

 about us. I am of the opinion, that bees 

 rather prefer to work on one kind of blos- 

 soms, for I have often noticed them in the 

 clover-lield wliere red and white clover were 

 about e(iually divided. Some of the bees 

 visited the red-clover heads exclusively, and 

 others just as exclusively the white-clover 

 heads, and I never saw a bee go from white 

 to red clover, or rkr versa, that 1 know of. 



HONEY AS FOOD AND DRINK. 



IIONEV GINGER-SNAPS. 



fSI HE following recipe my wife has used for 

 |)" years with good results: One cup of In-own 

 > sugar, one cup of extracted honey, a talile- 

 spoouful of ground ginger, a cup of melted 

 butter or meat fryings, a teaspoon ful of 

 saleratus dissolved in a little hot water, and as 

 much wheat flour as can possibly be stirred in (but 

 not kneaded). Pinch off pieces about the size of a 

 large marble, and roll between the hands. Leave 

 spaces between them in the pan to allow for spread- 

 ing. Bake in a moderate oven till of a nice brown, 

 and leave in the pan till they are " snappy." In 

 cold weather the materials should be warmed be- 

 fore stirring in the Hour. They are perhaps a little 

 tougher than if made of molasses, but good " all the 

 same." Thej- will " keep," if you keep them off the 

 table and out of reach of the children. 



A CHEAP HARVEST DRINK FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



When I was a boy my mother used to make a 

 drink for us to carry into the hay and harxest flcld 

 that we called " ginger beer." It was made of water 

 with sufficient molasses, vinegar, and ginger to 



make it taste agreeable. Since I have been keeping 

 bees I ful-nish my men with a similar drink for hot 

 weather. 



RECIPE. 



One teacupful of extracted honey, one teacupful 

 of vinegar (made also from honey), a teaspoonful 

 of ground ginger and half a gttllon of water. It can 

 be used immediately, 01- will be good all day. I 

 have never had a man or boy who did not prefel- 

 this to water. The condiments can be Varied It) 

 suit the taste. The ginger is a good tohic, and the 

 stonlach is hot so likely to get " sick " as when wa- 

 ter alone is dralik. They are not so liable to ovei-- 

 load the stomach. Wlien taken into the field fol' 

 half a day, water gets warm and sickish— not so this 

 di'lnk. It is good all day. Eugene Secor. 



Forest City, Iowa, July L'O, l88(>. 



CARBOLIC ACID FOR QUIETING BEES, 

 HYBRIDS, ETC. 



DOE.S THROWING tJIKT RUING DOWN SWARMS? 



TjTOU ask if my bees are hybrids. I think they 



I^Ura ftre. I send otf and get new queens every 



^^ .Vear or two; but the first thing T know they 



are all hybrids agaiiii They seem prone to 



run to hybrids as sparks to fly upward. 



If carbolic acid used in smokers makes othel' 

 bees as cross as a rag wet with it did mine, I do 

 not envj' anybody all the fun they will have using 

 it. I used it on one of my best Italians, and they 

 stung me so that I could not shut my fingers 

 enough to feed myself for a day or two. I don't 

 want any more carbolic acid in mine. 



Ernest asks one of the juveniles if he really be- 

 lieves that throwing dirt among a swarm causes it 

 to alifiht. Of course, it does. Our work-hands 

 used to bring them down every time if they were 

 crossing a field where there was plenty of loose 

 dirt. That was before I began clipping the queen's 

 wings, when swarms ran awaj' every day in 

 swarming time. Neither tin pans nor drums, din- 

 ner-bells, nor yelling helps a mite; but hittina them 

 with dirt or water does. 



WHAT MADE THAT TOENAIL COME OFF ? 



Now for that toe-nail of yours. I have been try- 

 ing to attend to it for some time, but have been 

 just too busy for any thing. P'riend Root, you did 

 f<tid) that toe — Mrs. Root was right, as she always 

 is. Of course, I know you are honest in thinking that 

 it came off for a little extra filing, but it did not. 

 You stubbed- that toe on Ruber's cradle as you 

 jumped oiit of bed some morning in a great hurry, 

 or else you kicked it against the foot-board, or the 

 Jersey cow stepped on it, or the wheel of the mar- 

 ket-wagon passed over it while you wore loading 

 in lettuce, or your horse trod on it, or you let one 

 of those fifty-cent hammers (the best in the mar- 

 ket) fall on it, or else, or else, or else. Why, there 

 are fifty ways that a man with his head in the 

 clouds might stub his toe and never know it, and 

 you are just as sure to have hit upon one of those 

 ways as that your name is A. I. Root. 



Vermont, III. Mahai,a B. Chaddock. 



Now, Mrs. ('haddock, I do not like to con- 

 tradict, l)ut I tell you that none of the 

 things you mention have ever happened to 

 that toe of mine. My mother says I was re- 

 markalily cautious, even when I was a bfiby, 

 and 1 have not got over it even yet. I do 



