GLEANINGS IN BEE CLrLTUilE. 



Aug. 



Bee Botany, 



OR, HONEY -PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



MANNA GRASS AS A HONEY-PI.ANT. 



INCLOSE a specimen of plant wbich a neighbor 



j^ found in a low piece of ground, and called my 



I attention to it. Upon examination I found it 

 literally alive with bees, and drops of honey 



• hanging- from the branches. It was then about 

 4 o'clock V. M. The plants were about three feet 

 high, and covered about one-eighth of an acre. Will 

 you please give the name of this plant? 



Fkank D. Cui,vek. 



Quincy, Mich., Juno 29, 1884. 



A l)iiii«lle of this grass was mailed iis. and 

 it had imu'h the appearance of li;iviii,n- been 

 dipped in tiiick lioney. I can readily imagine 

 there might be a big nproai- among tiie bees 

 were a field exposed to them in this shape. 

 We sent the plant to our Ixdanist, and here 

 is his reply : 



The specimen of plant from Frank D. Culver, 

 Quincy, Mich., is a species of "Manna grass" (tr/j/- 

 ccriafuitann). It is found generally throughout the 

 eastern and middle United States, in swales and 

 swampy situations, where it grows to a height of 

 three to five feet. All our grasses contain nioi-e or 

 less sugar; but what should cause it to exude upon 

 the specimen sent, I am unable to say, unless it be 

 from insects troubling: it. 



W. S. Devol, Botanist. 



Columbus, Ohio, July 14, 1884. 



The point is, friends, is this only an acci- 

 dental exudation from the foliage, or does 

 tliis manna grass habitually secrete honey 

 after tliis fashion ? If the latter were true, 

 it would bid fair to outstrip any thing yet 

 known in the way of bee pastm-age. Can 

 friend Cnlver tellris if there were any indi- 

 cations of insect agency when he saw it ? 

 How long did this great flow last V and has 

 lie ever known bees working on it before V 

 There is something to me a little strange in 

 the name, manna grass. Can Prof. Devol 

 tell us why it should have been given this 

 name ? In our back volumes something has 

 been said in regard to the relationship of 

 manna to honey. 



BERMUDA GUASS. 



Prof. Devol replies as below in regard to 

 the inquiry on page 491, in our last issue. 

 Has anybody else seen bees working on this 

 grass v From the report, it would seem that 

 it is an easy thing to raise. 



The plant sent us under date of July 5, and called 

 "Bermuda grass" {Cijnodon dactylon), is correctly 

 named. It is also sometimes called '* scutch grass " 

 and " wire grass." It is a low, creeping perennial; 

 a native of Europe, but naturalized in many coun- 

 tries. It is by some considered a valuable pasture 

 grass, while others regard it as among the worst of 

 weeds. It seems to flourish best on the light sandy 

 soils of the South, but is also found to do well in the 

 Northern States. Once well established it is with dif- 

 ficulty eradicated from the land. Chemical analysis 

 of the grass shows it to be of less value as a food for 

 animals than many other of our common grasses. 

 In regard to its value in the South, Prof. Killebrew 

 says: " In Louisiana, Texas, and the South gener- 

 ally, it is, and has been, the chief reliance for pas- 



any 



ture for a long time. * * * lion's thrive upon its 

 suc3ulent roots, and horses and citfcla upon its 

 foliage. It has the cvpacity to withstand f 

 amount of heat and drought." 



W. S. Devol, Botanist, 

 Wm. R. Lazenby, Director 

 Columbus, Ohio, July 14, 1881. 



ARE QUEENS SUPERSEDED ONLY 

 WHEN THEY ARE FAILING? 



i'kiend eastburn gives us some facts in the 

 matter. 



^T UNE, 1883, 1 receivea a very fine $1.00 Italian 

 r, T' queen of D. A. Pike, of Maryland, which turn - 

 i'l od out to be a very prolific one. They wintcr- 

 *^ ed finely, and she commenced to lay very ear- 

 ly this spring, and kept it up until June, 1884, 

 and she seemed to be all right. June 13 I found a 

 dead young Italian queen in front of the hive. 

 About two hours after I found the dead queen, I 

 saw on the ground in front of the hive my old queen 

 I received of D. A. Pike. She was alive and lively; 

 her wing being clipped, she could not get away, so I . 

 caged her, and examined the colony to see what was 

 the matter. On the second frame that I lifted out I 

 found a large and beautiful young virgin Italian 

 queen. The reason I now knew, for I saw her the 

 next day start on her wedding-trip. I also found two 

 queen-cells. One torn open at the side accounts for 

 the dead queen; the other cut atr the end, to show 

 that a queen had emerged. Then I introduced the 

 old queen I saw outside of the hive on the ground, 

 into a Sframe nucleus hive in which there was a 

 queen-cell. She was accepted at that moment, and 

 the queen-cell destroyed. She commenced laying 

 the same daj', and I have raised several nice queens 

 from her eggs since she was in the nucleus, and I 

 lost her in introducing her to a colony of hybrids. 

 Now, did you ever hear tell of such actions as this? 

 I suppose the bees had led her out by the ear for 

 some cause, right In the swai-ming season, and the 

 hive crammed full of bees and honey, and nearly ~4 

 sections full and capped, and they did not swarm. 



The honey-fiow is over with us, and a slim crop to 

 what we expected. A very little increase this 

 spring; out of 13 colonies I had only 4 swarms. I 

 hived only one, and put the others back. 



I see that j'ou have added 20 new pages and 50 

 new illustrations to your ABC book. I do not 

 want you to think I wish to dictate to you what you 

 must do, but I thought that those of us who had 

 bought the old A B C of you have not got those ex- 

 tra pages that are added to its volume, but it will 

 not, I suppose, make so much difference to those 

 who have got back numbers of Gleanings to refer 

 to, but I have not. Now, would it not be an accom- 

 modation to many if you would print the extra mat- 

 ter you have added to your book, in pamphlet form, 

 at a price to pay you? I know it would be to me, as 

 I do not wish to buy another book to get those 

 2J pages, as long as mine keeps together. 



JOSIAH Eastburn. 



Fallsington, Berks Co., Pa., July 14, 1884. 



Young queens are very often raised before 

 we can discover any apparent failure with 

 the old(iueeii-nu)ther ; but it is quite seldom, 

 I believe, tliat they are driven out of the 

 hive as in tlie case yon mention. I have 

 sometimes found queens out in front of the 

 hive in this way, and on pntting them back 



