f)2fi 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



nice transparent juice, which I think is of a good 

 flavor. It is so plentiful that I could lick it up, eas- 

 ily. This as well as the pin-oak acorn is a phenom- 

 enon to us. We have never seen bees on them 

 before. 



LIVE-OAK. 



Southern boc- keepers know the value of this 

 " long-lived " tree, as being- the best of firewood, 

 as well as one of the best honey-pi-oducing trees in 

 the South, though it does not produce honey every 

 year; but it will, during a dry year as well as wet; 

 and when it does, it is nice. 



The honey comes from balls or nut-galls. I find, 

 early in the morning, enough on one ball to make 

 quite a respectable load for an old "vet," whose 

 wings are tattered or torn. Honey is liable to come 

 from these balls up to October. This is such a 

 bountiful year for exudation that I look for a fine 

 crop of honey from the cotton-plant. 



This year has been a good one with us in Texas. 

 I think Texas will get her name in the "pot" after 

 awhile. What is the matter with B. F. Carroll? Is 

 he sick? We have taken 7000 lbs. Our bees had a 

 shabby start in the spring, and were debarred from 

 honey-gathering by being used for queen-rearing 

 up till now. A good rain the first of July would 

 have given us a ton of honey from sumac and buck- 

 bush iSymphoricarpits). Our last rain, as near as I 

 remember, fell in May. 



APHIDES. 



Friends, you talk about lice spraying honey over 

 the leaves. I beg to put in a thought that you are 

 all wrong. Of all the above, I have seen lice on the 

 sunflowers only. They were there for the sweets, 

 just as bees, wasps, ants, and all other insects are. 

 I think it all bosh to talk about insects producing 

 honey. I have picked cotton many a time when the 

 leaves were sticky, from the top of the stalk to the 

 bottom. My hands would get so sticky late in the day 

 by touching the leaves that I couldn't handle the 

 cotton well, and I never did see lice on it. I think 

 it an unscientific, chimerical, vapor speculation. 

 It has no foundation in fact whatever, and, I am 

 afraid, is somewhat peculiar to those who advocate 

 it. The idea that an insect can produce honey is an 

 absurd idea, and is about as wise as some of our 

 bee-neighbors, who say the bees make the honey, 

 and don't gather it from any thing, but gather bee- 

 bread. Others say they don't get it from any thing 

 but honey-dew that falls from heaven, and get bee- 

 feed from flowers. This may seem harsh, but it is 

 in due respect to all. J. W. Guyton. 



Waco, Texas, Aug. 28, 1884. 



P. S.—l have sold my interest in Guyton Bros.' 

 apiary to my brother Isaac. I think of locating at 

 Lampassas Springs. J. W. G. 



Eriend G., you are doubtless somewhat in 

 the right, but I thinly you are a little un- 

 charitable in rej?ard to "the aphis part of it. 

 It may be that the honey sometimes exudes 

 from the plant after it has been punctured 

 by the aphides; but that the aphi(h's. after 

 eatinji; the foliage of the plant, or the bark, 

 do also exude or reject a sweet sul)st.ance, 

 is abundantly proven, ^^el■y likely what we 

 call honey -dew conies from a vai'iety of 

 sources ; and, i)lease let us investigate it as 

 fully as we can. But. even ttiougli our in- 

 vestigations do not harmonize with those of 

 some otlier brother, please let us be a little 

 slow in deciding that he has made a mistake, 

 shall we not V 



THE INSECTIVOROUS TOAD. 



A PI-EA FOR WHAT WE HAVE CONSIDERED A COM- 

 MON ENEMY. 



ANY apiarists look upon toads as their ene- 

 '™ mies, because they sometimes sit atthehlve 

 entrances, and gather the honey-laden bees 

 into their capacious stomachs, appearing to 

 be, like that celebrated character of Dick- 

 ens, " always ready for more." That they do this 

 occasionally, no one can dispute; but that because 

 of this they should be persecuted and killed, is and 

 ought to be disputed. Hence I have thought that 

 the results of an examination of toads' stomachs, 

 which I recently made, would be of interest to the 

 readers of Gleanings. 



The method of the examination was this: The 

 specimens were killed by means of chloroform, and 

 the contents of their stomachs removed to a watch- 

 glass containing alcohol; the recognizable insects 

 were then separated, and their percentage estimat- 

 ed; after this a portion consisting of broken in- 

 sects and other particles, remained to be placed on 

 the glass slip, and viewed through a microscope, 

 and the percentage of the insect particles carefully 

 estimated. Although much has been written about 

 the insects eaten by toads, so far as can be ascer- 

 tained no attempt has been made to discover 

 whether or not the insects eaten were beneficial or 

 injurious to agriculture. 



Seven specimens were examined, all taken in July. 

 Insects formed 81 percent of their food; spiders 

 and "thousand-legged" worms 11 per cent, and 

 vegetable matter, consisting of dry grass-blades, 

 pieces of decayed wood, etcetera, 5 per cent. This 

 latter was probably largely, if not wholly, accident- 

 ally introduced. Ants formed 33 per cent, the 

 largest percentage of any element of their food. 

 Beetles of the predaceous family, caraJmkc, and In- 

 jurious cut-worms and other moth larvsB, were the 

 next most numerous insects, the percentage of each 

 being fourteen ; but it is a noteworthy fact, the for- 

 mer (carahidcv) were almost wholly of the species 

 which Prof. Forbes has found to be cither wholly 

 or partially vegetable feeding. Besides this family 

 of beetles there were present in some cases the 

 elater, or click beetles, which lay the eggs which pro- 

 duce the pernicious root-eating wire-worms. There 

 were also a great many beetles of the strawberry- 

 crown girdler, which has recently become so numer- 

 ous in this vicinity. These beetles formed 7 per cent 

 of the whole food. Another element largely present 

 Avas the larvie of grasshoppers and crickets, which 

 formed 6 per cent of the whole, the most common 

 species being the red-legged grasshoppers. There 

 were also 3 per cent of spiders present. 



Thus we see that toads, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, are of immense benefit. Should they be 

 destroyed, doubtless many no.vious insects would 

 increase to such an extent as to do great injury to 

 many farm crops, and to many honey-bearing 

 plants. Hence, my bee-keeping friend, if you see 

 one of these jeweled batrachians consigning your 

 bees to an untimely grave, lift him up by the nape 

 of his handsome (?) neck, tenderly carry him beyond 

 the precincts of the apiary, and deposit him in your 

 berry-patch or onion-bed. Have no fear of warts, 

 for there is no danger in handling a toad. If toads 

 continue to be troublesome, erect a low board fence 

 around your apiary, to exclude them. 



Clarence. M. Weei)^ 



Lansing, Mich., Aug. 6, 1881. 



