206 



GLEANINGS I^^ -BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



being the second source from which honey 

 is obtained witli you, I did not at first under- 

 stand you. I have been so long accustomed 

 to hearing our friends in the Soutli call 

 whitewood poplar, that I supposed you 

 meant the great tulip-shaped blossoms ; but 

 I now conclude you mean l>y poplar a tree 

 that bears a sort of tag, something like the 

 alder. It is the same tree, I think, that we 

 call the quaking aspen, and it furnishes 

 white poplar for sections very much like the 

 Vermont white poplar. It seems a little 

 unfortunate that this word '' poplar " should 

 be applied to trees so widely different. Can 

 not some of our botanists straighten us up 

 on onr nomenclature of trees? We notice 

 that Gray's Botany says the tulip-tree is also 

 called whitewood and even poplar ; and in 

 another place it describes poplar as the 

 American aspen. The variety called the 

 " downy poplar, " growing on wet grounds, 

 is perhaps the one you refer to. In our lo- 

 cality the bees get a very bright-yellow pol- 

 len late in the fall, even after severe frosts. 

 I have never yet been able to discover where 

 it comes from. I think somebody has before 

 suggested witch-hazel, which you refer to as 

 being very late. 



STATISTICS. 



FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FROM PROF. COOK. 



R. EDITOR:— Soon after coming back from 

 the National Convention, at Chicago, I 

 wrote very fully to the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, and gave my letter to Pres. 

 Willits, who was to visit Washington, and 

 asked him to press the matter personally, which he 

 kindly consented to do. He wrote me from Wash- 

 ington, that the head of the Department promised 

 all possible aid, and asked that we should suggest 

 how he could best serve us. 



The Commissioner has also communicated with 

 Dr. A. B. Mason— see last number of American Bee 

 Journal, also Gleanings, and again asks for aid. 



The committee, consisting of Dr. A. B. Mason, 

 Mr. T. G. Newman, and myself, suggest that bee- 

 keepers all through the United States write at 

 once to Mr. T. G. Newman and offer service as re- 

 porters of statistics. The Commissioner wishes 

 two for each county. While we can hardly hope 

 for so much at first, the nearer we approximate to 

 it the more value we shall receive. Let every bee- 

 keeper, then, proffer service at once. Then the 

 committee can select, by lot or otherwise, from 

 counties where more than two offer. Surely bee- 

 keepers will be prompt and generous. We ought 

 to have a good corps of correspondents from each 

 State, and one, at least, from each county in those 

 States, where bee-keeping is an important indus- 

 try. 



The Commissioner will send out blanks to fill out. 

 The nature of these, as to how bees wintered; what 

 per cent of a full crop of light honey in June and 

 July was secured in four sections? what per cent of 

 a full crop of autumn honey did four secure? what 

 honey-plants are valuable in four sectioijs? etc., 

 will be considered later by the oomnjittee. Now 

 for volunteer reporters. Will other bee-papers 

 please copy? By order of committee. 



HOW FAR WILL BEES GO FOR 

 HONEY ? 



A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College. Mich., M&v- 1, 



60 LBS. OF HORSEMINT HONEY PER COLONY, TAK- 

 EN BY ITALIANS SIX AND EIGHT MILES 

 AWAY. 



fHIS is a subject that has always interested 

 me, and I have made it a point to gather all 

 the information I could for the last five 

 years. It has been about that long since I 

 learned my A B C in bee culture. I live in 

 the center of what is called the " Cross Timbers," 

 a belt of timber that runs across Texas. Now, 

 where I live it is about five miles on either side to 

 the prairie. I was the first one to get the yellow- 

 banded bees in this part of the country, and, in 

 fact, the only one; and the first year I got them I 

 happened to be about two miles out on the prairie, 

 ^yhere the horsemint was in bloom. On looking I 

 found it was covered with bees, and, to my sur- 

 prise, I found about half of them were of the yel- 

 low-banded race. It caused me to watch them, 

 thinking I should find that some of my neighbors 

 had the improved races of bees, but not so. By 

 watching carefully I noticed that they would rise 

 high in the air and make a direct line for my house. 

 I asked nearly all of my neighbors between there 

 and here if they knew of any one who had the im- 

 proved races of bees, and they said they did not, 

 but that they knew that no one had them but my- 

 self. On this occasion my Italians must have flown 

 seven miles for forage. 



I have also seen them two and three miles out on 

 the prairie in the other directions, and made the same 

 inquiries, but no one could tell me of any one who 

 had them but myself. To further prove that they 

 will go seven and eight miles, I remember that this 

 year has been one noted for drought; and what 

 rain has come has been only partial showers. In 

 June, when the horsemint was in bloom, every 

 thing here was burned up; but six and seven miles 

 out on the prairie they had plenty of rain in time 

 to make the mint crop splendid ; and the truth of it 

 is, 1 got 60 lbs. of extracted honey to the colony 

 from the mint last year, and the evidence seems to 

 be that they get it six and eight miles away. While 

 the bees were gathering this amount there was 

 hardly a bloom of any kind to be found nearer than 

 six miles of my place. It was so dry in this neigh- 

 borhood that all vegetations had parched up. Now, 

 then, friend Root, I think this proves pretty clearly 

 that bees will go six and eight miles to gather hon- 

 ey. L. B. S.MITH. 



Cross Timbers, Texas, Feb. 2, 1888. 



Friend S., we have before had good evi- 

 dence that the bees will, under some cir- 

 cumstances, work six or eight miles. I have 

 been satisfied for some time they could go 

 this distance and back ; but I am not yet 

 satisfied they can work profitably much 

 more than half as many miles ; and in our 

 locality I have never known the bees to 

 work fairly where their stores were more 

 than about two miles from the apiary. I 

 presume that, over a prairie or over water, 

 they would fly a longer distance. No doubt 

 if the prevailing winds were in such a di- 

 rection as to blow towMi'd their hives from the 

 pasturage this would be an additional help. 

 Now, would it not have paid you well to 

 move youv bees to a locality where the 

 borsemint was yielding plentifully V 



