1888 



GLt:ANiNGS IN S15E CULTURE. 



4ui 



POLI^EN FROM THE ELM. 



The bees brought in pollen to-day tor the first. It 

 was of a lig-ht yellow color, and came from the elm. 

 Manchester, N. Y., Apr. 3, 1888. Peuky Briggs. 



DARK POLLEN FROM THE ELM. 



Our bees brought in the first pollen Mar. .'51. 

 They got it from elm and mai)le. The first is a dark 

 yellow. The second is yellowish red. My papa has 

 "3 colonies of bees. I wrote this letter myself. 



Amos Grisso, age 8. 



New Carlisle, O., Apr. 1. 1S88. 



pollen h'rom the calla lily. 



My brother, 7 years old, and myself. 9 years old, 

 saw yesterday pa's bees get pollen from our calla 

 lily. It was outdoors, and the bees Hew and buzzed 

 and shook their wings, and acted so eager that the 

 fiowers were full of bees. They carried the small 

 white pollen grains on their legs into their hives. 

 They stayed on the blossoms after the pollen seem- 

 ed to be all gone. Roy C. Gere. 



E. Springfield, Erie Co., Pa., Apr. 3, 1888. 



pollen of different colors from the maple, 



AND AN explanation. 



As this is a warm day, I went out into the apiary 

 for the purpose of watching the bees to see if they 

 were carrying in pollen. Sure enough, tbere they 

 were, just rolling it in. I got down in front of one 

 of the hives to examine the pollen, and found it was 

 yellow. I watched their course, which was direct- 

 ed toward a maple-tree that stood in the road, by 

 the fence; then I got up on the top of the fence and 

 caught one of the bees that was < m the maple, and 

 found it to be the same pollen that the bees were 

 carrying in. They have not commenced carrying 

 in from the elm yet. Edward Quinby. 



Edenton. Ohio, March 31, 1888. 



Very good, Edward. If yon keep on in- 

 vestigating in just the way yon have men- 

 tioned, you may be some time as great a 

 bee-man as your ilhistrious namesake, fa- 

 ther (^uinby. "^ You have proved conclusively 

 that the pollen from maple is yellow ; but 

 our next friend gives e(iual proof that the 

 maple also yields white pollen. I will otter 

 as an explanation, that there are not only 

 different kinds of maples, but the same kind 

 of maple has flowers of different colors. In 

 planting our basswood orchard we noticed 

 some of the little l)assvvoods were red and 

 some were yellow. The buds show in a 

 marked manner this peculiarity. It is not 

 only maples and basswood that are thus 

 variously colored ; but in the garden we see 

 tomatoes and peppers red and yellow, while 

 the general peculiarities of the fruit are ex- 

 actly the same in other respects; and, if I 

 am correct, we sometimes have soft maples 

 that give us pink pollen. 



white pollen, and where is it from? 

 Yesterday 29 of our colonies brought in the first 

 pollen, but not a grear, deal, because it was too cold 

 for them to fiy very much. To-day they Hew very 

 nice and strong, and brought in a good deal of pol- 

 len. I then wentdown in the swamp, and saw where 

 they got the pollen. I saw some buckle clusters 

 that were out; also some alders, and the bees work- 

 ed at them nicely, so 1 thought 1 would go home. 

 When I got there [ went to the bee-hives and there 

 I saw that the bees brought in two kimls of pollen. 



One kind was yellow, which they got from the huckle 

 and alder. The other kind was white-looking pollen. 

 Then I wondered when' they g(U that kind of pollen. 

 I then caught a bee by the wing, and took some of 

 the pollen from its legs, and ate it. I found that 

 this pollen was very sweet, and so 1 thought they 

 must get that from the soft maple, so I had to go in 

 the woods again, and there I found a middle-sized 

 maple-tree. I looked at every little limb, and every 

 bud was but in blossom. I took ott' some branches, 

 and brought them along home, and showed them to 

 my pa, and he said, "Ah! that is very nice at this 

 time of year. Did you see some bees on these blos- 

 soms?" 



" Yes," I said, " bees with the same kind of white 

 pollen they brought home." 



He said, "Well, there is just where they get it, be- 

 cause it is sweet." Michael Paridon. 



New Portage, Summit Co., O., March 31, 1888. 



POLLEN from sawdust. 



On the 3d of April our bees carried in their first 

 pollen, which was from sawdust. I could not be- 

 lieve the bees got pollen from it, so I went to a 

 sawmill near by and saw lots of bees loading pol- 

 len and carrying it away. They work on sawdust 

 better when it is wet than dry. The pollen from 

 sawdust was fine, and a little sweet. The color is a 

 light brown. On the 4th of April our bees carried 

 in their first pollen from wild Howers. It was very 

 yellow. Our bees have carried in some honey. 

 The first was quite bitter; but yesterday (the 9th) 

 pa looked at the bees and said the honey was sweet. 

 I do not know what the bitter honey was from. 

 Skunk cabbage is in blossom, and I think the bees 

 are working on it. Pa commenced bee-keeping 

 four years ago this spring, with one swarm, and 

 now has 29 swarms and 3 nuclei. 



Bertie Spitler, age 13. 



Mosiertown, Pa., Apr. 10, 1888. 



Thank you, Bertie. You say the pollen 

 from sawdust is a little sweet. I have no- 

 ticed this, and felt a good deal surprised, es- 

 pecially as the sawdust had no sweet taste 

 at all l)efore it was gathered by the bees, 

 and 1 decided at the time that the bees car- 

 ried honey from their hives to mix with saw- 

 dust so as to make a sort of dough that they 

 can pad up into little biscuits, to put on 

 their little legs. Wheat and rye flour, after 

 being padded up on their legs, and carried 

 to their hives, has (juite a sweetish bee- 

 bread taste that it did not have befoie. We 

 do not know just how the sawdust helps 

 them, but when no pollen is to be had from 

 the flowers, it no doubt supplies them with 

 something tliey need, but can not get from 

 honey alone. 



pacts prom a little girl, on cottongkowino. 

 We plant cottonseed here in April and May; 

 chop it to a stand 10 to 18 inches apart, wiili hoes, 

 when it is two or three inches high; then it is to be 

 plowed and kept clean till it grows and blooms, and 

 the bolls ioi'ni and matui-t;. This is usually in 

 August. We plant in drills three feet apart. Its 

 branches meet in the rows. It grows between three 

 and four feet high, and bolls scatter along on the 

 branches, ranging from fifty to one hundred to a 

 stalk. The bloom is something like the hollyhock. 

 It opens white, shuts up, and turns red, one day 

 each. This bloom is where the yellow-banded Italians 



