1S92 



GLEANINGS IN HEE CULTURE. 



375 



covorod. and is not used or sold as food by tlu» 

 bt^e-kocpcr. I hclitno tliat no sweot — not fv»'ii 

 niaplo syrup from tlu> iu>ati'st sngar-bnsli—has 

 so nnioh to nn'oniintMui it in tlic way of cleanli- 

 ness as doos lioin\v. It is a new idea, that the 

 bees store with their lioney the pollen rubbed 

 otT as they toneh the anilieis. Surely Dr. K. 

 needs to brush upon tlie habits of bees. It is 

 true, that a very small portion of pollen is taken 

 with the nectar as they sip: but this is mostly 

 .separated by the stomach-mouth before the bee 

 pets to the hive, so that only an inliiiitesimal 

 portion is stored in the hive with the honey; 

 and why does he say, "" if the i)ollen happens "to 

 be poisonous"? We know that bees aii" very 

 easily poisoned. How little ether, cyanofjen.or 

 arsenic it takes to kill a bee! And yet the b(^es 

 live on pollen in great part, and digest it for 

 their brood, and not only live butthi'iveon it. 

 Pollen is about as poii^onous as A No. 1 tlour. 

 That Trebizond honey of Turkey— so fatally 



Foisonous— is getting to be a veritable^ chestnut, 

 don't believe the honey anywhere in the world 

 is poksonous. The same story is told about our 

 mountain-laurel honey. The old Trebizond 

 soldiers ate too much honey, and were sick, and 

 so the old story about poisonous honey, which 

 has been kept alive for centuries. A similar 

 story was starti'd in Revolutionary days about 

 American honey along the mountains of Penn- 

 sylvania and Virginia; yet who believes that it 

 had any foundation? Some years ago the 

 students of our college cut a bee tree. All 

 feasted to the fill on the luscious clover honey. 

 About fifty were not at cla.ss that afternoon. 

 All we needed was the presence of some Xeno- 

 phon. ignorant of bees, to get up some superb 

 canard about the awfully poisonous quality of 

 the Michigan white-clover honey. 



And. last. Dr. K<^llogg has got on to the old 

 canard about the bees poisoning their honey by 

 spraying it with the poison from their honey- 

 sacs. And more, the bees are vindictive, as 

 they will add an overdose of this poison if irri- 

 tated, which makes the honey rank (sic), and 

 rank honey is terrible — why. it will often create 

 a rash: and. worst of all, "These facts have all 

 been determined by scientific investigation." 

 The fact is. the above statements are veritable 

 "bosh.'" and not facts at all, and so could not be 

 determined by scientific or any other investiga- 

 tion. I teach my students that good nursing is 

 altogether more potent to stay disease than the 

 doctor: and when I read such nonsense as the 

 above, and that from a physician of wide re- 

 pute. I feel like advising great caution before 

 we give the lives of ourselves or our families 

 into the hands of men who are not more care- 

 ful in their statements. To write so carelessly, 

 and to roll misstatements, with no attempt to 

 prove them, as a swe(;t morsel under the tongue, 

 is certainly a great faith-shaker. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



[And now. my good friend Cook, are you not 

 coming down rather heavily on our fi'iend Dr. 

 Kellogg? I think he deserves it: and were I 

 sure that you two could both shake hands over 

 it in a friendly way after Dr. Kellogg lias read 

 the above. I should not fee] troubled. The les- 

 son that comes to me is. that we should all be 

 careful: and especially do we need to be careful 

 when acting as critic, "and particularly when we 

 are a little out of our legitimate field. I greatly 

 value Dr. Kellogg's family doctor book: but I 

 must confess, that, when I read his rasli ci'iti- 

 cisms on our own industry. I fell to wondering 

 whether he made his statements in his book on 

 family medicine in the same rash, liasty wav. 

 We are all anxious to be right. We like. also, 

 to be considered authority, at least on that 

 which is in our own line of work; but if we ex- 



pect to lie authority on any thing, we must be 

 careful. I'erhai)s Dr. K(dlogg is a very fiusy 

 man; and I wonder if it would not l)e better for 

 him if he were to attempt less in older that he 

 might l)e sure he is right in what he does do. 

 Let us all take the lesson home. See p. 33LJ 



A. I. R. 



Lad/es' Conversazione. 



FLORIDA. 



MKS. H.\I{I{I80N OIVK.S SOMK OF HER IMPKES- 



SION8. 



Mr. Editor:— k^Y\\ 1.3th I enjoyed the plea- 

 sure of visiting the apiaries of Alderman v'c. 

 Roberts, tlie largest in Florida, and excelled in 

 number by few apiaries in the United .States or 

 the world. The home of the Aldermans is 

 unique in its kind, being built over the waters 

 of the lake, and steaml)oats come and go from 

 its wharf, which is like a front porch; and 

 baited hooks are suspended from it to catcli 

 fish. The lower story is used as a warehouse 

 and ofhce, while there are very pleasant family 

 rooms above, and a promenade around on the 

 outside. From one of these promenades, ripe 

 oranges and blossoms could be reached. I en- 

 joyed walking around this promenade, and 

 looking far away over the waters of the lakes, 

 whose surface was covered with pond-lilies, 

 with their great green leaves spread out upon 

 the water. This paradise of a home, with its 

 damp fertile gardens, luxuriant orange-groves, 

 boating and fishing, has but one drawback; and 

 that is, mosquitoes and malaria; and from 

 May until September, those who are able to 

 leave do so, to avoid its baneful attacks. 



Wewahitchka. in the Indian language, means 

 the lakes of the two eyes, or eye-glasses joined 

 together. These lakes are eighteen miles long, 

 and from, three to five miles wide; they are fa- 

 miliarly known as the " Dead Lakes." from the 

 dead cypress-trees with which they abound. 



As I was traveling homeward on board the 

 Queen City, ascending the Apalachicola River, 

 I continually heard sportsmen congratulating 

 one another on their success, and extolling these 

 lakes as the greatest place in the world for 

 sport, and exhibiting their trophies as proof. 

 My interest in them centered greatly in their 

 fjeing such rich pasture for bees, in their aquatic 

 vines, shrubs, and trees. They afford a rich 

 study for the naturalist to delve into natui'e's 

 secrets, and endeavor to solve the problem, by 

 what great convulsion of nature were these 

 mighty giants of the forest lowered into the 

 waters, which deprived them of their green 

 leaves and pristine loveliness? Now they 

 stand as mute monuments of their former 

 greatness, shrouded in clinging vines and dra- 

 pery of hanging moss. 



APIAIUES. 



In the region of these lakes are 2r){X) colonies 

 of bees, and the firm of Alderman i<: Roberts 

 own 1300 of them. On the afternoon of my ar- 

 rival Mr. Alderman escorted m«! to s(>e one of 

 their apiaries, located ou an island. We wend- 

 ed our way by a path, through the orange- 

 groves, which ended in the water-side, where a 

 boat was in waiting. I was directed to take a 

 seat toward the. prow, wiiile Mr. Alderman and 

 the propelling power, in the person of a sturdy 

 descendant of Ham, occupied the stern. The 

 boat pushed out from the shore into a labyrinth 

 of water-lilies, aquatic vines and bushes, while 

 above towered those mighty giants of former 

 centuries, clothed in funeral garb. When we 



