IS'.t-' 



(}l>KAi\IxNCJS IN I5KE CULTURE. 



4'.»7 



having disposed of the liiu-Uuiicat iiom'V. t;il\<' 

 some other <-litss ami gnuie as before. 



Fiviu'v white clover, rombs straiglil, well 

 tilled. e"to. 



No. 1. white clover, wood well scraped, etc. 



No. -', wliite clover, three-fourths of the . . . 

 etc. 



No. 3. white clover, must weigh, etc. 



I can see no objection to using the teriiis 

 F ncv. No. 1. No. 2. and No. 3: in fact, I prefer 

 them'to letters, as A. li. C. D. as the latter are 

 more lial)le to mislead, ami that would defeat 

 the purpose of houey-producers as well as tin' 

 honest (ji-aler. Comb honey l)eiiig classilied as 

 •■ Fancy Buckwheat." " Fancy Spanish Ne<'dle,"' 

 •■ Fancy l?asswood." or " No. 1 IJuckwheat," 

 etc.. the terms light, amber, dark, and ini.xed 

 would become obsolete, as they now convey 

 only a vague idea of what is really meant. 

 Mixed grades — well, they belong to the back 

 age. Very few now put white and black combs 

 into the same case for marketing, as jjcople 

 want to know what they are buying; hence a 

 mixed case sells at the price usually obtained 

 for the grade in it: that is. the cheap in market 

 at that time, the shipper thus losing the benefit 

 of the higher- priced article mixed therewith. 



To me the cl(isslfyin{j and grddiiKj of honey 

 is not a difficult matter: and when intelligently 

 presented to the average producer it will be ac- 

 cepted as a guide that will be of much value, 

 as it determines what heretofore has been 

 indefinite. R. A. Burnett. 



Kil South Water St.. Chicago, 111., June, 1892. 



[tJoodl we hope more of our commission 

 honey irierchants will respond to Dr. Miller's 

 article. Light is surely breaking in.] 



TWO SCARABa:iDS. 



PROF. COOK DESCRIBES TIIKM. 



The family Scnrabfeidiv consists of large ro- 

 bust beetles, most familiar in the June beetle. 

 They all feed on vegetable matter. One group, 

 like "the common " tumble-bug" — more proper- 

 ly tumble-l)eetle — feeds on decaying matter; 

 the other, on plants. Of these latter are the 

 June beetle, rose chafer, and a host of others. 

 The grubs. or larva}, feed on roots of plants; the 

 mature insects, on blossoms, leaves, fruit, etc. 



FIG. I. 



One of these (Fig. 1) I have received from 

 Mr. Chas. P. Coflin. Pontotoc. Mississippi. It is 

 a beautiful green beetle, though the elytra, or 

 wing-covers, may be brownish with a greenish 



relleclioii. The ligure, which is enlarged twice, 

 shows well the foi'in. These l)eetles are found 

 from the gulf to the great lakes. They delight 

 in sweet juit'es, and so are seen sipping from 

 flowers, though tlu^y may visit flowers more for 

 the pollen than for th<' nectar; lioring into, and 

 sucking the Juice from ripe. juicy fruit, like the 

 peach: or. again, sipping from the well-lilled 

 combs of the hive. Mr. Collin found the b(>e- 

 tle balled at the entrance, much as the bees 

 ball a strange queen, that, perchance, may 

 enter the hive. The beetle was not there to de- 



stroy or injure the bees, but simply to rob them. 

 Their attack would not seriously injure the 

 beetle, as its thick crust would be too hard for 

 their stings. I have before heard of this beetle 

 as a honey- thief, from Florida. In the more 

 northern States it is content to depredate on 

 our choice fruits. 



From San Jacinto, California, comes another 

 one of these Scarahirld beetles (Fig. 2). Serica 

 ftmbriuta. This is rich in its dress of velvety 

 purplish brown, and is well described by the 

 figure, which is magnified three times. It is 

 said to entirely defoliate the plums and 

 prunes, especially the young trees. I would 

 recommend the kero.sene emulsion on this bee- 

 tle. I proved this a remedy for the closely re- 

 lated rose chafer— one of our most dreaded in- 

 sects — last season, and should hope and expect 

 thu-t it would be a quick and ready destroyer of 

 this plum chafer of the far West. I hope some 

 of our California l)ee and fruit men may give it 

 a trial, and report the results in Gleanings. 

 May not Mr. McDiarmaid, who sent the fine 

 beetles, be the one to do so ? I am very glad to 

 recei e insects, especially from the South and 

 West. Sent alive in a small pasteboard box, 

 with a little cotton about them, they come in 

 nice shape. 



ANOTHER CAI.IFOI5NIA HONKY- PLANT. 



The honey-i)lant received from Mrs. J. Hil- 

 ton, Los Alamos, Cal.. is a rosaceous plant. The 

 name is UorkeWt Californicd. Mrs. H. says it 

 '•grows on sandy land, and yields nearly if not 

 quite as much honey as the white sage. The 

 honey is thick and waxy, but not quite as white 

 as sage honey." The phint is described in the 

 Government Report on Botany, where it is said to 

 grow abundantly in the Coast Mountains from 

 Los Angeles to San Francisco. The rose fami- 

 ly, which includes nearly all of our fruit-trees, 

 is rich in bee-plants, and we are not surprised 

 that this is no exception. The blossom of this 

 plant remi'.ids one of the strawberry and cinque- 

 foil, or Potentilla, in which genus the plants 

 were formerly placed, if I mistake not. It is a 



