158 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULUTRE. 



Mar. 1. 



rank it is not apt to yield much honey. Most 

 farmers in this valley cut the early crop of al- 

 falfa usually in May, to get the fox-tail (a 

 troublesome grass) before it fully matures. 

 This cutting is when it is not fully in bloom, or, 

 at least, not producing much honey. Later 

 crops are generally left until they bloom freely 

 and produce considerable honey before they 

 are cut. When left for seed it is the "boss" 

 for honey. 



Last year my bees made a light run at the 

 start. Too much electricity in the air checked 

 honey secretion, I thought. Some light showers 

 also made trouble. Then millions of small yel- 

 low butteiflies helped empty the flowers. It is 

 not rare for alfalfa honey to fail after Aug. 1st 

 to 15th, in some localities. 



Hanford, Cal. 



[Over 400 cars of honey from a single State of 

 this great Union! If I am correct, no other 

 State has produced even half this amount in a 

 single season of any year. These 400 cars and 

 over, I suppose, do not take account of the 

 quantitiesof honey produced in the same State, 

 that are consumed locally. The government 

 reports put North Carolina in the lead, and 

 California near the end of the long list of honey- 

 producing States. North Carolina should be 

 near the foot. This only goes to show how 

 grossly inaccurate government honey statistics 

 are. 



Tell the doctor to fire away; for, come to find 

 out, we have not been shooting at each other, 

 but in nearly the same direction. — Ed.] 



--—ANSWERS TO c- 

 BY G.M.D0OUITTLE.B0ROOINO.N.Y. 



BEE-PAKALYSIS 



Question. — Are you still of the same opinion 

 regarding bee-paralysis that you were when 

 you wrote what is found on pp. 536, '7, Glean- 

 ings for 1896? I see that there are very many 

 who differ with you in their views in this mat- 

 ter ; and I thought it possible that you might 

 have seen something, since you wrote that arti- 

 cle, to convince you that queens do carry the 

 disease. 



Answer. — In reply to the above I will say that 

 I have seen nothing to change my mind in the 

 least from what it was when I wrote the matter 

 referred to. The colony I spoke of as having 

 the queen from the colony which nearly died 

 with bee-paralysis the year before, made about 

 100 lbs. of nice section honey; while her colony 

 and the one on the old stand (the colony swarm- 

 ed), having the young queen, went into winter 

 quarters in fine condition. The one having the 

 disease when I wrote (the worst I had ever seen 

 at that time) gradually recovered, so that, by 

 the middle of September, no afi'ected bees were 

 to be found in or about the hive; so, unless It 



should break out again, my apiary is free from 

 the disease. No one thing that I ever wrote 

 ever brought me so many letters of censure as 

 did that answer to the question on bee-paraly- 

 sis, many apparently thinking that I really fa- 

 vored the shipping of queens from colonies that 

 were known to have the disease. Some of these 

 letters were very unfair, to say the least,and 

 nearly every one wrote from a mistaken stand- 

 point. When I write or speak of things I must 

 give them as J find them, not from the stand- 

 point of somebody else. All know that no one 

 has proclaimed caution to a greater degree than 

 has Doolittle, along all lines where caution is 

 necessary; and I can not understand how any 

 one could have construed any part of what I 

 wrote regarding bee-paralysis to mean that I 

 thought it would be safe for myself or any one 

 else to be heedless or careless in the matter, or 

 use queens from such colonies, for aught but 

 experimental purposes. What I was aiming at 

 was the headstrong way that many had in in- 

 sisting that, the moment any signs of bee- 

 paralysis were seen, the colony so showing 

 should be eradicated from the apiary, and wip- 

 ed off the face of the earth, by each and every 

 one who saw those signs. If any person has 

 not the time nor the disposition for a thorough 

 and careful study of these matters, then such 

 advice is well ; but to so press matters that no 

 one, no matter how careful, could look into this 

 matter of bee-paralysis because he or she might 

 be a queen- breeder, savored of keeping us in 

 ignorance in the matter till the disease might 

 so progress as to ruin our pursuit. I quite agree 

 with the editor of this journal, ^that it is better 

 to take a road a good way off from a precipice 

 in our general driving; but if no one ever goes 

 and carefully looks over, how can it be known 

 that there is any precipice within a thousand 

 miles'? Neither do I believe it right for the 

 masses to rush into a house having a case of 

 smallpox; but that is not saying that no one 

 should go into such a house, leaving its occu- 

 pants to live or die as best they might, for fear 

 some careless nurse might carry the disease to 

 others. If you must be so careless that you are 

 liable to spread foul brood, bee-paralysis, or any 

 thing else, abroad, should a case of the same 

 occur in your apiary, then by all means cremate 

 any colony in which you find any signs of a 

 dangerous disease; but if you can be a thor- 

 ough, careful investigator, thus shedding light 

 regarding something yet unsolved about our 

 beloved pursuit, then go at it like a man, and 

 don't be frightened for fear some one may score 

 you if you stand for the right. Don't follow 

 Doolittle, Root, Hutchinson, or anybody else, 

 blindly, either, because they advocate some- 

 thing you are not familiar with; but investi- 

 gate, experiment, and observe, until you know 

 you are right, then go ahead, no matter what 

 the masses may say or do. 



