1898 



GI^EANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



393 



good for all honej'-plauts except those on 

 wastes. 



The Dominion experiment farms at Ottawa 

 have pretty well solved the matter for ns, ap- 

 parently, by reporting that the ordinary Rus- 

 sian sunflower makes good ensilage. This is 

 good news if true. If it were some unknown 

 plant like sacaline the seedsmen would have 

 boomed it for all it is worth. 



Here are the assets of the sunflower: 



The seeds are very fattening for poultry, 

 and a small supply every day gives a stimulus 

 to egg-production in cool weather. 



The oil is scarcely inferior to olive oil, and 

 for salads it is superior. 



The oil makes first-class soap. 



The stems produce excellent fiber, chemic- 

 ally treated. 



The seeds, roasted and ground, are a sub- 

 stitute for coffee. 



Pigs fatten readily on the seeds alone — bet- 

 ter than on corn. 



Oilcake made from the seed after the oil has 

 been expressed is considered by the agricul- 

 turists of Great Britain, Russia, Holland, 

 Sweden, Denmark, and Germany, as the finest 

 obtainable feed for cattle. This is high praise, 

 but it is true. 



In most localities it is an excellent honey- 

 producer. Where it is not, a different kiiid 

 ought to be tried. The Jerusalem artichoke is 

 a good bee-plant, and its tubers will pay for 

 hog-feed — the hogs will be better for it. Vil- 

 morin, of Paris, has an improved sort for the 

 table. 



Each bushel of seed yields a gallon of oil, 

 and 1500 lbs. of oilcake per acre is obtained. 

 The sunflower is exhaustive to the soil, but 

 wheat produces extra well after it. It enables 

 the farmer to rotate his crops more, and gives 

 him another string to his bow, more especial- 

 ly if he is a stockman. 



The white-seeded variety is best for oil; the 

 big black Russian sort for poultry and cattle 

 feeding; but Hclianthns Indicus is the most 

 profitable for general cultivation. It is a 

 dwarf species. 



It is imperative that the seeds be cleaned at 

 once with a fan-mill, and kept dry; if not, 

 they will mold. I think it worth while for 

 bee-keepers to experiment a little in this line, 

 if only to induce their neighbors to take up 

 the business. 



Haage and Schmidt, Erfurt, Germany, have 

 good seed, and could probably give more par- 

 ticulars in regard to European methods, but 

 cheap cultivation is what is chiefly wanted. 



Devonshire, Bermuda. 



[The above article gives us a pretty fair 

 glimpse of friend Morrison. His ideas seem 

 to spread and scatter over the whole face of 

 the earth. I do not know that I ever met a 

 man before who had such knowledge of for- 

 eign countries and their special industries as 

 friend M. There has been a good deal of 

 complaint in the United States that sunflowers 

 would not yield honey. From the above it 

 would seem that it is because we do not have 

 the right kind of sunflowers. Now, shall we 

 not have one or more of our experiment sta- 



tions make a practical test of the different va- 

 rieties of sunflowers known, all the way from 

 artichokes to Mammoth Russian ? And, by 

 the way, I think there is somewhere in the 

 Patent Office an arrangement for making a 

 fence — yes, a substantial fence that will stand 

 several years, at least so the inventor claims — 

 all oi sunflozvers. — A. I. R.] 



HOW BEES WORK IN THE DARK, ETC. 

 An Interesting and Valuable Article. 



BY E. S. ARW^INE. 



In March 15th Gleanings is reproduced an 

 article from the British Bee Journal, on how 

 bees work in the dark and see in the light 

 without inconvenience. If our editor will take 

 a run to a blind-asylum, and see how the little 

 sightless children do fancy work, especially 

 with small beads of various colors, and try 

 how much longer it will take him to separate, 

 with both fingers and eyes, a tablespoonful of 

 mixed colored beads than it does one of those 

 hapless children, he will get a slight inkling 

 of how bees do fancy work in the dark. It is 

 not by sight nor Roentgen rays, but by the 

 sense of touch, entirely. So far as comb-build- 

 ing is concerned, the bees are probably, to all 

 intents and purposes, as blind as the patients 

 in the asylum, through whose optic nerves no 

 ray of light has ever penetrated the darkness 

 that envelops the brain. If it is by Roentgen 

 rays, why do queens always poke their heads 

 into the cells and feel the bottom to know that 

 al] is right before depositing the egg? If it is 

 not touch, why not just take a Roentgen peep, 

 deposit her &^^., and pass on ? Science will 

 probably demonstrate the fact that bees have 

 a set of eyes that can look at the most intense 

 light without any inconvenience, while other 

 eye-facets see only at short range. 



As to the queen laying on the exact opposite 

 sides of the comb, it is the instinct of mother- 

 hood securing the best possible condition for 

 the safe propagation of the young. Instinct is 

 the sense which causes an animal to take un- 

 erringly a straight course to the place of its 

 former abode regardless of the route it may 

 have traveled. 



This instinctive sense is what Adam used 

 when he named the animals in the garden of 

 Eden and "lost in the Fall." Instinct should 

 be called intuitive sense, the latter term being 

 more accurate. Reason is not as accurate a 

 sense as intuition had it never been marred by 

 the Fall. When Eve began to reason about 

 the forbidden fruit she was deceived, and the 

 fall of nian, with all its attendant woes, was 

 consummated, even to Gethsemane and Cal- 

 vary, where the Son of God died to redeem us 

 from sin, which resulted from reasoning away 

 a holy law ; and men are still reasoning them- 

 selves into the lake that burneth with fire and 

 brimstone. Adam was not deceived, but chose 

 to eat, and share the lot of his deceived com- 

 panion. 



If any of your readers wish to Rcentgenize 

 the hive, let them do so; but if they are scien- 

 tifically qualified to make accurate observa- 



