1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



361 



These trees bloomed again in about a month, 

 and on some trees a small amount of fruit 

 set. Much of this will probably fall off. The 

 Kiefer pear-tre^s are later in blooming, and 

 do not appear to have been injured in the 

 least, and have set fruit abandantly. 



The loss of the early bloom has been a great 

 detriment to apiaries, and those that I have 

 seen are weak, and some colonies starved, 

 while others will barely pull through until 

 the palmettos bloom. In some localities the 

 surplus is gathered from tupelo. 



The spring has been rough. When the sun 

 was shining there would be a cool cutting 

 wind. I saw some beans to-day that bore 

 evidence of a slight visit from Jack Frost. 

 Newly planted trees have done well, and a 

 few orange and fig trees that have been cut 

 down are sending up shoots from the roots. 

 Mrs. L. Harrison. 



St. Andrews Bay, Fla., April 4. 



THAT HORSE-STINGING EPISODE; CRUELTY TO 

 ANIMALS. 



In the name of our God, are you going to 

 sit there in enlightened Ohio and publish 

 such letters as that from Geo. L- Vinal, of 

 Charlton, Mass., page 272, April 1, without 

 one word of protest against such brutal inhu- 

 manity, such treatment of our silent friend, 

 the noble horse ? To place a swarm of bees 

 where they would sting a horse for twenty 

 minutes is simply hellish; and no man with a 

 spark of humanity within him would for an 

 instant entertain such a thought. Could the 

 bees have been turned on the tormentor of 

 the faithful old horse, it would have been a 

 pleasing feature of the program. A great so- 

 ciety for the prosecution of such offenders has 

 headquarters in Boston. I shall write there 

 at once, and see what can be done in the mat- 

 ter. H. M. Jameson. 



Corona, Cal., Apr. 10. 



[I will explain to our readers that articles 

 from old correspondents are not read by the 

 editor in manuscript, but are read in galley- 

 proof, at which time the headings or foot- 

 notes are dictated; but it seems the communi- 

 cation from Mr. Vinal did not come before 

 me until it appeared in page form; and as 

 that form was ready for press I did not enter 

 the protest that I really felt in my heart. If I 

 had it to do over I would hold the form back 

 an hour or two for the sake of a footnote. 

 But Mr. Vinal is an old and valued corres- 

 pondent. 



Let us turn back to page 272, April 1, and 

 read the item again. If I mistake not, Mr. 

 Vinal'is an " M. D." Having had a horse ac- 

 cidentally stung once, and seeing no apparent 

 loss of bees, it appears that, from the stand- 

 point of a physician and of a scientist, and 

 solely in the interest of science, he desired to 

 pursue the investigation a little further. There 

 was only one thing to do, and that was to get 

 another horse and harrow up a lot of bees. 

 This seems cruel, and so it was ; but, if I mis- 

 take not, the Humane Society sometimes al- 

 lows certain experiments to be conducted, in 

 the interests of science, that they would not 



allow where mere curiosity is the only mo- 

 tive. But the horse that Mr. Vinal refers to 

 was evidently not killed, as he did not allow 

 it to be stung severely enough to cause death. 



Referring again to Mr. Vinal's experiment, 

 I am of the opinion that it would prove of but 

 little value. When there is a general sting- 

 ing of this kind, one generally imagines there 

 are thousands of bees engaged in the opera- 

 tion, sticking in their little jabbers. One 

 time I was fearfully stung, and it seemed to 

 me that at least 500 bees must have punctured 

 my epidermis ; but actually there were less 

 than a dozen stings. I should say, then, that 

 probably not over twenty-five bees stung the 

 horse that Mr. Vinal refers to ; and the fact 

 that the colony from which these bees came 

 pursued their normal course, as before, would 

 indicate nothing, for the loss of twenty-five 

 bees could not in any way really affect the 

 prosperity of a strong colony. 



I hardly think it necessary to go to the ex- 

 treme of seeking Mr. Vinal's arrest, for he is 

 a gentleman, and a man of high moral stand- 

 ing. A mere protest would accomplish ten 

 times more than an arrest. — Ed.] 



FEEDING AFTER FRUIT-BLOOM. 



Last year (I've had only a few bees two 

 years) my bees came out in the spring with 

 lots of stores, and they raised brood in abun- 

 dance until after fruit-bloom, when nearly all 

 the brood-frames were full; but at the begin- 

 ning of clover harvest (along about the 1st of 

 June) they had practically no brood. I want 

 to know if I should feed after fruit-bloom to 

 keep the combs full of brood until the clover- 

 flow begins. Thos. S. Work. 



Clarington, Pa., Apr. 7. 



[Conditions and circumstances should gov- 

 ern in all cases. Last season, if you expected 

 a flow you should have ftd soon after fruit- 

 bloom. The fact that brood rearing had 

 stopped was a pretty good indication that 

 bees were verging toward starvation ; and as 

 a result they curtailed their brood-rearing. 

 —Ed.] 



somerford's method of forming nuclei j 

 a caution. 



Friend Root: — In regard to the method of 

 increase given by W. W. Somerford, page 260, 

 you had better caution your readers to be very 

 careful in warm weather, for I have seen great 

 damage done, and many nuclei utterly rumed, 

 by melting down when stopped up as friend 

 Somerford recommends. Especially is this 

 the case if the nuclei are more than ordinarily 

 strong. I have made hundreds of increase in 

 the way he advises, and it is a good one, but 

 there are much better ones. 



We had heavy snow one week ago, and yes- 

 terday we had a fall of over a foot — very back- 

 ward spring, and many bees are dead. 



E. T. Flanagan. 



Belleville, 111., Apr. 4. 



[Your caution is timely. In any case, one 

 must use his judgment. — Ed.] 



