1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



577 



by his answers in the American Bee Journal. 

 And then he appeals to you, Mr. Editor, who, 

 like Dr. M., furnish these same fault-finders 

 w T ith a club to knock your own brains 

 out ; for parties, during the past, when writ- 

 ing me, have classed you with the rest of us 

 as sending out queens that did not give bees 

 as represented ; and the reason for this is that 

 bees from imported queens have been classed 

 as yellow, which were not yellow, when put to 

 a practical test. To prove your point you 

 appeal to the Standard Dictionary. I have 

 only the Student's Edition of that dictionary, 

 and in that I find, under the heading of " Yel- 

 low, " this : " Having a color similar to that 

 of the spectrum between orange and green, 

 and resembling that of brass, gold, saffron, 

 etc." As I could not well apply practically 

 the spectrum part, I have just taken a new $5 

 gold piece I happened to get the other day 

 (don't get one very often, even though we are 

 on a gold basis), a piece of burnished brass, a 

 piece of orange-peel (the dictionary says saf- 

 fron is a deep orange color), a chestnut 

 (maroon), and a piece of leather (which I 

 send you with this article, so you can see it 

 and put it beside your bees from imported 

 queens if you wish). Now for the result: 

 The three horny segments next the thorax on 

 the bees from my imported stock are much 

 nearer the color of that piece of leather than 

 any of the other four colors I took, and that 

 piece of leather is very much nearer chestnut 

 (maroon) color than it is to that of brass, 

 gold, or orange. Then, if I am any judge, 

 that piece of leather can not be called yel- 

 low in any true sense of the word, whether 

 I say, " My, oh my ! what is the matter with 

 E. R. Root's and Dr. Miller's eyes? " or not. 

 I have had bees from imported stock that 

 every visitor coming to the yard insisted were 

 nothing but black bees ; and only as I would 

 cause the bees to fill themselves with honey, 

 and place them on a window, would they be 

 convinced, when the dark maroon color would 

 be set out more boldly. Dr. Miller's answers 

 in American Bee Journal show that he thought 

 Doolittle wasn't "nice" in asking those 

 questions, and that he did it in a censorious 

 way. It would seem that Dr. M. had known 

 me long enough to know that I never write 

 any article for any such purpose as that. 

 Purity, three yellow bands, five-banded golden 

 Italians, etc., have been harped on so much 

 that the masses of bee-keepers have been de- 

 ceived, or have got a wrong impression, so 

 they have become like the man who buys 

 poultry "marked to a feather;" and when 

 they do not receive something which these 

 claims have caused them to think exists, they 

 are ready to class the sender as a deceiver and 

 a fraud. And I hoped the good doctor would 

 "catch on" and help us queen-breeders by 

 showing that bees from an imported queen 

 are not yellozu in the true sense of the word, 

 because such a true statement from him would 

 have much more weight than the same state- 

 ment coming from half a dozen queen-breeders. 

 But the doctor thought me hypercritical, and 

 so drove me to put in this defense of myself 

 and other queen-breeders. 



[There is one thing, friend D., that perhaps 

 you have not yet taken into full consideration. 

 Jn speaking of the color of Italian bees direct 

 from Italy, I referred not to individual bees or 

 queens, but to the average importations w r e 

 have received of them every year. We have 

 so far this year received from Italy by mail 

 some 75 queens, and have obtained that num- 

 ber direct from the Mediterranean every year 

 for the past twenty summers. The yellow 

 in the imported is darker than the yellow 

 in bees that have been bred in this country 

 for a long time : so far we agree ; and to re- 

 move any possibility of misunderstanding, we 

 say in our queen catalog, and have reiterated 

 for years, in referring to imported Italian 

 queens, "The queens themselves are a little 

 darker than home-bred queens. . . . The 

 queens as well as the bees are leather - 

 colored." Here we agree again. But in 

 all the hundreds we have received I could 

 not call one of them maroon or chestnut. 

 Here we don't agree. Yellow, however, stands 

 for a variety of shades, and that color much 

 more nearly describes the color of the import- 

 ed stock than chestnut or maroon ; and if you 

 will hunt up a Standard Dictionary with the 

 spectrum you will agree, I am sure. But it 

 seems to me we are in danger of splitting 

 hairs on an unimportant point. — Ed ] 



SWEET CLOVER FOR BEES AND STOCK IN 

 ILLINOIS. 



This clover is one that yields a large amount 

 of honey. It begins to bloom in this latitude 

 in the early part of July, usually ; some sea- 

 sons a little earlier, others a little later. By 

 the time white and alsike clover and basswood 

 are going out of bloom, sweet clover is well 

 out in bloom ; and where abundant a contin- 

 uous bloom will be had for securing surplus 

 honey of two months or more. When a part 

 of this clover is pastured or mown for hay, 

 such will bloom the second time, and continue 

 in bloom until after hard frosts. I have seen 

 bees working on this bloom in October, when 

 all other honey-yielding plants were killed 

 with one exception, that being giant white- 

 spiral mignonette, which is sometimes grown 

 in flower-gardens. 



Sweet clover stands drouth well, but gives 

 a better yield of honey and pasture with fre- 

 quent showers. The honey is light in color, 

 but, to my taste, not of as fine a flavor as that 

 from white or alsike clovers or basswood. In 

 the dry regions of the West, sweet clover and 

 alfalfa have proved valuable plants for bees 

 and stock. The hay is largely fed to stock. 

 Here cattle pasture on it freely, and the hay 

 has seemed to give good satisfaction, as stock 

 soon learn to like it. 



This plant should be grown in all waste 

 places, and thus take the place of the noxious 

 weeds which grow there. 



