682 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



tion it will be by finding and rendering perma- 

 nent one of these sports. During the years I 

 was in the work I found two sports, or plants, 

 which I called such. One of them I lost my 

 grip of so completely that I have nothing to 

 show for it — couldn't be sure that it would 

 ever have filled the bill any way. The other 

 one seemed to be pretty much all one could 

 ask, gained at one leap — but with one lamen- 

 table shortcoming. It was about as near to 

 being seedless as a plant could be without be- 

 ing absolutely so. I never had a dozen seeds 

 at one time. To have even one plant in bloom, 

 when a friend called and I wanted to show 

 him my prize — why, I considered myself lucky. 

 A package in my clover-drawer says on the 

 outside, " Three seeds, 1897 ; " alas ! too old 

 to grow now, I fear — and that is all I have to 

 show for years of effort with that incipient va- 

 riety. Since the first few years, the most hope 

 of success which I have been able to cherish 

 has been that, with long patience, a plant 

 might appear in this succession which would 

 have flowers as open to the bee as the parent 

 flowers have been, and also seeds like those a 

 civilized clover ought to have. Perhaps when 

 the weather gets a little cooler I'll try those 

 three seeds for all they are worth. 



There is also a sport which frequently ap- 

 pears in red clover, having white seeds and 

 pure- white blossoms. I made easy progress 

 in breeding this down to a fixed variety ; but 

 had I kept on to completion it would have 

 been of the same use as stripes around our 

 bees' tails, no use at all — tubes no shorter than 

 ordinary reds 



But in fussing with the white sports I think 

 I made a discovery which perhaps ought to be 

 understood and considered by all those who 

 work in such work as this. It is, that prog- 

 ress tends not to go on regularly with each 

 generation, but by regular alternation of gen- 

 erations. A little hard to describe this so a 

 reader will catch on readily. Say you are try- 

 ing to get a white variety from a white sport. 

 First generation you raise 100 seedlings, and 

 say 3 of them are white and 97 backslidden 

 and red. (Think you have got a tough job 

 before you. ) Second generation, 100 seedlings 

 pan out 50 white and only 50 backsliders. 

 (Think you are getting on swimmingly.) 

 Third generation you find 15 white to 85 

 backsliders. (Half inclined to give the thing 

 up as impossible. ) Fourth generation, how- 

 ever, pans out 55 white to 45 reds. And so it 

 goes on, with regular oscillation back and 

 forth with each generation, but on the whole 

 manifestly getting ahead. I have come to 

 feel that something like this affects nearly all 

 work of the kind with seedlings. 



Richards, O. 



[While your experience, friend Hasty, is 

 somewhat discouraging, yet it goes to show 

 that, if the effort is persistently followed, we 

 shall be able to accomplish something. If the 

 example given in your last paragraph repre- 

 sents somewhere near the actual results you 

 secured, then, in spite of the backsliding, you 

 got in the fourth generation over 50 per cent 

 of the very kind of clovers you were seeking. 



I have known something about this back- 

 sliding of varieties ; but I did not suppose the 

 tendency to go back to the original was so 

 strong. If the same rule holds true in the 

 breeding of cattle, of horses, of poultry, then 

 we have great cause for encouragement, be- 

 cause, in all the lines of stock mentioned, in 

 spite of the difficulties a very great differentia- 

 tion has been secured. The running horse is 

 very different from the trotter in general 

 build ; and both differ very greatly from the 

 draft horse. The variety of specimens in 

 poultry goes to show the possibilities in work- 

 ing from sports. Now, then, my point is this: 

 If the breeders of all these various kinds of 

 stock have been beset by this constant back- 

 sliding to the styles and markings of the orig- 

 inal parentage, and they have been able to se- 

 cure what they were after, we can do the 

 same. The only difficulty is, can bee-keepers 

 interest experiment stations to such an extent 

 that they will keep up a line of work that will 

 cover a period of years ? From what you say, 

 I should judge that such a line of experiment- 

 ing would have to go from one generation of 

 experimenters to another before the goal could 

 be reached. 



I should be glad to receive an article from 

 some one who knows something of the difficul- 

 ties of breeding poultry stock to weight, color, 

 and markings, and just how these things have 

 been secured. Such an article will give us 

 pointers in breeding bees with longer tongues 

 and clovers with shorter corolla-tubes. — Ed.] 



FUMIGATING COMBS AND SECTIONS. 



How to Make a Fumigating-box ; the Use of Car- 

 bon Bisulphide. 



BY J. A. GOLDEN. 



The question how to destroy the moth-worm, 

 both in brood-combs and in section honey, is 

 of long standing, and many pages have been 

 written setting forth the various methods em- 

 ployed, giving the formulas for the benefit of 

 bee-keepers at large, as well as consumers of 

 section comb honey ; and while the various 

 methods have proven successful with many 

 bee-keepers, there are still many who have 

 been unsuccessful with any of the plans pub- 

 lished, even with the bisulphide of carbon. I 

 am fully convinced that carelessness has been 

 the principal cause of failure to destroy the 

 moth-worm, either in brood-combs or section 

 honey, especially with the fumes of sulphur 

 or bisulphide of carbon, for either, properly 

 used, will effectually destroy every vestige of 

 the moth-worm, large and small — yes, even 

 the eggs secreted within their hidden deposits; 

 but to be successful with any method one must 

 have a properly constructed room or cupboard 

 specially for the purpose of fumigating with 

 either sulphur or bisulphide of carbon. This, 

 properly and carefully attended to, can not 

 fail to prove effectual every time ; and why it 

 is that bee-keepers will toil and sweat in the 

 hot sun in producing a beautiful lot of section 

 honey, and then put it through some slipshod 



