168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



These we have been furnishing- all the way 

 from to 9, figures lj4 inches high, for hive- 

 numbering purposes, for 35 cts. — Ed.] 



Bro. a. T. Root, please allow a word in 

 defense of W. D. Null. p. 134. As I under- 

 stand him, he was only sowing- sweet clover 

 on his own land, as he says, '' I have tried 

 to get our fence- rows and waste patches 

 seeded." [Well, now, doctor, I may be 

 dull, but I don't just see your point. If 

 sheep, goats, and horses search out sweet 

 clover, and keep it down, how is anybody 

 damaged by having it started in the roads 

 and fence- corners, even if said roads and 

 fence-corners adjoin some other man's land? 

 I never heard a farmer complain because 

 red clover was growing in his fence-corners 

 or waste places; and is not sweet clover 

 worth as much or nearly as much as red 

 clover?— A. I. R.] 



Those flying fish in the Pacific Ocean 

 didn't look to me as they did to A. I. Root, 

 who thinks they "never flap their glossy 

 wings while in the air." To me the big- 

 gest part of them was "flap." Page i41. 

 [Doctor, it has occurred to me that I did 

 not say enough about the " flap " part. 

 These fishes had comparatively large 

 wings, and the wings were as transparent 

 as the film of a soap bubble, almost. Of 

 course, they were concave more or less; and 

 when the rays of the sun struck this concave 

 part, these wings flashed like diamonds. 

 To me it was a remarkable treat; and I 

 wondered to see the passengers all around 

 me so indifferent to the charms of this won- 

 derful spectacle.— A. I. R.] 



A MAN who was growing tomatoes in a 

 greenhouse with indifferent success, saj's 

 M. F. Reeve, in Atn. Bee-keeper, put in a 

 hive of bees, and was enthusiastic over the 

 results. " He said the tomatoes were in 

 greater profusion, and ripened much better, 

 and at a time when they brought more 

 money." [I believe that at the present time 

 all successful greenhouse-men have bees in 

 the house where they undertake to grow to- 

 matoes, cucumbers, or any thing else that 

 requires fertilization. Taking the pollen 

 from the blossoms with a camel's-hair pen- 

 cil, and transferring it to the other ones, 

 answers in a measure; shaking the plants 

 so that the pollen will rattle off in the form 

 of dust has also been practiced; but I think 

 all have decided that the bees work cheap- 

 er, and do a far better job, than any clum- 

 sy manipulating such as I have mentioned. 

 —A. I. R.] 



John Hewitt, the British queen-breed- 

 er, says he gets more queens started when 

 larvae are given without than with royal 

 jelly. He takes strips of drone comb after 

 the Alley plan, uses drone larvae two days 

 old, and when queen-cells are about half 

 built over these he replaces the drone larva; 

 with worker larvas just out of the egg. — 

 American Bee-keeper. [Some queen-breed- 

 ers do not use royal jelly, claiming that it 

 is not essential. Others say that the old 

 jelly is removed and new made to take its 



place. Whether it is or not, it has been our 

 experience that the cells are more readily 

 accepted, as a rule, when supplied with 

 this royal food than when not so supplied. 

 It giv^s the bees a suggestion that some- 

 thing has been done toward making a cell 

 by supplying a food fit to rear a princess. 

 There, I do not know but some one will now 

 object by stating that royal jelly is not es- 

 sentially different from the food supplied 

 to worker bees. — Ed.] 



Organizations in Germany probably 

 have a larger membership than our Nation- 

 al, says ye editor, page 115. " but somehow 

 we do not hear about their kicking up very 

 much dust. " No, we're so busy with our own 

 affairs that we don't know what's going on 

 abroad. The fact is, there's a good deal 

 bigger dust kicked up there than here; they 

 have bigger memberships, bigg^er conven- 

 tions, and take up a good deal bigger space 

 in the bee- journals than does our National. 

 Oh, yes! we've got to do some lively kicking 

 before our dust equals theirs. [What I 

 meant by "dust-kicking" was the defense 

 of bee-keepers' rights; the establishment of 

 valuable precedents in law; fighting adul- 

 teration; securing legislation favorable to 

 bee-keepers. The getting-upof a great big 

 convention, and passing of resolutions, 

 probably does not influence much the great 

 outside world around us, that does not care 

 a penny about our interests. Is it not true, 

 doctor, that the National stands pre-eminent 

 above all other organizations because it 

 does things? W^e can write and we can 

 talk; but unless we do things, in my esti- 

 mation we are not " kicking up very much 

 dust." Is there any organization in all 

 Europe (and I am asking for information) 

 that is as powerful a f ictor in law and in 

 general legislation as the National on this 

 side of the hemisphere? — Ed.] 



You ARGUE in that first footnote, p. 116, 

 Mr. Editor, that your queen-rearing meth- 

 ods are all right, just as if I had been 

 questioning them. Bless your heart! I 

 never thought of such a thing. Very likely 

 you're right when you say " we believe one 

 will not go very far astray if he follows us 

 implicitly.'" But how under the sun is one 

 to follow you in making nuclei without im- 

 prisoning them if you don't tell how? Mere- 

 ly saying, " Where one knows how " is 

 only exasperating. Turning to the ques- 

 tion itself, your answer satisfies in part. 

 I think a beginner would understand that he 

 is to select frames of brood soon to hatch; but 

 I think he would be badly puzzled to know 

 how to give " a larger proportion of young 

 bees to the nucleus." [Why, the easiest 

 thing in the world, doctor. It has been our 

 experience that a light shaking of a comb 

 will disengage the old bees and a few 

 young downy ones, and leave nearly all the 

 active young bees. When we form nuclei, 

 or at least that was my rule, we give each 

 frame of bees before moving to another lo- 

 cation a light shake. The young vigorous 

 Italians — those that have hardly begun to 



