330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



mmss- 



THE BEE-KEEPER VS. THE ALFALFA-GROWER 

 OF NEVADA. 



Why the Bee Does Not Lessen the Quantity and 

 Quality of the Hay. 



BY D. T. MEACHAM. 



On p. 917 is an article in reference to seri- 

 ous trouble in Nevada growing- out of a 

 spirit of jealousy and selfishness on the part 

 of alfalfa-growers toward bee-ktepers 

 whose bees gather honey from the blooms of 

 the alfalfa or- lucern clover. Nothing but 

 the grossest ignorance could possibly claim 

 that the bees saving the hone}' could in any 

 way injure the value or decrease the crop 

 of forage. As there are so few people who 

 know what honey really is, and how it is 

 produced, I have concluded, by 30ur per- 

 mission, to explain as briefly as space will 

 allow what honey is and how it is formed, 

 and what purpose it serves in nature. 



In the first place, it is a waste product in 

 the vegetable kingdom, gathered by only a 

 few species of insects, the most important 

 of which is the honey-bee, as well as the 

 most abundant. Honey may be closely imi- 

 tated, but can never be made as perfect by 

 man as it is when gathered by the bees 

 from the flowers and leaves. Our great 

 and good Father appears to have created 

 bees for this spectic purpose. The honey 

 partakes of the flavor of the oil that may be 

 extracted from the seed of the plant or tree 

 producing the flowers. Plants that yield 

 no seed never yield any surplus sugar, or 

 honey, in their flowers. But I am drifting 

 away from the object I have in view, and 1 

 must return to the theme above announced. 



"How is honey produced?" is the first 

 question we propose to answer; that done, 

 and no sane person can claim that bees 

 gathering it from the flowers of plants or 

 the leaves of forest-trees either injure the 

 plant or reduce its weight when matured. 

 In explaining the process as worked out in 

 nature we must invade the field of science, 

 and learn from the chemist and vegetable 

 physiology what they have seen of the sub- 

 ject in the great laboratory of nature. 



Plants and forest-trees, as well as all 

 fruit-trees, are compound objects, consisting 

 of roots, bark, and leaves, all of which have 

 their particular functions to perform. In 

 this article we shall confine ourself to the 

 leaves and flowers. We have all seen that 

 leaves hang on to the trees and plants long 

 after they are fully grown. Why is this? 

 What are they doing? The function of the 

 leaves is to gather or assimilate carbon 

 from the surrounding air, in the form of 



carbonic-acid gas, which, under the influ- 

 ence of sunlight, is transformed into starch. 

 This starch is stored in the bodj' of forest 

 and fruit trees for the purpose of supporting 

 the next season's growth of wood and seed. 

 At the proper season, and under the influ- 

 ence of pruper temperature, another sub- 

 stance, known to the chemist as diastase, 

 makes its appearence in these starch 

 grains, and a new transformation takes 

 place, whereb}' the starch is changed into 

 sugar, then into gum, then into wood. 



We said that honey is a waste product 

 from nature's great laborator}-, gathered 

 and saved bj' the honey-bees. This starch, 

 after being changed into sugar, is used by 

 the plant to feed imd support new growth 

 and the seed; and whenever and wherever 

 there remains an excess after supplying 

 the newl}' formed leaves and seed- stem, etc., 

 it is discharged in the form of a syrup on 

 the leaves of certain trees, and on the petals 

 of certain flowers, from where the bees gath- 

 er it and store it in the combs of their hives. 



All seeds are composed of starch, princi- 

 pally, hence the large amount of this grape- 

 sugar syrup which we call honey. But 

 what becomes of this waste after the new 

 seed has been formed, and gone to work 

 performing the same function as the leaves 

 until it reaches maturity? The seed will 

 not receive it, the leaves will not take it, 

 for they are taking it in its first form (car- 

 bonic-acid gas). Then what is to become 

 of this vast amount of nectar? In the hu- 

 mid regions it is washed away by the dews 

 and rains; in the arid or irrigated sections 

 it falls oft" the plants with the dry mature 

 flowers, and is gone unless it is saved by 

 the bees. The honey-dew on leaves, and 

 the honey on the petals of the flowers, are 

 governed by the same law; that is, the ex- 

 udation of the excess that remains after this 

 infant seed, leaf, or stem has been supplied 

 with the quantity required to start it to 

 work for itself. 



We said above that plants or trees that 

 produce no seed ever discharge any of the 

 S3'rup which we call honey, such as the 

 rose, snowball, and many others. The 

 sugar derived from the starch stored in the 

 body of such plants is transformed into a 

 gum substance; thence into wood or woody 

 fiber, and added to the plant, forming what 

 we call growth. No method j'et applied by 

 scientific experimenters has ever resulted 

 in forcing a plant to imbibe sugar when it 

 has once yielded it. The sugar maple, al- 

 though yielding a sap heavily charged with 

 sugar, could by no appliances in the hands 

 of the experimenter be made to receive again 

 the sugar. It will imbibe the water when 

 applied to the roots, but rejects the saccha- 

 rine matter. 



In the light of all these known facts, how 

 can the bees, by saving the honey from the 

 spent blooms of plants, injure or decrease 

 their value, when it is known that the spent 

 blooms must fall to the ground with all the 

 honey they may contain, to decay and dis- 

 appear from man's control? Ignorance of 



