518 



get beekeepers who are also berry-growers 

 to insert one of these in the bottom of each 

 box of berries they pack, so the housewife 

 will come across it when she empties the box 

 and can try out the suggestion of using 

 honey in place of sugar for sweetening ber- 

 ries. 



HAVE YOU EVER SWEETENED BERRIES 

 WITH HONEY? 



IF YOU HAVE NOT, TRY IT TODAY. 



IT IS DELICIOUS. 



We hope that this will be the means of 

 inducing some people to use a mild-flavored 

 honey for the above said purpose. Further- 

 more, we expect the beekeepers who arc 

 berry-growers to get the other berry-grow- 

 ers to utilize these strips also. 



It is surprising how few people use 

 honey on strawberries, for instance. We 

 prefer it to sugar on any kind of berries, 

 however, for it blends so well with the fruit- 

 juices that the flavor is far better than that 

 of berries sweetened with granulated sugar. 



Bees Exonerated 



A GOOD many beekeepers are bothered 

 every year by berry and grape growers 

 complaining about tlie bees, and insisting 

 that the bees " bite " the fruit and suck the 

 juices. -The trouble is that people who 

 make such complaints do not read bee-jour- 

 nals and do not know that what they are 

 claiming is an impossibility. 



Our attention has just been called to a 

 ] aragraph in the Indianapolis News, taken 

 from the Scientific American. We hope 

 that this paragTaph may receive consider- 

 able publicity over the country. We fear, 

 however, that it Avill not be as widely copied 

 as tho some sensational claim were made 

 against our friends the bees. Newspapers, 

 as a rule, are never quite so happy as when 

 they are showing up somebody or some- 

 thing. Our hats are oif to the Indianapolis 

 News for having the good judgment to copy 

 something really worth while. 



An agricultural society of Florence, Italy, 

 has recently carried out a thoro investiga- 

 tion of the alleged injury of fruit by bees, 

 and has completely exonerated the latter. 

 Bees are unable to perforate the skin of 

 fruit, and it is only incidentally that they 

 suck the juices of fruits injured by other 

 natural causes. The damage sometimes at- 

 tributed to these insects is due to poultry, 

 wild birds, wind and hail, and even more 

 frequently to hornets, wasps, vine-moths, 

 and other insects. Instead of being harmful 

 to orchards and vineyards, bees perform the 

 useful service of effecting the cross-pollina- 

 tion of flowers, and hence the setting of 

 fruit, as well as the desiccation of damaged 

 fruits (especially grapes) by sucking the 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



juice and pulp and thus preventing fermen- 

 tation and rot extending to sound individ- 

 uals. The orchards and vineyards frequent- 

 ed by bees give the most constant crops. — 

 Scientific American. 



We suggest that beekeepers get their local 

 papers to publish this clipping, giving cred- 

 it not to Gleanings in Bee Culture, but 

 to the Scienttfic American, in order that the 

 reader may not get the mistaken idea that 

 he is reading a biased statement. There is 

 no time when this clipping could be used 

 so etfectively as right now. 



Clover Prospects Weighed in the Bal- 

 ance ; On a Tiptop of Expectancy 



According to all reports from all over 

 the country, clover — white, alsike, red, and 

 sweet — was never more abundant than this 

 year. The fields are white with it. We 

 have gone over portions of northern Ohio in 

 an automobile — localities that never showed 

 white clover before, and found they are 

 showing quite a large profusion of it. Some 

 fields look as if they were covered with 

 snow. 



But the all-absorbing question with the 

 beekeeper is, " Will this clover yield honey? 

 and how much ? " 



Bees in our part of the country are bare- 

 ly making a living and rearing brood. 

 Colonies liave to be watched very carefully 

 to see that they do not starve. The condi- 

 tions are m.uch the same as last year — rain, 

 rain, rain, and chilly weather, inters^Dersed 

 now and then with sunshine and a Utile 

 warm weather. But no sooner does the 

 nectar begin to come in than it rains again. 



Last year there was an enormous crop of 

 clover honey in spite of these rains; but it 

 came a month or six weeks late. History 

 may repeat itself this year. If settled warm 

 weather should come on, there would prob- 

 ably be a clover flow the like of which was 

 never seen before. 



But why does not clover yield on occa- 

 sional warm days? One of our neighbors, 

 Adam Leister, a local beekeeper, and a 

 splendid farmer, offers this explai^ation : 

 Rains and cool weather have mad? a rank 

 gTowth of the clover jdants, including the 

 blossoms; in fact, all kinds of grasses and 

 clovers ai'e growing so mnk that lawns have 

 to he mowed almost eve y other day. Well. 

 this rank growth has absorbed all the 

 strength of the clovers so there is nothing 

 left to develop nectar in the blossoms. It 

 used to be an axiom, a'^d it is a pretty good 

 one today, that, when farm.ers begin to 

 complain of drouth, honey begins to yield. 

 In other words, it i= impossible to grow a 



