JULY 15, 3916 



605 



possible for him to get a plot of ground 

 upon which to exercise his latent abilities in 

 (his direction. He can, hoAvever, keep bees, 

 as they require but little space and may 

 even be kept upon roofs of buildings if 

 necessary. 



The first beekeeping club for boys in San 

 Francisco started with but five members. 

 Under the leadership of the writer they se- 

 cured a room in one of the San Francisco 

 churches. Three of the five boys each pur- 

 chased a hive of bees, and the other two 

 looked eagerly forward to the time when 

 they too might have some. Thus the first 

 club was organized. 



This club has now about forty members. 

 The boys have their own officers, and hold 

 regadar business meetings. After the busi- 

 ness is over, the leader or some experienced 

 beekeeper, or other person with a practical 

 knowledge of the subject, gives a talk on 

 beekeeping. Some evenings the entertain- 

 ment consists of a live-bee demonstration. 

 At other times they have the use of a stere- 

 opticon and set of slides to illustrate lec- 

 tures on particular phases of the subject. 

 The motto of the club is. "A Million Things 

 to Leai'n about the Bee." 



After the program of the evening is over, 

 the boys supply themselves with honey to 

 sell. This honey is put up for them by one 

 of the local dealers and bears their own 

 label. This honey they sell at a good profit, 

 the proceeds from which go toward addi- 

 tions to their bee equipment. The meetings 

 close witli honev refreshments. Parents, 



being always welcome, often come to visit 

 the meetings. 



On Washington's birthday, Feb. 22, all 

 the boys, as well as all adults living about 

 San Francisco Bay who were interested in 

 beekeeping, met at the writer's home in 

 Sausalito. This is a little town at the foot 

 of the hills in Marin Co., just across the bay 

 from San Francisco. Here they held a bee- 

 club picnic or field day. Every one brought 

 his lunch and prepared for a thoroly enjoy- 

 able time. Live-bee demonstrations, lec- 

 tures, and practical working explanations 

 of the hive and fixtures constituted the pro- 

 gram of the day. Those who were inter- 

 ested started a collection of the honey-pro- 

 ducing flora of that part of the state. A 

 large number of people who had never seen 

 the inside of a hive before had the oppor- 

 tunity to work practically with the bees and 

 handle the frames. Efforts were made to 

 organize better the clubs in the various 

 towns, and make it possible to have a boys' 

 union apiary, located in San Francisco. 



As time goes on and this work grows, 

 many clubs will be organized about the 

 country. The greatest problem will be to 

 find capable leaders who are willing and 

 anxious to give a j^art of their time to such 

 work. It is hoped that these clubs will 

 some day extend into the schools and insti- 

 tutions of learning in our country to such 

 an extent that young people may come more 

 and more to learn of the mysteries of nature 

 thru these wonderful insects. 



Sausalito, Cal. 



THE ROLE OF INSECTS AS CARRIERS OF FIRE BLIGHT 



A Reply to the Criticism, page 384, May 15 



BY PROF. H. A. GOSSARD 



In Gleanings, for May 15 is a review, not 

 of a bulletin published by the Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station as your wording might lead 

 3'our readers to suppose, but of a paj^er 

 read by me before the Ohio State Horticul- 

 tural Society; therefore whatever of blame 

 may be attached to its publication must rest 

 upon me alone, for no other official of the 

 station is in any way implicated. 



Now, a paper that gives rise to so many 

 and such gross misunderstandings as you 

 gather from it would certainly seem to need 

 some additions or explanations to make its 

 purport clear. You have gotten an entirely 

 wrong idea as to my attitude of mind and 

 beliefs regarding the entire question. The 

 usefitlness of the honeybee to the orchard- 

 Lst can hardly be called in question, no 

 matter if it does carry blight; and the pre- 



cise manner of the disease-transmission is 

 yet less important if the bee is conceded to 

 be a numerous carrier. The real question 

 under investigation is, regardless of wheth- 

 er bees are or are not carriers, can they be 

 so handled that they will prevent or reduce 

 the damage incidentally caused by them- 

 selves and by other carriers of the blossom 

 form of blight while performing the indis- 

 pensable work of pollination? Since the 

 honeybee is the only one among the pol- 

 linators that is subject to human manipula- 

 tion for a definite purpose, it is the only 

 insect in which a i^ossibility inheres of being 

 advantageously used for such an end. The 

 mode or modes by which it transmits the 

 disease may be helpful in determining the 

 practicability of emploj-ing it for such use. 

 If T have any prejudice regarding the 



