Mav, 1<122 



T. K A N T N n S T N B E K C T" T. T TT R T-: 



M 



C 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



Y! Isn't 



that an at- 



tra c t i V e 

 picture on the 

 cover page of 

 Gleanings for 

 Apr i IV Almost 

 any one after 

 looking at that 

 would want to 

 open and see what is inside. 



* * * 



Vol. L on the cover page reminds me that 

 it is now nearly 50 years since I first re- 

 ceived that tiny eight-page baby Gleanings. 

 Wliat a healthy, vigorous growth it has had, 

 expanding from eight to seventy-two pages! 



* * » 



Allen Latham, on page 225, makes out a 

 pretty good case for rearing a good supply 

 of drones during the honey flow. Can he tell 

 us just how many drones it takes to satisfy 

 the sexual instincts of the undeveloped fe- 

 males of a colony? Would not 500 ansAver 

 as well as 5000? This would give 50 to each 

 comb in a ten-frame hive. 



I put out a mixture of honey and water, 

 lialf and half, on March 1 to see how much 

 cold it would stand before freezing; but our 

 coldest weather was passed, and we had but 

 one morning when it was as low as 7 degrees 

 above zero. It stood this temperature with- 

 out any indication of freezing. Who can 

 report "a lower temperature without freez- 

 ing- * * * 



J D. Yancey, on page 236, objects to drop- 

 ping the word "extracted" before honey 

 on labels, to distinguish it from the old- 

 time "strained honey"; but he says this 

 old-time quality has nearly disappeared 

 from the markets. This being the case, it 

 would seem to be a good time to drop the 

 word "extracted," giving rather the name 

 or source of the honey instead. 



* * * 



M. C. Richter, page 223, gives a most in- 

 teresting account of taking observations on 

 tlie outside of the hive, that may be studied 

 with profit by young beekeepers. Quite as 

 important, it seems to me, is when entering 

 a vard to note the sound of the bees. A 

 practiced ear can tell at once whether they 

 are having a holiday, swarming, gathering 

 honev to beat the band, or up to the mean- 

 est of all business, robbing some defenseless 



colonv. 



* » * 



Those two articles in April Gleanings. 

 "Wonder Work of Bees," by A. H. Hen- 

 drickson, and "Beekeeping and Agricul- 

 ture," by Geo. S. Demutli, cover one of the 

 most fascinating subjects connected with 

 farming or beekeeping, viz., the cross fer- 

 tilization of flowers. I wish the facts m 

 these two articles could be put into a small 

 bulletin bv themselves and furnished at cost 



1 



for gratuitous 

 dist r i b u t i o n 

 a m o n g farmers 

 and fruit-grow- 

 ers. I feel sure a 

 great many bee- 

 keepers would 

 like to buy them 

 for this purpose. 

 This subject has 

 become almost a science of itself; yet if we 

 go back 25 years, very little was known for 

 certain about it. My! but isn't this a great 

 world to live in, and a great age of the 

 world to live in, too? What a pleasure to 

 live in the open where such wonders are 

 going on! Yet some folks will neglect these 

 wonderful thouglits and go to the movies or 

 a dog fight for amusement. I am sorry for 



them. 



* * * 



In no way is the advance in the beekeep- 

 ing industry seen more clearly than in the 

 matter of advertising. Fifty years ago a 

 page or two seemed to satisfy the patent- 

 hive vendors and queen-dealers, while today 

 nearly 40 pages of Gleanings in Bee Cul- 

 ture are required to make known the multi- 

 tudinous wants of honey producers, lioney 

 dealers, manufacturers of containers and 

 bee supplies of all sorts, everything a bee- 

 keeper can think of, and a great many 

 things few of us have any use for. 



* * * 



On page 221, the Editor calls attention to 

 the "Spray Poison Evil." which is both 

 timely and important. I do not think it so 

 great an evil as we formerly thought, for in 

 many years it does little harm. If the weath- 

 er is cool or cloudy, or if dandelions are 

 yielding freely, spraying seems to do little 

 harm; but, taking the years together, it is 

 bad enough. I fear there has been some 

 rather slipsliod teaching along these lines 

 in some of our agricultural colleges. Attend- 

 ing a meeting of beekeepers some time ago 

 I related how much damage spraying, had 

 done to one of my yards of bees, when a pro- 

 fessor arose and made the statement that 

 he did not believe bees had evef been in 

 jured by the spraying of fruit trees. Tests 

 made iii the laboratory showed that bees 

 would not take poison sprays. I then stated 

 that I had gathered up the dead bees by the 

 handful and sent them to the Department 

 of Agriculture at Washington for analysia 

 and arsenic was found in their bodies. He 

 replied that arsenic might have been found 

 in the bodies of healthy bees. I confess my 

 patience received a severe jolt and my re 

 spect for professors and laboratory tests 

 dropped a long way below zero. 



P. S. — It afPords me pleasure to state that 

 that professor, who was at the head of the 

 apiarian department of an agricultural col- 

 lege for a time, has quit teaching and gone 

 into the more prosaic business of repairing 

 automobiles. We wish him success in his 

 new business. 



