490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Al'K. 15 



hold of now is what the effect of 20 or 30 or 

 even 50 acres of alsike would do within easy 

 range of a bee- yard of, say, 100 to 150 colo- 

 nies. Of course, I appreciate the fact that 

 white clover and basswood yielding their 

 ^uota would, to a certain extent, obscure 

 -the actual aggregate received from alsike; 

 or, to put it another way, the alsike might 

 do ever so well, and the white clover and 

 basswood ever so poorly; and it would be 

 difficult to determine the proportionate 

 amount of honey yielded by any one of them, 

 unless we watch where the bees work. If 

 they did not visit the white clover during 

 i;he season, and were busy at work during 

 the heaviest flow on alsike, this would be a 

 strong pointer in favor of this plant. 



It is a good time now to get alsike and pea- 

 vine clover sown in your localities; and it is 

 my opinion that it will pay the bee-keepers 

 well to furnish free seed within a mile and a 

 half of their yards. 



Remember, when you do this, alsike has a 

 wonderful tenacity for the soil. If it is once 

 grown it spreads rapidly over the farm and 

 pasture lands. So far from being a noxious 

 weed it adds materially to the value of the 

 pasture, even if we throw the bees entirely 

 out of consideration. 



DR. E. F. PHILLIPS. 



On the front cover page of this issue we 

 are glad to introduce Dr. E. F. Phillips, in 

 charge of apiculture during the absence of 

 Mr. Benton, in the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington. 



Our first aquaintance with Dr. Phillips be- 

 gan when we received a letter from Prof. 

 E. G. Conklin, of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, asking if one of his students, Mr. 

 E. F. Phillips, who had graduated from the 

 University, and was then pursuing a post- 

 graduate course, might come to Medina and 

 pursue some of his studies already begun at 

 the University along the line of parthenogen- 

 esis. He wished to know whether we would 

 be willing to allow him the privileges of our 

 bee- yards here where he could gather mate- 

 rial, and do some work in the line of some 

 original investigation. He stated that Mr. 

 Phillips was a young man of more than ordi- 

 nary ability; and recognizing the special fa- 

 cilities that we had at Medina, he would con- 

 sider it a special favor if we would allow 

 him to continue the line of his studies at our 

 office. We immediately replied that we 

 should be more than pleased to have him 

 come, especially as we understood he would 

 bring some of the apparatus from the college, 

 and was prepared to make dissections of 

 bees and queens. Accordingly, in June fol- 

 lowing, 1903, Mr. Phillips presented himself 

 at our office. He was given a desk where 

 he could do inside work, and was permitted 

 to go anywhere he pleased, and gather any 

 specimens which he desired for his special 

 work. 



He had not been long at our place before 

 it was apparent he was not only a trained 

 scientist, able to weigh evidence carefully 



and impartially, but was in every sense of the 

 word an agreeable gentleman. He went at 

 his work in a manner that was characteristic 

 of the man: and so far from being a hin- 

 drance he gave material assistance in the 

 way of suggestions, both in practical work 

 and in the line of scientific proof of certain 

 disputed points. 



He spent two different summers with us 

 during which he gathered together an im- 

 mense amount of valuable material, for he 

 had dissected numerous queens, normal and 

 drone layers, and went back to the Univer- 

 sity to carry on his studies further. 



We heard nothing from him until we were 

 advised by Mr. Benton that he had been ap- 

 pointed to assist in the Division of Apicul 

 ture at the Bureau of Entomology; that he 

 would be in charge during his (Mr. Benton's) 

 absence on an extended tour in quest of new 

 races of bees. 



During the time he has held the position 

 he has been by no means idle. Necessarily 

 he has had to take up work that Mr. Benton 

 had already begun, and, besides this, has in- 

 stituted new lines of work of his own. The 

 volume of correspondence as the result, from 

 bee-keepers and others, in regard to new 

 races of bees, the distribution of honey- 

 plant seed, besides a great string of ques- 

 tions, has been considerable. While Dr. 

 Phillips is ably assisted, a great deal of the 

 work devolves on him as expert in the Divi- 

 sion. 



He delivered a series of lectures at insti- 

 tutes throughout York State, last winter, 

 and read a valuable paper regarding his work 

 in the Division, at the Chicago convention of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association. He 

 has lately taken up one department that I 

 am sure will prove to be very helpful to bee- 

 keepers; and that is, something relating to 

 the brood diseases of bees. 



The last thing that has appeared from Dr. 

 PhilHps is Bulletin 55 on the rearing of 

 queen-bees, already mentioned in these col- 

 umns. 



Bee-keepers all over the country may sin- 

 cerely congratulate themselves on having so 

 competent and thoroughly trained a man in 

 apicultural work at Washington. All those 

 who heard Dr. Phillips at the various meet- 

 ings at which he has read papers were im- 

 pressed with his marked ability. It is to be 

 hoped that his services will be retained, if 

 for no other reasons than that scientific re- 

 search on the general subject of bee- keep- 

 ing may be advanced. 



COST OF BEE-KEEPERS' SUPPLIE?*; HAS THE 

 PRICE BEEN SHOVED UP TO AN UNREA- 

 SONABLE OR EXORBITANT FIGURE? 



Almost any thing that a manufacturer of 

 bee-keepers' supplies might say might be 

 construed as smacking of prejudice if noth- 

 ing more. As the editor of this journal 

 happens to be connected with the manufac- 

 ture of bee-keepers' supplies (fortunately 

 or otherwise) he does not propose to make 

 a statement himself, but to (.resent an ar- 

 ray of facts and figures gathered by a dis- 



