18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



July 15, 1898, page 554, to the effect that he 

 (Morrison) had been instrumental in pro- 

 curing an appropriation of $5000 for the 

 benefit of bee culture, and that Mr. Morri- 

 son himself was to be the first appointee. 

 Nothing could be further from the facts. 

 There was no appropriation of $5000 nor any- 

 other sum for bee culture at the time indi- 

 cated— 1885 to 1887; nor was there ever a 

 special appropriation for apiculture previous 

 to 1901, as he proceeded to show by tables 

 taken from the records in the Department. 



Notwithstanding the work of N. W. Mc- 

 Lain had been criticised by bee-keepers and 

 by the bee-papers at the time, Dr. Riley 

 felt that a good deal of that work was valu- 

 able, especially the part relating to the ex- 

 periments to test whether bees could be 

 made to puncture sound fruit. The results 

 showed that they could not do so, and have 

 been since quoted very widely as authorita- 

 tive. Following the work of Mr. McLain 

 there was a lull in apicultural work ; but in 

 1891 a series of experiments was conducted 

 at the Michigan State Experiment Station, 

 under the direction of Prof. A. J. Cook, as- 

 sisted by John H. Larrabee. This was dis- 

 continued shortly after. In the mean time 

 it had been Dr. Riley's desire to secure the 

 giant bees of India; and he had already ad- 

 dressed a letter to the speaker, ofi'ering him 

 a commission to proceed to India and secure 

 those bees; but before the letter reached 

 him he was back to his native land after an 

 absence of eleven years. Owing to some 

 technicalities, however. Dr. Riley was un- 

 able to secure the authorization to send to 

 Mr. Benton, and he appears instead to have 

 been employed in the general work of the 

 Division of Entomology. 



The untimely death of Dr. Riley some- 

 what changed the aspect of affairs, and it 

 was only gradually that the importance of 

 practical apicultural work could be suffi- 

 ciently impressed on the authorities to re- 

 sult in a more liberal policy toward this in- 

 dustry. Meanwhile thousands of letters re- 

 lating to apiculture had been answered by 

 the speaker, and many thousands of bulle- 

 tins had been sent out to all parts of the 

 country. Teachers in the Normal College in 

 the District of Columbia, and of the public 

 schools of Washington, as well as teachers 

 in nature study in other cities, have been 

 furnished with information concerning bees 

 for use in class work. 



During the thirteen years Mr. Benton had 

 been connected with the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, he had never, he 

 said, permitted to pass unutilized an oppor- 

 tunity to create in the minds of those in 

 authority a favorable impression concerning 

 the dignity oi apiculture. All along he had 

 noticed a growing interest in the Depart- 

 ment; at last he had the satisfaction of see- 

 ing the matter duly appreciated, and, proper 

 steps taken to insure investigations which 

 were so much needed. Prior to this time 

 the title borne by himself was "Investiga- 

 tor in the Division of Entomology," and, 

 later, "Assistant Entomologist." Finally, 



in 1901, there was set apart a special appro- 

 priation for apiculture of $2000, the first and 

 only special appropriation which had been 

 made for that branch. His own title was 

 changed to that of ' ' Apicultural Investiga- 

 tor, " and his own salary, together with 

 that of a temporary assistant for a few 

 weeks on salary, was charged to this 

 fund. This amount left only a small sum 

 for investigation. He did the best he 

 could, however, placing at the disposal of 

 the Department his own bees, for experi- 

 mental work. But in July, 1904, after a 

 long effort and repeated representation to 

 the authorities at the Department, and the 

 legislators themselves, the "Division of En- 

 tomology" was raised to the rank of a 

 "bureau," with what was practically a 

 Division of Apiculture, with a definite sum 

 of $5000 for apiculture. Mr. Benton was 

 now allowed two assistants, each bearing 

 the title of "Special Agent in Apiculture," 

 and the other whose title was that of "Api- 

 cultural Clerk." He had been able to se- 

 cure Mr. John M. Rankin, of Michigan, a 

 trained student in experimental work in api- 

 culture, for first assistant, and with whom 

 the bee-keepers of the country were already 

 well acquainted. The second assistant was 

 Mr. Leslie Martin, of Tennessee, an enthu- 

 siastic student of apiculture, but one who 

 had had several years of experience in prac- 

 tical work with bees. A civil-service exam- 

 ination had been held, and since the reading 

 of Mr. Benton's paper I note with much 

 pleasure that Miss Jessie E. Marks, the 

 daughter of W. F. Marks, of Clifton Springs, 

 N. Y., has secured the appointment. 



Mr. Benton went on to say that an apiary 

 of fifty colonies had been located at Arling- 

 ton Experimental Farm, on the Virginia side 

 of the Potomac, directly across from the De- 

 partment grounds. The location was ideal 

 for testing new races of bees and their 

 crosses with other races. Numbers of 

 queens of valuable races were already being 

 imported and tested. These included the 

 gentle Caucasian bees from the shores of 

 the Black and Caspian Seas in Russia; 

 Cyprians from Cyprus; Dalmatians from 

 Dalmatia, Austria; Italians from the foot- 

 hills of the Alps; and, lastly, Carniolans 

 from Austria. Nor were the giant bees of 

 India and of the Philippines to be overlooked. 



In closing he desired to express his high 

 regard for the present Chief of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, Dr. L. O. Howard. No man 

 was more widely known among the galaxy 

 of distinguished scientists whose homes were 

 in the capital city, and no one was more 

 highly esteemed. Like Dr. Riley, not a bee- 

 keeper, he had come in the course of the 

 years in which he had been associated with 

 Mr. Benton to know something of the status 

 of this industry. 



This paper was listened to with much in- 

 terest, for it gave a detailed report of the 

 work of the Department, especially a report 

 of the work that was being done and had 

 been accomplished by the Apicultural In- 

 vestigator, Mr. Frank Benton. 



