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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



terday I rode from Pasadena to this place, 

 La Conyada. The green of the hills, the 

 bloom of the fields and roadsides, and the 

 profusion of orange-blossoms that whiten 

 the rich green of the orange-trees and fill 

 the whole atmosphere with their exquisite 

 perfume, are entrancing. One rejoices 

 that he lives in this favored clime, and 

 hymns a song of praise and thanksgiving 

 that he is permitted to live in not only the 

 best but the most beautiful country that the 

 sun shint s on in all its round. 



THE PHACELIA.. 



The wild flowers are very abundant this 

 season. They are very early, and already 

 the ground is carpeted with most varied and 

 abundant bloom. Among these are the 

 phacelias, which are already attracting the 

 bees. We have several species of this 

 genus. The flowers are scorpioid— that is, 

 the seed-spikes twist and greatly resemble 

 worms or caterpillars. I often see bees 

 thick upon these phacelias, and have no 

 doubt that they contribute not a little to the 

 coffers of the bee-keeper. 

 ^• 



THE GILIOS. 



We also have a wealth of gilios among 

 our wild bloom. These are the spring beau- 

 ties of California. There are many species 

 and of many colors, from deepest blue to 

 brightest pink. The bees like them, and 

 often are hardly less numerous than are the 

 flowers. A very interesting feature of these 

 gilios and some others of this family (Pole- 

 moneacex) is the bright-blue pollen. This 

 deep blue of the anthers makes the flowers 

 most attractive; and the bees, as they bear 

 their double load of pollen of brightest blue 

 to their hives, are really striking in appear- 

 ance. 



BEE^niEEPINO IN THESDLTHWESI 



Br LOUIS H.SCHOLt-.COtLiECE STATION TEXAS 



The season in Texas is very late this year, 

 but the prospects for a good honey crop 

 are quite promising. Abundant rains have 

 fallen throughout the winter months, and a 

 good season is in the ground. With these 

 conditions honey-yielding bloom in abun- 

 dance is assured unless some unforeseen 

 calamity intervenes. 



A "brick of honey" is standing up well 

 in Texas. This "brick" I brought with me 

 on my return to the South, simply carrying it 

 in one of my grips. It has gone through all 

 kinds of weather and through temperatures 

 ranging from below zero up to ^5°. The 

 weather here has been ranging between 65 



and 85 since I come home, and the honey is 

 just as it was when it was first put up in 

 December. 



IN TEXAS AGAIN. 



March 20 I bade good by to the North and 

 landed in the sunny South a few days later. 

 It was for the first time that I noticed the 

 great difference between the North and the 

 South. In Ohio, cold weather, snow and ice, 

 winter clothes, overcoats, and gloves were 

 still "in season." Arrived at San Antonio, 

 Texas, it seemed as if summer had already 

 made its appearance. The weather was 

 warm, flowers were in bloom, and bees and 

 birds were in the air. Straw hats and shirt- 

 waists made quite a contrast indeed to our 

 heavy winter clothes which we had not yet 

 a chance to change. 



All this made me feel still more sorry for 

 Dr. Miller, who, you will remember, enjoys 

 himself in his shirtsleeves inside a warm and 

 comfortable home, with the mercury out- 

 side shivering around and below zero, while 

 the Southerners are enjoying the outside 

 with all its glorious beauty of nature. 



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ITALIANS AND FOUL BROOD. 



Samuel Simmins, page 178, champions 

 Italianizing as a cure for foul brood, and 

 he gives some evidence that causes one to 

 ask further questions. Such questions have 

 been asked of me, and I hardly know what 

 to answer. There is no doubt that Italian 

 blood would help a great deal, but it is 

 too much of a homeopathic dose for eradi- 

 cating the disease. Better use severer 

 methods, and eradicate it quicker and more 

 surely. Italian and other good races will 

 keep freer from contagion, and battle with 

 disease longer, than blacks or other inferior 

 races, but it hardly seems probable that 

 Italians would resist foul brood altogether. 



Mr. Simmins says, "If one deliberately 

 infects a colony of bees, nothing can pre- 

 vent them from having the disease, no mat- 

 ter what the race ; but here is the gist of 

 the whole matter: The blacks do not at- 

 tempt to subdue it ; the others do— so much 

 so that, for a long time, the inexperienced 

 eye would detect nothing the matter with 

 the combs, while a favorable season or a 

 little judicious assistance would enable them 

 to eradicate it entirely. 



It seems to me that their foul brood might 

 be of a milder form than the dreaded disease 

 we have in America. We Southerners would 

 like to have a little more information on 

 this subject. Although we have only a very 

 few localities in Texas where foul brood 

 exists, we are taking every caution to pre- 

 vent its spread. 



WINTER LOSSES IN TEXAS. 



A large number of bee-keepers in South- 

 west Texas have suffered from winter 

 losses, some of them quite heavily. The 

 cause was too close "robbing" last fall. 

 When the last surplus honey was taken off 



