902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



Usually I had only two nuclei in the same 

 hive; and in the winter, by looking in at the 

 entrance the two clusters of bees could be 

 seen formed into one cluster, just as if there 

 were no {\ board between them. [The A. 

 I. Root Co. is somewhat interested in this 

 proposition, for it would like to winter over 

 a large surplus of queens in order to have 

 them on hand ready for the early queen 

 orders. If the plan under consideration is 

 generally feasible for a good dry cellar, 

 then all we would have to do would be to 

 remove one queen, draw the division or 

 slide, and allow the queen in the other to 

 become the mother of the portion dequeen- 

 •ed. Perhaps this remaining queen would 

 have to be "introduced," to prevent the 

 motherless bees or those lately made 

 motherless from attacking the new mother. 

 -Ed.] 



A CORRESPONDENT asks me to answer 

 here the following: "I have for honey- flow 

 here, no basswood, just white and red clo- 

 vers, a little sweet clover along roadsides, 

 and smartweed. Have you any reason to 

 think that 100 colonies of bees could be sup- 

 ported with good returns in such a locality ?" 

 Yes, if the white clover is abundant. You 

 have pretty nearly described my own loca- 

 tion, except that smartweed (heartsease ?) 

 does not count much. But I'd give a pretty 

 penny if some one would tell us whether, 

 year by year, 80 colonies would not give me 

 more surplus than 100. [This is a question 

 as much as any other one in bee culture that 

 hinges largely on locality. In Mr. Alexan- 

 der's locality, and his management and his 

 bees, I think 1000 colonies would not be too 

 many for one yard. In another, 50 colonies 

 might be too many. From my study of the 

 different locations throughout the United 

 States I should say the average locality 

 would not support over 100 colonies to the 

 yard. Heartsease (or "smartweed" as v?e 

 call it here) never yields honey, and yet in 

 Nebraska and other of the Western States 

 it is quite an important honey- plant. Local- 

 ity again, you see.— Ed. ^ 



D. M. MacDonald, the able correspond- 

 ent of the British Bee Journal, referring, no 

 doubt, to what was said about foul brood in 

 Gleanings, pages 468 and 524, says: "I 

 should like to disabuse the minds of Amer- 

 icans of the prevalent idea there, lately 

 expressed by Mr. Scholl, Dr. C. C. Miller, 

 and Mr. E. R. Root, that the disease here is 

 of ' a milder form than the disease we have 

 here in America.' It can be as virulent 

 here as there, and as destructive. Bacillus 

 alvei is the same everywhere." What was 

 said in Gleanings had more especial refer- 

 ence to foul brood in Europe. To be sure. 

 Bacillus alvei is the same everywhere, as 

 Mr. Root expressly said, page 524, but, as 

 he there added, "the same microbe, under 

 some conditions, might be much more de- 

 structive than under others." Certain it is 

 that in some parts of Europe, probably 

 where it has prevailed for a long time, it is 

 much less violent than in other parts where 



it is more lately introduced, so that some 

 European writers have been inclined to 

 speak of two forms of foul brood. I had 

 not thought there was any great difference 

 between England and America as to the vio- 

 lence of foul brood, although there is prob- 

 ably more virgin soil for it to work upon 

 here than there; and on that virgin soil it 

 would not be strange if it were more severe. 



If you had taken the trouble to ask me 

 in advance, Mr. Editor, whether it wouldn't 

 be a good plan to make an outdoor feeder 

 out of a honey-can with holes punched in it, 

 I think I should have told you not to waste 

 time fooling with it. With your explana- 

 tion, page 855, and especially your philoso- 

 phy as to the bees tumbling down under the 

 can, which has interested me exceedingly, I 

 don't wonder that you are enthusiastic about 

 it, and I feel as if I'd like to get a can- 

 guess I must— to try it. [I am very sorry, 

 doctor, but later experience with the invert- 

 ed can with holes punched in the top leads 

 me to believe it is not quite ideal yet. It is 

 far better than a grooved board in that it 

 makes the bees consume time in getting a 

 load of syrup, but still allows them to strug- 

 gle some and tug away at each other yet. 

 I am coming to believe that the best solu- 

 tion of the outdoor-feeding problem is that 

 suggested by W. L. Porter, of Denver, Col , 

 namely, spraying the syrup on hive-covers, 

 boards, or sheets spread on the ground. It 

 would be still better if the syrup could be 

 scattered in minute drops with an atomizer, 

 the drops about an inch apart. We must 

 approach as nearly as possible the conditions 

 furnished by a clover-field— here a little and 

 there a little, but that little so very little 

 that the bee is obliged to visit possibly 25 to 

 50 blossoms or flower-tubes before it gets a 

 full load- Ed.] 



GLEANINCSfrom the PACIFIC COAST 



By Prof. A.J.Cook. Pomona Coi.l.ec.e.-Cal. , 



GOVERNMENT WORK. 



I suppose few of us really believe in pa- 

 ternalism in governmental affairs. We be- 

 lieve in individual effort, and are proudest 

 in that which calls from the individual the 

 best that is in him; yet I am proud of the 

 work that our government is doing for the 

 people. That this is commendable appears 

 in the fact that foreign nations are praising 

 the Agricultural Department and its re- 

 search in practical directions more than any 

 other one of our characteristics. I doubt if 

 there is a more able, honest, and unselfish 

 body of scientific workers to be found in the 

 world than are associated together in our 

 own Agricultural Department at Washing- 

 ton. 



