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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ncv. 1 



cality for bees. It lacks the favoring dry 

 hot climate of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, 

 and Southern California, 



INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE. 



A very thrifty farmer, for the region, of 

 Northern Ireland, told me a few days ago 

 that he, like all his neighbors, had to pay on 

 his 120 acres of land £20 ($100) annually for 

 taxes and £100 ($500) for rent! This must 

 be paid each year. What would our Ameri- 

 can farmers do under like circumstances? 

 Does this not argue either the closest econo- 

 my which I think prevails here, or else 

 greater productivity of the soil? I think 

 this is true, though not to so marked a de- 

 gree as I had previously supposed. I think 

 more attention is paid here to cultivation 

 and to manuring than is given by the ay er- 

 ase American farmer ; though, so far as I have 

 observed the cultivation here is much less 

 deep than in the States. Possibly this is the 

 result of the more frequent and copious 

 rains I have wondered if the more numer- 

 ous honey-bees might not in some part ac- 

 count for greater productivity. I have 

 rarelv ever enjoyed a day more than the one 

 spent a few days ago m Kew; Gardens, in 

 West London. Although the day was cold 

 and rainy I saw more honey-bees than 1 saw 

 coming across the whole American conti- 

 nent from Oregon to Minnesota. There can 

 be no question at all but that the honey-bees 

 in securing the more perfect pollination add 

 immensely to the fruiting of most plants 

 The snug condition of thmgs in the British 

 Isles crowds the bees, to the great gain of 

 the agriculturist of this region. As I have 

 hinted in previous articles, America will be 

 wise if she take every possible precaution 

 against scarcity of bees. Our agriculture 

 should become more intense. By multiply- 

 ing the apiaries everywhere in the agricul- 

 tural regions of America we shall certainly 

 work toward this desired intensity. 



MIMICRY. 



We use this word in scieribe to indicate the 

 frequent resemblances which we note m na- 

 ture which are often so wondrously striking 

 that we feel sure that they must possess 

 some significance. The polar bear, like most 

 arctic Inimals, is white. In those regions 

 of eternal snow such color is ever a protec- 

 tion The bear, the fiercest animal, is hid- 

 den "from its prey, while the prey m hke 

 way, is hidden from the bear. Thus, through 

 adaptation to surroundings, both eater and 

 eaten are alike advantaged by this mimicry 

 of the snow. In Ohio, the weasel is white 

 in winter, in time of snow, and brown in sum- 

 mer We believe that this is mimicry for 

 the good of the weasel. It aids him, not 

 onlv to approach his prey, but al?o to escape 

 from his own enemies. Who has not noticed 

 the sober colors of the sparrows? Like most 

 birds which frequent the ground, their gray 

 or brownish costumes hide them, as it \yere, 

 so that even the mother bird usually incu- 



bates her eggs in safety. I have known a 

 case of the American woodcock, a species of 

 snipe, which was so hidden while sitting up- 

 on the nest, that, even though we knew she 

 was there, it took very close scrutiny to find 

 her. I feel safe in saying that, except as 

 we disturbed her by almost stepping upon 

 her, we should certainly have not discovered 

 her at all. It is among insects that we find 

 the most numerous and striking cases of 

 mimicry. From their great numbers we 

 should expect this to be true, both from 

 cause and consequence. Who has not seen 

 the "walking stick," green at first, as it 

 rests upon the leaves, and gray or brown 

 later, when it attaches to the twigs? Other 

 insects might as properly be called walking 

 leaves, for both in form and coloration they 

 are marvelously like the leaves among which 

 they harbor. Even the mid-rib and veins 

 are not omitted. The loopers, or measuring 

 worms, as they stretch forth from a twig 

 are so like a broken stem that I have often 

 asked students to find them, stating that 

 they were within a few inches of my finger, 

 and often they would look in vain. The 

 katydids along the beach have lost the green 

 which is almost the invariable color of these 

 insects, and have become sand-colored. The 

 locusts, gray or brown in the East, are ash- 

 colored en the alkali plains of the western 

 desert. Tiger beetles, like the locusts, are 

 green or gray as they rest on the grass or 

 bare earth. In many cases, as with our 

 common lady-bird beetles, the insects are 

 highly colored, and hence strikingly conspic- 

 uous. This seeming exception has ready ex- 

 planation. These injects are unsavory. 

 They smell very bad, and probably taste 

 worse, so their bright colors also aid them, 

 as the bird that has been beguiled by hun- 

 ger to eat one of these beetles would almost 

 surely associate the bright hue with the 

 acrid taste. 



Perhaps the most interesting cases of 

 mimicry are to be found among those in- 

 sects whose habits attract them to the same 

 places that bees are wont to visit. All nec- 

 tar-loving insects, then, other than bees or 

 wasps, will show numerous cases of most 

 startling mimicry. Very many of the Dip- 

 tera, or two- winged flies, sip nectar from the 

 flowers. Often these two-winged flies are 

 so like bees or wasps in form and color that 

 they might deceive even the elect. Scores 

 of times I have received from bee-keepers 

 specimens of flies, often from our brightest 

 bee-keepers, asking me to name "the bees" 

 which they sent. There is one whole fami- 

 ly of these flies — Syrphidfe — which give us 

 a striking example of this mimicry. Many 

 are striped with yellow, exactly as are the 

 wasps, while some mimic almost exactly the 

 bees. Undoubtedly the birds are often de- 

 ceived, and give these flies the go-by, fearing 

 the stings which they could not give. There 

 is also an entire family of moths— the Seseid 

 — which also sip from the flowers, and are 

 so marked with blue and yellow that often 

 one can hardly believe they are not veritable 

 wasps, yet their bodies are brush-tipped in- 



