November, 1909. 



American IRee Journal j 



directly connected with bee-keeping, it 

 strikingly illustrates the fact that suc- 

 cess in the growth of an important 

 crop may depend greatly upon the 

 work of tiny members of the insect 

 world. However important the work 

 of this wasp may be, it is nothing com- 

 pared with what the honey-bee is 

 quietly doing year after year, in most 

 cases getting no credit whatever for 

 its indispensable aid in securing crops 

 that mount up into the millions. If all 

 the bees in the country were suddenly 

 wiped out, the Department of Agricul- 

 ture would no doubt promptly get busy 

 scouring the world to get bees to stock 

 the country, not so much for their 

 honey as for their still greater value in 

 fertilizing the flowers. Here is the 

 clipping referred to : 



Has Solved the Fig Problem. 



The United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture has solved the question of growing the 

 Smyrna fig in Fresno Co.. Calif., in the heart 

 of the San Joaauin valley, one of the biggest 

 and most prosperous irrigation districts of 

 California. This was accomplished by im- 

 porting a pecular kind of wasp, which fruc- 

 tifies the figs from Smyrna. 



George C. Roeding, one of the early set- 

 tlers of the San Joaquin valley, began ex- 

 perimenting with the Asiatic fig some time 

 ago. but the fruit failed to mature. After 

 much study it was found that the insects 

 were a necessary factor. The Government 

 sent an expert to Asia who brought back a 

 number of little caprifigs containing the in- 

 sects. The bugs were placed on the caprifig 

 trees in the Roeding orchard, and carefully 

 protected during the winter. With the 

 coming of spring many colonies of the wasps 

 appeared, and the crop of Smyrna figs has 

 since been a big success. 



A Sister's Report and Her Stung Dog 



Dear Miss Wilson: — With 5 colo- 

 nies I got in all about 140 pounds of 

 extracted honey, and 25 pounds of 

 comb honey. The wet, cold spring was 

 very hard on the bees. The long drouth 

 last year seemed to kill many of the 

 roots, and from what roots were left 

 the cold weather last spring made a 

 yield almost impossible. Then as soon 

 as the white clover was gone the 

 weather turned hot almost immediately 

 and spoiled the sweet clover around 

 here. My first honey is basswood and 

 honey locust. The last I am not sure 

 about. It seems to be several kinds, 

 but fair honey at that. 



I have been feeding my bees this 

 fall. I have fed them 21 pounds each 

 of syrup that is half buckwheat honey. 

 I had several gallons of buckwheat 

 honey last fall and we did not care for 

 it. But I find it just the thing to feed 

 with. 



The weather has turned so suddenly 

 cold and wet this week. Only for that 

 I should have had the cushions on by 

 now. But I will have to put them on 

 very soon. 



Did any one ever raise a puppy and 

 keep bees at the saiue time? Well, I 

 had another experience since the bees 

 stung me and my eye was swollen shut. 

 We got a 4-weeks-old fo.x -terrier pup 

 about July 10. " Bob " was possessed 

 to see what we kept in those " little 

 koops." He tried to catch the bees, 

 and being fearful of having him badly 

 stung, we had to watch him pretty 

 closely. About Aug. 20. I was working 

 with the bees one morning and sent 

 him to the house. After I got through 

 ,' Mr. Bob " goes out to tend the bees 



all unbeknown to us. We missed him 

 and looked to find him, but no Bob was 

 to be seen. Just then the door-bell 

 rang, and I went to answer the bell, 

 and some boys had come to ask if I 

 knew my dog was dead. There lay 

 Bob apparently dead. His head and 

 body were swollen to twice the size. 

 I put my hand on him and spoke to 

 him, but he never moved a muscle. 

 Then I turned him over and I could see 

 he was terribly sick. I picked him up 

 and carried him into the house. I 

 found a stinger on his very eye-lid. I 

 took it out and looked to see if there 

 were any more, but could not find any. 

 We came to the conclusion that he 

 swallowed a bee and it stung him in 

 his stomach. He was pretty quiet that 

 day, but he was all right in a few days. 

 But it cured Bob of bee-keeping. 



Elsie A. Cutter. 

 Grand Rapids, Mich., Oct. 16. 



camel's-hair paint-brush, moistened be- 

 tween the lips, with which it is easy to re- 

 move from the bee's legs, as she runs up the 

 alighting-board, any "load" of pollen one 

 may wish to examine. The lumps of pollen 

 so obtained are then placed on a clean glass 

 slip, care being taken to keep them separate, 

 and also to wipe the brush carefully on a 

 clean cloth after each capture; so that each 

 " load " of pollen remains as it was collected 

 by the bee; and, if it be found to contain 

 two or more kinds of pollen, we may infer 

 that the bee has visited two or more kinds 

 of flower during that journey. 



I have so far collected samples of pollen 

 in this way on some 70 days; and on 18 of 

 these have come across at least one mixed 

 "load" of pollen. That is. on rather more 

 than one day out of four, mixtures have 

 been observed. Of course the percentage 

 of mixed to pure " loads " of pollen brought 

 in by the bees is very much smaller than 

 this. 



Bees and Pollen 



Painstaking observers are not lack- 

 ing among the bee-keeping sisters of 

 England. In the British Bee Journal 

 Annie D. Belts says: 



During the last two summers I have made 

 a practice of going down to the hives and 

 collecting samples of pollen from the pollen- 

 baskets of home-coming bees. I use a small 



Some cases of working on different 

 kinds of flowers on the same trip have 

 been reported heretofore (in this 

 locality bees have been seen going 

 from one kind to another), but gen- 

 erally it has been supposed that this 

 was in a time of scarcity. Our British 

 sister, however, reports that she has 

 found in the same load pollen from 

 are not lack- heather and from dwarf gorse, both 

 kinds being plentiful at the time. All of 

 this, however, must still be considered 

 exceptional, the rule being that the 

 bee works on only one kind of flower 

 upon the same journey, and likely the 

 same rule holds good for the day and 

 for successive days. 



mS 



•uthern 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCHOLL, New Braunfels. Tex. 



Production oi Chunk or Canned Comb 

 Honey 



Comb honey cut out of the frames in 

 which it is produced and known as 

 " chunk " or " bulk comb " honey, is 

 not a new thing. The world at large 

 has no idea of the large quantities of 

 this kind of honey that has been pro- 

 duced in the great State of Texas 

 alone, amounting to millions upon mil- 

 lions of pounds since it was first in- 

 troduced to replace comb honey in 

 sections. And this latter it has not 

 only done almost entirely, but more 

 than that, it has increased the demand 

 for honey to a greater extent than 

 could ever have been accomplished 

 with section comb honey in three times 

 the length of time. 



Bulk coiub honey became popular 

 from the very start, and the demand for 

 it has been on a steady increase. Bulk 

 comb honey has found its way into 

 more homes than section honey would 

 ever have done, which was inducive 

 toward spreading the good news about 

 the value and the healthfulness of 

 honey as a food. 



Buik comb honey has found a place 

 on tables where section honey would 

 never have gone, especially 'On the 

 tables in the homes of the less well to 



do classes of people. In this it has not 

 only been an encouragement to the 

 producer but a blessing to those who 

 could have comb honey on their tables 

 but could not afford section honey. 



Right here will be a loop-hole for 

 the opponets, who object to this pro- 

 duct, to make their arguments, as we 

 have often heard them say, " Let the 

 poor people use extracted honey if 

 they cannot pay for section honey." 

 Since I can speak from experience, and 

 am one of those who likes to enjoy such 

 " luxuries " as comb honey occasionally, 

 I wish to put my foot down flat on any 

 such arguments at the very start. If I 

 like comb honey I do not want to be 

 forced to eat extracted honey just be- 

 cause I cannot afford the comb honey. 

 Perhaps I do not care for extracted 

 honey at all, but the price of section 

 honey is entirely out of .my reach on 

 account of the price. Perhaps I have 

 been brought up on an occasional 

 " feed of honey as it came from the box- 

 hive or the bee-tree " even, after which 

 a taste for that "rich " comb honey of 

 by-gone days has left a taste for "just 

 one bit of such honey as we used to 

 have;" which was not so very different 

 from the fine, " rich," bulk comb honey 

 of today. Would section honey ever 

 take the place of this? Or would the 



