THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



107 



inches to insure a good honey crop, 

 it is evident that it is not obtained 

 every year. Other influences mod- 

 ify the general result of a honey sea- 

 son, such as altitude, distance from 

 the coast, or nearness to mountain 

 ranges. The desiccating east winds 

 from the deserts also lessen the 

 honey flow, should they blow too 

 frequently during the spring and 

 summer months. 



In years of unusual drought, bees 

 would become as extinct as the 

 dodo, unless fed sufficiently to last 

 until the following winter's rains have 

 produced a new growth of honey 

 plants. 



We have fed about 3,000 pounds 

 of honey to our bees since July 

 last, but we are now out of the 

 woods, as we have had over twenty 

 inches of rain already this season 

 and strong colonies are preparing to 

 swarm. 



A few neighboring beekeepers 

 who did not feed have lost from one- 

 half to two-thirds of all their colo- 

 nies. 



The table below shows the amount 

 of our honey crop and nurnber of 

 bees, spring count, for each year 

 since we have been keeping bees. 



Year. Colonies. Pounds. 



18S0 65 i3'300 



1 88 1 140 none 



1882 140 3,500 



1883 214 7,200 

 i884 235 33,000 

 1885 435 none 

 The above speaks for itself. In 



fact, there have been but three good 

 honey years since 1876 ; those three 

 were 1878, '80 and '84 respec- 

 tively. 



A great number of eastern bee- 

 keepers have been drawn here by 

 the delusive reports of the great 

 honey crops which are obtained here 

 every three or four years. Our sweet 

 song has a sad refrain, however, 

 which many have learned to their 

 sorrow. 



Santa Paula, Cal. 



For the American JpicuUurist. 



FOREIGN NOTES. 



By Akthuk Todd. 



Parts five and six of Frank 

 Cheshire's new book are at hand, 

 and with me evoke new admiration 

 of his painstaking, and careful in- 

 vestigation of the anatomy and 

 physiology of the bee. 



Mr. Cheshire, in writing about 

 the sense of hearing in bees, says 

 that he has for long regarded as 

 conclusive the experiments carried 

 on by Sir John Lubbock, since 

 tuning forks, whistles and violins 

 emit no sounds to which any in- 

 stinct of these creatures could re- 

 spond. To quote : "Should some 

 alien being watch humanity du- 

 ring a thunderstorm he might quite 

 similarly decide that thunder was 

 to us inaudible. Clap might 

 follow clap without securing any 

 external sign of recognition ; yet 

 let a little child with tiny voice 

 but shriek for help, and all would 

 at once be awakened to activity. 

 So with the bee ; sounds appealing 

 to its instincts meet with imme- 

 diate response, while others evoke 

 no wasted emotion." 



In Mr. Cheshire's observations 

 on the sense of smell in bees he 

 remarks "The antennae of male 

 moths are exceedingly large, and 

 extended in surface, and the evi- 

 dence that these are marvellously 

 sensitive to some emanation from 

 the female is universally accepted." 



Having shown that the ratio of 

 sensory surface in bees is, queen 

 one, worker two, drone three, Mr. 

 Cheshire goes on to say that even 

 he was greatly astonished at the 

 result of his researches for he 

 found by actunl count that the 

 drone bee has the astounding num- 

 ber of 37,800 distinct smell organs 

 or in plain English that number of 

 "noses." 



Passing on to Mr, Cheshire's 

 comparison of the visual powers 



