314 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 5, 



Live Oak Honey-Dew. 



From Mr. E. P. Massey, of Waco, 

 Texas, we have received several twigs 

 of live oak, bearing leaves, acorns and 

 balls, and accompanied with the fol- 

 lowing letter : 



I send for your inspection, two or 

 three small branches of the live oak, 

 containing leaves, balls and acorns. 

 In the fall after rains set in, the green 

 halls are covered with drops of honey- 

 t\r\x, and in some cases the drops run 

 together and drop off the ball. The 

 bees gather large quantities of honey 

 from these oaks, commencing in the 

 morning before I can see a bee three 

 feet from my nose, and this honey- 

 dew continues until long after it gets 

 too cold for bees to fly out. You will 

 Mud two dry balls of last year's growth. 

 Now, if this honey-dew is put there 

 by an insect, as some claim, why not 

 scatter it all over dry balls, acorns, 

 leaves and limbs ? And why is it, 

 that we cannot see these insects V No; 

 the honey exudes from the green balls 

 in drops just perceptible up to drops 

 too large for one bee to carry off at 

 one load. 



I have on my lot three of these oaks ; 

 under the largest one is my apiary and 

 this tree shades about thirty-five feet 

 of ground when the sun is at high 

 meridian, and I have watched this 

 thing for the eight years that I have 

 been keeping bees. I would like to 

 have your opinion on the subject. 



We have had a poor honey season, 

 owing to a thirteen weeks' drouth, yet 

 the hives are all full of honey, and 

 my bees will be in splendid fix for 

 winter, after leaving our table sup- 

 plied for the winter. 



For many years the impression pre- 

 vailed among naturalists that honey- 

 dew was the excretion of Aphides 

 (small insects) on the leaves of trees 

 and plants, and that bees gathered and 

 stored it in times of great scarcity of 

 nectar secretion in the plants ; but in 

 later years it has been pretty definitely 

 settled that honey-dew is mostly an 

 exudation of sap or juice through the 

 pores of the leaves and plants, and it 

 is probably composed of the same 

 chemical properties possessed by the 

 nectar which is gathered by the bees 

 from the corollas of flowers. Prof. 

 Cook, in a letter written in December 

 last, definitely settles the question 

 that honey-dew is exuded from plants. 

 He says : ;l Mr. Trelease has not only 

 tasted the nectar secreted by the 

 plant, but he has discovered the 

 glands which secrete the nectar. 

 These are often so large as to be easily 

 recognized by the unaided vision. Mr. 

 Trelease showed me the glands on 

 species of cassia, acassia, pasillora — 

 the May-pop of Alabama— prunes, and 

 the cotton plant. On a line acassia 

 growing in the botanical laboratory of 

 the University, I not only saw the 

 gland, but also the drop of nectar, 

 which I found sweet to the taste." 

 There are also insects which leave a 

 liquid secretion on the leaves which 

 may be gathered by the bees under 

 the same conditions that they would 

 take glucose or any other obnoxious 

 substances; but these conditions oc- 

 cur so seldom that it is not often that 

 this species of honey-dew is en- 

 countered. 



(grin noticing the 'Rural Canadian, 

 on page 298, we called it a monthly, 

 having found nothing, on looking it 

 over, to indicate how often it was to 

 be issued. We now learn from its edi- 

 tor that it is to be published semi- 

 monthly, and we cheerfully correct it. 



The following article is taken from 

 the London, England, Standard, of 

 Sept. 8, 1881. It is an editorial criti- 

 cism on the recent experiments of Sir 

 John Lubbock on the possession of 

 the sense of color by bees. Our read- 

 will peruse it with interest : 



Sir John Lubbock has been again 

 experimenting upon bees. The es- 

 pecial object of his investigations has 

 been to ascertain how far the bee pos- 

 sesses the sense of color. lie has made 

 use of slips of colored glass, to which 

 the bees have been attracted by drops 

 of honey sprinkled upon them. There 

 are two conditions likely to influence 

 the flight of a bee in pursuit of food. 

 It may be attracted to a flower by its 

 color, or by its odor. It may, in other 

 words, either see the flower or else 

 scent it or smell it. 



Some flowers have a powerful odor; 

 others are exquisitely colored. Rut, 

 according to the reasoning of Sir John 

 Lubbock, bees are unable to dis- 

 tinguish between the odor of one 

 flower and that of another. They 

 scent in each the peculiar fragrance of 

 honey. In their ultimate choice, how- 

 ever, they are determined by the sense 

 of color. Sir John, accordingly, pro- 

 vided himself for his experiments 

 with various pieces of colored glass, 

 green, orange, red, white and yellow. 

 It would seem, indeed, that the re- 

 sources of the prism were exhausted. 

 An exaet account was taken of the 

 number of bees that visited each piece 

 of glass on which a drop of honey was 

 placed as a lure, and it is Sir John 

 Lubbock's opinion that bees are. in a 

 rough kind of way, sensitive to color, 

 and that their favorite color is blue. 

 The statistics which lead him to this 

 conclusion we need not analyse. 



When an experienced Naturalist 

 assures us that he has arrived at a 

 definite result, it is not safe to dispute 

 his conclusions. Bees, it would now 

 seem, have a special partiality for blue 

 although we may remark, in passing, 

 the color is uncommon in the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom. We may expect that 

 they will attach themselves to Can- 

 terbury bells, to borage, or, indeed, to 

 any flower the petals of which are of 

 a cerulean tinge. Such is the con- 

 clusion at which Sir John Lubbock 

 has arrived. Those who have watched 

 the habits of bees will be probably 

 otherwise minded. It is not a safe 

 test to lay down a number of slips of 

 colored glass, with a drop of honey 

 upon each, and to count the number 

 of visits made by itinerant bees to 

 each slip. There may be draughts or 

 currents of wind in the way ; or the 

 honey upon one particular slip maybe 

 thicker than it is upon the next, and 

 may smell sweeter, and shoot its odor 

 further, and may so attract more bees. 

 It is, indeed, always difficult to de- 

 termine how far observations of this 

 kind are to be absolutely accepted. 

 In the present instance Sir John Lub- 

 bock finds that his blue slips of glass 

 were visited by a larger number of 

 bees than were the slips of other 

 colors, and from this he draws his 

 general inferences. But if any stu- 

 dent of natural history will take the 

 trouble to walk in his garden in the 

 morning and to take especial notice of 

 his borage, his Canterbury bells, and 

 his mignonette, he will find the bees 

 swarming upon the mignonette, while 

 they neglect the borage and the Can- 

 terbury bells. 



We might, indeed, test Sir John 

 Lubbock's conclusions by a very sim- 

 ple experiment. If bees prefer blue 

 to any other color, they will then pre- 

 fer a clump of forget-me-not to a 

 clump of mignonette. Let any man 

 grow in his garden side by side a small 

 patch of forget-me-not and a small 

 patch of mignonette, and let him no- 



tice which of the two clumps is most 

 frequented by bees. There can be 

 little doubt as to the conclusion at 

 which he will arrive. And the obser- 

 vations which Sir John Lubbock has 

 made prove nothing more than that 

 when all other considerations are 

 equally balanced a bee prefers blue to 

 any other colors. 



Mr. Darwin, in his memorable book 

 on the " Origin of Species," has left 

 on record some remarks on the sense 

 of color, to which subsequent investi- 

 gations have added nothing. He tells 

 us, among other things, that within 

 his own knowledge, from facts re- 

 ported to him by a good observer, sus- 

 ceptibility in cattle to the attacks of 

 flies has a connection with their color, 

 as is also the liability to be poisoned 

 by particular plants. 



Any one who is familiar with horses 

 will know at once that, according to 

 the current of tradition, there are cer- 

 tain colors in horses which denote 

 peculiar characteristics. A straw- 

 berry roan or a flea-bitten gray will be 

 strong and hardy. A chestnut will be 

 courageous and mettlesome, but also 

 delicate, and a chestnut with a white 

 blaze and white stockings will be ex- 

 ceptionally liable to slight attacks of 

 ill-health. It is also- an ascertained 

 fact that domestication strangely 

 affects the color of animals. There is 

 no wild animal which is pie-bald. 

 But when domestication has followed 

 through many generations the pie- 

 bald color usually supervenes. Horses, 

 rabbits, and guinea pigs are apt to be 

 piebald. So, too, with mice and rats. 

 Pigeons are of every possible color. 

 Canaries range from a deep green cin- 

 namon, which is almost black, to a 

 yellow so pale that it is nearly white. 



Nothing is stranger than the variety 

 of color to be found in deer in an en- 

 closed park. Some will be absolutely 

 black ; others will be dappled and 

 spotted; others, again, will be almost 

 white. And it is worth noticing that, 

 while domestication tends to produce 

 irregular color, or what is commonly 

 called piebaldism, natural develop- 

 ment produces color equally brilliant, 

 but more distinctly and certainly dis- 

 tributed. The distribution of tints 

 upon a guinea-pig or a piebald horse 

 is absolutely uncertain. But the ar- 

 rangement of colors upon a macaw, or 

 a parrot, or a kingfisher is absolutely 

 certain. 



Why nature should thus compete 

 with civilization it is impossible to 

 conjecture. According to Mr. Dar- 

 win, shells at their southern limit, 

 and when living in shallow water, 

 vary and become more brightly 

 colored than those of the same species 

 taken from greater depths, or in lati- 

 tudes further distant from the equa- 

 tor. Then there are certain colors 

 peculiar to the London sparrow, and 

 to the English cockle, mussel, and 

 welk. On the other hand, there are 

 hues and iridescences peculiar to the 

 birds and to the shells of tropical cli- 

 mates. No one can account for these 

 characteristics. A volume might be 

 written upon the colors of butterflies, 

 flowers, insects, birds and fish, and the 

 more that was written upon the sub- 

 ject, the less we should probably know 

 about it. 



Meantime, it is certain that the laws 

 and conditions of color in nature are 

 but imperfectly understood. For in- 

 stance, there has never yet been pro- 

 duced such a marval as a blue rose, 

 although every gardener in Europe 

 has been attempting for year upon 

 year to grow one. And, whatever 

 may be the conclusion of zoologists, 

 we have before us the entire question 

 of the productive influence of color in 

 animal and vegetable life. Nature 

 may attract bees to blue flowers, or 

 may dress the kingfisher in every 

 known color, or may throw the prism 

 upon the neck of the turtle dove, or 

 may dapple the fallow deer. We can- 

 not tell how these tints and hues and 

 markings are procured. It is enough 

 for us to know that they exist. 



It would, perhaps, be interesting if 

 Sir John Lubbock, leaving for awhile 

 his ants and bees, would favor us with 

 his views on the sense of color in the 



human race. The subject is, for many 

 reasons, difficult. Man, like the lower 

 animals, is occasionally color blind, 

 but there can be little doubt that in 

 the course of infinite generations he 

 has developed a certain definite sense 

 of color, which stands him in good 

 stead. 



It is a singular thing that for some 

 years past we have painted our houses 

 and bed-rooms, and lobbies and halls, 

 in a sober and almost penitential tint. 

 The Greeks, whose villas are left in 

 the South of Italy ; the Romans, who 

 made Pompeii their Brighton and 

 llerculaneum its Kemp Town ; and 

 the Egyptians, from whom Rome, 

 there can be little doubt, adopted their 

 schemes of color in domestic archi- 

 tecture, were all given to strong 

 effects. 



Modern taste is more subdued. We 

 rejoice in quiet hues and delicate 

 tints. It would be curious to ascer- 

 tain whether perception of color fol- 

 lows any definite rule. It would seem, 

 according to Sir John Lubbock, that 

 the sense of color in insects is but im- 

 perfectly developed. In animals and 

 birds it becomes stronger. Amongst 

 uncivilized races it assumes the form 

 of a desire for bright tints and marked 

 contrasts. It now has begun to assume 

 an entirely new course, and to seek 

 dim colors and quiet symphonies. 

 One thing, at any rate, is certain, that 

 the sense of color has played a most 

 important part in the development of 

 the human race, and that its subtle- 

 ties remain as incomprehensible as 

 those of the musical scale. 



Colorado Bee and Houey Show.— The 



Colorado Farmer says : 



Though there were but four or five 

 exhibits of honey, still the fact was 

 plain that this industry is becoming a 

 distinct feature of farm and garden 

 in Colorado. From all accounts, the 

 present year has been a remarkably 

 good one for the products of the 

 apiary. A. L. Peabody had on the 

 grounds a hive which showed the bees 

 at work. Mr. James informed us that 

 from one hive this season he had taken 

 120 lbs. of the best honey, from which 

 he realized $30. There is no reason in 

 the world why honey by the car load 

 should be shipped into Colorado from 

 California and Kansas, when the evi- 

 dence of profit on bee-culture is made 

 so clear by such a statement. In pu- 

 rity and sweetness, our home produce 

 equals, if it is not even superior to 

 what comes to us from elsewhere. 

 These facts ought to set many to 

 thinking, and from thinking to act- 

 ing, until instead of perhaps, 5,000 

 being in the State, 500,000 should be 

 scattered in the valleys and foothills, 

 and honey be so abundant as to be an 

 article for export, and adding largely 

 to the material wealth of the State. 



Seasonable Hints.— The Indiana Far- 

 mer gives the following caution and 

 advice : 



In almost all cases there is an easy 

 remedy for any trouble with the bees, 

 if ascertained this month. If a colony 

 lias not sufficient stores, it may now 

 be fed ; while, if you wait until later, 

 there is trouble in so doing. Feeding 

 at this season of the year should al- 

 ways be done with caution. For, al- 

 though bees are not so much disposed 

 to rob now, as early in the spring, yet, 

 if a colony be left unguarded, so as to 

 give the robbers a chance, they will 

 clean it out on very short notice. 

 Promptness is the spice of successful 

 bee-keeping. Should you discover 

 that anything is wrong witli them, 

 make an examination at once, and ap- 

 ply the remedy. Do not wait and 

 think you will "fix them some other 

 time, but do it at once. 



ISndges.— Bee-keepers going to fairs 

 should wear a badge with a gold bee 

 on it. It will serve to introduce him 

 to other bee men. We will send them 

 for 10 cents, post paid. 



