576 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



flora, but in a few years where there are 

 now 1,000 orange trees within an easy 

 range of any apiary, there will be tens 

 of thousands, for the level sage lands 

 are being reclaimed by irrigation and 

 planted to orange and other fruits. The 

 bee works all day long on the -blossoms, 

 and their busy hum rises so loud and 

 earnest as to attract the attention of 

 the most indifferent pedestrian, and 

 although there is an abundance of honey 

 obtained from the orange, there is much 

 more sold in the markets than is ob- 

 tained. 



Orange honey is considered rare, and 

 pure orange-blossom honey is rare from 

 the small area from which it is gathered; 

 but rareties are always sought after, 

 and, of course, the average groceryman 

 has not cultivated his conscience to that 

 superlative degree that will prevent him 

 from calling any nice honey "orange," 

 and I am somewhat skeptical about 

 there being much purely orange honey 

 shipped from the State, though there 

 are tons of honey sold as such. — Glean- 

 ings. 



Bees that Tell Time. 



No, this isn't a story about live bees 

 that did something at a certain hour 

 every day in the week, showing that 

 they could " tell time ;" but yet the title 

 is true. Read about this clock, and see 

 if those bees don't tell time. And 

 wouldn't you like to see the clock ? 



A clock recently patented in France 

 is made in imitation of a tambourine, on 

 the parchment head of which is painted 

 a circle of flowers corresponding to the 

 hour-figures of ordinary dials. On ex- 

 amination, two bees — one large and the 

 other small — are discovered crawling 

 among the flowers. The small bee runs 

 rapidily from one flower to another, 

 completing the circle in an hour, while 

 the large one takes 12 hours to com- 

 plete the circuit. 



The parchment surface is unbroken, 

 and the bees are simply laid upon it ; 

 but two magnets connected with the 

 clockwork inside the tambourine move 

 just under the membrane, and the in- 

 sects, which are of iron, follow them. — 

 Selected. 



When Fruit-Trees Need the Bees. 



In very fine seasons when the springs 

 are bright, fine and mild fruit will 

 doubtless set very well without the inter- 

 vention of bees — the wind, assisted by 



the sunshine, being a sufficient agent 

 for the distribution of the pollen ; but in 

 cold, wet seasons the aid of bees is un- 

 questionably essential to the fertilization 

 of the bloom by carrying the pollen, not 

 anywhere at haphazard, as the wind 

 does, but from blossom to blossom, and 

 nowhere else. 



In wet and cold weather the pollen is 

 more inclined to adhere to the blossoms 

 than in fine, warm weather, and thus it 

 is that the wind fails in unfavorable 

 seasons to secure that which can then 

 be obtained only by the help of bees, 

 viz. : the proper fertilization of the 

 fruit-blossom, with the result of a pro- 

 portionately abundant crop of fruit. 



I would invite any persons who may 

 be incredulous on this point to visit in a 

 confessedly bad fruit year — say during 

 August or the early part of September — 

 the localities in which our great api- 

 aries are situated. Let them carefully 

 view the country lying in a radius of 

 two miles from the apiary itself, and 

 they will find that in almost every case 

 the fruit-trees are laden with heavy 

 crops, while they will observe as they 

 get farther from the vicinity of the 

 apiary (supposing that not very many 

 bees are kept in the country around) 

 that the fruit crops steadily deteriorate. 



I am convinced that so soon as bee- 

 keepers and fruit farmers begin to recog- 

 nize the importance of the one industry 

 in relation to the other, more prosper- 

 ous times will be in store for both, and 

 we shall not only hear of better fruit 

 harvests, but of larger returns of honey 

 also. — Selected. 



Extra Eigflit Pages were added 

 last week to accommodate a few pre- 

 mium pages. Look at every page and 

 see if we do not offer something that 

 you want. It will pay you to get some 

 new subscribers for the Bee Jouknal, 

 and secure one or more of the premiums 

 offered. 



Doolittle's Queen-Rearingf 



book should be in the library of every 

 bee-keeper ; and in the way we offer it 

 on page 583, there .s no reason now why 

 every one may not possess a copy of it. 

 Send us one new subscriber for a year, 

 and we will mail the book to you as a 

 present 



