222 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



November 



any value. So much for preliminaries. 

 In the April uumber of one of the 

 widest circulated bee-jonruals of Cen- 

 tral Europe, a purely technical, scien- 

 tific publication, there appear twenty- 

 six ditt'erent paid advertisements of 

 phacelia seed by as many different in- 

 dividuals. The prices named are by 

 the pound and the hundred-weight. 

 Now, the reasons why these offers are 

 made is because there is a demand for 

 the seed — and a growing demand. And 

 the reason back of the demand is the 

 knowledge of its value gained in form- 

 er years by extensive experimenting. 

 There are probably ten thousand acres 

 planted with phacelia tan. in Germany 

 alone this present year. Direct re- 

 ports of the forage value of the plant 

 made by a great number of people in 

 various parts of that counti*y are not 

 unanimous, and not as good this year 

 as last, but still favorably enough to 

 warrant farther and extensive cultiva- 

 tion. A special feature of the useful- 

 ness of the ])lant agriculturally, as well 

 as apiculturally, is only lately being 

 discovered, namely: sowing it in fallow 

 land in the fall for a late honey-flow, 

 and then plowing it under for green 

 fertilizing. 



Of the forage value of phacelia tan. 

 "on American soil." I beg to submit 

 the following: 



The cattle on my eighty-acre ranch 

 leaning up Blue Mountain, five miles 

 out, consist of a pack of twenty coy- 

 otes, seventy-five jack rabbits, one doz- 

 en skunks, three wild cats and one 

 hundred cangurro rats. Of that col- 

 lection the jacki-abbits alone take the 

 phacelia tan. as it should be taken, as, 

 I believe babies take their luncheons, 

 i.e., by nibbling at it from morning till 

 night. The coyotes take it by prefer- 

 ence transmuted into juicy rabbit 

 hams, and they take it with avidity 

 after chasing their owner up and down 

 the twilight canons for twenty miles. 

 Of the skunks it must be said that 

 they are somewhat more esthetical in 

 their appetites. They like the nectar of 

 the sky-blue phacelia blossom best and 

 they take it exclusively with the honey 

 bee on the outside of it, for which 

 purpose they pay nightly visits to the 

 neighboring apiaries. As for the can. 

 gurro's and the three stub-tailed tom- 

 mies, I am afraid I might be accused 

 of having slipped off the straight path 

 if I ventured to tell of their fantastic 

 gambolings among the phacelia 

 patches when the moon hangs low; be- 

 sides, I truly think the foregoing is 



proof overwhelming enough and of the 

 nature asked for, to convince Sir 

 Knight of the identity of the "pre- 

 sumptuous ignoramus" with whom he 

 promises to be well pleased. 



Should, however, my challenger's 

 war spirit be unsubdued still, the fol 

 lowing flanking movement, as they saj 

 in Manchuria, I think will fetch him 

 Let him do as a considerable numbei 

 of Americans are doing at the presen^ 

 time; buy a quantity of seed, sow it 

 and afterwards feed the plant to hit 

 herds and flocks — and watch them for 

 results. And it would probably be ai 

 well to have a set of "Before Using' 

 and "After Using" photographs taken 

 else the rapidly disappearing ribs an( 

 rounding out hipbones might guileless 

 ly be explained with "optical illusion 

 my dear sir, mere optical illusion," in 

 stead of being credited to the benefi 

 cent work of the nutritious juices o' 

 phacelia tanacetifolia. 



THAT DRONE IN WORKER CELL. 



The doubt expressed by Mr. C. 5 

 Harris on page 133, whether a certai 

 raised cell of mine contained a dron 

 is, of coiu'se, justified from his vie? 

 point, not knowing the accompanyin 

 circumstances, just as I was justifie 

 in my positive view, knowing the ci: 

 cumstances. I mentioned that occU' 

 rence at the time to draw attention 1 

 a certain new theory, hoiking to indu(. 

 an inquiring soul here and there ' 

 prove, or disprove it by actual rigorox 

 experiment. Mr. Harris can do tha 

 Let him lodge an entire colony over c 

 drone comb, and after all normal i 

 stincts for drone-rearing have becon 

 dormant, let him deque^n said color 

 and watch the results. 



REMARKABLE INCIDENT. 

 This spring a very populous color 

 of Carniolans was dequeened. Aft 

 due lapse of time, no queen nor eg! 

 appearing, a yellow two-yeai'-old mot 

 er bee, which was about to be supe 

 seded, was taken ont of her famil 

 dipjied three times in water and p^ 

 down between the frames of the Ca 

 niolans. Six days afterwards £■" 

 frames — two on the south side of tl 

 hive, and three on the north side, wi' 

 an emi)ty frame between — contain! 

 eggs and larvae. Upon closer inspe 

 tion the yellow queen Avas found nc 

 mally active on one side of the hiv 

 and a voung Carniolan on the other. 

 Riverside, Cal., .July 20, 1904. 



Following is Dr. Miller's response 

 the foregoing, which had been su 



