1898. 



THE AMEHICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



819 



family physician. A single pound of well-ripened honey con- 

 tains more nutriment than two pounds of pork, and more 

 medicine than any druggist would put up for 50 cents. 



As fertilizer on the farm the bee is of value, which will 

 appear later on in this paper. By fertilizer we do not wish 

 to be understood enriching the soil, but the clovers and fruits 

 that form a great portion of the industries of the farm. 



In the orchard, in the garden, and more especially among 

 small fruits, the honey-bee is fast becoming recognized as a 

 very important factor. Out on the treeless prairies where 

 wild bees are almost entirely unknown, this is of more impor- 

 tance to the orchardlst and horticulturist than in the localities 

 farther east. Here the gentle zephyrs which often waft them- 

 selves into small hurricanes, cannot be depended upon to fer- 

 tilize or poUenize the flowers of the fruit-tree, and the honey- 

 bee must be relied upon to do the work. 



Early this year, on talking with a gentleman from Col- 

 orado, who was largely engaged in growing melons, he re- 

 markt that when he first engaged in the business the crop was 

 very unsatisfactory — melons ill-shaped, and inferior — when a 

 friend suggested that the honey-bee would remedy the diffi- 

 culty, and a few colonies were introduced in the melon-fields, 

 and with the result of more than four times the former crop 

 from year to year, and at this time Senator Swink, of Colorado, 

 would not think of growing melons without bees be.«ide them. 



In my own experience, the spring of 1893 was wet and 

 cold. The orchard showed a profusion of bloom. In the 

 cherry-orchard there were two bright days which enabled the 

 bees to work upon the cherry-bloom, and as a result I har- 

 vested 300 bushels of cherries ; when my neighbors who had 

 trees in equally good condition as mine, bought their fruit 

 from my orchard. The apple-blossoms fell without giving the 

 bee an opportunity for work upon them, and the result was no 

 apples. A few deformed ones remained on the trees until 

 partially grown and then fell off, and were counted among the 

 crop of windfalls. 



As farmers and orchardists I am confident that we do not 

 attach sufficient importance to this one item of adding the 

 honey-bee to these industries, and often score signal failures 

 because of this neglect. It is not expected that every farmer 

 or every orchardist should become an expert bee-lveeper, or 

 that he could come in competition with those who have made 

 that a business and a lifetime study, but they should be com- 

 bined sufficiently to make a success of the former, inasmuch 

 as it has already been clearly demonstrated that the blossom 

 must be pollenized in order to produce fruit, and that bees 

 cannot be kept profitably without the blossoms from which to 

 gather nectar. 



A few years ago, while attending the State Horticultural 

 Society meeting at Wymore, Nebr., we were shown a peach 

 growing on an apricot tree. This showed too clearly the work 

 of some busy bee flitting from the peach to the apricot, carry- 

 ing the pollen from one to the other. Perhaps Nature may 

 havestept in finally to aid this work in a measure, but the 

 lesson of the importance of the bee to the farm and orchard 

 was left as clearly as if the historian had witnest the whole 

 transaction. E. Whitcomb. 



A. I. Root— There is a very important fact, that melon- 

 growers have been compelled to get bees— some of the larger 

 growers getting them by the hundreds of colonies. 



Mr. Whitcomb — In these States out here we have few of 

 what are called wild bees, and if we are to make a success of 

 growing small fruits we must introduce bees along with the 

 fruits and other agricultural and horticultural interests. My 

 apiary is in close proximity to the orchard, and the bees work 

 on the bloom of the cherry-trees, and I have good crops of 

 cherries, while my neighbors, who have just as good trees and 

 as good bloom, get comparatively no cherries, because they 

 have no bees. In our institute work over the State, we find it 

 to be the universal verdict that bees must be introduced along 

 with the small fruits, or along with the orchards, in order to 

 get any fruit. The horticulturist, instead of fighting the api- 

 culturist, should really regard him as a friend. 



A. I. Root — The gentleman who spoke to me about using 

 bees in connection with melon-growing says they have some 

 500 or 600 acres of melons, and 400 colonies of bees, and 

 he told me this morning that they were going to put in 200 

 more colonies. 



Mr. Danzenbaker — We have two men who are engaged in 

 raising cucumbers under glass in winter, and they put two 

 colonies of bees into the house to fertilize the blossoms. In 

 Florida I visited a man who did the same thing there. They 

 tried fertilizing by hand, but they say that plan did not suc- 

 ceed, compared with fertilizing with bees. 



For the want of time the papers by Dr. J. P. H. Brown, of 

 Georgia, on "Needs of Bee-Culture in the South," and by Mr. 



Wm. McEvoy, of Ontario, Canada, on "Foul Brood," were 

 past without reading, to be included in the publisht proceed- 

 ings. They will appear at the end of the report. 

 [Continued next week.1 



Journalistic Courtesy — Bumble-Bees and 

 Audreua. 



BY PROF. A. .r. COOK. 



As that day of all the year the best — Christmas — is right 

 upon us, it is a good time to speak of peace or aught that 

 makes for it. 



No doubt most of the readers of the dear old American 

 Bee Journal have heard the story of " Jim " and " Bill." They 

 met after enlistment in the service to fight for their country. 

 Bill says : 



"Jim, why did you enlist?" 



" You know," replied Jim, " that [ was a single man, and 

 always did like war, and so enlisted." 



" And Bill, why did you enlist ?" 



Bill answered: " I am a married man, and always liked 

 peace, and so I enlisted." 



I am sure bee-keepers are like Bill. They like peace, and 

 so are rejoiced at this very eve of the century to note the 

 pleasant relations among the several bee-papers, and the 

 kindly feeling in the whole fraternity. As of old it is a goodly 

 thing for brethren to dwell together in unity, and lam sure 

 that the whole fraternity are to be congratulated, in that our 

 editors are agreed that peace, not war — concord, not discord 

 — are what go to make up the most reputable journal. 



It is 30 years since I first became interested in reading 

 the bee-papers. As all will remember, who were then patrons 

 of our art and readers of its literature, bitter quarrels, harsh 

 invectives, and unseemly aspersions, too often showed their 

 uncanny visage in the bee-papers of that day. The great 

 wrongs of Mr. Langstroth embittered bee-keepers against 

 each other. Those who knew of the injustice done the grand 

 old man found it hard to keep denunciation back ; while those 

 who had done the wrong had their friends, who were as free 

 to defend and to return harsh criticism. 



For many years, now, thespiritot our bee-papers has been 

 entirely different from that of the olden time. Mr. A. I. Root 

 came into the ranks about the time I entered. He soon 

 brought the Christian spirit with him, and workt with zeal, 

 not only for the craft, but to bring amicable relations among 

 all bee-keepers. 



Not long after, such men as Drs. Mason and Miller were 

 in the thick of the fraternity, and it is hard for quarrels or 

 bitterness to exist wherever their genial influence is felt. Mr. 

 Hutchinson was another who was too fair in his judgments 

 aLd feelings to brook anything tainted with dissensions. The 

 present editor of the " Old Reliable " is not a whit behind the 

 chief in his love for peace, and works to keep it ever to the 

 front. It is certainly a blessed change. 



If, as has been suggested of late, some one does throw an 

 apple of discord into our literature, or come with the proverb- 

 ial chip on the shoulder, no one picks up the apple or knocks 

 off the chip, and so no conflict occurs. The discouragements 

 of poor honey seasons and no returns for hard labor may tend 

 to make even the amiable man combative, but we are rejoiced 

 that even that so seldom succeeds in bringing discord to 

 the front. 



1 believe it is the grand province of our Christian civiliza- 

 tion to make every pursuit in the highest degree successful, 

 and, better than this, make all of each pursuit, and all pur- 

 suits, to work in fullest harmony each with the other, that all 

 may joy most only when all are receiving most. 



BUMBLE-BEES — ANDRENA. 



The article from Prof. L. Bruner, contributed by him 

 for the Omaha convention, was certainly very able and full of 

 interest. It Is good to have specialists speak on such occa- 

 sions. There were two or three positions taken by him that I 

 am led to question : He says that bumble-bees gather honey 

 mostly for the brood. I am Inclined to the opinion that with 

 bumble-bees, as with the honey-bee, the honey is as Important 



