39th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH 23, 1899, 



No, 12, 



Several Opinions on the Origin of Honey-Dew. 



MY attention has been drawn to an article on pag-e 17, 

 by my friend. Prof. Cook, on " Honey-Dew," and he 

 sums up his article by saying^ that " Honey-dew is 

 always a secretion from insects." 



My object in writing- is to say that I believe it is no 

 long-er a matter of conjecture, that under certain atmos- 

 pheric conditions a saccharine substance or sweet juice ex- 

 udes from the surface of the leaves of trees and plants. I 

 at one time thoug-ht very much like Prof. Cook, but I have 

 had ample opportunities of observing that in many cases 

 insects have nothing whatever to do with producing honey- 

 dew. 



Some years ago, when I was staying- at Hohwald, in the 

 Vosges mountains, I had a very good opportunity of con- 

 vincing myself that those were in the right, who held that 

 plants do at times exude a sweet juice which is eagerly 

 sought after by bees, while that produced in insect agency 

 is very reluctantly taken by them, and then only when the 

 natural exudation is not available. 



Gaston Bonnier is one of the most careful observers and 

 experimenters that we have at the present day. and he not 

 only asserts that the leaves of trees do exude a saccha- 

 rine substance under certain atmospheric conditions, but he 

 has also been able to reproduce the phenomenon by placing- 

 the branches of trees in water and subjecting them to simi- 

 lar conditions. At any .rate, he is not likely to be misled 

 by not looking for the insects on the tops of the trees, as it 

 is at the tips of the branches that any one but a tyro would 

 naturallv expect to find them. Thos. Wm. Cowan. 



Monterev Co., Calif., Feb. 20. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, in his article on honey-dew, on page 

 17, hopes that all readers of the American Bee Journal will 

 observe closely this honey-dew question and report. 



Tho not a scientist, I have spent quite a little time in 

 observing the origin of honey-dew, and from what I have 

 seen and observed I have come to a ditferent conclusion from 

 what the Professor did when he says, " Honey-dew is always 

 a secretion from insects." 



I admit that much of the honey-dew is a secretion of in- 

 sects, of which we can satisfy ourselves without climbing 

 the trees where it exists, or where we find the honey-dew on 

 the leaves by jarring the tree or brush, and looking towards 

 the sun in the morning after sunrise, or in the evening a 

 half or three-quarters of an hour before sunset, when you 

 will see hundreds of sprays crossing each other in rainbow 

 shape several feet high from where the insects stand on 

 their legs while they operate their spraying-tubes. This is 



quite a curiosity, as they will repeat their sprays a number of 

 times, when the tree is jarred. The readers will see by this 

 that the honey-dew will not only be found on the "lower 

 limbs and leaves of the tree, as the Professor indicates, but 

 these sharp sprays will also reach the tops, as I have often 

 witnest on some plum-trees in my apiary, and on many other 

 trees and plants. 



But this does not prove that all honey-dew is secreted 

 by insects, and that none exudes from plants and trees as a 

 saccharine substance. I have seen my bees working lively 

 on the joints of the cornstalks about the time when the tas- 

 sels come into bloom : and when we had a dry spell previous 

 to this, and then had a good, warm rain, which gave a vig- 

 orous g'-rowth to the corn, and an overplus of sap, probably 

 more than the stalks could hold, and consequently pro- 

 duced honey-dew at the joints, there were no insects there. 

 These conditions occur only once in three or four vears. 



C. Tlicilmanii. 



The honey is of very fine quality, and has a golden color. 

 Some years I have received considerable surplus from this 

 source. 



Some years, when the right conditions meet, the birch- 

 trees produce honej'-dew in large quantities. Some years 



