THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



311 



Mr. Alley thinks it is dangerous to 

 ship a queen right froiu active laying 

 — she may be ruined. It is much safer 

 to «ige her a few days lirst. Cheap 

 queens are vehemently condemned. 



Mr. Alley adds to the usual rules in 

 respect to robbing, that we ought not 

 to feed honey but syrup. The honey 

 odor incites to robbing. It is stated 

 that by giving a colony brood, and a 

 queen cell, fertile workers may be dis- 

 posed of. Mr. Alley advises, none 

 too strongly, to displace impotent 

 qneens. He remarks as wisely that 

 most queens become unprofitable after 

 two years. I am also glad to see that 

 the value of spring feeding, which I 

 have so often demonstrated in our 

 College apiary, is fully recognized. It 

 is no exaggeration, I think, when he 

 states that at least ten days are thus 

 saved. The greatest error, I think, is 

 made in reference to wintering. He 

 favors out-door wintering; says we 

 must have a double-walled hive, 25 

 jjounds of honey and a February 

 hght. But, how often we get no Feb- 

 ruary flight. With a proper cellar 

 we may Keep the bees in the hives 

 safely from Nov. 1 till April 1. 



Mr. Alley thinks that although the 

 laws of parthenogenesis are certainly 

 true in respect to the production of 

 drones ; yet the fact that queens are 

 pure, he "thinks not a guaranty that 

 their drone progeny will be. His 

 only reason given is that it is not true 

 of birds. From very close and long 

 observation, I believe that it is true of 

 bees. 



Lansing, Mich. 



)r the American Bee JoumaL 



Honey from Corn— A Reply. 



W. H. STEWAKT. 



On page 8-5, Feb. 7, 1 tind a criti- 

 cism by the Rev. M. Mahin, D. D., on 

 my article as published in the Bee 

 Journal of Jan. 24, 1S83. 



The science of bee-culture (if it may 

 properly be called a science) is yet in 

 its infancy, and its growth must be 

 step by step, as new discoveries are 

 made. No new discoveries, mean no 

 development of truth. A statement 

 supported by facts is scientific. A 

 denial without proof is just the oppo- 

 site. He who attempts to set up a 

 negative case by mere denial, unsup- 

 ported by proof, lands himself in in- 

 consistency. 



I do not hold that my work is ex- 

 empt from trial at the bar of reason, 

 observation and experience. Nay, I 

 court criticism. It leads to investi- 

 gation, and investigation evolves 

 truth. The art of bee-culture is not 

 confined within the walls of limita- 

 tion. It has had a beginning, but it 

 can have no ending. 



The sons of men that come and ko. 



Each have a special work to do; 

 These works just suited to their time 



And place, are steps by which we climb. 



One forward step ; one higher stand. 

 How wide, how vast the tields expand ; 



Where suns of men may ply anew, 

 Their hand and brain some work to do. 



Criticism should be conducted seri- 

 ously, having but one object in view, 

 viz. : truth, but Mr. Mahin says that 



my work is too absurd to be treated 

 seriously. Let us see. Do bees wound 

 nowers V In A B C of Bee-Culture, 

 pagel()8, Mr. Root tells us that he dis- 

 covered how the bees got so covered 

 with pollen while working on the 

 wild touch-me-not, and on page 169 

 he says : " A year or two after this 

 I took a friend'of mine to the spot to 

 show liim my wonderful discovery, 

 but lo ! and behold ! the sharp witted 

 Italians had taken the short cut to 

 the honey by biting through the spur 

 and inserting their tongues without 

 the laborious operation of crowding 

 down into the flowers." 



Mr. Mahin chides me for not giving 

 proof that bees wound blossoms. 

 Here is proof that bees are able, and 

 that they did in this case, bite holes 

 through the flower and got at the 

 honey mechanically from the outside. 

 In my article I stated that " if bees 

 would have honey they must Hnd 

 where the plant had by accident or 

 otherwise been wounded, or it must 

 hunt out some tender point and in- 

 flict the wound as best it could." I 

 do not hold that bees must, like men, 

 chop holes in the trunks of maple 

 trees to get the sap, but I do know 

 that after men haye thus set the sap 

 leaking, the bees gather it. But in 

 regard to bees hunting out some ten- 

 der points to inflict the wound itself. 

 The tenderest portion of the blossom 

 is as much a portion of the plant as is 

 the trunk. 



Now, in regard to the corn honey, 

 Mr. Mahin says that " corn honey is a 

 myth." When I quoted Mr. Morris, 

 in regard to corn honey, I did not give 

 his statement verbatim, as it was 

 lengthy. I will now give the state- 

 ment of Mr. Morris from Oleanings, 

 of December, 1882 : " Sometime in 

 August * * * when white 

 clover was about played out, the bees 

 took a spurt, and for several d^ys we 

 failed to And what they were working 

 on; heartsease andgoldenrod were not 

 in bloom. My wife called my atten- 

 tion to it Hrst. She had followed the 

 line of bees, and found the corn Held 

 swarming with bees. At first you 

 would suppose a swarm was going 

 over, and wonder where they were. 

 StanjJ still a moment, however, and 

 you will see a bee come from under 

 the base of a corn leaf, then one from 

 between the stem of an ear and the 

 stalk, then some from way down by 

 the roots, and by that time you will 

 begin to see where they are getting 

 the honey, not from the silk, not from 

 tlie blossom, but from the stalk, at 

 the base of every leaf at each joint, 

 and on every stalk, and on every hill. 

 We obtained 500 pounds of extracted, 

 same of box, of this same corn honey, 

 and you will see by the sample it is 

 nice. Bees worked on the corn about 

 two weeks. Field corn begins to yield 

 honey about as the kernel begins to 

 form, and continues until the kernel 

 is well formed. At least it did here 



this year I think it always yields 



honey, some every year, but you can- 

 not always tell what is going to yield 

 honey. H. M. Mokris." 



At the close of the above letter 

 from Mr. Morris, Mr. A. I. Root re- 

 marks : " Many thanks friend M. for 



your valuable contribution to our 

 stock of facts, and also for the sample 

 of honey. The corn honey will rank 

 with the best we have, both in color 

 and flavor I would strongly in- 

 dorse the point you make, friend M., 

 about the honey coming from unex- 

 pected sources. We little know now 

 where the honey we may get next .sea- 

 son will come from, while the honey 

 comes from so many hitherto un- 

 known sources, and there is such a 

 broad lield of knowledge yet unex- 

 plored." 



Mr. Morris says in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, page 145 : " Mr. Stewart quotes 

 me from Gleanings a little wrong. I 

 said : I think bees gather some honey 

 each year from corn. His statement 

 is that my bees gather large quanti- 

 ties of corn honey each year. 1 know 

 that they did this year. Corn honey 

 has such a peculiar quality that if one 

 ever gets a yield, he will be apt to 

 know it if he ever gets another, and 

 I am quite sure I have had corn honey 

 before." 



Mr. Mahin says that " if Mr. Morris 

 ever saw bees sucking at the joints of 



cornstalks the corn was infested 



with chinch bugs, or some species of 

 plant lice." Mr. Morris and his wife 

 would most likely have noticed chinch 

 bugs if they had been on the corn in 

 such numbers as to produce the effect 

 that he reports. 



Mr. Mahin says, " that he has 

 watched bees by the half hour gather- 

 ing honey from clover, etc." If he 

 has, and has read a corresponding 

 amount of modern literature on bee- 

 culture, he must know that honey 

 gathered after plant lice is of an in- 

 ferior quality. Mr. Morris and Mr. 

 Root both testify that the above men- 

 tioned corn honey was a fine article. 

 And yet, again, Mr. Mahinsays, "that 

 if bees can work on corn, as we be- 

 lieve they can, they would break the 

 skin of grapes, and we would have to 

 acknowledge that we were liable to 

 the grape growers for the damage to 

 their crops, which we have claimed 

 was done by birds and wasps, etc." 



Mr. Mahin has based liis hyper- 

 criticism on a misconception. Did I 

 not show that our choice fruits, etc., 

 all came by cutting, pruning and up- 

 rooting of the plants, and also that 

 white clover thrived best where it 

 was most severely pruned 'f He should 

 know that plants and fruit are subject 

 to a law of growth, and they may be 

 wounded to a certain extent without 

 producing any perceptible injury. 



Growth is continually laying off old 

 conditions and building on new, 

 changing acid to nectar, healing 

 wounds, supplying waste, increasing 

 dimensions, changing form, etc., and 

 yet the health of the plant remains. 



If Mr. Mahin will experiment one- 

 half an hour in June and July, he will 

 find that fruit may be pricked with a 

 fine needle through the skin, (if done 

 carefully), and the fruit remain 

 healthy. 



Orion, Wis., May 4, 1883. 



t^ The Central Kansas Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association will meet at Manhat- 

 tan, Kansas, on June 30, 1883. 



Thos. Bassler, Sec. 



