GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



in the North quantities of comb honey can 

 be stored in the fall without fear of deteri- 

 oration, "in the humid atmosphere of 

 South Florida it would most likely become 

 worthless as a merchantable product with- 

 in a week after being taken from the hive." 

 [This is a condition that prevails in other 

 portions of our country that are warm. 

 The bee-keepers in the extreme south do 

 not need to worry about winter, but they 

 do need to be concerned as to whether the 

 bees have stores enough. — Ed.] 



Phacelia seed is advertised in Glean- 

 ings, but no one has told us yet about its 

 value as a forage-plant. If it has no value 

 in that direction I wouldn't give much for 

 the seed. [We had phacelia seed in our 

 catalog some 20 years ago, but there was 

 so little call for it that we dropped it out. 

 Another thing, it is regularly advertised 

 in the principal seed catalogs at from 5 to 

 15 cents a packet. You can get it of Thor- 

 burn, Henderson, Childs, or Vaughan. 

 They catalog several different varieties, but 

 say not a word in any of them of its value 

 as a forage-plant, although Thorburn says 

 it is good for bees. If it has a value for 

 stock, it must be that it has never been 

 discovered until of late. Better buy a pack- 

 et and test it, and see if the horses and 

 cattle will eat it. It may be that, like 

 sweet clover, they may be taught to eat it. 

 —A. I. R.] 



You haven't the right answer to that 

 linden-seedling conundrum, p. 1011. The 

 seedlings come up under the row of 25 or 

 more trees leading down to the road, and 

 neither horses nor other stock have any 

 chance at them. One tree is right in front 

 of the house, and the seedlings come up in 

 the grass, and then disappear the same as 

 the rest. [Ernest's answer may not be 

 1 ight, but I insist that mine is. The seed- 

 lings can not grow if hindered by grass and 

 weeds, and especially where the mother- 

 tree takes all the nutriment and moisture. 

 Just as soon as there is a second leaf on, 

 take them up and transplant them into a 

 good rich bed. As their natural native 

 home is in the woods, this bed should be 

 shaded by trees in the hottest part of the 

 day, or, better still, by a slatted frame of 

 lath, just as we shade ginseng, evergreen 

 seedlings, etc. I prefer the slatted Irame 

 for shade, because, if it is in the shade of 

 trees, said trees are liable to take the 

 moisture and nutriment from the ground. 

 Now, doctor, am I not right about it? — 

 A. I. R.J 



The perforations in the cappings of 

 foul brood, says the British Bee J., are be- 

 cause the bees never finished capping the cells 

 or for some unknown reason opened them 

 again. At the Chicago convention I under- 

 stood N. E. France to say that they were 

 caused in some way by the gases of the de- 

 caying larvas. Strange that so little seems 

 known about it. By the way, I wish you 

 could have heard that man France talk 

 about foul brood. I was inclined to think 



it a mistake to give a whole evening to so 

 foul a subject, but afterward concluded the 

 mistake was in me. He made it intensely 

 interesting. [From my own observation, 

 after having examined hundreds and I 

 might say thousands of specimens of foul 

 brood that have been sent us by mail, I am 

 strongly of the opinion that Mr. France is 

 right. Around the perforation it will be 

 noted that the capping has a greasy thin- 

 ned-out look as if there had been a grad- 

 ual disintegration of the wax until it be- 

 came so thin at the center that a hole oc- 

 curs. I have somtimes thought that the 

 bees attempted to open up these cells, and, 

 getting disgusted with their job because of 

 the foulness of their contents, leave the 

 cells barely opened. But I think the other 

 theory is more tenable. — Ed.] 



Dr. Gallup has announced in American 

 Bee Jotirnal the discover}^ of something like 

 an unbilical cord in young queen bees, and 

 the idea seems to be received with some fa- 

 vor. C. P. Dad ant saj's in that journal: 

 "If there is an unbilical cord — and there is 

 one if Gallup and Doolittle have not mis- 

 taken something else for it — it is time that 

 our scientists found it. . . . But if 

 there is an unbilical cord, it surely exists 

 in all the bees." And if in all bees, why 

 not in all insects ? The idea that some- 

 thing playing so important a part in insect 

 life— something that can be seen with the 

 naked eye — should have entirely escaped 

 the observation of all the keen observers 

 who have studied the bee up to the present 

 time is something past easy belief. It is 

 easier to believe that somebody's dreaming. 

 [Some way I can not enthuse very much 

 over this umbilical cord. I did not suppose 

 that the organ belonged to any but mam- 

 mals. It appears to me that somebody is 

 wading in deep water. — Ed.] 



Friend A. I., that "physical culture" 

 business is a fine thing. You can't be in 

 the best condition all over unless your mus- 

 cles are worked all over. Many a dweller 

 in the city might add 20 per cent to his life 

 by joining a good physical-culture class. 

 But 3'ou're just right, that a proper ration 

 of physical labor at useful work out in the 

 blessed country air is worth all the phys- 

 ical-culture classes in the world. [The 

 trouble with ordinary productive labor is 

 that it is liable to oz'^r-develop one set of 

 muscles, leaving the others neglected. Sci- 

 entific physical culture aims to develop all 

 the muscles alike, and not to overdo any of 

 that developing. There are those, how- 

 ever, who practice physical culture in their 

 homes who very often overdo it. I may 

 have more to say about this, as I happen to 

 be one of those who are deriving a great 

 deal of benefit from physical culture of five 

 minutes a day in the house or outdoors. 

 Every muscle and organ of the body is 

 stimulated; and if I live ten years longer it 

 will be because of that five minutes' prac- 

 tice per day. If our readers desire me to 

 give cuts and illustrations I will tell what 

 I know, and not charge them a cent. — Ed.] 



