GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jl NE 15 



with their legs, and finally effect the sepa- 

 ration of the parts. .We picked up a num- 

 ber of the victims with and without the ab- 

 domen, all of them apparentl}' suffering-. 

 These were sent to Prof. Frank Benton, 

 Apicultural Expert at the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington. 

 May 5 he wrote as follows: 



The A. I. Root Co.:—! have received yours of May 2, 

 with accompanying cages containing diseased bees, 

 and have made several microscopic slides from the 

 juices of the body, from the honey-sacs, and the bowel 

 contents, but find nothing abnormal. I am quite un- 

 able to account for the peculiar actions of these bees, 

 and the remarkable fact that the abdomen breaks in 

 two in the manner you describe and as is shown in 

 the specimens sent I have asked Dr Wiley to exam- 

 ine them for arsenic, and hope, if they have been poi- 

 soned by spraying he will be able to determine it. 



Washington, D. C, May 5. Frank Bentom. 



Supposing, of course, that another letter 

 would follow, we waited till May 27, when 

 he wrote, inclosing a letter from Dr. Wiley, 

 under date of May 18: 



The A. I. Root Co.:— I take pleasure in inclosing 

 herewith the report of the chemist who examined the 

 bees sent by you under date of May 2, which you sus- 

 pected had been poisoned by taking juice sprayed on 

 fruit-trees, Frank Benton. 



Washington, D. C, May 27. 



The letter the doctor wrote to Prof. Ben- 

 ton is as follows: 



Afr. Frank Benton:— V^e have made an examination 

 of the two samples of bees forwarded to us under date 

 of May 5 and 11, and find that arsenic is not present in 

 either sample, while small amounts of copper are 

 present in both. Is it not possible, perhaps, that the 

 bees were poisoned from Bordeaux mixture, and not 

 trom an arsenical insecticide? You make the follow- 

 ing remarks in vour letter of May 11 : ' If it is possible 

 to find any traces of arsenic in the abdominal cavity 

 of these bees, it would go a long way to .settle the 

 point whether the spraying of fruit-trees does result m 

 the death of honey-bee's." In connection with this we 

 beg to state that we examined some bees last year that 

 were said to have been poisoned by spraying the trees 

 with Paris green. Arsenic and copper were both 

 found. H. W. Wiley. 



Washington, D. C, May 18. 



The letter of Dr. Wiley apparently un- 

 locks the mystery of the whole situation. 

 You will note that, while he does not dis- 

 cover arsenic, he does find that the bees 

 were poisoned with small amounts of cop- 

 per. Blue vitriol, the main ingredient of 

 the Bordeaux mixture, or, as the chemists 

 say, copper sulphate, is used now very 

 largely for spraying. Indeed, A. I. R. 

 says that the Bordeaux mixture is used 

 more commonly than the mixtures of Paris 

 green. Our neighbors were probably us- 

 ing the blue-vitriol solution, with the result 

 that our bees were poisoned. It occasioned 

 so great pain that the victims were actual- 

 ly dismembering themselves on the wing 

 and on the ground, killing them by the 

 thousands. I would not have deemed it 

 possible that a bee could literally tear it- 

 self to pieces, as we might say, in the man- 

 ner I actually saw on the sidewalk. 



I now recall that every spring during the 

 spraying season I have seen bees by the 

 thousands lying scattered over our side- 

 walks, with their abdomens off. Suppos- 

 ing this was the work of birds or insects, 

 or that the bees had been stepped on by 

 some of the numerous children playing on 

 the sidewalk in question, I gave very little 



heed to the matter. It is doubtless true 

 that others of our subscribers have noticed 

 the same thing in the region of fruit-trees; 

 and if they have, I hope they will hold up 

 their hands. Let us ascertain how general 

 this kind of poisoning has been. It seems 

 to me the fact that Dr. Wiley, the Chief 

 Chemist, found poison at all in the bowel- 

 sacs of the bees, is the best kind of proof 

 that the bees were suffering from bluevitriol. 

 You might suppose that, in our neighbor- 

 hood, our farmer friends would spray only 

 before and after blooming-time ; but so 

 many of them have the idea that A. I. Root 

 scattered sweet clover and dandelion all 

 over this vicinity, it is doubtful whether 

 they would heed any suggestions along the 

 line of saving our bees. Yes, some farmers 

 are not aware that sweet clover is scattered 

 all over the United States, by the dirt roads 

 and railways; that it is a plant of compara- 

 tively recent introduction; and that the dan- 

 delion which grows so thriftily in and about 

 Medina does so because our bees thoroughly 

 pollinate every flower, with the result that 

 the seed matures and germinates readily 

 when it falls to the ground. 



"the pleasures and penalties of auto- 

 mobiling. " 



In the May issue of the Bee-keepers'' Re- 

 view, Mr. Hutchinson refers to a ride he 

 had with me on some of the common roads 

 near Medina in my "auto." He gives a 

 very fair statement of his experience, es- 

 pecially of the "penalties," one of the 

 worst of which was the annoyance in the 

 frequent meeting and passing of frightened 

 teams, and that there had to be stops, 

 sometimes, to let a fractious horse by. 

 Medina is a country town, and automobil- 

 ing is somewhat of an innovation in the vi- 

 cinity. It was to be expected that some- 

 thing so novel in the shape of a " red devil ' ' 

 running up and down the streets would 

 frighten the steady old farm horses, espe- 

 cially when out alone; for it is a well-known 

 fact that a horse in a city, or where there 

 are many horses together, will pay but 

 little attention to a novelty. But I am glad 

 to say that those in and around Medina 

 are becoming more and more accustomed to 

 my vehicle, and it is very seldom that I 

 have to stop my machine now. 



I have seen the day when a bicycle would 

 scare a horse far more than an automobile. 

 What could be more frightful to a horse than 

 to see a man or devil strung up in the air, as 

 it were, kicking, and coming toward him 

 at a rapid pace? but now it would be hard 

 to find one that is afraid of a bicycle; and 

 yet how distinctly I remember that day 

 when I had to get off and hide my machine 

 in the grass ever}' time I encountered a 

 farm horse! The automobile has some- 

 what the appearance of a buggy, except 

 that it is horseless. So far as it looks like 

 an ordinary conveyance it is less strange 

 to the passing horse. 



Well, when Mr. Hutchinson was with me 

 I was learning some of the eccentricities of 



