1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



585 



the bee-keeper is that which relates to 

 zvhen to spray. In relation to this on page 

 49 the author says: 



It is coimuonly believed that spraying trees in blos- 

 som, in case the arsenites are used, endangers the 

 lives of the bees visiting the blossotns. In some re- 

 gions laws to prevent this have been enacted. Spray- 

 ing at such times seems unnecessary, and intelligent 

 fruit-growers should not practice it. The bees are es- 

 sential to the production of fruit, and there is no ex- 

 cuse for destroying them. 



And again on page 52 he writes further: 



June— The first part of Jfune usuallj' marks the fall 

 of the flowers of most fruit-trees. Never spraj' while 

 trees and vines are in full bloom. Make the second 

 application as soon as the petals have fallen. This 

 will be late in May or early in June, for apples; a 

 week or ten days later for other fruit-trees and grapes. 

 Make the June treatment thorough. A good general 

 rule to follow after the second spraying is to let each 

 additional treatment be made from ten da3-s to three 

 weeks after the preceding one; the shorter interval if 

 there are heavy washing rains; the longer if the 

 weather is comparatively dry. 



From the standpoint of a fruit-grower, if 

 not of the bee-keeper, it would appear that, 

 for the codling-moth at least, the one that 

 affects apple-blossoms, there is no advan- 

 tage in spra3'ing during blooming-time; be- 

 cause on page 2, in speaking of this moth, 

 the author says: " The parent of this little 

 pest is a small chocolate-colored moth, 

 which appears in the spring soon after the 

 blossoyns have fallen, and deposits its eggs 

 in various places upon the young apples as 

 well as upon the adjacent leaves." The 

 italics in the above are mine. It appears 

 there would be no use in spraying before 

 that time. 



He credits our own Prof. A. J. Cook with 

 priority of discovery of sprajnng apple-trees 

 to prevent injuries caused by the codling- 

 moth — experiments which, he says, have 

 proved to the horticultural public that the 

 remedj' was safe and sure; and it was, he 

 adds, through Prof. Cook's enthusiastic 

 advocacy that the American fruit-growers 

 to-day are now able to put out more and 

 better fruit. 



BEE-STINGS THAT WE DO NOT LIKE. 



If there is any place over my whole body 

 that I do not like to get a sting outside 

 my face it is up my sleeve on my wrist. 

 Ordinarily I never take any precaution 

 about putting on cuffs or extra sleeves that 

 are bee-tight; that is, fitting closel3'^ around 

 the wrist. But last week when I went down 

 to the yards (it was just after a rain) the 

 bees were particularl3' cross. Two or three 

 got up my sleeve and stung me on the wrist. 

 I paid very little attention to the matter, 

 although I suffered considerable pain. Ex- 

 amination showed that one of the stings 

 was right in one of the blood-veins, and an- 

 other near one of the nerve-centers. The 

 next day the arm seemed to be lame, and 

 what was strange, there were sj'mpathetic 

 pains in the other arm in exactly the same 

 place as in the other. Hereafter I shall wear 

 tight-fitting sleeves, or, better still, long 

 sleeve gloves with the fingers cut off at the 

 ends; and this reminds me that they are 



used by a very large number of practical 

 bee-keepers. It behooves us all to be care- 

 ful not to get anj' more stings than is abso- 

 lutely necessary, for the effect of the ac- 

 cumulated poison maj' be serious in its 

 effects in after years, as it was in the case 

 of Langstroth and some others. 



And, b}'^ the way, should these sleeves be 

 treated with any preparation like linseed 

 oil, paint, or any other substance to render 

 them more sting-proof? We have been send- 

 ing out for a couple of years special bee 

 gloves that were soaked in linseed oil, but 

 it has always seemed to me that the oil 

 would make the sleeves warm, causing un- 

 due perspiration to the parts protected. 

 My own notion is that a sleeve made of 

 heavy ducking, not treated at all, would be 

 better than having something that would 

 make the fabric stiff and unwieldy. We 

 should like to get the opinion of our subscrib- 

 ers, as we are thinking of getting up a spe- 

 cial bee glove, or sleeve, with the fingers 

 cutoff', for a very large class of bee-keepers 

 who are looking for something of just this 

 kind. 



RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LANDS IN EGYPT 

 AND IN AMERICA; MORE GOOD BEE- 

 TERRITORY FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 



The United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, Bureau of Soils, has issued a bul- 

 letin by Thomas H. Means on the subject 

 of reclamation of alkali lands in Egypt. 

 The author has investigated the methods 

 that have proved to be successful in North- 

 ern Africa, with the view of recommending 

 those same methods, where effective, for the 

 waste lands of our western country. 



There are a number of illustrations show- 

 ing lands that were formerly deserts, sup- 

 porting nothing but alkali weeds, that are 

 now growing clover, rice, and cotton in 

 luxuriance. How this was reclaimed and 

 made to bloom as a garden of Eden is ex- 

 plained in this bulletin. Various illustra- 

 tions through it show fields of cotton, rice, 

 samar (this last a kind of plant that is 

 used for making mats and rugs). 



There are several plans for reclaiming 

 the land. One, the oldest, is known as the 

 basin plan. The soil is flooded over a con- 

 siderable area to the depth of several inches. 

 The water is then allowed to run oft", carry- 

 ing with it a strong solution of the alkali 

 in the soil. In some cases the alkali is 

 carried down into the subsoil, leaving the 

 upper portion suitable for growing of shal- 

 low-rooted plants like rice. But the plan 

 generally in vogue is a modification or an 

 improvement of theone just mentioned. The 

 land is thoroughly' leveled so as to hold a 

 broad expanse or sheet of water. Open 

 ditches, of a depth of 30 inches or more, are 

 dug at intervals of 150 to 450 feet apart. 

 The leveled-off land is "banked up and 

 flooded to the depth of about four inches 

 until sufficiently leached of alkali to per- 

 mit plant growth." This method, while 

 effective, is objectionable on account of the 



