334 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 23, 



Bee-Keepers' Association, and entered heartily into the work 

 of that society. Last year he was elected honorary member 

 of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, in consideration of 

 the services he bad rendered in the advancement of the science 

 of apiculture. We have only briefly alluded to some of Dr. 

 de Planta's work, but it is sufficient to show the great loss 

 sustained by bee-keepers, and, in company with our Swiss 

 brethren, we mourn his loss, and extend to his widow and 

 children our heartfelt sympathy. 



Bee-Keepers of ttie Soutta are invited to patron- 

 ize the " Southern Department " of the American Bee Journal. 

 Send on your questions and bits of experience to Dr. Brown, 

 who will answer and offer suggestions that will help you. You 

 will be the loser if you don't take advantage of Dr. Brown's 

 large bec-esperience and willingness to aid you in keeping 

 your bees profitably. 



Conducted bj- " GiE.lJVER." 



THE SWARMING HABIT. 



" I have noted that I have had less swarming in my apiary 

 during the past eight years, through which time I have reared 

 nearly all my queens over queen-escluders, than I formerly 

 had ; yet I would not think it best to put forth the idea that 

 a continuation of rearing queens thus for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury or longer would give a race of non-swarming bees." — 

 Doolittle, in Gleanings. 



OLD HrV'ES FOB SWABMS. 



I confess to feeling not a little puzzled over what Dr. 

 Hachenberg says on page 287, about using old hives. Surely 

 he cannot mean that a hive that has been used must be 

 thrown away as soon as it becomes unoccupied. He has lost 

 about 50 swarms in trying all sorts of experiments to try to 

 get swarms to accept old hives. In view of the fact that other 

 bee-keepers have successfully used old hives all these years by 

 the hundred, is it iiot just possible that his experiments always 

 did something with the old hives that made them distasteful 

 to the bees ? Has he ever tried old hives without any salt or 

 anything but the hives'? I have used old hives many and 

 many a time, and so have others, and this case of the Doctor's 

 is so-nething quite new. 



A DISAGBEEMEXT — WHICH IS EIGHT ? 



There is a disagreement between Canadian Bee Journal and 

 Canadian Beedom, and the question is whether " Journal " or 

 "dom" is nearest the mark. On page 302 Bee-Master says, 

 " In Germany, where there are more bees and bee-keepers to 

 the square mile than in any othes part of the world." Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal, page 507 of the May number, gives a table 

 of the number of colonies per square mile of 11 countries, in 

 which Germany has 9 colonies per square mile, Austria 13.37, 

 Belgium 1 . .iO, and Holland 18: the last being twice as 

 many as Germany. In marked contrast with these, Ontario 

 has about three-fourths of a colony to every square mile, and 

 Canada .06, or one colony for every 16 square miles. Editor 

 Holtermann offers this table as strong evidence against the 

 view of Editor Hutchinson that as a country becomes settled 

 and civilization advances, bee-keeping is likely to become less 

 profitable. It does look a little like a knock-down argument. 



BEE-MASTER AXD DB. WATTS' ERRORS. 



On page 302 Bee-Master points out '• two great errors" 

 in the well-known couplet of Dr. Watts—" How doth the little 

 busy bee," etc. One is that Dr. Watts says the bees "gather 

 honey :" and the other is that he says they gather " from 

 «very opening flower. ' But one shouldn't be too hard on poor 

 Dr. Watts, when one sees the same errors repeated in the 

 present day by those who are supposed to be up-to-date in bee- 

 matters. Witness the writings of Bee-Master himself, who, on 

 the very same page on which he makes the positive declara- 

 tion that " the bee does not yather honey." says "honey-gath- 

 •ering" instead of " nectar-gathering," " honeyless " instead 

 of " nectarless," and " honey is offered" instead of " nectar is 

 offered." And then, after calling attention to the fact that 

 instead of the bees gathering " from every opening flower," 

 only some flowers yield nectar, in the very next sentence he 



falls himself into precisely the same kind of error by saying 

 that bees gather from every flower which they visit, when it 

 should be only some ; for any one who has watched bees at 

 work in New York state may have noticed them many a time 

 fumbling over a flower from which they get no nectar, instead 

 of being " invariably rewarded by a tiny drop." 



EDITOB E. B. root's "PATENT" VIEWS. 



Whatever may have been the opinions of my respected 

 parent in the past, the more I look into the patent system in 

 the United States the more I feel like admiring it. Although 

 it has its defects, the system in our country, I believe the 

 world acknowledges, is the most perfect in the world. And 

 the fact that some of the greatest and most useful inventions 

 have emanated from this land is evidence along this line.... 

 On the other hand, I believe that our patent system should be 

 so modified as to restrict some of the fearful abuses connected 

 with some of these patent-monopolies. I am glad to see that 

 the Supreme Court has recently made some much-needed and 

 substantial limitations. — Gleanings. 



^ ^ ^ ^ ^ J 



J^otes ^ Oon)n)cr)is^ 



CONDUCTED BV 



Re\'. Emerson T. J\bbott, St. Joseph, 3Jo. 



Inoculation Against Stingfs. — " Mr. Herbert 

 Smith writes us that in his experience particular parts of the 

 body may become temporarily inoculated against insect 

 stings." — Insect Life, published by the Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



This is in Hue with my own experience, and I suppose 

 many observant bee-keepers have noticed that after the'y have 

 been working at the bees for some time and have been stung 

 several times on the hand that a thrust at that point causes 

 very little, if any, pain. Mr. Smith says that in picking spec- 

 imens of wasps from his net, "The fore-finger of the left 

 hand was stung so often that it lost all susceptibility even to 

 severe stings, and it remained so for two or three years." 



Prof. Riley, as quoted in another article in the same pub- 

 lication, says, in speaking of scorpions : "The effect of the 

 sting upon a person diminishes in virulence with repitition, 

 and may become innocuous." He further says, " They are 

 dangerous in proportion to the state of irritation they may be 

 in." Is it not possible that here may be found the reason why 

 a sting from a bee is sometimes so very painful, and even 

 fatal ? I know we generally say it is the condition of the 

 blood of the person who is stung, or the location of the wound, 

 but is it not possible that the more excited the bee becomes 

 the more virulsnt the secretion of the poison-sac? If this 

 theory be correct, it will explain why it is that a number of 

 stings frequently have no injurious effect, while at another 

 time a single sting may prove fatal. 



In the line of remedies for the sting of the scorpion, Mr. 

 Smith says : " My wife was stung by a small one in the West 

 Indies ; the wound was on the end of the forefinger and was 

 exceedingly painful. By the advice of a servant, she held the 

 finger for an hour in hot sweet-oil mixed with an equal meas- 

 ure of laudanum. There was no swelling, and three hours 

 after all pain had left her. This remedy is a popular one in 

 the West Indies and the result seems to show that it is good." 



It may prove equally valuable as a treatment for a bee- 

 sting, and is worthy of a trial in severe cases. 



Here is another explanation as to the cause of some per- 

 sons being peculiarly affected by the sting of a poisonous 

 insect. At first it would seem to contradict the first theory, 

 but the truth of the matter would seem to be that a person in 

 good health is better prepared to resist the ravages of the 

 poison of any kind of an insect. This being true, dissipated 

 fellows would better keep away from bees. Here is what Dr. 

 Aaron has to say on the subject, as quoted from the article 

 mentioned above : 



" I am convinced that no healthy adult need have serious 

 alarm from the bite or sting of one of these creature?, al- 

 though, as I have more than once found out to my cost, their 

 poisons are the cause of much and excruciating pain. Lep- 

 rosy, yaws, the malignant forms of syphilis, are all very com- 

 mon among negroes, mestizos and half-breeds in the American 

 tropics, and it is among such subjects that the poisonous 

 insects and minor poisonous reptiles find their victims of 

 serious poisoning and death. But a man in good health, with 

 pure blood and of good habits, will, in every case (in my opin- 

 ion), throw off their effects in from from one to five days." 



