1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



243 



with and forms a part of The Fruit World, 

 but we believe it is the publisher's intention 

 to issue it separately as soon as possible. 

 Our Australian friends are up-to-date in 

 their bee-keeping methods; and as they use 

 liberally American hives and other bee in- 

 ventions, the apieultural literature which 

 they issue is likely to be very interesting and 

 instructive. It looks to us as thougn the 

 Commonwealth Bee-keeper was a very healthy 

 child, and would live to be a valuable edu- 

 cator, monitor, and friend to the bee-keep- 

 ers of the Southern hemisphere. 



I have ali'eady quoted freely from the writ- 

 ings of Mr. Isaac Hopkins, in his Bulletin 

 No. 5, published by the governmeri^t of New 

 Zealand. The ability of Mr. H: in his posi- 

 tion as bee-master renders any apology un- 

 necessery for referring to his works. We all 

 know that some friction has been produced 

 at times between farmers and bee-men. A 

 farmer is supposed to ask, " Granting that 

 the visits of bees may be serviceable to me 

 in the fertilization of my fruit or clover, how 

 will you prove that I am not obliged to pay 

 too high a price for such sei'vices?" The 

 question has, of course, been answered, but 

 here is an answer that is worthy of the tra- 

 ditional "paste in the hat," etc. 



For the answer to such a question one must fall 

 back upon the researches of the agricultural chemist, 

 which will furnish satisfactory evidence to establish 

 the two following facts: First, that saccharine mat- 

 ter, even when assimilated and retained within the 

 body of a plant, is not one of secretions of vegetable 

 life which can in any way tend to exhaust the soil, 

 being made up of constituents which are furnished 

 everywhere in superabundance by the atmosphere 

 and rainwater, and not containing any of the mineral 

 or organic substances supplied by the soil or by the 

 manures used in agriculture; and, secondly, in the form 

 in which it is appropriated by bees, either from the 

 nectaries of flowers or as honey-dew from the leaves, 

 it no longer constitutes a part of the plant, but is, in 

 fact, an excrement thrown off as superfluous, which, 

 if not collected by the bee and by its means made 

 available for the use of man, would either be devour- 

 ed by other insects which do not store honey, or be 

 resolved into its original elements and dissipated in 

 air. 



The best authorities in the world are then 

 cited as proof of the above. Mr. Hopkins 

 says that saccharine matter, once it is se- 

 creted by the plant and separated from it, is 

 useless even as a manure. 



What, then, is the primary object of nee- 

 tar — to make honey for human food or for a 

 still higher purpose? Mr. H. says: 



The secretion of saccharine matter in the nectaries 

 of flowers is shown to be one of the normal functions 

 of the plant, taking place at the season when it is de- 

 sirable to attract the visits of insects for the purposes 

 of fertilization. It may, then, be fairly asserted that 

 the insect, when it carries off the honey from any 

 blossom it has visited, is merely taking with it the 

 fee or reward provided by nature for that special ser- 

 vice. 



Sometimes the secretion of nectar is ab- 

 normal. Langlois is quoted as saying that 

 in 1842 the air was so dry that the leaves of 

 a linden-tree became covered with a thick 

 sweet liquid in such quantities that for sev- 

 eral hours of the day it ran off the leaves 

 like rain. I think G. M. Doolittle once said 

 he had heard drops of nectar from a bass- 

 wood-tree. Well, that simply shows that 



nectar is a substance which vegetaticm tries 

 to get rid of as an excrement, and that it is 

 of no further use to the world unless gather- 

 ed by bees and made into honey. 



I hope soon to make one more quotation 

 from this bulletin as to how much grazing 

 stock lose when bees take the nectar frum 

 the plants in pastures. As time passes, we 

 realize more and more that honey is a work 

 of secondary importance so far as bees are 

 concerned, and that the cross-fertilization of 

 blossoms is the primary object of their crea- 

 tion. 



BEE KEEPING AS A BUSINESS. 



The Importance of Being Fitted for It; 

 Timely Advice to Beginners who are 

 Choosing an Occupation; Special- 

 izing; its Advantages. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



When our attention is called to some new 

 line of business, usually our first thoughts 

 are, ' ' How much money can I make out of 

 it ?" or, "How many dollars can be made 

 annually clear of all expenses from a given 

 amount of capital invested?" While I will 

 admit that these are questions of much im- 

 portance—questions worthy of due consider- 

 ation — there is still one question which is of 

 paramount importance above all others, 

 which, I am sorry to say, we seldom think 

 of. That is, "Am I naturally qualified for 

 that line of business ? If so, then I have the 

 principal requirement to success; if not, then 

 no amount of study or hard labor can fully 

 take the place of my inability to fulfill its 

 requirements." Oh how many of as spend 

 our whole lives like water seeking its level, 

 and never find the business that God fitted 

 us best to follow! My young friend, if you 

 have any thoughts of taking up bee-keeping 

 as a business, then think this subject over 

 carefully before you invest much money. 

 My advice would be to work one summer, at 

 least, for some successful honey-producer — 

 one who would take pains to teach you all he 

 could in regard to rearing queens, forming 

 nuclei, increasing colonies, wintering, and 

 producing honey — yes, and a thousand and 

 one little things which only experience can 

 teach. In this way you could be earning 

 your board and fair wages while learning 

 your business. 



In I'egard to the amount of money that can 

 be made fi'om bee-keeping, it is like all other 

 rural pursuits — it depenas to a great extent 

 on the season. It is no get-rich-quick busi- 



