390 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



As showing how the editor of a great met- 

 ropolitan daily may err in regard to common 

 things, I clip the following from the New 

 York Times for Jan. 14: 



NO BEE "with honeyed THIGH." 



It was, of course, a lapsus linauce of the editor who 

 wrote under the heading of "Bees and Blue Flowers " 

 in to-day's issue of the Times when he spoke of " bees 

 lading their hip pockets with honey." 



No one doubts that the editor knows what a large 

 majority of his readers do not know, i. e., that bees 

 do not carry honey in their " hip pockets " or pollen- 

 baskets. Neither is honey sucked from the flower, as 

 is so often believed. 



The process consists of the rolling about in the 

 flower of the elongated lower lip which is covered with 

 hairs to which the honey clings. When this lip, or 

 palp, as it is called, is laden with honey the honey is 

 conveyed to the mouth and swallowed. It passes to a 

 so-called first stomach, whence it is ejected by way of 

 the mouth again into the cell of the comb. 



The supreme delight of the Times' editors when 

 they are corrected or criticised prompts this small cor- 

 rection of an almost universal fallacy. Honey. 



It is refreshing to have so quick a refuta- 

 tion of the error, and still more so to see the 

 editor of so good a paper willing to print the 

 correction. But it shows there is still a great 

 work to do in educating the general press in 

 regard to bees as well as honey. 



DO BEES IN GATHERING NECTAR FROM THE 



CLOVERS IN ANY WISE INJURE THEM 



/OR FODDER FOR CATTLE? 



I have already made some quotations from 

 the New Zealand Bee Bulletin, by Isaac 

 Hopkins, written to meet the objections of 

 farmers whose fields are visited by a neigh- 

 bor's bees, on the ground that the bees take 

 from growing crops what is useful to the 

 fai'mer. In tbe following extract Mr. Hop- 

 kins shows that the superfluous nectar is 

 evapoi'ated and lost to the farmer at all events 

 unless the bees take it. He says: 



That the nutritive quality of the plants in any 

 growing crop is not diminished by the abstraction of 

 honey from their blossoms would appear to be evi- 

 dent from the fact that those plants have actually 

 thrown off the honey from the superfluity of their 

 saccharine juices, as a matter which they could no 

 longer assimilate. There would appear, on the other 

 hand, to be good reason to believe that the plants 

 themselves become daily more nutritious during the 

 period of their giving off honey- that is, from the 

 time of flowering to that of ripening their seeds. 



In England the gardener of the Duke of 

 Bedford made experiments on the grasses 

 and clovers growing on about 100 different 

 patches, but all as nearly alike as possible, 

 especially at the time of flowering and at 

 that of ripened seeds. These plants were 

 acted on by hot water till all soluble parts 

 were dissolved, and the solution dried in an 

 oven, and weighed. This product was sent 

 for analysis. The chemist. Sir H. Davy, 

 says: 



In comparing the compositions of the soluble prod- 

 ucts afforded by different crops from the same grass, 

 I found, in all the trials I made, the largest quantity 

 of truly nutritive matter in the crop cut when the 

 seed was ripe, and the least bitter extract and saline 

 matter, and the most saccharine matter, in propor- 

 tion to the other ingredients, in the crop cut at the 

 time of flowering. 



Mr. Hopkins adds: 



In the instance which he then gives, as an example, 

 the crop cut when the seed had ripened showed 9 per 

 cent less of sugar, but 18 per cent more of mucilage 

 and what he terms " truly nutritive matter " than the 



crop cut at the time of flowering. From this it would 

 follow that, during the time a plant is in blossom, 

 and throwing off a superfluity of saccharine matter in 

 the shape of honey, the assimilation of true nutritive 

 matter in the plant itself is progressing most favor- 

 ably. In any case it is clear that the honey, being 

 once exuded, may be taken away by bees or any other 

 insects (as it is evidently intended to be taken) with- 

 out any injury to the plant, by which it certainly can 

 not be again taken up, but must be evaporated if left 

 exposed to the sun's heat. 



It would be a good plan to submit Ihe 

 above to the growers of alfalfa. Two im- 

 portant points are established here — namely, 

 clovers and grasses have not reached their 

 best stage at the time of blossoming; and 

 bees do not injure the plants by carrying off 

 the nectar, which is of no more use to a 

 plant than sweat is to an animal. 



UAjnctdteur, of Paris, does not like E. R. 

 Root's footnote to Dr. Miller's Straw in 

 Gleanings for Nov. 15, relative to Professor 

 Gaston Bonuier's discovery of the prospectcn- 

 bees that look up work fur the others to do. 

 We might term them " foremen " bees. Our 

 French friends call them c//erc/it'?iSt'S — that is, 

 seekers. We in this country have been long 

 familiar with the scout-bees and their ways. 

 It is not them we dispute, but the assertion 

 that they plan the work for the other bees to 

 perform. We are aware of the splendid 

 abilities of Professor Bonnier in the fleld of 

 apiculture, and appreciate highly any thing 

 he has to say relative to that science; but we 

 should be glad to have more proof for the 

 above assertion. 



"fynotto ^^clipdHueeii. 



AN AMUSING AND YET NOT UNCOMMON EX- 

 PERIENCE OF BEGINNERS. 



The first colony of bees I got was in a ten- 

 frame home-made hive. I kept them stand- 

 ing in the back yard the first year, not dar- 

 ing to go near them. In the fall i went out 

 one night and peeped under the cover, and 

 was surprised to see that they had no honey. 

 I supposed all a fellow had to do to get hon- 

 ey was to get some bees and they would do 

 the rest. Nothing succeeds like success, so 

 they say. Not so here. Nothing makes me 

 succeed like a failure, so I determined that 

 next year those bees should make some hon- 

 ey or furnish a reasonable excuse. I sub- 

 scribed for Gleanings and got the ABC. 

 Then the bee fever took hold in eai'nest. I 

 studied the book night antl day. I knew it 

 all by heart. I got the "Facts About Bees, " 

 and learned it till I could recite it as easily 

 as a minister can quote scripture. The ar- 

 gument in it was good. Every thing in it 

 was all worked out. How grateful I felt 

 that every thing had been learned for me, 



