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GLEANINGS IN, BEE CULTURE, 



Apr. 1 



KAINS IN CALIFORNIA. 



As is well known, Southern California is 

 so well in the north-trade-wind belt that it is 

 likely to get all too little rain. In the win- 

 ter months we swing to the north of this, and 

 so get our scant rains. In the region of 

 Claremont we get, on the average, a little 

 over fifteen inches of rain. If this comes 

 scattered along through the season we are 

 sure to have very prosperous years. This 

 season we have had already more than our 

 average, and yet we are still to have our 

 best month, that of March, when, as the rec- 

 ords show, we get our greatest rainfall. The 

 sage and other honey-plants are pushing for- 

 ward very fast; and unless the season is very 

 damp and cold we may almost surely count 

 on a generous honey-Mow. I think that, in 

 all the thirteen years I have been in this sec- 

 tion, we have never had a season that pi'om- 

 ised so much for the bee-keeper as does the 

 present one. We may expect a great harvest 

 along all agricultural lines the coming fall 

 and summer. 



CALIFORNIA FOR LUNG TROUBLES. 



1 have so many inquiries regarding the sa- 

 lubrity of this section that I feel sure the 

 facts in the matter will be of much interest 

 to the readers of Gleanings. There is no 

 question that the pure dry atmosphere of 

 Southern California, together with the equa- 

 ble temperature, are greatly preventive and 

 as surely curative of many pulmonary trou- 

 l)les. Ikuow of many who came hei'e with 

 serious ti'oubles, who to-day are among our 

 strongest and most valuable citizens. They 

 are not now ''one-lungers," whatever they 

 may have been when they first came. From 

 what I have observed since I came here thir- 

 teen years ago I feel sure that incipient tu- 

 berculosis, with reasonable care, can not stand 

 this climate, but will in almost every case 

 succumb to its sanitary influences. The 

 same is true of asthmatic troubles. It must 

 be said, however, that one who comes here 

 with consumption must not think to return 

 after the cure is wrought. In rare cases that 

 may do, but generally it is followed with a 

 relapse, and with each recurring attack the 

 cure is less rapid and certain. In cases of 

 asthma the dry air further from the coast is 

 found more helpful. I have known persons 

 who could not stop at all with any comfort 

 at Long Beach, but who were entirely com- 

 fortable at Pasadena, though the latter is so 

 near by. Others could not stay at Pasadena, 

 while they were free from trouble at Red- 

 lands or Riverside; and one man who could 



not stand Riverside was all right at Coachel- 

 la. 



The past two weeks, right in the heart of 

 winter, have been like the best of May and 

 June in my old Michigan home. This is a 

 glorious climate, and one feels to thank God 

 every day of the year for such a home and 

 such a climate. The world knows none bet- 

 ter. 



GLANDS AND SECRETION IN INSECTS. 



Few of US who have never given the sub- 

 ject of secretion special study or attention 

 I'ealize its importance in the animal econo- 

 my. We appreciate muscular activity, and 

 so muscles command respectful considera- 

 tion; we know the gi'eat importance of 

 nerves, and so the word nervous begets ap- 

 preciative consideration; we know the im- 

 mense importance of good air, and so lungs 

 and respiration always interest us; such ex- 

 pressions as "blood tells," and "the heart 

 as the seat of life," show that we know well 

 the importance of circulation among life's 

 processes. Do we all as fully realize the 

 great part that secretion plays in the animal 

 economy? Do we realize that every stage 

 in the digestive process not only is attended 

 with glandular action, but depends wholly 

 upon it? Milk, which is so very important 

 as a food product, and which is the nearest 

 approach to a perfect food of any single sub- 

 stance known, unless it be the food given to 

 larval bees, is exclusively a secretion. 



Glands, what? Glands, the agents of all 

 seci"etion, are simply membranes with blood 

 on one side and cells on the other. These cells 

 have the power of selecting from the blood 

 the elements of the secretion that they are to 

 form, and to manufacture the secretion from 

 them. The liver is the largest of all the 

 glands, and, as a gland, has two very impor- 

 tant functions. It secretes the bile and the 

 liver sugar. The pancreas and the stomach 

 are great glands which play a very important 

 part in digestion. 



Among insects we have in the" silk-moth 

 larva, or caterpillar, an example of an ani- 

 mal whex'e glands are enormously developed. 

 The silk glands are I'eally modified salivary 

 glands, which are developed for a specific 

 purpose, and which are, perhaps, the best 

 example of excessive development for a spe- 

 cial end or purpose to be found among ani- 

 mals. 



GLANDS AMONG BEES. 



We should expect to find among animals 

 with such varied functions as are possessed 

 by our honey-bees exceedingly interesting 

 examples of glands and of the formation of 

 secretions. Nor are we disappointed. Hon- 

 ey itself, as we know assuredly, is digested 

 nectar, and the digestion is accomplished 

 through the action of the secretion from the 

 large racemose glands of the head (upper 

 head glands) and of the thorax, which emp- 

 ty their product through a common duct 

 which ends at the base of the tongue. Thus, 

 as the nectar is quaffed from the flowers it is 



