1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



783 



ed zinc I at once got things ready to make a 

 screen with two sheets of zinc ^ inch apart 

 so that they can not tight, for the reason that 

 I do not care to have my first efforts spoiled 

 by a pair of combative girl bees. 



Coming to something that I know some- 

 thing about, theoretically at any rate, I wish 

 to allude to a question I saw in Gleanings, 

 the writer of which asked if bee-stings would 

 cause rheumatism, and the party goes on to 

 state that he was stung, and (therefore?) had 

 rheumatism. 



The friend neglected to state if he had ever 

 had the trouble before being stung, which 

 leaves the supposition that he never had. 

 From my personal observation, I will state 

 that on a person affected with the " I'heumat- 

 ic diathesis," that is, one in whom the uric 

 acid is already in the blood in excess, a l^ee- 

 sting could very easily cause an attack of 

 x'heumatism by causing the uric acid to crys- 

 tallize, just as it would from any sudden 

 shock, as cold or severe mental sh(^ck. I am 

 somewhat inclined to be troubled with rheu- 

 matism — no one can expect to be entirely 

 exempt— and in my case it took the form of 

 uticaria, or hives. While a greenhorn with 

 bees, I am quite indift'erent to their stings, 

 and got a matter of a few dozen stings stuck 

 into me. I must mention that wnat our 

 mothers use to call "hives" is almost cer- 

 tainly due to the same specific poison— uric 

 acid — which causes rheumatism. In the 

 spring I have to clip my first queen. I'd 

 sooner go over again my first experience in 

 roping a steer. A. F. Bonney, M. D. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



SWEET CLOVER; THE RESULTS OF SOME EX- 

 PERIMENTS IN GROWING IT ON LOOSE 

 AND HARD SOIL. 



I notice on p. 1048, of last year, that some 

 one thinks sweet clover will grow on culti- 

 vated ground the same as anywhere else. 

 Last spring I purchased 75 lbs. of white un- 

 hulled sweet-clover seed, prepared my ground 

 (about five acres) and sowed early in spring. 

 It came up nicely, and it seemed as if there 

 would be a tine stand; but as the summer went 

 by, the clover gi'adually disappeared; and 

 by fall there was scarcely a stalk to be found. 

 I think that, on account of the ground being 

 loose, it perished; for during the time there 

 was very little rain. 



During a very wet spring and summer it 

 might do all right on loose ground; but in a 

 dry time I think it would be a complete failure. 



I now have several hives of bees, and I 

 wanted the clover for my bees, and also 

 while it was for bees it was for my ground 

 also. As a soiler it has no equal. The roots 

 penetrate very deeply; and as it is a biennial 

 it dies every two years and leaves the roots 

 to decay in the ground, making it very fer- 

 tile. During the same year I sowed some on 

 hard clay ground, where nothing else would 

 grow, and, to my surprise, have a good stand. 



I find that, as soon as it takes on poor clay 

 soil, it soon makes it fertile, and other grass 

 soon crowds it out, as the young plants can 

 easily be smothered out. 



As a forage-plant it is very good. My 

 horses and cows are very fond of it in the 

 spring. I sowed a small patch a few years 

 ago for my bees, thinking nothing would eat 

 it; but my cow kept it cdose to the ground, 

 and not a stalk was allowed to bloom. 



Bedford, Ky. E. S. Hudson. 



ROBBER-FLIES; THE HARM THEY ARE ABLE 



TO DO ; BEE-MARTINS NOT NECESSARILY 



A NUISANCE AROUND AN APIARY. 



I am sending you, in a small cage, one of 

 the worst enemies there is in this country to 

 the virgin queens. In fact, they are so nu- 

 merous from the first of August until frost 

 that it is next to impossible for a virgin queen 

 to get back to her nucleus when she takes 

 her wedding-trip. On an average I can prob- 

 ably get three out of twenty mated. Please 

 give us a sketch or half-tone of the gentle- 

 man, and name him. This insect seizes the 

 bee or queen, preferably on the wing, while 

 near the ground, and indicts a death-blow 

 with the sharp beak. If you catch this in- 

 sect by the tail it will also pierce you, and 

 the pain is more severe than the pain from a 

 honey-bee. W. T. Crawford. 



Hineston, La. 



[The above question was sent to Prof. H. 

 A. Surface for answer. His reply is below:] 



The fiy which was sent to you by Mr. W. 

 T. Crawford was received and numbered 

 (7651) in our collection, and identified by us 

 as a i"obber-fiy, scientific name Erax macu- 

 latus. This is one of the predaceous flies 

 that feed upon various kinds of insects, and 

 is known to be destructive to the bee. You 

 will remember that, in a publication of the 

 U. S. Biological Survey, Washington, D. C, 

 the food of the king-bird, or bee-martin, was 

 carefully considered from the examination 

 of hundi-eds of stomachs of this particular 

 bird. Results showed the remarkable fact 

 that there were many more of these robber 

 flies in the stomachs of these king-birds than 

 there were of the bee. In fact, only one bird 

 in a hundred was found to have eaten work- 

 er bees, although several had eaten drones. 

 The fact that this fly is taken extensively by 

 this bird, and that it is also an enemy of the 

 bee, shows that the king-bird is of considera- 

 ble value around the apiary, notwithstanding 

 his reputation. I must acknowledge that I 

 never knew the depredations of the robber 

 fly to be so serious as indicated in the letter 

 by Mr. Crawford, in which he says that not 

 more than three out of twenty of his newly 

 mated queens returned to the hives, because 

 the others are destroyed by this pest. 



Harrisburg, Pa. H. A. Surface, 



Economic Zoologist. 



UNFINISHED SECTIONS. 



I should like to know what to do with last 

 year's unfilled sections. N. H. Keizer. 



La Crosse, Wis 



[Last year's unfinished sections may be 

 used as baits in comb- honey supers to a very 

 good advantage. If you have a large num- 

 ber we would advise you to cut out the 

 combs and sell them for chunk honey. — Ed.] 



