OUEANINCvS 



BEE cijLTUKE 



Published by The A. I. Root eomp«,ny, Medina. Ohio 



E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Mer 



H. H. Root, Asst. Ed. J. T. Calvert, Business Algrr 



A. I. Root, Editor of Home Department 



Vol. XXXV. 



AUGUST 15, 1907. 



No. 16. 



Roosevelt's improved spelling is endors- 

 ed by the National Educational Association. 

 Good! 



H. Roth reports [Schweiz. Bztg., 32) that 

 for years he has planted tomatoes before his 

 bee-house, and it keeps the ants away. [We 

 do not believe this; that is to say, we know 

 of no scientific reason why tomato-plants 

 would keep ants away. — Ed.] 



Bro. Doolittle, please give p. in Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal where I say that bees do 

 not gather both pollen and honey on the 

 same trip from clover. I don't know what 

 I may have said, but I know I always be- 

 lieved just the reverse of what you state on 

 page 1015. 



It is said, sometimes, if not generally, 

 that the difference between the piping and 

 quahking of queens is merely a question as 

 to whether they are in or out of the cells, the 

 same sounds being made in either case, the 

 deadening of the sound by the cell causing 

 the quahking. A little observation will show 

 this to be an error. The piping always be- 

 gins with a long-drawn-out note; the quahk- 

 ing, never. 



The bee, says R. France, in his book, 

 "Das Liebesleben der Plianzen," is no reflex 

 machine, but a being with memory, which 

 gathers experience and knows how to turn 

 it to good account. In one day it attains to 

 as much experience as a child in jts first 

 year. On its first day afield it needs the 

 bright color of the flowers to attract its at- 

 tention; but a day or two later it will visit 

 them just as readily if all the petals be i-emov- 

 ed.— i^Z. MonatsblacUer, 



Wm. Kohlmeyer has been keeping bees 

 half a century, and never found any use for 

 religion— wants bee culture and religion kept 

 separate, p. 1033. Queer, now, how differ- 

 ent people are! I've been keeping bees near- 

 ly half a century, and found use for my re- 

 ligion right in the apiary. I have had ever 

 so good a time by not separating the two. I 

 wonder, now, friend K., if you ever gave re- 

 ligion a fair trial along with bee culture, and 

 if so, what brand you tried. 



"Remarkable progress of prohibition in 

 the South" heads an editorial in a Chicago 

 daily, which says: 



All Tennessee is dry, except the cities of Nashville, 

 Memphis, and Chattanooga In Kentucky, ninety 

 counties out of the 119 into which the State is divided 

 are dry, and even in the. " wet '" counties there are 

 many prohibition precincts. In Texas, Mississippi, 

 and North Carolina the majority of the counties are 

 said to be dry. Perhaps the most efficient single 

 cause of the proKress of prohibition is the feeling that 

 the saloon is responsible for much of the crime com- 

 mitted by the lower elements of the colored popula- 

 tion. 



Just -so; and perhaps it may by discovered 

 that the saloon is also responsible for nearly 

 all of the crime committed by the lower ele- 

 ments of the white population in the North. 



Herr U. Kramer {Schweiz. Bztg., p. 115) 

 says it is a mistake to suppose that all work- 

 ers in their youth engage in brood-rearing. 

 In April and May plenty of young bees can 

 be seen quietly remaining unoccupied about 

 the brood-nest until the harvest calls them to 

 other work. Herr Kramer is good authori- 

 ty too. [Has any one ever claimed that young 

 bees devote their whole time to brood-rear- 

 ing? We know that old bees, under some 

 contlitions, will rear brood. If there were a 

 paucity of fielders it is reasonable to suppose 

 that young bees that could Hy would go to 

 the field at an age younger than ordinai'ily. 

 —Ed.] 



J. A. Green, you say, p. 1015, "I caged a 

 queen with the usual escort to take to an 

 out-apiary." I never thought of using an 

 escort in such a case. Is it the usual custom? 

 What is the escort for? [If the queen were 

 to be introduced within an hour or two it 



