746 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 



she would, though, for we very seldom give 

 our wives the credit they deserve, if I am 

 correct in the matter. 



FROM PAIiESTINE. 



HONBY FROM THE SEBESTEN-TREE, AND HOW THE 

 BEE-EATER IS CAPTURED, ETC. 



^f^lVERYBODX' knows, it is a long:, long way from 

 J^l America across the Atlantic Ocean, the whole 



continent of Europe, and last the Mediterra 



nean Sea, till it reaches the port of Jaffa, taking our 

 journals to such an out-o''-the-way place as Jerusa- 

 lem. But, having come up to the Lebanon for some 

 months, it was longer still before my eyes met with 

 the interesting article published by friend Benton, 

 about the bee-eater, on page 283, of Juvenile 

 Gleanings for May. I, too, was very much aston- 

 ished to find friend Benton's excellent memory fail- 

 ing him in describing that sticky substance to catch 

 birds. The sebesten-tree (Cordla Myxa) is a middle- 

 sized, irregular-growing tree, with ovate leaves, 

 very smooth on its superior surface, rough below; 

 it has small whitish flowers, blossoming about the 

 end of May, at which time I observed numbers of 

 bees swarming about it, eagerly getting honey, that 

 time being the end of the cactus-blossoms, afford- 

 ing the bees much honey. Pity to say, there are 

 but few trees in the neighborhood and in surround- 

 ing villages; for should there be orchards of them 

 here, our bees would infallibly have another honey 

 harvest for the first part of June. 



This tree has an egg-shaped fruit called the sebes- 

 ten plum, which is succulent, mucilaginous, and 

 emollient, with some astringency, and has a sweetish 

 taste. It has a thick peel, and in the midst of the 

 mucilaginous substance is bedded a kernel, filling 

 up almost all the space. The fruit is about the 

 size of a grape, and hanging down in similar bunch- 

 es, excepting the fruits in the bunches to be scarcer, 

 though there are great numbers of bunches. It 

 ripens about the end of August, and is almost yellow. 

 It Is then gathered by the owner, and every fruit is 

 to be cut open. The most curious way is employed 

 to get out the substance. The fruits are sucked out 

 one by one, and spit into a big mold, or chaldron, 

 together with the kernels; there it is beaten togeth- 

 er for some time, till it foams well, and a solution of 

 yellow arsenic (tersulphide of arsenic) with water at 

 the rate of 1^ is mixed to it, and the beating is con- 

 tinued for another while, which last solution prob- 

 ably was mixed to prevent it from fermentation, or 

 give it a greenish hue, as they told me. 



Flexible whips from olive, pomegranate, etc., are 

 now cut, and dipped in the mass just as far as to 

 leave a little space clean, to hold the whip. They 

 are then put to dry somewhat, and dipped a second 

 and a third time in this matter, when they are sup- 

 posed to have enough glue, or "aibbek," as the 

 Arabs call it. They are now put together by dozens 

 and sent to the market. Any bird-catcher or bee- 

 keeper (I used them myself) now sets up those 

 whips one by one in the branches of trees, or on 

 poles or reeds put up in the vicinity of the hives. 

 The bee-eater is known to perch up very high, and 

 finds those green whips very inviting for him to 

 perch upon, whereupon his feet stick fast to the 

 substance, and very often making efforts with his 

 wings to get off, he gets entangled more and more 



in the lofty but unhappy resting-place, which 

 proves very often to be his last resting-place. 



This Is the way the mucilage is manufactured and 

 employed. I lately met with a young American 

 lady by the name of Miss Debora, which. In the or- 

 iginal, signifies "bee." I asked her if she would 

 like to be the queen of all my queens. The answer 

 was in the positive. I don't think you find very 

 often such queens set over so many queens. 



By the time the present reaches you, or very soon 

 after, I shall be back again to my Palestine apiaries, 

 where I generally reside. What I mean by this is, 

 you may kindly continue mailing the journals to 

 Jerusalem, not heeding the date given. 



Ph. T. Baldenspesger. 



Mt. Lebanon Apiary, Beyrout, July 23, 1883. 



Friend B., we are very much obliged to 

 you for the facts you give in regard to this 

 strange tree, as well as for the very full ex- 

 planation you give us in regard to the orien- 

 tal plan for catching birds. It seems to me 

 it is a vast improvement over the time-hon- 

 ored plan so often recommended to youthful 

 aspirants, of putting salt on their tails. We 

 are interested, too, in that American queen- 

 bee. For a good while we have heard much 

 about sending over to your country after 

 queen-bees ; but I believe you are almost the 

 first one who has had the good sense to ap- 

 preciate the rare excellences of the native 

 American queens. May God's blessing rest 

 with Mrs. Debora and yourself in your Pal- 

 estine home. 



DO URONES CONGREGATE IN liARGE 



BODIES, WHERE QUEENS MAY 



MEET THEM? 



SOME IMPORTANT FACTS IN THE MATTER, FROM 

 FRIEND DOOLITTLE. 



^EJjpANr of our friends who have read 

 £^ Gleanings for years back will re- 

 ' member the articles on this subject, 

 and I presume most of our readers are fa- 

 miliar with the fact given on page 65 of the 

 ABC book, in regard to queen-ants meet- 

 ing in vast bodies. Well, keeping these 

 facts in view, we read witli interest the fol- 

 lowing, which we extract from the A. B. J.: 



Some 20 years ago my father planted a piece of 

 corn on a high hill; and as the season was quite wet 

 during June and the fore part of July, the weeds 

 were quite rank in the corn during the fore part of 

 August. As soon as through haying, we went into 

 this cornfield to cut the weeds. Every afternoon 

 from about half-oast twelve to three o'clock it 

 would sound as if there was a swarm of bees in the 

 air. and at first we looked often to see if we could 

 not see a swarm : but as none was discovered, we 

 concluded it must be flies of some kind, which con- 

 gregated there to play. At this time there were no 

 bees nearer than two miles from this hill, unless, 

 perchance, a stray swarm might have been in a 

 piece of woodland not as far off. Previous to this 

 my father had kept bees, and had often pointed out 

 the queen to me as a swarm was going Into the hive 

 when he hived them, and I knew a drone as well as 

 a worker-bee. 



One day I was sent to the cornfield alone, and, as 

 it was a very warm day, along about two o'clock I 

 got extremely tired (or, perhaps, lazy), and so I lay 

 down partially in the shade of the. corn to rest. As 

 I remained there, listening to the hnm of the flies, 

 as I supposed, I thought I would try to ascertain if I 

 could see any thing; so, shading my eyes by placing 

 one hand each sHe of them, and looking steadily uo 

 into the clear sky, after a little I could s^e thousands 

 of living creatures circling in all directions, so swift 

 that at times they looked like a streak of black, 



