THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



361 



How are tie Bees Doing? 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



This is about the first question 

 asked at this time as one bee-keeper 

 meets another. Bees in this part of 

 the country that are run on modern 

 principles, are in exceptionally good 

 condition. There have been some 

 serious winter losses, but it must, 

 generally, be laid to carelessness and 

 ne.glect. Our 175 colonies are now 

 (middle of May) in very fine order, in 

 fact, the best I have ever had them so 

 early in the season. A good many 

 hives are becoming crowded, and we 

 have had to put on cases of sections 

 for surplus honey to give them more 

 room. I never knew bees to breed up 

 so rapidly, since putting them on the 

 summer stands. 



Now we are ready for the honey 

 harvest. We have got the bees by 

 the millions, to • gather the nectar 

 from the prospective crop of honey- 

 locust, white clover, linden and sweet 

 clover. That is certainly a very satis- 

 factory state of affairs, and is perhaps 

 as much as even the most experienced 

 apiarists can do. Very much, in fact 

 everything, still depends on the plants 

 that actually produce the honey. 

 Then, in order to form a correct idea 

 of what the coming crop of honey will 

 be, we must look to the condition of 

 the plants and trees from which it is 

 to be gathered by our thoughtful little 

 servants— the bees. 



Owing to very dry, hot weather last 

 fall, much of the white clover was 

 burnt out, and the crop at present 

 does not look very promising. As this 

 is the source of our greatest amount 

 and finest quality of honey, this is a 

 serious drawback. Still it is not best 

 to always look on the dark side ; it is 

 possible that good weather will more 

 than make it up. Then, too, the 

 honey-yielding trees— the locust and 

 linden— may be better than usual this 

 year, and make up the loss. At any 

 rate, when the bee-keeper has done 

 faithfully all that can be done, and 

 the supply of honey fails from causes 

 beyond his control, as it occasionally 

 does, he has the satisfaction of know- 

 ing that the failure was caused by no 

 fault of his. 



The past month has been very dry 

 over a large section of the West, and 

 if we do not get soaking rains soon, 

 the prospects for a honey crop cannot 

 be rated at over " seventy-five," as 

 the agricultural reports would say. 



At this time of the year bees need a 

 good deal of water. Where it is not 

 furnished naturally by springs or run- 

 ning streams, it should be provided 

 for them. A good plan is to set a keg 

 or barrel on a gunny-sack spread over 

 a box, and put a pailful or two of 

 water in every morning. Bore a gim- 

 let hole in the barrel near the bottom, 

 and allow the water to drip out on the 

 sack, which should be kept wet all 

 day. Occasionally throw iu a handful 

 of salt, as the bees seem to require it, 

 and will keep the water pure and 

 sweet. It is wonderful how the bees 

 will swarm around such a place all 



day long. Often bees are required to 

 tty a mile or more for their water sup- 

 ply, and as it takes many thousands 

 constantly awiiy from the working 

 force in the fields, the loss from this 

 cause is much more than most bee- 

 keepers imagine. Then, too, why 

 require the bees to wear out their 

 wings going long distances for what 

 can be so easily provided nearer at 

 home ? 

 Milan, XI Ills. 



New York Medical Journal. 



Tie Blaci Bees of Tasmania anil tlieir 

 Meflicinal Honey. 



In a recent communication to the 

 Paris Acadimie de Medicine, which is 

 published in the " Progress Medical " 

 for April 16, Dr. Thomas-Caraman, 

 of Porges-les-Eaux, reported upon a 

 matter which must be regarded as 

 among the most notable of the thera- 

 peutic novelties of the day, being 

 nothing less than the discovery of a 

 sort of honey possessing in a remark- 

 able degree the medicinal properties 

 of the Eucalyptus globulus, or of some 

 species of Eucalyptus. 



It seems that, about three years 

 ago, a distinguished French natur- 

 alist, M. Guilmeth, who was traveling 

 in Tasmania, came suddenly upon a 

 grove of gigantic eucalyptus trees, 

 from 260 to 390 feet high, and with a 

 trunk so large at the base that it took 

 forty of his Kanackas, joining hands, 

 to reach around one of them. High 

 in these lofty trees he discovered what 

 he at first took to be enormous galls, 

 but which he soon ascertained were 

 the dwelling places of swarms of 

 small, black, wild bees, of a variety 

 before unknown to him. Dr. Thomas- 

 Caraman proposes for this bee the 

 professional name of Apis nigra melli- 

 ^ca. Besides being black and smaller 

 than the ordinary honey-bee, this 

 wild bee has its languet rather more 

 developed than that of the domestic 

 bee. M. Guilmeth attempted, unsuc- 

 cessfully, to domesticate it in Tas- 

 mania. • He caused some of these im- 

 mense trees to be felled, and secured 

 the honey. The largest individual 

 store of honey weighed as much as 

 11,000 pounds avoirdupois. 



The honey is described as a thick, 

 homogeneous, somewhat transparent, 

 syrupy liquid, of a deep orange color ; 

 having an odor suggestive at once of 

 its containing eucalyptus principles ; 

 very soluble in water, in milk, and in 

 wine, but much less soluble in alco- 

 hol ; and very difficult of fermenta- 

 tion. Its specific gravity isl.4-t, and 

 it rotates the polarized ray 22°. . In 

 round numbers 1,000 parts contain 611 

 of invert sugar (mostly levulose), 2 of 

 ash, 21.5 of water, and 171 of active 

 principles, including eucalyptol, eu- 

 calyptene, terpene, cymol and odor- 

 ous, resinous, and coloring matters. 

 Its taste is described as v«ry pleasant. 

 Administered to dogs, to the amount 

 of from 2li to 5 ounces a day, it slows 

 the heart's action, and this effect 

 soon becomes so jronounced as to 

 suggest, in Dr. Thomas-Caraman's 

 words, a struggle between the pneu- 



mogastric nerve and the cardiac gan- 

 glia. At the same time the tempera- 

 ture falls about 1" C. The effects last 

 for at least 24 hours, and include a 

 slight tendency to sleep, but without 

 any symptom of toxic depression. As 

 the result of experiments on himself 

 and on one of his friends, Dr.Thomaa- 

 Caraman states that, on taking a 

 table-spoonful of the honey in a little 

 tepid water or milk, after a few min- 

 utes one perceives a gentle, agreeable 

 warmth take possession of the whole 

 person. At the end of half an hour, 

 the elimination of the active princi- 

 ples by the air passages having begun, 

 the voice becomes clearer and the 

 breath perfumed ; the lungs feel more 

 elastic, more supple. Having con- 

 tinued the use of the honey for a 

 week, four table-spoonfuls daily, the 

 author, who speaks of himself as re- 

 spectably fieshy, found that he could 

 go up two pairs of stairs, two steps at 

 time, without stopping to take breath 

 or feeling at all blown. At the same 

 time there was slight diuresis with an 

 increase of urea, and the urine had a 

 decided odor suggestive of that of the 

 Acacia farnesiana (the plant from 

 which the perfume called " new mown 

 hay " is made). 



Besides his observations of the 

 physiological action of the honey, the 

 author cites certain trials of it as a 

 medicine. These data lead him to 

 consider it a valuable aliment, an effi- 

 cient and palatable substitute for cod 

 liver oil ; an anticatarrhal ; an agent 

 affecting the heart in a manner com- 

 parable to the action of digitalis, but 

 free from the inconvenient properties 

 of that drug ; a febrifuge ; an anti- 

 parasitic specially applicable to the 

 destruction of the micro-organisms of 

 tubercular and scrofulous neoplasms, 

 the Leptothnx vaginalis, and oxyures ; 

 and, finally, an antiblennorrhagic, by 

 virture of its being more actively 

 eliminated by the uro-genital tract 

 than either copaiba or sandal oil. It 

 is destined, he thinks, to play a great 

 part in the treatment of laryngeal, 

 bronchial, pulmonary, cardiac and 

 scrofulous affections ; in malarial and 

 typhoid fevers ; in whooping cough 

 and influenza ; and in renal, vesical, 

 and vaginal troubles. 



It may be said that Dr. Thomas- 

 Caraman holds up to our view a some- 

 what rose-colored picture, but it must 

 be confessed that there is no inherent 

 improbability in the notion that an 

 animal organism, like that of the bee, 

 may be able to elaborate the medici- 

 nal principles of the eucalyptus in 

 greater perfection than the art of 

 pharmacy can furnish them. Should 

 his impressions be confirmed, how- 

 ever, the practical question at once 

 comes up as to the extent to which 

 commerce can supply us with the 



genuine wild honey of Tasmania 



It would be interesting to know to 

 what particular species of the genus 

 Eucalyptus, the gigantic trees found 

 by M. Guilmeth, belong. Perhaps 

 the active principles of the tree may 

 yet be made available without the in- 

 tervention of the Apis nigra melUJiea. 



[The above was sent to us by -Mr. 

 Eugene Secor, of Forest City, Iowa, 



