262 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



187t 



ed grapes, as I often have done those that I special- 

 ly desire to preserve, by covering them with coarse 

 netting, bees have never disturbed them, althougn 

 they had as free access as before. And bunches 

 which were partially destroyed before being cov- 

 ered with the netting, have had the punctured ber- 

 ries afterward eaten by the bees; all the rest 

 remaining untouched till fully matured — some- 

 times for weeks after all unprotected bunches were 

 entirely destroyed. — Oeo. W. CampbeU, in Ohio Far- 

 mer. 



♦— ♦ — t 



Reasons for going Into tbe Bee Business. 



The Practical Planter under the above heading, 

 rather facetiously undertakes to encourage bee 

 business at the South, in the following cogent 

 reasoning: 



1st. It is as certain as any other rural pursuit. 

 Without rain the farmer can raise no crop. If there 

 is no honey secreted in flowers the bees can gather 

 none, but if the flowers yield honey my bees will 

 be sure to gather it. 



2d. More profitable according to the amount qfin/mey 

 invested than any oilier farm stock, because it takes 

 less labor to keep them, and the investment yields 

 from one to three hundred per cent, per annum on 

 the capital. 



3d. They cannot be enticed away, and with proper 

 management, hardly ever leave of their own accord. 

 Can this be said of any other class of laborers ? 



4th. An enterprising person can accomplish more, 

 alone and unaided, at this than at any other rural 

 pursuit. Almost all of the operations of the farm 

 have to be gone over again every year, without 

 great additional gain ; whereas the bee-keeper can 

 multiply his stocks three or four fold, thus more 

 than doubling his working force, while the addi- 

 tional labor of caring for his bees is not much in- 

 creased, because the practical bee man learns every 

 year, and can soon attend to fifty or one hundred 

 colonies in the same time that it first took him to 

 attend to a dozen. 



5th. Less liable to depredations and thefts than any 

 other farm stock. Every stock raiser knows how 

 liable horse flesh is to stray off, and how accommo- 

 dating some people are to take it up, and, in their 

 anxiety to carry it home, miss the right road, and 

 neither they nor the horse are ever heard from 

 afterwards ; and what a perverse habit fat pigs have 

 about the annual negro camp-meeting times, of sud- 

 denly "coming up missing;" and your young pet 

 cow, evidently having heard their revival song— 

 "I can't stay here any longer" — becomes inspired 

 with the idea, and away she goes. But they don't 

 take our bees. 



6th. The honey crop is secured with less labor, 

 and after storing away is subject to less loss than 

 any other crop. 



IVorms In Combs. 



A correspondent in a late number of the Ameri- 

 can JournM, said that some of his bees, after gnaw- 

 ing off the caps of the cells, were unable to come 

 out ; and he wants to know what is the matter. One 

 word will tell — " worms." 



I noticed some of mine in the same fix, soon after 

 reading that article, and on pulling them out I 

 found, as I expected, a small worm-hole near the 

 bottom of the cell. I had before noticed that those 

 bees which could not get out were in lines, and 

 after pulling out a few I found a small worm. They 

 (the worms) work their passage from one cell to 

 another, perhaps two-thirds of the way towards the 

 centre of the comb, eating the wax, bees' wings and 

 legs, and leaving a fine web behind, which holds 

 the bees in the comb. 



I supposed they were not the larv» of the ordin- 

 ary bee moth, as I have generally found these near 

 the surface of the comb. But I put some of these 

 combs containing these small worms in a glass jar, 

 and in due time had from fifteen to eighteen fine 

 large moths of the ordinary kind. My conclusion 

 is that these worms, while small, work near the 

 septum of the comb, and when grown about half an 

 inch long they work next to the surface. — /. L. Hub- 

 bard, in Anwrican Bee Jowrnal. 



How TO Smoke Bees. — The effect of smoke on 

 bees is wonderful. In a few moments they are ren- 

 dered stupid and harmless. To do it effectually 

 many suppose that tobacco must be used. A much 

 better way is to make a roll of old cotton rags an 

 inch or two thick. Light one end of the roll and 

 blow the smoke into the hive ; or otherwise so 

 place it as to reach the bees, whether Inside or out- 

 side the hive. 



Honey Dew. — A German observer says that 

 honey dew is the exudation of the saccharine por- 

 tion of the juices of plants which has by some 

 means been diverted from the proper channel of 

 excretion, which is the blossom of the plant. 



Weight of Honey in a Hive. — A bee-keeper 

 must not judge of the state of his hive in the 

 spring by its weight alone, because at that time the 

 number of young bees and larvse in it weigh heavy, 

 and may impose on the unwary for real wealth, 

 when the stock of honey is nearly exhausted. 



Growth of a Rose Slip. — The Los Angelos 

 iV««)« tells of a rose slip aljout one foot in length, 

 that in one year from planting made, in the aggre- 

 gate, a growth of fifty feet. Thinks the story will 

 appear incredible to outsiders. It might, were any 

 thing impossible in California. 



