AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



345 



Wavelets o! News. 



Bees are Good Helpers. 



The bees are good helpers on the 

 farm, return more in proportion to the 

 outlay than any otlier workers, and 

 should be made as comfortable as pos- 

 sible. It must be remembered that bees 

 not only gather honey, but, also, that in 

 gathering it, they fertilize all the flowers 

 on the farm, thereby increasing their 

 product. 



Bees need water, and if there be none 

 near, give it in a shallow pan, with sticks 

 or straws floating on the surface of the 

 water. On these "floats " the bees may 

 drink without drowning. — Exchange. 



Fall Swarms. 



In this locality there has been much 

 rain — much more than usual during the 

 month of August, and vegetation is very 

 rank. This promises Fall honey if 

 nature's laboratory is in running order. 

 Hives are full and running over with 

 bees, and let a flow of nectar occur, 

 swarming will be the order of the day as 

 much as during the month of Ju;ie. I 

 have known swarms to issue as late as 

 Sept. 20, and fill their hives with comb 

 and honey. The reports of a crop of 

 honey thus far throughout the country 

 show quite a deficiency, and it would 

 be wisdom on the part of bee-keepers to 

 secure every pound of Fall honey pos- 

 sible, in lieu of increase. If I were going 

 to run for extracted-honey this Fall, I 

 w^ould extract what there is in the 

 combs, so as to be sure that there is no 

 honey-dew, and endeavor to obtain a 

 pure article from Fall flowers. — Mrs. L. 

 Harrison, in the Prairie Farmer. 



Bees and Honey. 



The bees have had a busy season of it 

 this Summer. The absence of any pro- 

 longed wet weather has enabled them to 

 gather thousands of pounds of sweets, 

 from the fields and gardens. 



The question of the bees injuring fruit 

 is again brought up by those who devote 

 more study to horticulture than to bees, 

 but if these same fruit-growers would 

 look to the birds, they would find that 

 they are the natual enemies, and not the 

 bees. The birds are not only the ene- 

 mies of the fruit-growers, but the ene- 

 mies of the bee-keepers. If it was not 

 for the great prolificness of the queen- 



bees, whole colonies of bees would be 

 destroyed by the voracious birds. 



So determined do the birds become at 

 times that they follow the bees up to 

 their hives, and watch for their coming 

 out to seize them. The shot-gun is the 

 only appeal for the bee-keeper at such 

 times. In the fields the birds are at- 

 tracted to the bees, probably for the 

 little sacs of honey which they carry, 

 and not so much for the bees themselves. 



The birds are also the chief offenders 

 against the fruit-growers. They pierce 

 the fruit with their bills, and allow the 

 nectar to escape. Decay soon sets in, 

 but the bees are on hand, and sip the 

 juice as it escapes. They never touch 

 sound fruit, but always go for those that 

 have had their skin punctured by the 

 birds, thorns or limbs. All of this escaping 

 nectar is honey lost if the bees were not 

 ready to gather it up. As economizers 

 of waste products the bees are, therefore, 

 unequaled. — Helen WHARBXjRDON,in the 

 Wisconsin Agriculturist. 



Bees and Fruit-Growing. 



It is simply an aggravated case of 

 base ingratitude on the part of the fruit- 

 grower if he finds fault with his bee- 

 keeping neighbor on account of the 

 injury done to fruit by bees. The fruit- 

 grower, in fact, has no warmer friend, 

 no more useful agent, than the pollen- 

 carrying, honey-seeking little insect. 

 The interests of fruit-grower and bee- 

 keeper, far from being antagonistic, lie 

 indeed so nearly in the same direction, 

 that we urgently advocate the combine 

 of the two avocations in the same 

 person. 



The leading cause of barrenness in 

 fruit trees and bush fruits is lack of 

 proper pollenation, due again, in many 

 cases, to the absence of the right kind 

 of pollen, and in others to its non-trans- 

 fer from the stamens to the needy 

 pistils. Many trees are not self-ferti- 

 lizing, either because their own pollen 

 upon their own pistil has no potency, or 

 because the pollen is not discharged at 

 the time when the pistils are receptive. 

 A notable example of the one case is the 

 chestnut, and one of the other case, the 

 wild goose plum at the North. The 

 remedy to be suggested is planting a 

 number of trees or varieties near enough 

 together, so they can furnish what 

 pollen they need to each other. 



On the whole, however, we believe 

 that more trees, shrubs and garden 

 plants have to depend on the agency of 

 insects, especially bees and bumble-bees. 



