AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



Wavelets of News. 



No Alfalfa Honey in California. 



It does not appear that California bee- 

 keepers have so far made any attempt 

 to produce honey from alfalfa upon any 

 very extended scale. At all events, if 

 they have done so it has escaped obser- 

 vation, and no honey of that kind is to 

 be had in this market. In Colorado, on 

 the other hand, alfalfa is now generally 

 regarded as the best honey-producing 

 plant that can be cultivated. The honey 

 produced from the bloom is said to be of 

 an exceptionally fine appearance and 

 good quality. — San Francisco Chronicle. 



Tub for Watering Bees. 



I take a tub, tie a piece of burlap over 

 it, put in a piece of brick or stone that 

 will keep it down in the center ; and 

 then fill in with warm water until it 

 comes up about one-third of the way on 

 the burlap, which leaves a large surface 

 for the bees to alight on. It is only oc- 

 casionally that a bee gets drowned. 

 One advantage of the tub is, it does not 

 need looking after, except occasionally. 

 Try it, and be convinced. — M.G.Wiggins 

 in Gleanings. 



Bee in a Telephone. 



The experience of telegraph operators. 

 Inspectors and linemen brings them into 

 close acquaintance with all sorts and 

 conditions of faults in connection with 

 their work ; the variety of these faults is 

 wonderful — many stranger than fiction. 



One of the most curious in connection 

 witii telephony which we have ever 

 known, has happened at a place called 

 Moss Bay. The lineman's attention was 

 called to the circuit in question, as hear- 

 ing was difficult ; on listening at the tele- 

 phone he heard a "sort of booming, 

 which came on intermittently, very much 

 resembling the distant roll of the tide, 

 and which rendered speaking and trans- 

 mission of work almost impracticable." 



Having satisfied himself by the usual 

 methods that the instrument was right, 

 and the line free from induction, and 

 that it was not picking up vibrations, 

 the conclusion was arrived at that the 

 fault must be in the general office at 

 Moss Bay. 



An examination of the telephone ap- 

 paratus disclosed a novelty, 



A honey-bee was inside the telephone, 

 and, in trying to make good its escape, 



it had become fixed between the sound- 

 ing board and microphone, and it had 

 hummed to the extent of interfering 

 with the human organs of the circuit. 



How the bee came there the linemen 

 cannot say, whether by accident or de- 

 sign he knows not, but the bee was the 

 cause of the fault. 



In concluding his report, the lineman 

 candidly states : "I have met some very 

 tedious and technical faults in connec- 

 tion with various telephone apparatus, 

 but I never was clone by a bee before." — 

 Median ical World. 



Rivalry Among Bees. 



The thought has more than once sug- 

 gested itself to the writer, as he has 

 watched a number of bees at work upon 

 some favorite flowers — whether the little 

 honey-bearers ever strive to gain and 

 keep such treasures to themselves. 



Any one may be convinced, that a keen 

 competition really prevails among bees, 

 towards the end of the season, by taking 

 the trouble to count the number of times 

 in an hour, that a particular blossom is 

 visited by a bee, or would be visited if it 

 contained honey, as it is not necessary 

 for a bee to alight on a flower, to know 

 that she must go away empty. 



Darwin has left it on record, after 

 carefully watching certain flowers, that 

 each one was visited by bees at least 30 

 times in a day, and it cannot be supposed 

 that the little visitors in such circum- 

 stances, find much to reward their 

 industry. 



Sir John Lubbock has also shown that 

 they will often visit from 20 to 25 

 flowers in a minute. It is very interest- 

 ing to note, that on such occasions, bees 

 always keep to the same species of flower 

 during each visit to the fields. — Exchange. 



Soldiers and a Bee-Tree. 



When Johnson's army was about 12 

 miles from Vicksburg, orders were issued 

 that death would be the portion of any 

 man who fired a gun, chopped with an 

 ax, or made any noise whatever. The 

 confederates were in the rear of Grant, 

 and they were interested in keeping 

 very quiet about it. One day some 

 of the soldiers noticed that some wild 

 bees had selected an old dead tree as the 

 depository for their honey. Away up in 

 the top, the little workers could be seen 

 storing their sweets. The soldiers look- 

 ed upon them with longing eyes. How 

 to get the honey was a problem. A sin- 

 gle blow with an ax would be punished 



