XBlf MMERICMK BE® JOUTRIfMI*. 



651 



should be placed in the center of the 

 brood •chamber for the winter supply of 

 food for the colony. 



A committee was selected for ar- 

 ranging a programme for the next 

 meeting. It is proposed to make that 

 meeting one of the grandest in the his- 

 tory of the Association, and it cannot 

 fail in its aims, having as co-operative 

 workers the most enthusiastic, practi- 

 cal and able apiarists in the country. 

 An announcement of the programme 

 and time of meeting will be made in 

 due time, in the different bee-papers. 



Des Moines, Iowa. 



FUMIGATION 



With Salpliur— Sting - 

 Tlieory. 



Trowel 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I was a little surprised, on reading 

 page 603, to tjnd that one who appears 

 to be 80 close an observer as Mr. 

 Pierce, should hold views concerning 

 sulphur, that, according to my experi- 

 ence, are erroneous. He is entirely 

 right in saying what is not generally 

 said (and perhaps it is not generally 

 known), that after worms have ob- 

 tained a good foothold, it is very diffi- 

 cult to kill them with sulphur. 



1 have had combs in which the 

 worms have abounded, from those of 

 small size to those of full grown, and 

 after subjecting them to a very dense 

 smoke of sulphur for a long time, the 

 " fat old chaps "seemed to be none the 

 worse for their smoking. Such combs, 

 I think, I would not try to cure with 

 sulphur. The cheapest and easiest 

 way, probably, to dispose of them is to 

 give them to the bees to clean out. 



If it is not at a time when it is warm 

 enough for bees to fly, the worms will 

 not make much headway, and as soon 

 as the worms are frozen, that is the 

 last of them. If only a few worms are 

 in a comb, and they are half-grown or 

 larger, it is no very difficult matter to 

 pick them out with a wire nail. But 

 for the worms that are very small— and 

 we never need wait for them to get 

 large— the fumes of burning sulphur 

 are very effective. 



My experience has been almost en- 

 tirely in fumigating comb houey in 

 sections, and for that purpose sulphur 

 may almost be said to be preventive, 

 rather than curative, for the worms 

 should be killed when they are hardly 

 large enough to be seen by the naked 

 eye. If a section be fumigated within 

 two weeks after its removal from the 

 bees, and then two weeks later, I think 

 there need be little anxiety about the 

 worms. 



Having used a good many pounds of 

 sulphur during a number of years, I 

 think I may speak with some authority 

 upon the subject, and I trust that Mr. 

 Pierce will take it kindly when I say 

 that I think he is mistaken on two 

 points : flrst, as to the difficulty of reg- 

 ulating the combustion of sulphur, and 

 second, as to the necessity for burning 

 sulphur in connection with some car- 



bonaceous substance. "With regard to 

 the latter, I may say that I never burn 

 anything in conneciion with sulphur, 

 simply lay a lighted match upon the 

 sulphur, and there is no difficulty about 

 the dim, blue blaze continuing as long 

 as a grain of sulphur remains. 



As to the difficulty of regulating, es- 

 pecially when a large amount is used, 

 let me give a bit of my experience in a 

 previous year : 



I had a lot of sections piled in a room 

 about 1.5 feet square, and concluded to 

 smoke the whole room. So I lighted 5 

 pounds of sulphur early enough in the 

 day so that I thought it would all burn 

 before night, and kept occasional 

 watch of it through a window. At 

 dark it was burning apparently the 

 same as when first lighted, and at bed- 

 time the same. Although I thought it 

 entirely safe, I never feel that I can be 

 too careful about Are, so I concluded to 

 sit up with it until it expired. I did 

 not get to bed until after 1 o'clock. 



My method of using was this : The 

 sulphur was put in an iron kettle hold- 

 ing about a gallon. A common kettle 

 holding 3 or 4 gallons was partly fllled 

 with ashes, and in this the smaller 

 kettle containing the sulphur was 

 placed, and over all a tin cover that did 

 not fit closely. I suppose this cover al- 

 lowed plenly of air to enter to keep up 

 combustion, but made it burn slower 

 than if entirely uncovered. Previous 

 to covering, a lighted match was laid 

 on the sulphur, and that was all the 

 attention it received except the watch- 

 ing, and no doubt it would have burned 

 just the same if I had been a mile 



away. 



I do not think that roll brimstone 

 would act just the same, but I suspect 

 a part of it mixed with the powdered 

 sulphur might answer. The cost is so 

 little that I have always used it in the 

 powdered form. 



Bees Stlngins: tbe Capping of Cells. 



Referring to "replies" on page 598, 

 allow me to correct Dr. Mason and the 

 Editor. Dr. Mason thinks that the 

 man who believed that the bees did the 

 capping with their stingers, never sub- 

 scribed for a bee-periodical. Now Doc- 

 tor, that idea originated with the Rev. 

 W. F. Clarke, and was first promul- 

 gated in the bee-papers and his book, 

 unless I am very much mistaken, and 

 your man's believing it, was just so 

 much proof that he had been reading 

 the bee papers. The Doctor may be 

 surprised at the man's belief, but a 

 little thought will convince him that 

 there is nothing surprising in it. 



The statement was given in all sober- 

 ness in the columns of our bee-papers, 

 and coming from a respectable source, 

 why should it not be believed V If I 

 remember rightly, it passed entirely 

 unchallenged for a considerable length 

 of time, and to this day I think not 

 more than three individuals ever denied 

 its truth, and not a single one of our 

 editors ever said he thought it was not 

 true. Why shouldn't the man believe 

 ity 



If the Doctor refers, not to the sting- 

 trowel, but to the injection of formic 

 acid after the cell was filled with honey, 

 the case is not different, but still 

 stronger, for I do not remember to 



have seen that stated elsewhere than in 

 the bee papers. The last place I re- 

 member seeing anything of the kind 

 was in the liriUsh Bee Journal for Aug. 

 2.S, where, on page 409, Dr. A. von 

 Planta quotes approvingly Dr. Muellen- 

 hoff in No (i of the Eichstaedt Bienen- 

 zcitung, where he says, on page 61, 

 " When the cell is nearly tilled, and 

 the honey is not intended for imme- 

 diate consumption, the bees add a drop 

 of the secretion of their poison gland. 

 Now we ought to know positively 

 whether this is true or false. Some- 

 where, lately. Prof. Cook nas called it 

 in question— I mean aside from his an- 

 swer in the present case — but I do not 

 remember whether he says positively 

 it is false, or simply that he does not 

 believe it. 



The Editor is in error, I think, in at- 

 tributing the sting-acid theory to Rev. 

 W. F. Clarke. I think it came from a 

 number of sources, and it might be 

 difficult now to determine who first 

 started it. Mr. Clarke is " sponsor " 

 for the " sting-trowel " theory— at least 

 I do not know that any one else in this 

 country has said he knew it was true, 

 unless it be Dr. Mason's friend, al- 

 though I have been told that the idea 

 flrst had birth in France. Mr. Clarke, 

 however, says he became satisfied of 

 its truth as the result of observations. 

 I seriously question whether Mr. 

 Clarke ever made any observations that 

 warranted him in giving utterance to 

 the sting-trowel theory as a positively 

 ascertained fact. 



Marengo, Ills. 



[If the editor was in error in the 

 statement made on page 598 in answer 

 to Query 57.5, our friend, the Rev. W. 

 F. Clarke, will be very ready to show 

 it. Editors are not always right, es- 

 pecially when they try to find " fathers" 

 for waifs, or the offspring of fertile 

 brains.— Ed.] 



CALIFORNIA. 



Honey Produclion on tlie Pacific 

 C'oa§t. 



Written for the Riverside Press . 

 BY FRED. L. ALLES. 



Throughout Southern California, for 

 a distance of 300 miles, the Coast 

 Range of Mountains is spotted with 

 little canyons upon whose sides may 

 be found a hundred varieties of wild 

 flowers. Here and there rises an occa- 

 sional live-oak or a clump of low grow- 

 ing pines. The body of this living 

 carpet, covering the acclivity of the 

 Temescal range,the San .Jacinto mount- 

 ains and the lower edges of the Sierra 

 Madres, is composed of all the colors 

 of the rainbow, and varies with the 

 mouths and seasons, while heaps of 

 gray old boulders, jutting clumps of 

 sandstone and granite, and masses of 

 chaparral, grease-wood and mesquite, 

 with their neutral tints, give the eye 

 relief from the too brilliant color sur- 

 rounding them. 



These canyons are the sources of the 

 water supply for the. valley vineyards 



