54 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



like u.-ing the Moslem expression: 

 "Tabarak, Allah," (What a blessing, 

 Allah). Had it not been for the oc- 

 casional stings and the unpleasant 

 posture, I might have believed my- 

 self in the Paradise of Mahomet. 

 Think of those pretty girls and 

 their artistic conversation and that 

 stream of white honey! If we did 

 not have seven mules, we had at 

 least seven tubs of fine honey, all 

 evidently gathered from the numer- 

 ous basswood trees of the public 

 drives. An old Italian woman, who 

 transported the honey in a little 

 hand-cart, had some difficulty in 

 keeping all the recipients aboard, 

 and as she tried to straighten up one 

 of them, at the foot of the hill, she 

 touched with her finger a bee which 

 she thought dead. "Ah, la Carogna 

 e encora viva !" "Ah, the carrion is 

 still alive!" cried she, as she was 

 stung on the finger. 



We finally dipped out some of the 

 combs with a skimmer, but a shovel 

 would have been better, and we at 

 last left the balance because they 

 were too far. The swarms had been 

 there since the beginning of the 

 war, and one could see the 1914 

 combs of dark color, those of 1915 

 and 1916 of light brown, and the 1917 

 combs of immaculate white. I se- 

 cured about 12 combs of brood from 

 each swarm, and the ladies had a 

 long job straining the honey. 



As the Vestals were too numerous 

 to keep up the sacred fire properly, 

 the smoker was run very intermit- 

 tently and there were more stings 

 than there should have been had the 

 smoke been produced judiciously. 

 Then the bees were too numerous 

 and scattered over too large a space, 

 for they occupied over 9 feet each 

 way. 



The ladies promised to continue 

 the study of beekeeping, reading 

 good practical works and periodi- 

 cals. Although the evenings are short 

 in summer, eai h is anxious to dis- 

 cuss bees and to put her acquired 

 knowledge to the service' of "revic- 

 tuulling." If they only scatter a few- 

 hints among tluir friends and neigh- 

 bors, it will be just so much gain 

 for all. 



Beekeeping by the women, who do 

 so much work already, will help 

 bring the world back to its own. 

 1I<>\\ many brave women are seen to 

 sow, plow, harvest, haul the crops, 

 white the men have harder tasks! 

 No; beekeeping is not too difficult, 

 nor !<•" tiresome for women. With 

 a good smoker, halt of the work is 

 mastered. The other half will soon 

 i through good teachings. Be- 

 fore pi i bees, they 

 musl use good judgment, learn the 

 value of a colon}', how to hive or 

 transfer it with progressive and ju- 

 dii ii 'lis development. 



rheory and practice in right pro- 



s are absolutely necessary to 



succeed. The heavy tasks, such as 



hauling honey, may be done by oth- 



it we must not figure that all 



the honey ami then 



to take it away from them with a 

 good smoker. Wc must know the 



conditions and time of development, 

 the obstacles, the inclemencies of 

 the weather which retard or arrest 

 the cultivation, and all essential re- 

 quirements for success. 



Study the flora, to have an exact 

 idea of its yield. Many blossoms 

 yield little or no honey. 



Ladies, and you also, gentlemen. 

 go into the keeping of bees. You will 

 find a few spare hours which will 

 give you satisfactory results, if you 

 do not neglect them. If it is too late 

 for this year, try and have bees for a 

 crop next year. 



Notes On Honey Plants 



By L. H. Pammel 



Buckbrush or Indian Currant and 

 Snowberry 



Most beekeepers living in the re- 

 gion where grows the Indian currant, 

 coral-berry or buckbrush (Symphori- 

 carpos orbiculatus Moench), appreciate 

 the importance of this plant as a 

 honey-producing species. Two other 

 species of the genus Symphoricarpos 

 are well known as buckbrush. The 



BERRY AND LEAF OF THE CORAL- 

 BERRY. 



common wolfberry (Symphoricarpos 

 occidentalis) is the species so common 



tern Iowa, north to Minnesota 

 and North Dakota, south to Kansas 

 and east to Michigan. It is the most 

 common species in the Missouri river 

 basin and is very common on the 

 loess bluffs of the Missouri, where it 



rs the same purpose that the 

 hazel does in the north. The snow- 

 berry (S. ' which some- 

 what resembles the preceding, has 

 large white berries and is a striking 

 object in late summer and fall. There 

 are two varieties of this species. The 

 variety laevigattii has long been cult i - 

 : v is, however, less 

 distributed in nature than the 



II a bei rj i 'i i lie north 



has a wide distribution, 

 from Quebec to Alaska, Massachu- 



THE SNOWBERRY IN BLOOM. 

 (Photographed in the field.) 



setts, northern Minnesota, the Rocky 

 Mountains and California. The snow- 

 berry of Iowa furnishes a large 

 amount of excellent honey during the 

 summer. It remains in blossom for a 

 long time. The flowers of this spe- 

 cies are more conspicuous than those 

 of the coral-berry. The coral-berry 

 is native to Iowa, r.s far north as 

 Story county; along the Missouri 

 river it reaches farther north. South 

 Dakota is given in the manuals, but 

 I have my doubts about the species 

 extending very far into South Da- 

 kota. It is fairly common in the vi- 

 cinity of Council Bluffs and also in 

 Polk county. It blooms later than 

 the snowberry and where the two 

 species occur together there should 

 be continuous honey flow. The flow- 

 ers of the coral-berry are much 

 smaller than those of snowberry, 

 whitish and red with a slight rose 

 color. The cell-shaped corolla is 

 five-lobed with five stamens inserted 

 on the corolla between the lobes. 

 The nectar occurs in abundance on 

 the lower part of the corolla tube, 

 below the hairy style. The flowers 

 occur rather abundantly on the axils 

 of the leaves, pointing away from the 

 lower surface of the leaves. The bee 

 must enter the flower from below. 

 The honey is, therefore, not as easily 

 accessible as in some other flowers. 

 I have watched hoes for several 

 weeks gather the nectar from these 

 flowers. Although white clover was 

 in bloom, the bees seemed to prefer 

 the buckbrush or coral-berry in the 

 autumn. The coral-berry should be 

 valuable as a honey plant southward 

 to Texas. It is regarded as a weed 

 by many farmers in southern Iowa. 

 The strong, vigorous shoots of the 

 plant arc used for making baskets, 

 in Arkansas, where the country folk 

 make a unique basket of good qual- 

 itj Mr. Simmonds, the landscape 

 artist, is using this species to a con- 

 siderable extent as an ornamental 



