130 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Apri 



or '77 that I began to write for the 

 press. 



Some time in 1877, when a student 

 of the University of California, I re- 

 ceived a clipping from a Los Angeles 

 paper asserting that the flowers of 

 a certain variety of Eucalyptus in or 

 near that city were so poisonous to 

 bees that thousands of them were 

 found dead beneath the branches of 

 the tree. The said clipping was re- 

 ferred to me by Mr. E. J. Wickson, 

 the editor of the Pacific Rural Press. 

 a gentleman who shortly afterward 

 became one of the professors of the 

 University of California, and who is, 

 I believe, still connected with the 

 Agricultural Department of the Uni- 

 versity. I was asked to write what I 

 knew upon the matter. My reply 

 was that I had never known bees be- 

 ing injured by quaffing the nectar of 

 any variety of the tree in question; 

 that I never saw any bees that were 

 destroyed by gathering nectar or 

 pollen from any tree or plant what- 

 ever. 



The Los Angeles paper, through its 

 correspondent, N. Levering, still per- 

 sisted that bees were killed by such 

 nectar, at least, by this particular 

 tree. However, some forty years 

 have since passed and the Eucalypti 

 "tribe" are considered the most valu- 

 able honey-secreting trees intro- 

 duced into California; they still fill 

 a void that would otherwise be large- 

 ly nectarless, thus keeping many a 

 colony from starving during Novem- 

 ber and the winter months. 

 The Yucca 



Upon the mountains and in some 

 of the desert places through the 

 lower or southern counties of Cali- 

 fornia, one meets the Yucca (Hes- 

 peroyucca whipplei) and at times speci- 

 mens thereof are pretty and interest- 

 ing, especially when they are in 

 bloom, usually during June and July. 

 Besides its native haunts, it may be 

 occasionally seen in public parks and 

 gardens in various portions of the 

 State. The nectar is attractive to 

 bees and, where it grows numerously, 

 a good grade of light honey is se- 

 cured from it. Something over a 

 quarter of a century ago, the late W. 

 W. Bliss, of Durate. Los Angeles 



County, made a bee-brush from the 

 leaf of this plant by securing a quan- 

 tity of the fiber attached to the 

 trunk. It made a soft fan-shaped 

 brush that had some sale for a few 

 years. 



To call a plant out of its estab- 

 lished botanical name, even if such 

 name is a long one and hard to re- 

 member, is to give it a vulgar name, 

 and the Yucca has many. It might ' 

 appear to the casual reader irrever- 

 ent to say "Our Lord's Candle," "Ro- 

 man Candle," or "Mountain Queen" 

 are "vulgar," but to these can be ad- 

 ded "Spanish Bayonet" and "Spanish 

 Dagger," which rather strongly con- 

 trast with the former. There are 

 about a dozen species growing in the 

 southwestern portion of the United 

 States, and in adjacent Mexico. 



Very recently it has been reported 



that this plant is now used to make 

 brooms. Another species is being 

 manufactured into surgical splints. 

 And also it is being experimented 

 with in the making of artificial limbs. 



The clump of Yuccas here illus- 

 trated I photographed one excessive- 

 ly hot day in July, 1915, when with 

 my wife I was motoring toward Los 

 Angeles. It is a true yucca (Y. arbor- 

 cscens) and is commonlv called Tree 

 Yucca and Palm Yucca. We had left 

 the mountainous ranges where the 

 first-mentioned genus abounds, and 

 after passing a small place called 

 Fairmont, a sort of oasis on the edge 

 of the Mojave desert, we traveled 

 for some distance along a stretch of 

 dry, sandy soil on which grew little 

 other than scrubby brush, cactus and 

 Yuccas. 



Oakland, Calif. 



'Beedowv-/ 

 'Boiled DowiO 



A Pound of Bees Not Enough 



I differ with Dr. Miller on the 

 fourth question asked by Washing- 

 ton, in January number. A pound of 

 bees supposed to contain 5,000 bees, 

 say one-fourth remain in the hive as 

 nurse bees, that would allow a good 

 queen to do only one-fourth of her 

 duty. A queen worth keeping will fill 

 a comb with eggs in a day. It will be 

 21 days before more nurses can 

 emerge, and as some bees are lost 

 every day, less than two pounds, or, 

 better, three pounds, is sufficient to 

 build up a colony readily in the cool 

 r of spring. 



M. F. PERRY, 

 Bradentown, Fla. 



jobs about the apiary done, I find the 

 memory joggers just the thing. 



At your printing office get some 

 bright colored cardboard and have it 

 cut into squares two and a half 

 inches each way. Punch a small hole 

 in the corner of each card. With a 

 piece of string tie each card to a 

 two-inch harness ring. Carry a few 

 of these in the tool basket and when 

 a colony needs attention make a note 

 on one of the red flags with date 

 when colony will need attention. 

 Thus: 5-7, examine brood; 6-11, 

 swarm due, etc. Slip the ring under 

 hive cover, letting the red flag dan- 

 gle at front of hive. They are con- 

 spicuous, convenient and facilitate 

 prompt work. 



Memory Joggers 



A record book with notes giving a 

 brief record of each colony is almost 

 a necessity. As an aid to getting odd 



Wrapping Hives for Outside Win- 

 tering 



When it is desired to wrap hives 

 for outside wintering it is unneces- 

 sary to use building, roofing or other 

 expensive paper. Use newspapers 

 for all except the outside layer, 

 which should be a fair quality of 

 wrapping paper, such as the mer- 

 chants buy in rolls for wrapping 

 goods. This can be bought in almost 

 any desired width. After all is in 

 place tie down firmly and with a 

 paint brush give a coat of the fol- 

 lowing mixture: kerosene oil, two 

 parts, and raw linseed oil, one part. 

 This will waterproof the paper so 

 thoroughly that it will stand expos- 

 ure to rain and sun for a year or two. 

 L. A. GREELEY, 

 Morenci, Mich. 



Uniting Weak Colonies 



For uniting weak colonies I make 

 a division board of strips that fit 

 tightly to the bottom board as well 

 as the ends, and even with top of 

 hive. Both sides of the skeleton 

 frame are covered with wire cloth 



