232 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



up to the present time. I have cut down 

 trees, and climbed trees, and of late, my 

 son climbs trees, and brings down the 

 twigs and branches for me to examine 

 carefully with a glass. I have thus care- 

 fully examined box-elder, hickorv, oak, 

 aspen, willow, fir, plum, etc., from which 

 bees were gathering this dew, and I have 

 invariably found the aphides at, or near, 

 if not tke source from which bees get 

 this juice. 



There is no question about the origin 

 of this juice. What interests us bee- 

 keepers, is to know whether bees gather 

 this sap direct, that is, from trees after 

 they (the trees) have had the nose bleed; 

 or has the plant louse punctured the 

 tender plant, sucked the sap, and then 

 rejected the sweet portion which our bees 

 gather ? I have never noticed it, yet it 

 is possible that "plants under certain 

 atmospheric conditions exude a sweet 

 juice from the surface of their leaves." 

 If so, it would undoubtedly attract in- 

 sects; but when Mr. McKnight says, 

 "Plant lice delight to revel in this nectar" 

 (see page 133) he gives himself away 

 "like plenty of others that have seen 

 honey-dew, where no aphides were." 

 He apparently does not know where to 

 look for them. 



I have examined many different kinds 

 of aphides, and have an idea that each 

 plant has its own parasite, but I have 

 never seen the:n "revel in the nectar on 

 the surface of the leaves." I always 

 find them feeding from punctures of the 

 most tender .stems of leaves that are yet 

 covered with fuzz or hairs, and undevel- 

 oped; while the so-called honey-dew is 

 noticed by casual observers, only after it 

 has absorbed enough moisture to run and 

 spread over the smooth leaves. 



Now let me give a " scientific explana- 

 tion," then it will be seen why so many, 

 who are otherwise close observers, jump 

 at the wrong conclusion in this case. 



This spray, as ejected by the aphides, 

 is so fine that a slight breeze will carry it 

 quite a distance. It sticks to anything 

 with which it comes iu contact, and ab- 



sorbs moisture to such an extent that a 

 small particle will spread over a large 

 surface, and still still leave a iilm when it 

 dries. A single drop may start near the 

 top of a tree, and drip frotn one leaf to 

 the other, while wet, and leave a gloss on 

 each leaf. 



S.\v.\NNA, 111., May 29, 1899. 



A WAX-PRESS. 



It is used liy Mr. Ferris, and he tells With 

 What Kesulis. 



C. G. FERRIS. 



BEAR Mr. Hutchinson: As request- 

 ed by you some time ago, I have 

 been making experiments in pressing the 

 refuse from my extractors. You .say tliat 

 I ought to have a Gemmill press, yet the 

 one used is made on the same principle as 

 that laid down by Mr. Gemmill. In 

 some points it is stronger, as it breaks 

 strong new sacking. In this test no ex- 

 tra care was taken, and it is one that can 

 be repeated every day. I wish to try 

 and bring the percentage down in my 

 next trial; which I am confident I can do 

 by using a larger extractor. By carefully 

 pressing the refuse that had been thrown 

 awa\- from last year's work with a single- 

 basket extractor in steaming out 150 lbs. 

 of wax from uncappings, and about 50 

 lbs. from old comb that was the clippings 

 of transferring, I secured i>^ lbs. of wax. 

 This was a surprise tome, as I have stout- 

 ly maintained that I did not believe a 

 stream could be started, yet it proves my 

 belief that I could get 99 per cent of the 

 wax \\'\\\\o\x1 flooding . 



In regard to the time spent in getting 

 this pound and a half of wax I would say 

 that two good hours were used up in 

 scraping the particles and getting them 

 in shape, besides there was a great amount 

 of fussing, } et the fact remains that I 

 secured this amount. 



