MANUAL OP THE APIARY. 219 



willows, which they often entirely cover, and thus greatly dam- 

 age -another tree valuable for both honey and pollen. Were it 

 not that they seldom are so numerous two years in succession, 

 they would certainly banish from among us one of our most 

 ornamental and valuable honey-producing trees. These are 

 fairly thronged in September and October, and not unfre- 

 quently in spring and summer if the lice are abundant, by 

 bees, wasps, ants, and various two-winged flies, all eager to lap 

 up the oozing sweets. This louse is doubtless the Lachnus 

 dentatus, of Le Baron, and the Aphis salicti, of Harris. 



Bees also get, in some regions, a sort of honey-dew, 

 which enables them to add to their stores with surprising 

 rapidity. I remember one morning while riding on horse- 

 back along the Sacramento river, in California, I broke 

 off a willow twig beside the road when, to my surprise, 

 I found it was fairly decked with drops of honey. Upon 

 further examination I found the willow foliage was abun- 

 dantly sprinkled by these delicious drops. These shrubs 

 were undisturbed by insects, nor were they under trees. 

 Here then was a real case of honey-dew, which must have 

 been distilled through the night by the leaves. I never saw 

 any such phenomenon in Michigan, yet others have. Dr. A. 

 H. Atkins, an accurate and conscientious observer, has noted 

 this honey-dew more than once here in Central Michigan. 



Bees also get some honey from oozing sap, some of question- 

 able repute from aboiit cider mills, some from grapes and 

 other fruit which have been crushed, or eaten and torn by 

 wasps and other insects. That bees ever tear the grapes is a 

 question of which I have failed to receive any personal proof, 

 though for years I have been carefully seeking it. I have 

 lived among the vineyards of California, and have often 

 watched bees about vines in Michigan, but never saw bees 

 tear open the grapes. I have laid crushed grapes in the 

 apiary, when the bees were not gathering, and were ravenous 

 for stores, which, when covered with sipping bees, were 

 replaced with sound grape-clusters, which in no instance were 

 mutilated. I have thus been led to doubt if bees ever attack 

 sound grapes, though quick to improve the opportunities 

 which the oriole's beak and the stronger jaws of wasps offer 

 them. Still, Prof. Biley feels sure that bees are sometimes 



