El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-16

of the proper age, they will not usual
~ take up this work until about two
weeks old.
The first load of pollen is to a youn g
bee just about what the first pair OF
pants is to a boy baby.
Instead of going straight into the
hive with its load, as the veterans do,
q vast amount of circling round the
entrance must be done; and even aft
err the young bee has once alighted 1T
takes wing again before rushing all
through the hive, to jostle nurses,
drones, and perhaps the queen. too,
saying as plainly as could words,
Look, Here am l. I gathered this,
all myself Is 1t not nice?"
Shortly following the impulse for pol
len collecting comes that for honey
gathering, and the bee is probably in
its prime as worker when a month
old.
Bees Do Not Injure Sound Fruit.
Every now and then we hear COM
plants of how bees will attack and eat
up fruit; and, to a casual observer, at
least. they apparently do bite through
the skin and extract the juices until
the specimen is shriveIed up to a mere
semblance Of it's former shape and size.
Careful investigation has shown re-
peatedly that bees never attack sound
fruit. no matter how soft the skin nor
how juicy and pulpy the contents with
in the skin.
The authors have had, during the
past 80 years, between 800 and 400
colonies located in vineyard at their
home apiary Notwithstanding hun
dreds and hundreds of pounds of
grapes are raised every year, the
punches hanging within three or four
feet. OF the entrance of the hives, the
sound fruit is never attacked. but dur
ing a dearth of honey, a broken or
otherwise bruised bunch of grapes will
occasionally be visited by a few bees.
The writer Of this article has attend
ed various horticultural and pomologf-
- hot ~of md 1o1
Among the progressive fruit growers
and horticulturists there is a general
acknOwledg ment that bees do not at
tack sound fruit; that the little dam
age they do to damaged fruit is COM
pensated for a hundred times over by
the indispensable service they perform
in pollinating fruit blossoms early in
the season, when no other insects or
Indeed, some of our best fruit growers
are now keeping a few hives Of bees
in each of their orchards. Often they
invite bee keepers to locate yards Of
bees either In the orchards or as near
as 1t is practicable to put them
Breeding Bees for Varieties.
In the breeding of domestic animals
it is possible to mate together a choice
male and q choice female. Much could
be accomplished in the way Of i'm
proved stock If we could also control
the male parentage Of bees, and we do
not know but that fn-breeding. accord
ing to modern methods now known in
stock raising, might secure for US a
race Of bees greatly superior to any
thing We now know.
Just at present it seems very de-
sirable that bees with longer tongues
be bred. so that the nectar in the deep
corollatubes of red clover, in the horse
mint Of Texas and the mountain sages
OF California as well as hundreds of
other flowers, could be reached Tons
and tons Of honey might thus be Sc
cured that otherwise goes to waste
Bee keeping is one of the best OF
the life saving, nerve healing avoca-
lions. 1t takes the mind from house
hold cares as completely as would a
trip to Europe, for one cannot work
with bees and think Of anything else.