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the Mexican vanila is attributed to these melipona because of this ability to work when other insects will not. The very slightest increase of the seed or fruit of any of our great crops will more than justify their introduction.

The honey production of the melipona at the present is of no great importance. The large melipona illustrated has been reported to yield as much as eight quarts at one extracting. The smaller melipona of Cuba gives only a few pints a year. The honey is of a light amber color, light in body, but of a very pleasant flavor. This honey is esteemed by the native Cubans as a remedy of great value, and finds ready sale at good prices for this purpose. While the yield is not yet of much importance, the yield of the mellifera under similar circumstances is not much greater. The surplus of the honey-bee in an old log or box hive can scarcely be counted as of commercial importance. Who would not say that, after the study and work that has been bestowed on the mellifera has been placed on the melipona, the yield of the melipona would not increase as has that of the honey-bee? Surely

Fig. 8.-Honey-bee-Worker.

there is a chance of improving this stingless bee to a great extent. True, the method of storing honey is radically different between the bees; but do not the great honey-cups of the melipona offer the ingenious inventor a chance upon which to improve his talent? Again, it is true that this melipona has not been wintered successfully in the North; but it is possible that, when we learn their habits better, we may be able to do this. At present Florida and California seem to be the only places outside of our island possessions in which these bees can be kept the year round, though it is entirely possible that they can be wintered in some other favored regions where the winters are mild.

"But," you ask, "can this stingless bee defend itself against the bee armed with a fatal sting or any other enemy?" I think it can. They are remarkably quick in action. The honey-bee is slow and clumsy compared with them. Then they build their nests and guard them so that it is next to impossible for the honey-bee to enter. If we can induce them to live in hives with wide entrances, no doubt a honey-bee-excluding zinc built for this special purpose can be devised. When

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these bees are once angered they make an attack with all fury. Their lightning-like sallies are certain to scare one, as the painful stings of the mellifera under such conditions are surely remembered. The bite of the melipona is not painful; in fact, they can not cut the tenderest skin; but they pinch and cling with the tenacity of a bulldog, and do not hesitate to attack anything. However, these bees are not easily aroused, and attack only when their nest is broken. They are, indeed, extremely docile.

One strange thing about the melipona is that the bee-men have failed to discover drones in the nest. All of the family Apida have what corresponds to the queen, drone, and worker of the honey-bee, so the stingless bee can be no exception. However, the life habits of the different genera are not alike in many details. The drones of some of the varieties of the melipona are reared at long intervals under some special conditions. The drone of this large melipona no doubt exists, but has so far escaped the notice of the beekeeping fraternity. Only long scientific investigation can probably clear this point. Another strange thing is about swarms. Like drones, these melipona seem to be nonswarming. But how do they increase? The natives know enough to increase them by simply dividing; but how they increase naturally still remains for the patient investigator, and he will doubtless bring to light some interesting facts.

Their

con

The nests of the melipona are radically different from those of the mellifera. construction seems to be something of a hybrid between the honey-bee and the bumblebee. The color of the brood-comb is something like that of the bumble-bee, being light brown in color, tough and fibrous. The combs are built in parallel tiers held apart by columns of wax. The cells are structed of a shape similar to that of the mellifera, but in only one layer, like that of a wasp, and not in double sets with a common base as with the honey-bee. The honey and pollen are not stored in the broodcombs, but separately in large egg-shaped cells scattered along the edges of the brood. These cells are quite large, and hold considerable quantities of honey or pollen. The brood-rearing of the melipona, too, is different from that of the mellifera. The broodcell is first filled with a mixture of honey and pollen, then the egg is laid on top of this mass, and the cell is sealed. The necessity of this is seen by the shape of the abdomen of the melipona queen, which would not allow of the laying of the egg in the bottom of the cells as in the case of the mellifera. As to the time taken to develop a perfect worker or queen I can not say, this being another point that remains to be investigated.

It is a self-evident fact that a stingless bee would be of untold value providing its honey-gathering capacities were as good as those of the mellifera. Burbank has bred

the spine from the cacti, and will in time make the desert blossom as the rose. The man who breeds the sting from the bee will make the air hum with bees where no bee flew before.

The large melipona which I have illustrated is one of a great genus found in Mexico south to Argentina. A large melipona was domesticated by that great nation of Incas of South America long centuries before the Spanish Conquest. It may be that we shall find a bee more highly developed than the one we now have, in the little-known central Andes region, where this ancient civilization made its home. I am doubtless optimistic regarding these melipona. Many consider them absolutely worthless as a commercial asset. I accord them but little value as yet.

Some others of them are large enough to receive attention from the bee-keeper. The small stingless bee found commonly in Cuba is the most familiar. Reports come from Mexico of a large green bee and another black bee. From South America comes the report of a white bee. I have yet to obtain authentic information regarding these. Some hope to find a still larger bee than is now known, and there is no reason why such should not exist. The fact is, the genus is comparatively unknown. Indeed, such scientific data have been gathered, but it is very scattered, and would take months of labor and waiting to present in form to the beekeeper such as would be of interest and value.

I am indebted to Mr. W. K. Morrison, of Porto Rico, for the specimens of the large melipona reproduced here. Mr. Morrison deserves much praise for the discovery of this large melipona, which to date is the best of its kind known. He obtained these bees only after long waiting and a considerable personal risk. I am also indebted to Prof. J. S. Hine, of the Ohio State University, for aid in making the micro-photos and for information on this subject.

ALEXANDER'S APIARY; THE MAN, THE LOCATION, THE METHOD.

The Observations Made During a Visit Taken in the Interest of Gleanings.

BY D. EVERETT LYON, PH.D.

Until a year or two ago it was unknown to the bee-keeping world that the largest apiary in the United States is located at Delanson, N. Y., and that its owner is E. W. Alexander.

Most of us had learned to look upon California and Colorado as the land of big things, especially in the line of apiaries; but we awakened one morning to the fact that the largest apiary located in one yard is that of E. W. Alexander. We learned that in his home yard were 750 colonies, and that last

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year his crop of honey, all extracted, was 70,780 lbs.

While we did not doubt Mr. Alexander's statement of facts for an instant, yet we felt it would be a source of great interest to the readers of GLEANINGS to have a visit made to this colossal apiary, and an account given of the man, his location, and his method. The writer was, therefore, sent by the editor of GLEANINGS to give a write-up of this marvelous project, and I can truly say the sight was wonderful. The roar of those 750 colonies as their field bees went and came is simply indescribable.

Delanson is located about 30 miles west of Albany, about half way between Albany and Cherry Valley, in the midst of the buckwheat section of New York, and a finer landscape is hard to find.

Mr. Alexander's home is about a mile out of town, and nestles against the hillside, from which a glorious view can be had of the surrounding country and of the village of Delanson, nestling in the valley. The Alexander home is on a farm of some 130 acres; but as its owner devotes his whole time to his bees the farm is mostly sown to grass, and produces some 200 tons of hay a year.

Brother Alexander himself is, I should say, about 60 years of age, so far as the years go, but has in him a youthful heart.

One has but, like the writer, to spend a few days beneath his hospitable roof to learn that he is fully abreast of the times in the field of apiculture. The secret of his success is found in his statement to the writer, namely, that he would be willing to sacrifice a whole year's yield of honey to carry through some experiment that would help him in the future..

Another element of his success is in the fact that he is a lover of bees, and takes real pleasure in working among them.

E. W. Alexander has been a bee-keeper ever since he was eight years of age, and we were very much entertained as well as amused by his description of how he used to do things in those days. So that from boyhood Mr. Alexander has been a bee-keeper; and so modest has he been of his success that, though he has been doing things on a gigantic scale for years, it remained for others to discover him, and that at a very recent date.

Mr. Alexander's home is one of refinement, and pervaded by a fine religious atmosphere, and presided over by Mrs. Alexander, one of the noblest of women, with a big motherly heart-one of the kind of women who make you feel you are a better man for having met them.

From the bee business Mr. Alexander has been able to start his sons in other lines of business, and he and his wife have lived to see them all do well. In fact, our friend stated to me that it was a source of great comfort that all of their children had turned out well, and had never caused them shame or heartache. Happy the parent who can say likewise; and it is all due to the atmosphere

of that home, and the example of a godly father and a devoted mother.

For the last two or three years Mr. Alexander has had in partnership his son Frank, a noble fellow, and a natural-born bee-keeper -a worthy son of a worthy sire, who, happily married, lives with his wife and two children down in the village. So much for the man; now a few words regarding

THE LOCATION.

Mr. Alexander has been particularly fortunate in this respect; and but for this it would not be possible for him to keep in one yard so large a number of colonies. This part of New York was, years ago, the scene of many a bloody battle between the Indians constituting the Five Nations, and the other tribes from the West; and history records the massacre of the whites at both Cherry Valley and Schenectady. But now for nearly 200 years this country has been given up to husbanding; and, because of the peculiar adaptation of the soil, buckwheat is a staple annual crop.

For 200 years or more this has been a big and staple crop; and for miles around, at time of bloom, the mountains seem covered with virgin snow. I timed my visit to be there at buckwheat bloom, and the sight was well worth the trip. The buckwheat comes into bloom about the last of July, and thus continues until about the 10th of September, and forms the main crop of honey. The main honey-flow, coming as it does so late in the season, gives Mr. Alexander a fine chance to have his colonies all built up strong for the flow-a condition which would not be always possible where the flow is in June or even July.

There must be at least 5000 acres of buckwheat within range of his bees; and the threshing-machine men say that, as soon as they begin to get within the zone visited by the bees, the buckwheat crop is better in quality and quantity, showing that the bees are benefactors to the surrounding farmers as fertilizers of the buckwheat blossom. And this is a fact overlooked by many bee-keepers; namely, that the sole mission of the bee is to fructify the honey that it stores. Goldenrod also grows in the greatest profusion, and Mr. Alexander believes it gives him as much honey as buckwheat. I know from tasting a sample that its presence in buckwheat greatly improves it.

Like all country districts there is some sweet and white clover, also basswood; and a crop of honey is often harvested from these before the buckwheat bloom comes on; but nevertheless the buckwheat crop is the main one and one that seldom fails.

It would hardly be fair to leave the matter of location without stating that it would be the height of folly to say nothing of the violation of ethical principles for other beekeepers to start up near our friend.

I personally do not believe that the country will support any more bees than are there; and as our friend has pre-empted the terri

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FRANK ALEXANDER (SON OF E. w.). "These are nice warm gloves."

himself and his son Frank, our friend had two other expert assistants, and the quartette was kept on the jump all of the time. The bees are wintered in the cellar of the dwelling; but this year Mr. Alexander is

colonies as need it are fed for brood-rearing, and requeening is practiced when necessary.

The honey is extracted when ripe, and runs from the extracting-house through a twoinch iron pipe to big storage-tanks holding

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