Bee Tongues

Much attention is now being devoted to discovering or breeding a strain of bees with tongues long enough to reach the nectar in the flower tubes of red clover. In 1900 the A. I. Root Company offered a prize for the bees having the longest tongues. This was awarded to Mr. J. P. Moore of Morgan, Ky., whose bees were found to have tongues measuring 23/100's of an inch in length . (Ordinary bees measure but 16/100.) This length of tongue enables the bees to secure nectar from most of the flower tubes of red clover, and thus to fill their hives with honey that common bees cannot reach.

from the Public Documents of Massachusetts, Annual Reports of various Public Officers and Institution for the Year 1904.