HOW HONEYBEES PRODUCE HONEYCOMB 



271 



yet 1 believe that the error makes no 

 practical difference. The manufactur- 

 ers of artificial comb ma}- have reason- 

 ed in this way: "If we examine the 

 middle division of a honeycomb, we 

 find that it is formed of the sides of 

 cubes. We will therefore mould our 

 sheets of wax with cubical indenta- 

 tions." But this comb foundation is 

 for the beginning, not the end nor the 

 middle. The bee starts with parts of 

 spheres and circles, and physical law- 

 only, not the bees, finishes with cubical 

 indentations. The bees ask for circles, 

 and you give them cubical depressions. 

 It is a plain example of getting the cart 

 theoretically before the horse. In the 

 production of comb foundation, circles 

 and spheres should come first in what 

 we supply to the honeybee in starter 

 sheets of wax. I assert, without hesi- 

 tation, that all comb foundations that 

 offer such cubical indentations are logi- 

 cally and theoretically wrong. 1 doubt 

 whether any so-called practical bee- 

 keeper will support this statement, but 

 I am confident that the manufacturers 

 will oppose it. Opposition cannot 

 change the facts in the case. / cheerfully 

 admit that practically the foundation as 



supplied by the manufacturers may be 

 even better than Jia,t sheets of circular 

 surface ridges. I am not discussing the 

 practical point, but the theoretical, the 

 purely scientific point. A thing theo- 

 retically right may be practically 

 wrong. Any bee-keeper may witness 

 an exemplification of this claim if he 





CIRCLES VIEWED THROUGH THE EYELASHES 

 WITH THE EVES PARTLY CLOSED BECOME 

 HEXAGONAL. 



Honeycomb, even after the bees have pressed the 

 cells, is sometimes not really so hexagonal as optical 

 illusion makes it seem. 



— Hopkins's "Experimental Science." 

 Munn & Company. 



ARCADIA APIARY WI 



i HAVE STUDIED IN RECENT YEARS. 



