No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 327 



PROF. SURFACE: Of honey to one pound of wax? 



MR. BARCLAY: Yes; the comb often has other uses besides 

 the use of wax. 



A Member: How are the women to use the smoker according to 

 Barclay's patent method? 



MR. BARCLAY: I hardly know how to answer that question 

 unless they wear bloomers; they might have a hook in front of the 

 dress; I don't know whether that would be practicable. 



QUESTION: ''Would a loose sting give any venom?" 



MR. BARCLAY: That depends very much on how old the sting 

 is. The sting will, in time, dry up, so as to have no reflex nervous 

 action in it; within a few hours it would probably sting. 



QUESTION: "Does the bee-keeper become immune to the effects 

 of stings?" 



MR. BARCLAY: He becomes immune to the extent that there 

 is no swelling for a few moments after the sting is received, but 

 at the time the sting is received it hurts just as much, whether you 

 have been stung for forty years as it does the first time, but the 

 after-effects are not so severe. 



QUESTION: "Can you give us any information about bee-stings 

 as a cure for rheumatism?" 



MR. BARCLAY: I never had rheumatism, but I had some testi- 

 mony on that point only last Friday from a man who has been keep- 

 ing bees for a long time who has been troubled with rheumatism. 

 In his experience^ bee-stings have not seemed to increase or to 

 diminish the rheumatism any. 



QUESTION: "In what manner do you ascertain how the bees lay 

 six eggs per minute?" 



MR. BARCLAY: Prof. Foltz says he has watched them lay at 

 that rate for hours. 



QUESTION: "How many eggs will one queen lay, and how is this 

 known?" 



MR. BARCLAY: As I have said, they will greatly increase from 

 about the 15th of February .on an average until, say, the 20th of 

 June, then greatly decrease until about the 1st of October and that 

 would probably make our average considerably less than 500 eggs 



