FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 243 



they will be needed. Are we not likely to have a horse famine, with 

 prices soaring away up in the "ethereal blue?" Don't be caught empty 

 handed, get ready, save the breeding stock, mate judiciously, lay anew 

 the foundations of this great industry, and you shall have your reward. 



1 have tried to present the claim of the horse to the gratitude of the 

 world; to revive hope in your hearts as to his future; to say something 

 that might do you good. 



In conclusion, I thank you for your attention. If we never meet again 

 in this world, I suppose if you ever think of me at all, it will be to asso- 

 ciate me in your memories with the horse. That's all right. I always 

 did aspire to move in the best society. I long ago ceased to look upon 

 the horse as a poor soulless brute, but rather as an unfortunate undevel- 

 oped brother. Are we not all children of the same Great Father? Are 

 we not all built on the same general plan, with the same five senses, with 

 like organs of respiration, circulation, digestion, secretion and genera- 

 tion? Has not the horse a brain that thinks and reasons, not as the 

 developed brain of enlightened man does, but in its rude elementary way 

 does it not reason? Is not that brain the seat of the imperial will that 

 controls every movement of his body as man's will controls the human 

 body? By what analogy then can we reach the conclusion that he has 

 not an immortal soul? 



My friends, if we will all of us labor as patiently, faithfully and cheer- 

 fully for our fellowmen as the horse has done through long ages of the 

 past, this world will be a better and a happier place to live in than it is 

 today. 



A TALK ON THE HONEY BEE AND BEE-KEEPING. 



R. L. TAYLOR, LAPEER. 



In order to interest those who do not keep bees as well as those 

 who do, I attempt to speak in a popular way of the inmates of the hive, 

 and their works and ways. The invention of a practical movable comb 

 forty years ago made the study of the mysteries of the hive so easy that 

 any one who is interested may look into them without difficulty. 



As with other animals, bees are male and female, but unlike most 

 others there are two classes of female bees, workers and queens. The 

 male bee is called a drone. In a normal colony, the workers are always 

 much the most numerous, varying in good colonies according to the sea- 

 son from ten thousand to seventy-five thousand. They are made to vary 

 from queens by the manner in which they are reared. A cramped cradle 

 and scanty feeding prevents their full development, so that ordinarily 

 their reproductive organs are entirely unfitted for their proper use, but 

 instead their eyes, tongues, jaws, honey-bag, glands, legs, etc., are won- 

 derfully fitted to enable them to gather material and perform all the 

 work of the hive. This is their sphere and these labors are performed 

 by them alone. When the hive contains young and old workers, those 

 from ten to fifteen days old and under do the work inside the hi^e, and 

 those older the field work. The field work consists of the gathering of 

 nectar for honey, pitchy material for bee glue, pollen for bee bread, and, 



