584 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



river and on the little plats of corn in that great San Joaquin valley in 

 California. On a hunting trip in that state, some forty miles from the 

 nearest habitation, I visited a goat ranch where Angora goats are grown 

 for mutton, and at a spring in a little garden of perhaps a quarter of an 

 acre were a few hills of sweet corn, what was my surprise to find the 

 roots of the corn almost entirely eaten away. In conversation with the 

 owner he told me that in that pax'ticular corner of the garden (it was on 

 a mountain side) the afternoon sun beamed in and it had been his cus- 

 tom for a number of years to plant to early vegetables and then later on 

 in June or July to plant to sweet-corn. So that accounted for the pres- 

 ence of the worms. On my return home I saw the effects of this worm 

 on the corn in Texas within a few miles of the borders of Old Mexico. 

 I saw where they had worked on the kaffer corn in New Mexico and 

 Oklahoma and on the flattened fields in Kansas and Missouri, all testify- 

 ing to his universal presence. 



BEES, CULTURE AND DO THEY PAY. 

 A. L. Hyzer. Before Buena Vista County Farmers' Institute. 



The bee from its singular instincts, its activity, its industry, and its 

 useful products resulting from its labors, has from the remotest times 

 attracted general attention and interest. No nation upon earth has had 

 so many historians as this remarkable class of insects. 



The patience and sagacity of the naturalist have ihad an ample field for 

 exercise in the study of the structure, physiology and domestic economy 

 of bees. Their preservation and increase have been subjects of assiduous 

 care to the agriculturist, and their reputed perfection of policy and gov- 

 ernment have long been the theme of admiration and have supplied 

 copious materials for argument and allusion to the poet and the moralist 

 in every stage. 



A very great number of authors have written express treatises on 

 bees, periodical works have been published relating exclusively to their 

 management and economy, and learned societies have been established 

 for the sole purpose of conducting researches on this subject. 



The history of the opinion of successive writers sufficiently prove how 

 gradual and slow has been the growth of an accurate knowledge of these 

 Insects, what is now known being the result of persevering labors of ages. 



The accumulations of curious and interesting facts, indeed, which has 

 accrued from the researches of such apiarians as Miller and Root of 

 modern times, Langstroth of less modern, Huber and Von Seibold of an- 

 cient times, who are considered among the greatest bee scientists of the 

 "world. 



Bees stand in organization and intelligence and in social and con- 

 structive ability at the head of the whole insect tribe; they abound in 

 all parts of tfie world, but are more numerous in warmer latitudes. About 

 5,000 species are known to exist. They exert a most important influence 

 upon the vegetable world by their service in the cross polinization of 

 plants, some of which now depend wholly upon their co-operation for their 



