428 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



thirty-five drone cells in the same space. The queen cells are hung ou 

 the edges of the comb with the mouth or opening downward. They re- 

 semble a large peanut in shape. Any egg that will produce a worker bee 

 will produce a queen if the bees feed the larva the proper amount and 

 kind of food and change the shape and size of the cell to accommodate 

 her extra size 



The drones are the male bees and have no sting, produce no honey, 

 secrete no wax, and do no other work in or out of the hive, but spend the 

 whole time in gluttony and idleness. Healthy colonies usually destroy 

 the drones when food becomes scarce. How wonderful the instinct that 

 impels the workers to persecute and destroy those members of the colony 

 which are no longer of service. 



The time necessary for the transformation from egg to winged insect 

 is sixteen days for the queen, twenty-one for the workers, and twenty- 

 four for the drones. The queen lives about three years but may live five. 

 The workers live thirty-five to forty days in the summer and from fall to 

 spring. The drones live no longer than the season and are likely to be 

 killed at any time. 



WHY ARE LANDS ADVANCING IN THE WEST AND DECLINING IN 



THE EAST. 



Wallaces' Farmer. 

 The fact that farm lands generally as far west as central Ohio are re- 

 maining stationary, or declining in value and sell in a great many cases 

 at about one-half the price of twenty years ago, is a very great surprise to 

 most western farmers and we are often asked why it is. It is important 

 for the farmer to know the reasons for the decline in lands over large areas 

 and their advance in other large areas in order that he may know how to 

 shape himself to the ever changing conditions. We do not presume to be 

 able to give all these reasons or to solve what is confessedly a surpris- 

 ingly difficult problem, but we think we can throw some light on the 

 situation. 



Undoubtedly the first cause of the great decline in prices east of central 

 Ohio is the opening up of the large comparatively level virgin areas in the 

 states of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, parts of Minnesota, 

 North and South Dakota, and Missouri. The extension of the great net 

 work of railroads through these level, fertile, timberless lands has enabled 

 their owners to produce all kinds of grain and live stock and lay them 

 down in the centers of consumption in the east cheaper than the farmers 

 in the eastern sections can afford to produce them. The reduction of 

 railway freights has thus been to the advantage to the eastern consumer 

 and the western producer and a great disadvantage to the eastern pro- 

 ducer of farm products. We think there will be no difference of opinion on 

 this point. It is not, however, the really vital point in the problem. 



