176 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
inside post, forming a brace on each side of each post at intervals of 7 feet, and form- 
ing the bearings for the wire-covered frames which cover the top of thecage. The 
space from the ground to the first girder, 5 feet, is covered with matched lumber 
nailed to the outside of the posts, leaving a smooth surface on both sides. The upper 
21 feet on the sides and the top of the cage is inclosed by wire-covered frames 7 feet 
square, bolted to the girders on the sides and securely fastened with screws to the 
frame-work at the top. The height of the cage is thus adjustable at 26 feet, 19 feet, 
or 12 feet from the ground by simply lowering the screen frames forming the top, 
and the upper row (or two upper rows as the case may be) forming the sides of the 
inclosure, the purpose being not only to determine whether queens or drones would 
mate in this cage at fuil size, but also how small an inclosure would be sufficiently 
large to give suitable freedom and range of flight. 
These wire-covered frames are framed like a two-light window-sash, with a mul- 
lion in the center, on which the two breadths of wire-cloth meet. Strips of wood 
secure the edges of the cloth and cover all joints at the sides of the frames. With 
the lower board of the siding settled into the ground and earth filled against the 
inside and the door tight-fitting the cage is bee-tight. I used drab-colored wire 
cloth, which obstructs the light but very slightly. A shelf is fitted against the four 
sides of the cage on the inside 1 foot from the ground and alighting boards di- 
rectly opposite on the outside. Upon this shelf the hives are placed. Each hive 
has an exit cut in either end and an exit is cut through the wall of the cage regis- 
tering with the outer exit of each hive, over which, on the outside of the wall, a 
piece of queen-excluding zinc is nailed. These hives are painted strikingly distin- 
guishing colors, as red, white, blue, green, yellow, and black, and a space opposite 
each on the alighting boards and a corresponding space_on the outside of the wall 
of the cage are painted in corresponding colors. The colors are repeated in the or- 
der named, which separates the hives of the same color a sufficient distance to pre- 
vent confusion, and bees and queens readily distinguish their own hive by means of 
color as readily as by location. If the inner exit be left closed for a day or two 
after a colony is placed in a cage the worker bees readily learn to enter their own 
hive upon returning from the fields. I found that the queens had no difficulty on 
returning to their own hives after taking flight in the cage. To test that fact I fre- 
quently opened a number of hives in succession and placing the queens upon the 
palm of my hand tossed them high in the air, when they would take wing and fly 
away. Upon re-opening the hives a few minutes later they would be found upon 
the combs. The queens and drones appeared to fly and disport themselves with as 
much freedom and regularity in the cage as they did in the apiary outside. The 
virgin queens -were introduced from the nursery by various methods. Some were 
hatched in colonies in the cage from cells matured in strong queenless colonies and 
some from cells built under the swarming impulse, which this season could be pro- 
duced by artificial means only. Mature drones were selected from the hives in the 
apiary and also from those returning from their excursions and liberated in the 
cage, and sealed drone-brood was removed from hives in the apiary and hatched in 
strong colonies built up in large hives in the cage, and these drones all flew with 
freedom and regularity. A few times I observed a queen embrace a drone and fiy 
all about the cage with entire freedom, and then, the embrace being broken, each 
flew away in different directions, the queens returning to their hives and the drones 
at once rejoined their feliows in the upper part of the cage. It is needless to add 
that in such cases no accouplement had taken place. 
The results realized from this line of experimental work have been so meager and 
the circumstances attending the experiments so exceptionally unfavorable that itis 
not easy to form an estimate of their value or determine their significance. Of the 
many scores of trials made but six were successful; but six queens were fecundated 
in the fertilizing cage. However, as the improvement of the bee to the highest 
attainable excellence outranks all other considerations in practical importance and 
scientific interest, the methods and results of any intelligently-conducted experi- 
ments having this end in view are well worth placing on record. Besides future trials 
< 
may receive direction from a multitude of failures and the trying experience of the 
past season is not without compensating features, for even the little gains we make 
in positive knowledge, although apparently trifling in themselves, have often sig- 
nificant meaning and broad bearing on questions of great value. 
My experience and observation lead me to believe that the main reason why this 
experiment was not satisfactorily successful was because of the protracted drought 
and high temperature which lasted through the entire breeding season, the like of 
which has not before been known in this region. From May, 1886, until Decem- 
ber, 1887, drought prevailed, broken only at long intervals by light showers. The 
succession of two summers of excessive heat and unbroken drought insured disas- 
ter to the present season cumulative in kind and intensified indegree. Continuous 
