338 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



July 



therefore, only one of the kind of hybrids 

 that raise both black, Italian, and one and 

 two banded bees. Ur it may be that the 

 queen we sent you proved to be a hybrid, 

 and was received after your novel way of in- 

 troducing, after all. 



WHAT IS DZIERZON, AND ^VHAT IS 

 BERL.E:PS€H i 



AND WHAT ARE WE ASSAILING? 



M S you well say, enough of theory has toecn ad- 

 J^\ vanced in regard to the Dzierzon theory, and 

 ' I do not propose to discuss the subject, ex- 

 cept so far as to set myself right in the matter. 

 That theory is laid down in thirteen distinct and 

 separate prf)positions, the Stth of which contains the 

 real subject-matter of discussion. The text of that 

 proposition is as follows:— 



"All eggs germinated in the ovary of the queen 

 develop as males, unless impregnated by the male 

 sperm, while passing the mouth of the seminal sac, 

 or spermatheca, when descending the oviduct. If 

 they be thus impregnated in the downward passage 

 (which impregnation the queen can effect or not at 

 pleasure), they develop as females." 



Now, I have carefully studied the above proposi- 

 tion, and nowhere can I sec that it means more than 

 that partheno-geuesis is a quality of the queen-bee. 

 I can nowhere find one word from which it can be 

 assumed that he intended to go one step further 

 than that in his theory. Berlepsch, however, in dis- 

 cussing it, deduces therefrom the idea (which it 

 seems to me has heretofore been taken for the the- 

 ory itself), that the drone progeny of a fertile queen 

 is in no way affected by the fertilization, and I think 

 that any person, after a careful study of the propo- 

 sitions of Dzierzon by themselves, will come to the 

 conclusion that I am correct, and that Berlepsch, 

 and not Dzierzon, should be credited with the idea 

 that copulation does not affect the drone isrogenj' of 

 the queen-mother. J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Foxboro, Mass., May, 1883. 



I dare say you are right, friend Pond, or 

 pretty nearly right, at least. Many there are 

 who have assailed the Dzierzon theory, but 

 so far it has been found to stand like the 

 hills, when the assailants got right down to 

 what our old friend and benefactor did lay 

 down for us. I should go a little slow in de- 

 ciding against Berlepsch as well. 



THE NEAV BEE DISEASE, AGAIN. 



I; AN you give us any light as to disease among 

 bees, where some of them in occasional hives 

 are affected similarly to the one herewith in- 

 closed? Their wings shiver as their hinder part 

 blackens, and the other bees soon cast them out. I 

 have 90 colonies, and have seen them in several — 

 possibly as many as ten. Hayhurst tells me he sees 

 them occasionally, but does not know the ailment. 



Bees wintered remarkably well in this locality, 

 and one month ago they were nearly a month more 

 forward than last year. The cold weather since that 

 time has discouraged the queens, and necessitated 

 feeding, so that we now stand just about as last 

 year. S. W. Salisbury. 



Kansas City, Mo., May 13, 1883. 



This is the same disease mentioned on p. 



290, June No., but I omitted to state there 

 that it seems to be unaffected by the weath- 

 er; and, in fact, the approach of warm 

 weather seems sometimes to aggravate it. I 

 believe it usually disappears of itself, after a 

 time, although it has, in two cases, as I have 

 before mentioned, resulted in the destruc- 

 tion of the colony. Whether it belongs dis- 

 tinctively to Italians or not, I can not tell ; 

 but I have seen it only on Italians and hybrids. 



ARTIFICIAL. PASTIRAGE. 



ALSO A WORD ABOUT "TAKING NOTES" WHILE 

 YOU READ. 



fHE letter of Mr. N. F. Case, May Gleanings, p. 

 233, calls forth the following from my repos- 

 ' itory of items. I would say that, during the 

 last two years, I have made it a practice to give the 

 different subjects, arising in connection with bee 

 culture and honey-raising, a thorough and careful 

 investigation, reducing my deductions to paper, and 

 filing them away for future reference. Among the 

 items treated will be found the following: — 



LOCATING an APIARY. 



Your success in honey will depend largely upon 

 the natural resources of honey in the surrounding 

 neighborhood. Do not think of establishing a large 

 apiary in a poor locality, bearing in mind that an 

 average locality will give profitable pasturage to 

 only about ten colonies to the square mile. Now, 

 just in proportion to developing the resources, this 

 number may be augmented. 



DEVELOPING THE RESOURCES FOR HONEY. 



No well-established apiary should think of resting 

 its case entirely upon the natural resources, but 

 should go about the work of developing the re- 

 sources as though they were a part of the apiary it- 

 self; in fact,- it must go hand in hand, if you 

 would make success sure. When we look around 

 and see the large area of waste places and roadsides 

 that may be seeded down to good honey-plants, in- 

 stead of growing up to thistles and other noxious 

 weeds, it certainly ought to be an incentive to all 

 apiarians to employ at least their leisure hours, if 

 they have any, in such labor. I find fully as much 

 happiness and pleasure in this part of the work as I 

 do in taking off the nice tilled sections. K. B. K. 



Bloomdale, O., May 8, 18S2. 



So do I, friend K. ; but I have never yet 

 felt as sure that my work was a paying in- 

 vestment when raising plants for honey, as 

 when taking off tilled sections. I know that 

 apple-trees pay, and buckwheat pays, and 

 locust-trees pay ; but if one man were to 

 plant all his bees would need of the above, 

 he would need to be a pretty big man, and 

 to have a good many acres. My four thou- 

 sand basswoods will probably yield a little 

 crop of honey this year. You see, it is now 

 just ten years since we planted them out. 

 I am sure I did not dream, while I was 

 then engaged in setting them out, that the 

 bee business would ever be where it now 

 is. Perhaps when I gave those basswoods 

 a start, they also gave me a start — who 

 knows? And, friend R., if we engage with 

 enthusiasm in developing some such new 

 industry, how do you know it does not give 

 us an impetus that is worth all the experi- 

 ment costs, even before the trees bud and 



