June 9, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



407 



cause the bees produce a very much greater amount of 

 formic acid at this time. 



Honey contains a certain amount of formic acid which 

 gives it its keeping quality. Bee-sting poison contains 

 formic acid, although the toxin is the element that gives 

 pain and causes swelling. The acid causes the itching and 

 irritation. Now, we know beyond a doubt that one of the 

 products of the bees is formic acid. We also have good rea- 

 son to believe that bees produce much more of this acid in a 

 good honey-tlow than they do when honey is not coming in. 

 "Whether the bee produces formic acid any other way, ex- 

 cepting by the way of the poison-sac, I do not know, but I 

 think that during the process of evaporation the formic acid 

 is conducted in the form of vapor, or rather minute parti- 

 cles, and is absorbed by the honey. Now, if at such a time 

 they are able almost to cure the disease, why could we not 

 enable them to make a complete cure by supplying them 

 with mild fumes of formaldehyde, thus giving more acid 

 and enabling an antiseptic to become a disinfectant ? 



Our great physicians have been able to acquire much 

 knowledge of the human system, and still all they can do in 

 case of sickness is to aid Nature to overcome the disease, 

 and so it should be with bees. First, tind out what power 

 the bees themselves have in overcoming disease, then in- 

 crease that power, if it be possible. We have within our 

 system a means of fighting disease. The phagocytes of the 

 blood, which are white cells, are so small that 50,000 would 

 balance on a pin-head, and still when a minute drop of 

 blood is placed on the slip of a compound microscope these 

 phagocytes can be plainly seen to devour germs like a dog 

 eating meat. If you prick your finger with a pin, in an in- 

 stant many germs will try to enter the wound, but just as 

 quickly thousands of phagocytes rush to the spot and not 

 only destoy the germs, but wall them out. We call that 

 wall " a scab " if it is large enough. If these scavengers of 

 the human system would fail to do their proper work, then 

 no medical skill could benefit us. 



I want to say right here, that I heartily agree with Mr. 

 A. C. Miller when he urges us to learn the nature of the bee; 

 then we will be better able to give them proper care. Mr. 

 Miller has met with criticism on every corner because he is 

 £0 far ahead in his study of Nature. Many older bee-keep- 

 ers would do -well to ask him for information, instead of 

 saying, " 'Taint so." 



Any new idea or bit of information, not generally 

 known, must run the gauntlet, and usually is ridiculed and 

 shoved aside, unless brought out by some well-known writ- 

 ers of long standing. We all have ample room for improve- 

 ment, and often the rejected stone becomes the corner of 

 the foundation, or at least finds a place where it comes in 

 pretty handy. Knox Co., 111. 



Some Old Apiarian Ideas Changing. 



BY ROBT. WEST. 



EDITOR YORK : — Your generous administration of bee- 

 knowledge, sometimes in double doses, has not, by me 

 at least, been very gratefully responded to ; for since I 

 became able to be about again, so many things had to be 

 attended to at once that I did not dare to " open the bot- 

 tles," lest being attacted by " the smell of knowledge," I 

 might spend my time drinking when I should be working. 

 ■ Everything in its proper time. Now the drouth has begun, 

 the honev-flow seems over, and I am opening the wrappers 

 of the " Old Reliable." 



POLYGAMOUS NOTIONS OF QUEENS. 



The polygamous notion of the queen is rather a startler 

 to us queen-breeders. And why should she not, like other 

 females, indulge more than once ? Will this account for 

 some queens giving fair progeny at one time, and inferior 

 at another? Clipping her wing would prevent her going 

 out after she began to lay. 



What about such an unaccountable variety in drones ? 

 Who knows that the sperm in the spermatheca of the queen 

 does not affect her whole system ? We now have at this 

 Station, at the head of one of our best working colonies, a 

 golden queen whose drones we would like to use, but, like 

 her workers, they are half black — every one. How does this 

 come when she is well-bred and such a beauty ? — only she 

 fell in love with a negro ! 



It is beyond the present power of the microscopists, but 

 will the physiologists gather up such phenomena, and, with 

 fresh data, reason it out once more, and let us know the re- 

 sult ? 



CHANGiNG DRONE-CELI.S INTO QUEEN-CEF.r.S. 



Yes, we, too, found a beautiful queen-cell built in the 

 midst of drone-corab by attraction ? So nice that we trans- 

 ferred it to a nucleus when sealed, chalking it so as to note 

 results ; but chalk did not stand Jamaica rain, and we lost 

 track of it. Why should we quarrel with the bees if they 

 want to turn a drone-cell into a queen-cell ? Does not their 

 queen often lay drone-eggs in worker-cells, and sometimes 

 worker-eggs in drone-cells ? 



One of my neighbors says he used strips of drone-comb 

 on the bottom of horizontal bars for his queens to lay eggs 

 in for queen-cells. May be he does, but we do not believe 

 all that is said in this country, for moral perception is not 

 a noticeable feature of the inhabitants. Even one of the 

 wholesale grocers assured me one day that Ananias and 

 Sapphira were not Jews, but Jamaicans ! 



DO DRONES EVER GATHER NECTAR? 



I see a question on page 212, to which I answer, Yes. 

 Last summer, at this Station, I saw a drone sucking nectar 

 from an unsealed comb in my hand. Lest I was mistaken, 

 I called one of the students to look closely, and see if he was 

 feeding. He exclaimed, " Yes, his tongue is right into the 

 honey." Although an old man, I had to turn a somersault 

 right belore my class, to which I had been teaching that 

 only the young workers had all the glands for secreting the 

 digestive juices in proper working order ; that even in the 

 older workers some of them were shrunken, ill-shaped, dis- 

 colored, and unfit for digestive duty. When this occurred 

 these went out to gather stores, while their younger sisterS 

 fed the colony on semi-digested food. 



Maeterlinck was a close observer, and he states in his 

 book that the drones on returning from their daily flight 

 help themselves to the choicest nectar in the cells. But even 

 this, of course, has had some of the juices from the organs 

 of the gatherer, and perhaps also the one that carried it to 

 the storage-cell. 



Do not be so surprised, for " knowledge is increasing." 

 You are helping it onward. Many of the old ideas must go. 

 Hope Gardens Experiment Station, Jamaica, May 12. 



( 



Convention Proceedings 



inSs j 



Report of the Onondaga Co., N. Y.) Convention. 



iContinned from page 39J.] 



FIRST DAY— Afternoon Session. 



The first feature of the afternoon session was the re- 

 ception of new members. Then Mr. S. D. House, of Onon- 

 daga County, delivered the 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



The subject of " organization," while it is a broad and 

 seemingly easy question, I feel that I am incompetent to 

 do anything like justice in discussing it. When we 

 look around us we find organization everywhere, from 

 the administration of our governmental affairs down to the 

 smallest business concern ; in fact, every well-regulated 

 and successful business enterprise would fail without being 

 properly organized for conducting its affairs. What would 

 labor do in these times without organization in combating 

 with organized capital ? 



Self-preservation is the first law of Nature; organiza- 

 tion is the first adjunct to self-preservation. The great en- 

 terprises of to-day, that are so astounding in their magni- 

 tude, are but the results of the associated effort, that are 

 destined to revolutionize the business operations of the 

 world. Association and unity of action are the great main- 

 springs of power and progress. We have seen what won- 

 derful results have been accomplished by associated action 

 and combination of interest. We have seen what wonder- 

 ful results have been accomplished by the associated diary- 

 men ; what organization has done for the farmers with 

 their strongly organized granges; what it has accom- 

 plished for the fruit-grower, and what it is doing for almost 

 every conceivable branch of industry. 



But how about our own avocation, " Apiculture ?" One 

 of the best illustrations of cooperative effort is plainly 



