1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



from a literary point of view, i? absolutely noth- 

 ing when compared with Dad a n t's " Revised 

 Langstroth," Cowan's or Cheshire's apieultural 

 works. Cook's Manual, and some otliers. But 

 the perusal of Huber can not, it seems to me, 

 fail to add largely to the interest of bee-keep- 

 ing, and that alone is worth a great deal. A 

 farmer friend of mine once became tired of his 

 farm, and thought of leaving it: but becoming 

 interested in geology he studied the nature of 

 the rocks and ravines on his place, and actually 

 fell in love with it. Instead of plowing in un- 

 interesting dirt he felt glad to dig in soil where 

 the deinotheriums, iguanodons. and plesiosau- 

 ruses used to wage battle and root around. 

 Knowledge makes work pleasant, and changes 

 a star into a beautiful world through the medi- 

 um of the inner eye. By all means, read Hu- 

 ber, even if he is a yesterday's sunrise. One of 

 his last sayings is well worth remembering: 

 "One thing I have never been able to learn; 

 that is, to forget to love." 

 Medina. Nov. 3. W. P. Root. 



POOR QUEENS. 



HEREDITY IN QUEENS, AND HOW FAK BACK GOOD 

 AND BAD TRAITS MAY COME. 



For the benefit of those who want queens 

 from the one described by me in August 15th 

 Gleanings, and for the benefit ot all beginners, 

 I should like to say a few words further. That 

 queen, along with the others in my yard, seem- 

 ed to get a bad chill last winter. I feared she 

 could not survive another winter. I made 

 haste to get from her what young queens I 

 needed; then, as she seemed to be failing, I 

 pinched her and put in a capped cell. 



Beginners err in thinking they will be "fixed" 

 if they get a queen from some great one. Extra- 

 good queens will be likely to transmit their 

 good qualities. At the same time, the daugh- 

 ter may mate with something objectionable. 

 From that imported queen I got just one that 

 mated to suit me. Now she is dead. I have 

 nine of her daughters. I hope some of them 

 possessing their mother's good qualities may 

 mate to suit me. CZI 



On page 637 I said the queen left only one 

 cell. I hunted for cells for perhaps three or 

 four days to requeen with, and then, being 

 busy, gave it up. When time to hatch, 1 looked: 

 but the cell was hatched. That queen had 

 destroyed three or four very fine cells that the 

 bees had built in the meantime. That scored 

 another good quality, the young queens de- 

 stroying cells to prevent after-swarming. 



For those yomig queens to mate three-banded 

 Italian will be a small consideration. A good 

 comb-honey season will be the test. I also in- 

 tend to breed for bees that will go into the sec- 

 tions without bait sections. 



Every bee-keeper in the land should interest 

 himself in the destruction of poor queens. Poor 

 people sometimes buy them. They not only 

 lose the few cents paid for the queen, but lose 

 the product of that colony for a year; or. if 

 good hon^^-y-gatherers. they may be so cross as 

 to be a vexation. Some seem to think even a 

 poor queen will do to winter a colony. What 

 good is such a colony after it is wintered ? 



A few days ago I killed a daughter of that 

 great queen because I scored so many points 

 against her. First, the colony built and cap- 

 ped several queen-cells while she was a virgin 



Cowan, relative to all tlic works of Huber — time of 



Frintini?, etc. He refers to the edition of 1841. which 

 have used. He also speaks of 1(X)4 "old hee-books," 

 reaching down from 1473. Of the.se, ."jOS were in Ger- 

 man; ISJ French, 98 English. 



in the hive. I concluded to tolerate that. I 

 tried to blame that on the cussedness of the 

 bees. Next she was a day or two late in be- 

 ginning to lay when the weather was good for 

 her to mate. If yon investigate closely I think 

 you will find that a bad trait, not in itself, but 

 as an indication of a poor quality. After she 

 had been laying a few days, with but little 

 honey coming in. I found two queen-cells with 

 eggs m them. That settled it. I pinched her, 

 and abandoned the colony. 



Inbreeding queens, the grandmother should 

 be as good as the mother. If the mother be 

 good and the grandmother bad, then the bad- 

 ness of the grandmother's family will develop 

 or crop out in the grandchildren, on account of 

 the drones. That great queen of mine had a 

 good mother, an imported queen whose bees 

 jumped right into the sections last year as soon 

 as there was honey for the sections. So you 

 see those nine young queens have a good pedi- 

 gree, both in mother and grandmother. Oh if 

 I could only have controlled the mating of 

 those nine virgin queens I However.we will hope 

 for the best. Do not sell poor queens. Kill 

 them. Kill every queen that swarms out from 

 under empty sections, provided the super, ven- 

 tilation, etc.. are all right. Try to supersede 

 all queens whose bees persist in after-swarming, 

 viciousness, excessive burr-combs, and all such 

 traits; much depends on the drones in your 

 yard and neighborhood. Philo S. Dii.worth. 



Ingram, Fa. 



EXPERIMENT STATIONS AND WHAT THEY 

 ARE DOING. 



do you receive full value for your five 

 cents? 



On page 782 Mr. Ellas Fox takes exception to 

 the article recommending that the government 

 establish an apieultural station. It has been 

 said by one of our American sages, " It is one of 

 the special dispnnsations of an all-wise Provi- 

 dence that every board has two sides, and 

 that no man is able to see both sides at 

 once." I have no quarrel with any one who 

 does not see the same side that I do; but to 

 some of the arguments used I have somewhat 

 to say. 



There are but few who have not heard of the 

 "Billion-dollar Congress." Since it has been 

 demonstrated that it requires about this 

 amount to run this government successfully, 

 we do not hear so much as we formerly did of 

 this expen"e. This is supposed to be used to 

 pay the expenses of this government for two 

 years, which would be somewhere about five 

 hundred millions for the expense for one year. 



We are prone, as Americans, to boast of our 

 vast population In this we will be conserva- 

 tive in this article, and for convenience will say 

 we have only sixty millions of population. Of 

 this number there are nine millions engaged in 

 agriculture, fruit-raising, gardening, and kin- 

 dred pursuits. This is about one-seventh of 

 our population who are engaged in agriculture. 

 Now. the burden of the expcuise of this govern- 

 ment is borne (or at least we constantly hear it 

 is) by the agricultural population. Now. in all 

 justice and equity there should be expended 

 for their benefit one-seventh of the expense of 

 the government. Now, what is the fact ? Why, 

 simply that the expense of the Agricultural 

 Department is /c.s-,s thati three million dollars. 

 This makes ati expense, for (>very individual in 

 this nation, of about live cents. The question 

 now is, "Is this well expended?" If it is, 

 would it not be reasonable to infer that an 

 appropriation to solve some of the mysteries of 



