1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



389 



dock succeeded in getting bees of unusual size. 

 If the attempt is to be made to breed for size it 

 would be a great gain to have his strain of bees 

 to commence with. He sent me some of the 

 bees, and also samples of comb about which 

 there could be no question. Without taking 

 time to hunt up the report I made about it in 

 Gleanings, I remember that the cells were 

 about medium between drone and worker size, 

 some of them larger, and a few I think just 

 about four to the inch. This comb was, of 

 course, built by the bees without any founda- 

 tion. I believe he made no mention of having 

 made any gain through larger-sized cells, but 

 mainly through selection of larger drones and 

 some special feeding of the drones while in the 

 larval state. At any rate he made an advance 

 in size that was decisive, and I think it was 

 ahead of any thing yet accomplished in France. 



It is well known that bees of reduced size can 

 be raised by having the size of cells reduced. 

 That the opposite rule would work doesn't 

 necessarily follow. But the possibility is worth 

 trying for. 



The question may be asked, What's the 

 good of bigger bees? I don't know of any 

 except just one thing — they could work on red 

 clover. But it is possible there are other flow- 

 ers besides red clover that longer tongues could 

 reach. 



IS REDUCTION OF PEES "CHEAP JOHN" BUSI- 

 NESS? 



On page 53, Rev. W. F. Clarke maintains his 

 position that he doesn't want to belong to an 

 organization that doesn't have a good-sized 

 annual fee; thinks reducing the fee would 

 diminish rather than increase the membership; 

 doesn't believe in the "cheap John " style of 

 doing business. I think 11.00 has always been 

 the annual fee for membership in the North 

 American. Do you believe, Mr. Clarke, that, 

 if the fee were increased to $1..50 or $2.00, there 

 would be a gain of a single member? Accord- 

 ing to your reasoning there ought to be; for if 

 the value of membership were measured exact- 

 ly by the cost, then a S3. 00 membership would 

 be better than one costing only half as much. 



I don't believe in the " cheap John " style of 

 doing business any more than you do. But 

 that means getting things for less than the 

 regular price with still less than the regular 

 value. But I do believe in getting full value 

 for less money; and I count as a public bene- 

 factor the man who can produce for 25 cents 

 what has previously cost a dollar. And I 

 think people have too good sense to think the 

 value less because the price has been reduced. 

 Take as an Illustration the matter of news- 

 papers. The Chicago Record started as a one- 

 cent paper. There were other papers in Chica- 

 go that sold for two or three times as much. 

 Did people prefer the higher-priced papers? 

 You, perhaps, would have said, "There's not 



much chance for any great worth there. The 

 miserable pittance of one cent! I'll buy the 

 paper with bigger price." But the public 

 didn't talk that way. It said by actions if not 

 always in words, " There's a 13-page paper for 

 a cent. It has the freshest and the fullest news 

 to be had, and, withal, the most reliable. What 

 a blessing that they are smart enough to afford 

 it for one cent!" And as a result, every one of 

 the great Chicago dailies had to come down in 

 price to one cent. Neither do they give cheap 

 service. In no place in the world Is more en- 

 terprise and brains put into a newspaper. As 

 a further result, the leading dailies of St. Louis 

 made a sudden drop in price from 5 cents to 1 

 cent. I'm not at all ashamed to say that I 

 read daily a one-cent paper. 



It costs more to belong to a bee-keepers' 

 society on this side the ocean than in Europe, 

 but they greatly overshadow us in member- 

 ship. We've tried the dollar, and we never 

 got the membership. Let's try the quarter- 

 dollar. It may not be out of place to say that 

 the Illinois State Society has practically reduc- 

 ed its annual fee to 35 cents or less, and it never 

 had so large a membership at the dollar price 

 as now. 



Marengo, 111., Feb. 13. 



[In times past we have made several founda- 

 tion-mills for our friends in Germany, having 

 43^ cells to the inch. Just what they wanted 

 them for we did not know; but it is possible 

 that they desired to get larger bees; but more 

 probably it was because they desired to get a 

 kind of foundation in which the bees would not 

 breed, it being too large for workers and too 

 small for drones. I believe some one has said 

 before (perhaps it was yourself) that a founda- 

 tion between a drone and worker would be used 

 exclusively for store comb. 



We are at present making mills 4)4 cells to 

 the inch; and should our friends desire founda- 

 tion of this kind they can have it at the same 

 price. 



LARGER BEES. 



Yes, indeed; do we really want them? On 

 pages 315 and 318, Volume II. of Cheshire's 

 " Bees and Bee-keeping," we find: 



The last point (size) is one upon which great mis- 

 apprehension abounds. The idea that it is desirable 

 to increase the dimensions of our bees is all but 

 universal, and, since I have ventured, more than 

 once, to stand alone in condemning- it, I must g:ive 

 my reasons for so doing'. Apis dorsata has been 

 hunted up, although it Is known to be a useless 

 savag-e, simply because it is big, and that by the 

 very persons who claim that the smaller hive bees 

 are the best, in that they give their vote g^enerally 

 to the yellow varieties. Fortunately, it is in the 

 very nature of things impracticable to " hybridize " 

 our hive bees with do/s«^((, over which we may in- 

 scribe. " Rcquiescat iti pace." 



But it is still necessary to point out that, the 

 smaller the creature, the greater, relatively, are its 

 powers, both for a mechanical and a physiological 

 reason. First, other things being equal, as an ani- 

 mal is enlarged, its weight increases as the cube, 

 and its strength as the square only, of the ratio of 

 the lineal increase. 



Tlie botanical reason for desiring no alteration 

 was expounded in Vol. I. Flowers and bees have 

 been constantly interacting. The build of every 

 floret is adapted to that of its fertilizer, and, could 

 we suddenly increase the dimensions of our hive 

 bees, we* should throw them out of harmony with 

 the floral world around them, decrease their utility, 



