18S0 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



375 



frame hives over boxes or gums and odd-sized hives, 

 and eventually work into a uniform size of frame 

 hives. I fixed several hives that way three months 

 ago, and only "mud-daubers," hornets, and spiders 

 made any use of the top hives until, in May Glean- 

 ings, some unfortunate fellow writes for informa- 

 tion on the matter, and you tell him to take the top 

 of tlic old hitus all off. 1 threw down my book, ran 

 out, jerked off the top hive, tore oil' the top of the 

 old hives, fixed the frame hive on top, and the bees 

 had eomb in the frames the next morning. 



MAKIKfi THINGS PLAIN. 



Now, although it seems that telling us to put the 

 frame hive on top ought to be enough, still many of 

 us would think that a large auger-hole is a sufficient 

 opening into them until we lose the use of a swarm 

 of bees for a month or two; and I will wager that 

 friend Tanner (p. 279, June No.) will make the same 

 mistake, if he did not happen to see your reply to 

 friend Bailey, in May No., p. 2:::>. 



Well, Brother Root, one more thing aiid I am done. 

 I am trying to be a Christian. Please pray for me, 

 that I may grow in grace. I find more difficulties in 

 a Christian life than I do in bee-keeping, and that is 

 a good deal. Our Homes is good for us all. 



C. H. Butts. 



Collinsburg, Bossier Par., La., June 23, 18P0. 



The above letter, written evidently with 

 no thought of its being used for publication, 

 illustrates a very important matter. A lady 

 who is one of our most talented writers in 

 bee culture, once wrote me an article for 

 print, and sent with it a most kind, chatty, 

 visiting letter, not for publication. Well, I 

 knew at a glance that the studied article for 

 the public had not a quarter of the real val- 

 ue to the masses, and real merit, that the 

 off-hand home-like letter had ; and who has 

 not seen ministers, that, in their pulpits, 

 seemed so far off and so high up, that one 

 was chilled and made to feel lonesome, but 

 who, when they got down from their pul- 

 pits, were the pleasantest, most sociaDle, 

 and home-like people in the world. I have 

 several times told our minister that I could 

 not help wishing he would come down 

 among the people and talk, instead of preach- 

 ing so much. The above letter has helped 

 me greatly, in many ways, and I have no 

 doubt but that it will help many of you. 



Friend B., I would get 5 queens, and give 

 one to every panful of bees in that barrel, 

 and, with frames of wired fdn., I would 

 soon have them to suit me. I fear your 

 smoker was not right at hand, and in good 

 trim, when you got stung so much that day. 

 —We have assuredly put a leaf of directions 

 with every queen we have sent out for years 

 past ; but I have learned that a great many 

 of you never read it. One friend said he 

 looked at the directions after his queen was 

 lost. He noticed the little paper on the 

 cage, when he first got it ; but said he sup- 

 posed we tacked it on to stick the postage 

 stamps on. 



Till DKIEKKON THEOHV. . 



fllE following may be of interest to those 

 who have been troubled to accept the 

 fact that drones are brought into life 

 without the agency of a father : 



EXTRACTS FROM JOSEPH COOK'S BIOLOGY. 



'"Generation by fission and gemmation are not 

 confined to the simplest forms of life. Both modes 

 are common, not only among plants, but among ani- 

 mals of considerable complexity.' 



'"Throughout almost the whole series of living 

 beings we find agamo-genesis, or non-sexual genera- 

 tion. Eggs, in the case of drones among bees, de- 

 velop without impregnation.'— (Huxley in Encf/clo. 

 Brit., Ninth Ed., Biology, pp. 68(i, <;87.)" 



[After a pause, Mr. Cook proceeded in a lower 

 voice— 1 



"When the topic of the origin of the life of our 

 Lord is approached from the point of view of the 

 microscope, some men who know not what the ho- 

 ly of holies in physical and religious science is, say 

 that we have no example of the origin of life with- 

 out two parents. Theie are numberless such exam- 

 ples. ' When Castellet,' says Alfred Russell Wal- 

 lace, Darwin's coadjutor, ' informed Reaumur that 

 he had reared perfect silkworms from the eggs laid 

 by a virgin moth, the answer was, Ex nihilo, nihil 

 rtf -from nothing, nothing' is made and the fact was 

 disbelieved. It was contrary to one of the widest 

 and best-established laws of nature; yet it is now 

 universally admitted to be true.'— ( Wallace, Alfred 

 RusseB, Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, p. 38.) 



"'Among our honey-bees,' says Ha?ckel [History 

 of Creation, Vol. 1, page 197), 'a male individual, a 

 drone, arises out of the eggs of the queen, if the egg 

 has not been fructified; a female, a queen, or work- 

 ing bee, if the eg-g has been fructified.' 



"Take up your Mivart, your Lyell, your Owen, and 

 you will read this same important fact which Hux- 

 ley here asserts, when he says that the law that per- 

 fect individuals may be virginally born extends to 

 the higher forms of life. 1 am in the presence of 

 Almighty God; and yet, when a great soul like the 

 tender spirit of our sainted Lincoln, in his early 

 days, with little knowledge, but with great thought- 

 fulness, was troubled with this difficulty, and almost 

 thrown into infidelity by not knowing that the law 

 that there must be two parents is not universal, I 

 am willing to allude, even in such a presence as 

 this, to the latest science concerning miraculous 

 conception." F. H. Burbank in Herald of Life. 



THE YUCCA, OR SPANISH BAYONET. 



TEA-CUPFULS OF HONEY. 



tSEND you by mail a few brushes, such as we get 

 manufactured in Cal. I use them for brushing 

 J bees off from the combs, and think they are 

 just the nicest thing I have ever seen for that pur- 

 pose. I used to use a wing; but since I found these 

 brushes, I have discarded wings altogether. If they 

 get stiff with honey, just dip them in water and they 

 are perfectly soft and pliable. You see we have the 

 handles made crooked so as to be just right for 

 brushing bees off from the bottom of the frame, and 

 they are bound in such a manner that they can nev- 

 er come to pieces by shrinking or swelling. There 

 is a patent on them, but no danger of any one's ever 

 trying to infringe upon it. Can you beat these 

 brushes in Ohio? Now for a brief description of how 

 they are obtained: They are the lower or butt end 

 of the leaves that grow next to the bulb of the Mas- 

 kel Stalk, or, as it is sometimes called, " Sentinel 

 Stalk." This plant attains huge proportions in des- 

 ert like sand-washes of this valley. I have seen 

 them attain a height of 20 feet, with a diameter of 

 six inches, above the bulb, or two feet from the 

 ground, while the bulb would be twelve inches in 

 diameter. All this stalk above the bulb grows in 

 one season, —yes, in about sir weeks. All the leaTes 

 they have are those long, sharp, spiky leaves grow- 

 ing around the bulb, and sometimes called "Spanish 

 Bayonets." The stalk throws out lateral branches 

 or twigs all around, and close together, commen- 

 cing about six feet from its base, with short twigs, 

 which gradually attain a foot or more in length, 

 half way up to the top, then taper to a point aH the 



