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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb 15 



you have written, take out the cocoons and 

 count them one by one. This I did in the case 

 of the comb Dr. Miller sent me, which was 25 

 years old, and the cell walls were not thicker 

 than those of ordinary comb, nor were there 

 more than two thicknesses of cocoons in the 

 walls. If the bees kept on packing in cocoons, 

 and every cocoon was left in for 25 years, 

 those same cells would hardly let in an ant, 

 to say nothing about letting in a bee. 



You refer to melting up these old combs in 

 a solar wax-extractor. Any comb, even if it 

 be not more than three or four years old, when 

 melted under such conditions, will show the 

 perfect shape of the cocoons after the wax is 

 melted away. 



I did say that bees' jaws were not suitable 

 for biting the skins of fruits, and I still adhere 

 to the statement. While the bees seem to 

 lack the power of biting through chitinous 

 substances, yet they will unravel and pull to 

 pieces any filament or fabric just as we can 

 with our fingers unravel and pull to pieces the 

 strongest hemp rope if we take time enough. 

 If you will examine under a strong magnifier 

 the filament of a cocoon you will see it is made 

 up of a web. These individual webs can be 

 easily unraveled and pulled away by the bees, 

 and it would be a very easy trick to remove 

 the cocoons in that way. But the skin of a 

 peach or grape has quite a different texture 

 and surface. Nothing short of cutting instru- 

 ments would pierce them. 



Again, you say that, after you removed the 

 old combs and put in new ones, the newly 

 hatched bees were a good deal larger. Let me 

 ask again, Did you test these and the other 

 bees with perforated zinc ? and is it not a fact 

 that you expected the bees to be larger, and 

 hence wrongly inferred that they were larger 

 after you saw them ? I do not mean to accuse 

 you of carelessness, and certainly not of mis- 

 representation ; but unless one depends on 

 something besides his eyes for gauging sizes 

 involving differences of one or two thou- 

 sandths of an inch he is pretty sure to make 

 decidedly wrong guesses. 



This is a very important matter ; and if you 

 are right and we are wrong it will be quite a 

 point for the foundation-makers of the coun- 

 try. All we would have to say would be that 

 combs would have to be renewed once in ten 

 years, and this would mean the selling of tons 

 of foundation where none is sold now. 



I do not wish to be positive. You may be 

 right and I wrong ; but I am showing how 

 you might be mistaken in your conclusions. 

 While I am open to conviction, yet I hope you 

 or any one else will help us to get down to the 

 actual facts ; but in the mean time it does not 

 seem to me that Nature would make so egre- 

 gious a blunder as to pinch growing bees in 

 combs 15 or 25 years old. We are accustomed 

 to saying that Nature works in harmony with 

 herself ; and I still believe that, when we 

 gather in all the facts, we shall find that the 

 useless cocoons are removed as soon as they 

 have a tendency to reduce the diameter of the 

 cells. 



And here is one more fact : If it were true 

 that the size of bees varies according to the 



age of the comb in which they are reared, 

 then we should have no end of trouble in the 

 use of perforated zinc. One make of zinc that 

 would let one lot of bees through easily, would 

 almost if not quite bar other lots. But, so far 

 as I know, when the perforations are jVoV wide, 

 or a trifle more than g\,, in figures we can un- 

 derstand, the zinc answers all requirements 

 with all bee-keepers in every climate and un- 

 der any conditions. If your conclusions were 

 correct this would be far from the fact. 



I should be pleased to receive samples from 

 any one having combs which he knows to be 

 20 or 25 years old. Mail us a piece two or 

 three inches square. Send a card telling about 

 the comb, its age, and, if you can, mature bees 

 that have hatched from such comb. Let us 

 investigate this matter without prejudice, with 

 the simple idea of getting at the truth. — Ed.] 



OLD GRIMES. 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



Old Grimes's not dead ; that good old man 



We'll often hear him more ; 

 He sometimes wears an old gray coat 



All honey down before. 



His heart is open as the day ; 



His feelings, if you knew, 

 Are oft inclined to lead astray 



His common sense of view. 



When'er he hears the pipe of queen. 



His steps are quicklj- turned 

 Into that path which we have seen 



He's " beaten " out and learned. 



Kind fun he ever pokes at all ; 



He lives not to malign ; 

 His thoughts are slow, inclined to fall 



To tools of olden time. 



He lives in land of Setting Sun ; 



And, though his hives are new, 

 Uncaps his honey with a knife 



As " daddy " used to do. 



Unharmed by stings of bees astute, 



He stumbles gently o'er 

 The hives, excluders, traps, and things 



Strewed in that path he told of. 



But good old Grimes is not at rest ; 



He's heard the news from town. 

 So takes his pen and does his best 



To bring inventors down. 



He modest profit seeks to find 



To pay for bread and butter ; 

 He has no notion in hi-* mind 



To spend it on uncapper. 



His neighbors, by its proper use, 



Find decrease in their labor ; 

 He, giving license to his views. 



Growls " adjusting " and " excluder." 



His knowledge of the modern ways 



He keeps from public view ; 

 But makes a noise these latter days 



Of what other folks may do. 



His worldly goods he never threw 



Away on any fancy ; 

 He says we cut, adjust, and slice, 



With things that's quite expensive. 



Though much disturbed by honeyed cares. 

 And fears of tools not mellow, 



Just everybody says he is 

 A jolly young "old fellow." 



