October, 1915. 



349 



American V^e Journal 



put most of the blame on the season. 

 However, I think the method has a 

 great future before it when it is devel- 

 oped a little more. I do not think that 

 all of the factors governing its use are 

 known. Until these factors are dis- 

 covered I feel that the candy method 

 will be the best one for the ordinary 

 person to use. 

 Big Bend, La. 



Progress in Beekeeping in 

 Germany 



BY F. GERSTUNG. 



BEEKEEPING in Germany has made 

 satisfactory progress both in the- 

 ory and practice, notwithstanding 

 the unfavorable conditions of weather 

 and of yield, which, during recent 

 years, have diminished the returns of 

 this industry. 



The action of the State in establish- 

 ing institutions for research and in- 

 struction, and the organization of the- 

 oretical and practical courses in bee- 

 keeping, now held regularly every year 

 in almost all the beekeepers' associa- 

 tions in the Empire, have largely con- 

 tributed to the progress of beekeeping. 

 Thus in Bavaria, which numbers about 

 .50,000 beekeepers, a scientific institu- 

 tion for the study of bees has been 

 founded at the University of Erlangen ; 

 here elementary and advanced courses 

 are held on beekeeping, bee diseases, 

 the breeding of queens, etc., under the 

 direction of Prof. Enoch Zander. This 

 institution is under the general super- 

 vision of the Professor of Zoology, Dr. 

 Fleischmann. 



Every year scientific and practical 

 courses for persons from all the con- 

 federated States are held at the Royal 

 Horticultural Institution at Dahlem, 

 Berlin. The scientific instruction is 

 given by Dr. Kustenmacher (for chem- 

 istry, botany, etc.). The practical in- 

 struction is given by the writer of this 

 paper or by other leading men of Ger- 

 man beekeeping. 



The director of the Biological Insti- 

 tute of Dahltm, Dr. Maassen, occupies 

 himself especially with the diseases of 

 bees. It is to a great extent due to 

 him that the etiology of foulbrood has 

 been satisfactorily and scientifically 

 e.xplained ; on the basis of the results 

 of his investigations a bill has been 

 drawn up on foulbrood and other con- 

 tagious diseases of bees, which will 

 probably be discussed and approved by 

 the Reichstag in the course of this year. 



The Imperial Sanitary office (A'eh/i- 

 sgcundheilsanl) has published a mem- 

 orandum on the honey trade, in which 

 it warns German beekeepers of the 

 danger that threatens them in the 

 shape of cheap foreign and artificial 

 honey, and communicates the meas- 

 ures adopted by the authorities and the 

 decisions of the law courts for the pro- 

 tection of beekeepers and of the honey- 

 consuming public. Dr. Dustenmacher 

 published in the Deutsche Bienenzucitt 

 in Theorie und Praxis, year 1910, a 

 series of articles with the object of ex- 

 plaining scientifically "what is honey," 

 upon which the A'etc/is^'esundAeitsane 

 published a draft of definitions of 

 honey, which contains the prelimi- 

 naries and bases for a law on the pro- 



tection of honey demanded for many 

 years past by German beekeepers. In 

 consequence of the improvements in 

 the methods of examining honey, due 

 to the labors of Prof. Haenle, of Stras- 

 burg, Dr. Fiehe. of Berlin, I'rof. Lan- 

 ger, of Graz, and others, it has become 

 easier to distinguish with certainty be- 

 tween pure and mixed or adulterated 

 honeys and to prove the kind and de- 

 gree of adulteration. 



As for the special questions con- 

 nected with the study of bees, which 

 during recent years have awakened 

 most interest, we can in this short re- 

 view only mention the more important. 



The discussion as to the notion of 

 the bee colony still continues. The 

 anthropomorphic theory and the so- 

 called organic theory oppose each 

 other. The first considers the colony 

 as a closed family (called also a State) 

 of several individuals united for the 

 purpose of conservation and reproduc- 

 tion, and who, in consequence of their 

 special endowment and intelligence, 

 are capable of adapting themselves 

 suitably to the structure of their State 

 and of finding out and fulfilling the 

 special function which each has to 

 perform. 



The other theory, that of the so-called" 

 organic point of view, which has been 

 introduced and defended by us, con- 

 siders the colony as a whole as a living 

 unit, which, according to its wants for 

 the conservation of the species, devel- 

 ops out of itself special organs in the 

 form of different beings which form 

 the colony. The various functions 

 which are indispensable for the preser- 

 vation of the whole are correspond- 

 ingly distributed among its members 

 according to their age and sex. 



The preservation of the colony is not 

 based on the free choice of functions 

 by each member, which presupposes a 

 certain intelligence in the bees, but by 

 the difference of the physiological 

 structure of the individual members 

 and of the whole colony, caused by the 

 conditions of their life, from which 

 arises the capacity for the necessity of 

 the various forms of activity for the 

 conservation of the whole, to the ex- 

 clusion of the free choice of functions 

 on the part of the individual. The or- 

 ganic point of view has found decisive 

 scientific support from the recognition 

 that certain organs develop and begin 

 to function only at certain periods, and 

 after having fulfilled their duties disap- 

 pear again. 



It is known that the wax glands do 

 not develop their full functional ac- 

 tivity until about eight days after the 

 emergence of the young bees and then 

 retrograde until they cease to act; 

 further, that the young nurse develops 

 to its full perfection a gland which is 

 only found at this stage, but which is 

 necessary for the di estion of pollen, 

 and that this gland gets atrophied as 

 soon as the bee has passed the stage of 

 nurse bee and has become a worker. 

 This shows clearly that the most im- 

 portant functions for the preservation 

 of the colony and of all its members 

 are connected with the various ages 

 and with corresponding physiological 

 states and anatomical transformations. 

 The organic theory recognizes logi- 

 cally a rigorous division of work, 

 which represents the real basis for al! 



the measures adopted in the practice of 

 beekeeping. It adapts its methods as 

 possible to the biological laws of the 

 colony, and endeavors to practice sys- 

 tematic beekeeping. The organic the- 

 ory of the bee colony and its conse- 

 quences for the tlieory and practice of 

 beekeeping are treated in extcnso in the 

 book Der Bien und seine /ucht, 4th edi- 

 tion. 



The question of parthenogenesis, 

 which has been so much debated dur- 

 ing the last 60 years is again the subject 

 of lively discussion. The most minute 

 investigation into the eggs of bees has 

 proved that the original opinion of Dr. 

 Dzierzon is still scientifically well 

 founded ; according to his theory the 

 male members (drones) issue from un- 

 fecundated eggs, while the female mem- 

 bers (queens and workers) hatch out 

 from fecundated ones. Dr. Nachts- 

 heim, of Munich, has furnished scien- 

 tific proof of this, while Prof. Bresslau, 

 of Strasburg, has recognized and de- 

 scribed the mechanism of fecundation. 

 Nevertheless, even these new discov- 

 eries fail to explain how the queen is 

 capable of fecundating her eggs or not, 

 according to their destination. 



On the origin of the bee fop which 

 the young larvae get during the first 

 four days of their development, no 

 unanimity of opinion has been attained 

 in spite of intense investigation. Prof. 

 Zander and others uphold Schiemenz' 

 views, according to which the nutri- 

 ment proceeds from the glands of the 

 head and thorax of the young nurse 

 bees. Dr. Kustenmacher shares Leuck- 

 hart-Schonfeld's opinion, namely, that 

 the chyle stomach produces the bee 

 pap. The latter considers the chyle 

 stomach as the seat of the production 

 of propolis. 



It is satisfactory to note that of late 

 year? eminent zoological scientists 

 have turned their attention to investi- 

 gations on bees, and one may hope 

 that before long many obscure points 

 will be cleared up. 



Practical beekeeping in Germany 

 has, during the last ten years under- 

 gone far-reaching changes. The most 

 striking is the change from the fixed 

 (basket) or skep hives to the movable 

 bar-frame hive, and in the latter from 

 the system of hives having the opening 

 behind to that with the opening above. 

 Quite recently horizontal hives have 

 taken the place of vertical ones, and 

 lastly, large hives are used instead of 

 small ones. 



The completely changed conditions 

 of the honey-bearing (lowers, which 

 have converted the districts in which 

 formerly the honey was gathered late 

 into early yielding districts, have led 

 to fixed hives falling more and more 

 into disuse and being now almost 

 limited to the heaths. In East Prussia, 

 where formerly only basket hives 

 (Kanitz hive) were common, the so- 

 called mixed system prevails ; that is, 

 the Kanitz basket hive is used as brood 

 hive and for winter quarters, while a 

 large lift with movable-bar frames is 

 placed on it for the honey. In this 

 way it is possible to obtain centri- 

 fugated honey without destroying the 

 combs. Nevertheless, the new bar- 

 frame hives are continually spreading 

 in East Prussia. 



In 1880, at the meeting at Cologne 



