854 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov. 



one-sided, with the shaft in or near the front edge? 

 As a consequence of this, when the wing descends, 

 the back edge turns up; and as it ascends, the bank 

 edge turns down, and thus always presents an in- 

 clined plane to the air, which, as it sweeps up and 

 down, propels the bird forward. To illustrate the 

 way the wing works, take a small stick about ten 

 inches long, and slit both ends in the same direc- 

 tion, to the depth of about four inches. Then take 

 two pieces of stiff writing paper, each about 3K 

 inches square, and fasten one, by one edge in each 

 slit, so that they r will project on opposite sides, thus: 

 Now stick a pin in the center of the i — i 



stick, perpendicular to the plane of pa- | — . ' — ' 



pers, and, taking this between the I I 



thumb and finger, hold the toy either face upward 

 or downward, and swing the hand up and down. It 

 will spin around like a windmill, and it will always 

 turn in one direction; i. e., away from the free 

 edges of the papers, no matter in what direction 

 the hand may be swung. 



The Chinese at Foochow have a scull for propel- 

 ling boats, the sides of which are too high for row- 

 ing. It is a sweep a little concave on the under 

 side; and near the center, a hollow fits a short 

 round-headed pin, which projects from the edge of 

 the stern, and forms with it a ball-and-socket joint. 

 The scull extends down into the water at an angle 

 of about 45°; a rope is fastened tightly around the 

 upper end, and tied to a hook in the deck below. 

 The boatman grasps the end of the scull with one 

 hand and the rope with the other; and as he pulls 

 and pushes back and forth, the one-sided strain 

 from the hand on the rope turns the blade of the 

 sweep now this way and now that, to the proper 

 angle, as it plays bacK and forth in the water. It 

 is a wonderfully simple and effective device; and 

 in this matter of making it self-adjusting by apply- 

 ing the force a little to one side instead of directly 

 in The center, it is just like a bird's wing. I have no 

 authority for this theory of a bird's flight except 

 my own observation; and if anyone has abetter 

 one to propose, I should be glad to hear it. 



Shaowu, China, Aug. 12, 1889. J. E. Walker. 



We are much obliged to you for your ex- 

 ceedingly vivid illustration of the effect of 

 superstition. The poor heathen left the 

 drowning man. to chase after an innocent 

 duck. Now, the saddest part of it is, that 

 such ignorance and superstition are not al- 

 together confined to heathen lands. A 

 milder type of the same malady exists in al- 

 most every neighborhood. Listen to the 

 conversation of ignorant and uneducated 

 people— people who do not read the papers 

 —and you will hear more or less of it. — I 

 am exceedingly obliged to you for your kind 

 explanation of the philosophy of the way in 

 which birds and insects fly; and I confess 

 that the thought never occurred to me be- 

 fore. Why, you have even given us an idea 

 of a windmill that would run in the same 

 direction, whether the wind blowed on the 

 back side or front side, without any vane to 

 turn it around. In regard to insects, 1 can 

 readily understand from your explanation 

 how the movements of the wings should 

 propel the bird or the insect forward ; but I 

 do not exactly understand why it should 

 cause them to rise, unless the head be ele- 

 vated a little higher than the tail ; or if the 

 tail be bent downward at an angle while the 



wings propel forward, this would cause the 

 body to rise ;?and I think I now understand 

 why a hawk rises with comparatively slow 

 flapping of its wings. It seems a little fun- 

 ny that I should have to go to China for a 

 scientific answer to so simple a question. 



INTRODUCING. 



GIVING A QUEEN TO A COLONY AT ONCE. 



fHE queen arrived all right, and I am very 

 much obliged to you. You sent a small cir- 

 cular with the queen, telling how to intro- 

 duce her, by the Peet process, to a colony of 

 bees. I have lost queens the very same 

 way you give directions to introduce. I will tell 

 you how I introduce a queen, and I will warrant 

 you will never lose one. I do not make a colony 

 queenless until I get the queen I am going to put 

 in. I take the cover of a Langstroth hive, and set 

 it down on the ground, and put two small blocks 

 under two corners of the cover, to raise it up so 

 the bees can pass under. I then lay a paper down 

 on the ground in front of the cover, and commence 

 to shake the bees off from the frames until 1 come 

 to the queen. I then cage her, if I want to save 

 her ; if not, I pinch her head off and then I keep on 

 until I get all the bees off the ten frames in front 

 of the cover. The bees will run under the cover, 

 and cluster. Take the frames the bees were on, 

 and put them in the hive and put a cloth over them, 

 so the brood won't get chilled; then pick up the 

 cover^the bees have clustered under, and give it a 

 hard knock on the ground over the paper. Then 

 take a small sprinkling-can and give them a little 

 sprinkle of water. Open the cage the queen is In, 

 and drop her in the pile of bees. If the bees go to 

 tight her, give them another sprinkle and they will 

 be glad to let her alone. The cover must be set 

 down where you had it before, so the bees can run 

 under and cluster. The bees and queen will be 

 hanging to the inside of the cover. Take the cloth 

 off from your brood-frames; now pick your cover 

 up that the bees are under, and give it a knock 

 over the frames very hard, to knock the bees on 

 the frames; put your enameled cloth on, and cover. 

 Set your hive where it was before, and I will war- 

 rant your queen will be laying in a few hours, if 

 she was a laying one at first. 



You may think this is a great deal of trouble; but 

 I can do it in three minutes. Is this not better 

 than to wait 48 hours? and even then you may lose 

 your queen; and you will have to wait three days 

 before she commences to lay. I united two colo- 

 nies together that had good laying queens, and put 

 in that imported one you sent me last Thursday. 

 She is laying, and all right. I have introduced 20 

 this fall the same way, and have not lost one. 

 Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 30, 1889. F. M. Jones. 



I hope you will excuse mejf I remind you 

 that, although you have introduced 20 

 queens without loss, you are very likely to 

 have a great many losses with the next 20. 

 The plan you give is old, and has been 

 thoroughly tested. Another thing, it woidd 

 be nothing strange if nearly all the 20 you 

 mention would have received the queens all 

 right had you just taken out one and put in 

 another. One fall, when we had some 

 queens to destroy, because they were hy- 



