20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



of bee-keeppi-s would receive, without question, 

 such speculations. If Bro. Clarke merely supposes 

 that the bees deliberately, and in cold blood, use 

 their stings in this way, we suppose that they do 

 nothing- of the sort, and one supposition is as good 

 as another — perhaps better. He, however, claims 

 to have come to this conclusion by repeated ob- 

 servations. Hut has he really seen the bees doing- 

 that? Does the bee, like the bea\er, use the tail for 

 a trowel? Is the latter end indeed the " business 

 end"? There are several implements at the other 

 end, far better adapted for smoothing and finishing- 

 off their work. I have many times witnessed, 

 thi-ough the glass of my observing hive, the process 

 of storing- honey in cells, and capping the same 

 with mandibles and tongue. It'seems to be done in 

 a quiet, leisurely, happy way, with no trace of 

 anger or excitement such as invariably accom- 

 panies the darting-forth of the sting with a tiny 

 drop of poison on the barb; for the least knock or 

 Jar is answered by a sharp yelp of resentment, and 

 many bees are seen to spread their banners, and 

 thrust out their weapons; but those engaged in 

 feeding larva- or storing honey, or comb-building, 

 and those just coming in laden with pollen and nec- 

 tar, take little notice of the disturbance, and their 

 stings ' are not unsheathed. No doubt, at such a 

 time of alarm some poison is scattered on the 

 combs and into the honey, as Laugstroth and others 

 have remarked ; and if a hive is often disturbed the 

 honey may become very highly seasoned. We have 

 always supposed that the unsealed honey would 

 I'eceivc this sprinkling, not that which was sealed 

 or nearly so. Now, Ernest, look up the authorities 

 and see what they say concerning formic acid in 

 honey — whether all honey contains it originally; 

 whether it is added unconsciously while the honey 

 is in the honey-sack, or as it is deposited in the cell, 

 or whether it is designedly and barbarouslj' infused 

 at the end by the bees in order to give their plun- 

 derers the stomach-ache when they eat the stolen 

 sweets. Does sealed honey contain much formic 

 acid, or more than unsealed or evaporated or ex- 

 tracted honey? Is it the presence of the acid or the 

 absence of air that preserves the honey? The 

 scientists have studied these subjects, but I know 

 not how far their conclusions will go to support the 

 theory of Bro. Clarke; nor does it matter, unless 

 he has really seen the thing done, as he would have 

 us believe. In that case he has made a wonderful 

 discovei-y indeed, ot something wholly out of har- 

 mony with all that we have been taught and have 

 observed concerning the habits and constitution of 

 the bee, and the mechanism of its sting. The val- 

 iant warrior's poisoned lance has become the peace- 

 ful laborer's implement; spears are pruning-hooks, 

 swords are plowshares, poniards are pitchforks, 

 tomahawks are trowels. Truly, the millennium is 

 nigh. 



It would Ik' (litlieult to remove the impressions 

 that most of us have concerning the sweet satisfac- 

 tion and exceeding joy of the bees in all their un- 

 molested avocations at home and abroad; tlieii- re- 

 luctance to (|uarrel when honey Is plentiful and 

 they are full; their whole denieauoi-, so different 

 from the irascibility disj>layed at other times. 

 Friend Clarke, in his closing paragraph, discourses 

 finely of their natural (juietness. industry, and 

 peaeeableness, and in a strain that seems incon- 

 sistent Willi his idea that aninslrnment so "skillful- 

 ly contrived " for offense and defense, yet general- 



ly kept out of sight, but prompt to appear on slight 

 disturbance, and that, too, with astonishing im- 

 mediate effects on the community, the mere taint of 

 the venom on the^skin or clothing, or' even in the 

 air, being sufficient to awaken instant enmity and 

 provoke a swift attack from multitudes —that such 

 apparatus, with the feelings of disijleasure, resent- 

 ment, and wild fury that are inseparable from its 

 use out of doors, should be plied so placidly and 

 constantly within the hive. 



It ill becomes a bee-keeper of prominence to add 

 to the wild vagaries that prevailed in the former 

 days of ignorance, and that still are held by many 

 otherwise intelligent people. Most of the readers 

 of such a paper as the Scientiflc American, no doubt, 

 still suppose that bees are simply a si)iteful and 

 dangerous nuisance; and though the article re- 

 ferred to may enlighten and comfort them on that 

 point, will it not create a fresh terror and panic in 

 the minds of those who have always been hasty to 

 believe that all bee-keepers and honey -dealers 

 wickedly adulterate their products, and who now 

 behold a more dangerous evil brought to light, not 

 by an ignoramus, but by a bee-master who ought 

 to know, the fact that honey is evermore unsafe, 

 since it is poisoned by the bees themselves at the 

 fountain-head. D. F. S,\v.\ge. 



Casky, Ky., Dec. H, ma. 



Friend Clarke says the sting is " a skill- 

 fully contrived little trowel." My research- 

 es with the microscope, however, during 

 past years lead me to different conclusions. 

 All the stings I liave ever examined re- 

 semble a miniature awl, made up of three 

 smaller ones, two of which are barbed. The 

 three are held together by grooves, " skill- 

 fully contrived '" so as to pierce the skin by 

 a sort t)f pumping motion. A sting may be 

 so mounted on a glass slide in balsam as to 

 appear a little Hat. Other specimens are in 

 danger of being perverted from their natu- 

 ral sluipe after being mounted, I find ; but a 

 sting in its normal condition, before being 

 mounted (unless my Bausch & Lomb ob- 

 jective and Coddington lens are very much 

 at fault) is simply a fine-pointed instrument 

 like a cambric needle. As to the office of the 

 sting curing honey or capping the cells, I 

 have nothing to say, either pro or con. 



Eknest 



HCW TO HAVE GRAPES CONVENIENT 

 FOR BAGGING. 



ALSO HOW TO GET EAHI.IER AND BETTEK GK.iPES 

 ON THE MAUKET THAN ANYBODY ELSE. 



SHEADING your article on covering bunches of 



Qr grapes with paper, reminded me of what I 



|\ learned about raising- grapes fifteen years 



"*■ V ago. I had in view, changing my business 



and trying what I could do with bees and 



grapes. I thought that T nndei-stood bees well 



enough, but was not (juite so sure on grapes. So 



I made a tri|> of observation, starting at Kelley's 



Island, and then down the coast of Lake Erie to 



Buffalo. Not finding any thing new I went on to 



Geneva, N. Y.; and on the east shore of Seneca 



Lake T there found the first man who knew 



more than I did about the business. Then J found 



a vineyard of Catawba grapes ripe enough to go to 



