THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



77 



tides actually within the egg (eometimes as 

 inauy as a dozen, if I mistake not) and the 

 little hole provided for thorn to enter is so 

 small that in pushing one, three, or a dozen 

 through, very probably live times as many 

 more were dabbed on the outside of the egg 

 to dry up. Then we are to consider that a 

 queen is capable of doing this to each of 

 nearly a million eggs. The thing got too 

 heavy to carry after awhile ; and, if I am 

 right, the leading thinkers of apiculture now 

 mostly hold that the queen receives, not her 

 whole supply, but a moderate stock to begin 

 on, of these curious little particles — the par- 

 ticles multiplying in the spermatheca as 

 needed. If the new theory is true the quan- 

 tity of the original stock is of little account, 

 except for a few days at first, but the quality 

 of the original supply is greatly important. 

 If the old theory is right, then indeed the 

 queen with a scanty supply is useless, except 

 as mother to another queen which might in- 

 herit any particular excellences in the way 

 of quality. 



According to his own wording, Willie is 

 not quite .sure that all the queens mated with 

 fertile worker drones. I take it he would 

 have been still more in doubt about it had 

 not the experimental queens laid too many 

 drone eggs in worker cells. This seemed to 

 be the only abnormal thing he noticed about 

 them. I hope these queens are not all de- 

 stroyed, but that we may hear of their be- 

 havior next season. 



An experiment on an island next year is in 

 contemplation ; but it will cost quite a sum 

 in cash, besides the time, and " chipping in" 

 is suggested. Gleanings leads off with live 

 dollars. If all thought as I do about it, it 

 would do to say, how many will give double 

 price fer one queen of best stock positively 

 fertilized by a worker drone — instead of say- 

 ing, how many will give a dollar toward the 

 cost of the experiment ? (Mr. Alley of 

 course need not be cut oft from offering a 

 hundred dollars for one.) 



Gleanings. 



Let me see, what kind of paint did I put 

 on Gleanings the last time she was in dry 

 dock ? Whatever coating got put on for 

 some of the promising writers seems to have 

 peeled off since. Was going to name John 

 Smith as a "peel-offer :" but Jake, after 

 sleeping in his bunk for many months, has 

 been on deck quite recently. But if there is 

 a little peeling off occasionally, Gleanings is 

 the same nice ship — same assortment of 



captains and pilots, and same boa's'n. And 

 she rides the waves of the hard times cy- 

 clones a little easier than any other craft. 

 No other seems to be saying ' Eight pages 

 extra this time." The editorial work in the 

 line of travel notes and interviews keeps well 

 up, if not expanding a little in space. Friend 

 Norman seems to be the new ' middy ;" with 

 more frequent hearings from friends France 

 and Dayton. Portrait publishing, which 

 had declined a little, is being revived. The 

 opening number of the year has two excel- 

 lent portraits ; and the persons are people of 

 general interest whose pictures have not been 

 trotted around much, if at all. They are 

 John T. Calvert of A. I. Root & Co., and N. 

 E. France of E. France & Son. And putting 

 foot-notes of the Gleanings variety on the 

 straws gives an added vivacity to the first 

 page of late. 



Now we have something positive about the 

 very chap we have up for special investiga- 

 tion, the fertile worker. From a hive where 

 worker laying was in vogue 98 workers were 

 dissected under the microscope. Well de- 

 veloped eggs were found in twenty of them. 

 So it is not the case that just one worker sets 

 up as a fraudulent queen. Dr. Marchal in 

 Apiculteur (per straw in Gleanings, 7.) 



" A board can twist, no matter if an iron cleat 

 be immovably fixed on each end." Dr. Miller, 

 (ileanings, 11. 



This is auent the flat, single board cover. 

 Like the stars in their courses this truth is 

 likely to fight against that popular fixture, 

 until it declines from popularity to unpop- 

 ularity, and from that to extinction. 



Friend Foppleton samples our credulity 

 by telling that two tablespoonfuls of pine- 

 apple juice, allowed to besoak a pound of 

 very tough beef for a few minutes before 

 cooking, will make the resultant steak so 

 tender that it will begin to crumble before 

 your teeth fairly get hold of it. Gleanings, 

 l.'j. I'm thinking pineapples will begin to 

 rise soon. 



Against our own wish, and will, and pre- 

 judice, how we get drifted by the opinions of 

 our fellow men sometimes ! Ernest, at the 

 France's, found the junior France still at- 

 tached (in theory) to the two story shot-tow- 

 er hive, with its 40 inches of perpendicular 

 comb ; but the hives themselves had all got 

 down to one story of 20 inches. Gleanings, 17. 



A nice putty, made of air slacked lime and 

 pine tar, is the thing to transform carpenter 

 work into water-tight work, says John Y. 

 Detwiler. Reliable, and dries very quickly ; 



