266 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



but not as mucli as the other remaiinnff 39, 

 and they had hut little l)rood— onlv'ime 

 little patch hi each liive. Tlie temperature 

 was 40° above zero during tlie first niontli, 

 and then it fell to 30= aiid 3S» above, and 

 continued so until \vithiu tour davs before 

 I put tlieui out. Four out of the 40" starved; 

 they had consumed far more honey then 

 those in the cave, and are not as strong in 

 numbers, and some of them showed signs 

 of dian-hea. The 46 colonies were some- 

 what distm-bed when taking in and out 

 the 40 colonies from the burned bee-liouse. 



Nearly all the liees in this vicinity that 

 were left on the suunner stands ai-e"dead. 

 I find that sugar s.\Tup is a better winter 

 food than honey, as tlie bees do not eat as 

 much of it on account of not liking it so 

 well. I have experimented in this in 

 himting bees ; they would leave the sugar 

 sjTup and go to the flowers, butthev would 

 not leave the honey and do so. This may 

 account tor the sli'm bodies of bees which 

 are wuitered on sugar syrup. 



Thielmantou, Minn. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



The Imperfections of Nature. 



AI.LKN rKIXGI.K. 



On page 166, Mr. Joshua Bull takes ex- 

 ception to some of niv positions in a pre- 

 vious article on page 73. Mr. B. considers 

 Nature to be quite perfect in her laws, 

 operations and methods, and looks upon 

 the honey-bee, especially, as being per- 

 fectly unerring in its instincts and works. 



In my article referred to, I gave one in- 

 stance out of many which have come un- 

 der my observation, showing the erring 

 instinct of the honey-bee. From the facts 

 given, Mr. B. draws a conclusion just 

 opposite to mine ; but he proves himself 

 a careless reader. I did not say what Mr. 

 B. ascribes to me, viz : that the old queen 

 that was being prematurely superseiled in 

 the spring, was "in the dumps in the cor- 

 ner " before the workers comnienced the 

 queen-cells. On the contrary. 1 said that 

 it was after the queen-cells were capped 

 over that the old (jueen was " in the 

 dumps," as we certainly would expect her 

 to be under such circumstances. When 

 the snow still covered the ground, and 

 the mercury was down near the freezing 

 point, a young queen, liiiding rivals nearly 

 hatched out in her own domicile, would 

 hardly take the matterphilosophically any 

 more tliaii the old one. 1 rejient, this was 

 a foolish, sliort-sighted, and suicidal piece 

 of business on the part of those bees, 

 amply demonstrating imperfect instinct. 



Mr. Bull thinks that 1 have "over- 

 reached myself, and have gone wide of 

 the mark" when I assert that "Nature 

 abounds .in monstrosities and imperfec- 

 tions." and that "we are continually im- 

 proving upon her works and methods." 

 He admonishes me in a most friendly and 

 fatherly manner not to be "too hasty in 

 my conclusions." Now, I beg to assure 

 Mr. Bull that the above conclusion has 

 been arrived at deliberately after 20 or 30 

 years of observation and study. When a 

 critic saj-s, "Come and let us reason to- 

 gether," as Mr. B. does, I get on friendly 

 terms with such an opponent at once, for 

 "reason" is my talisman and guiding star. 

 Not all, however, who aiipeal to Reason, 

 are either able to follow her, or willing to 

 loyally abide by her decisions. 



Mr. Bull says if any one can show him 

 wherein we are "continually improving 

 upon Nature's works and metliods," he 

 will then " render honor to whom honor 

 is due." He wants to know " what these 

 improvements are." and what the imper- 

 fections of Nature are. Now, the whole 

 space of a score of bee-papers would not 

 suffice to give Mr. B. what he calls for 

 here ; but just to give him a glimmer of 



light on this great subject, I may be per- 

 mitted to bring to his notice a few facts. 



First, as to tlie improvements : We 

 will glance at some instances in agricul- 

 tm-e and horticulture as well as apicul- 

 ture. It is an incontrovertible fact that 

 bees in their natural and wild state, domi- 

 ciled ill hollow trees, rotten logs, crevices 

 of the rocks, etc., will sumetimes swarm 

 3 or 4 times in the season, both seriously 

 weakening the parent colonies and com- 

 mitting the late swarms to almost certain 

 starvation during the following winter, as 

 the late swarms are frequently found in 

 their natural abodes, starved to death, 

 witliout a particle of honey. Now, this is 

 a case of the bees following their instinct 

 unmolested. It is Nature's " method ;" 

 but man, with his reason superior to in- 

 stinct, has improved upon this metliod by 

 preventing the " after-swarms or uniting 

 them and thus saving all. In many ways 

 does the intelligent apiarist modify and 

 improve the instincts and methods of the 

 bees by judicious breeding and manipula- 

 tion. 



If we look into apiculture and horticul- 

 ture, the instances of the intelligence of 

 man improving upon the methods of 

 Nature are obvious on every hand. Look, 

 for instance, at the different kinds of our 

 splendid horses under domestication, all 

 derived from a single, original inferior 

 type of horse. Look also at the variety 

 and superiority of our sheep at presen't 

 under domestication. In referring to 

 what has been accomplished by expert 

 breeders in improving sheep. Lord Somer- 

 ville says: "It would seem as if they 

 had chalked out upon a wall a form per- 

 fect in itself, and then had given it ex- 

 istence :" while Youatt remarks that tlie 

 breeder has power "not onlv to modify 

 the character of his flock, but to change it 

 altogether." It is the general opinion of 

 naturalists that all the ditlVrent breeds of 

 pigeons have been develoiicd from the 

 rock-pigeon (Columba livia). In the de- 

 partment of horticulture, we may note 

 the many kinds of apples which we now 

 have, so palatable to the taste ; and these 

 have, all through the application of this 

 science and art by man, been derived from 

 one original, inferior form of apple. So 

 also of potatoes, and to some extent of flie 

 grains. If these examples are not im- 

 provements by man upon the methods of 

 Nature, language lias no meaning. 



The "gad-fly" deposits its eggs upon 

 the limbs, shoulders, and flanks of our 

 horses, whence they find their way into 

 the animals' stomachs, where they de- 

 velop into hots, which frequently cause 

 the death of our most valuable horses. 

 Only the other day I saw a Mne brood- 

 mare, in her prime, die in great agony, of 

 hots, after two or three days' illness. We 

 made a post-mortem examination, and 

 found the passage-way between the duo- 

 denum and colon completely obstructed by 

 these creatures, and the stomach dis- 

 tended nearly to bursting, not being able 

 to pass its contents tlirougli the blockade 

 of bots. Four years ago I witnessed 

 another fine young horse drop in the har- 

 ness and die in less than five minutes. On 

 examination we found the stomach about 

 half full of bots, and tlie mucous mem- 

 brane nearly all gone, the stomach lieing 

 actually perforated to the outside in two 

 places. This, Mr. B., is Nature's metliod 

 of doing business. This is the way she 

 takes to propagate the "gad-fly" which 

 follows its instinct most faithfiVlly in de- 

 positing its eggs where the horse will lick 

 them into its stomach. It is, no doubt, a 

 good method, and a perfect method to 

 propagate the fly, but it is rather hard on 

 the poor animal and its owner. At any 

 rate the latter decidedly objects to such a 

 method, and sets liimself to thwart such 

 "perfection" (?) in Nature! He im- 

 proves upon Nature bv either destroying 

 the gad-fly, removing the eggs after they 



are deposited, or giving the grub a poison- 

 ous di'se in the stomach after it is hatched. 



The apple-tree borer, wliicli often de- 

 stroys our choicest trees, is hatched in the 

 bark from an egg deposited by the parent 

 beetle in strict accordance with its natural 

 instincts. This is Nature's method of 

 propagating the borer, but it is a bad one. 

 and man applies science and thwarts Na- 

 ture again. He improves upon her 

 method by improving the "knit" out of 

 existence with soap-suds or weak lye ap- 

 plied to the tree. There are some half- 

 dozen parasites (including the tape-worm) 

 which naturally infest the human body 

 and prey upon it. This is another of Na- 

 ture's methods ; and as Nature is all right; 

 and perfect. Mr. B., to be consistent, ought 

 not to attempt to dislodge any of^ these 

 parasitic friends which might happen to 

 take up quarters with him or in him. 

 Some 10 or 12 years ago the "Colorado 

 potato beetle," the natural food of which 

 consists of the vines of the potato, either 

 wild or domesticated, started from its- 

 haunts out near the Rocky Mountains, on 

 a pilgrimage eastward, and struck us here 

 in Canada about seven years ago, since 

 which, every year, we have been fighting 

 "his beetleship" either with turkey-gob- 

 blers or Paris green, in order to raise a 

 potato all. This is another of Nature's 

 choice metliods. The beetle lives, multi- 

 plies, and flourishes admirably on our 

 choicest vines ; but according to Mr. Bull's 

 philosophy, we ought to let him sit up 

 there on our potatoes and enjoy himself 

 witliout molestation. 



Talk of Nature being perfect ! Why, 

 tliere is scarcely an animal or plant in the 

 whole two kingdoms of Nature in wliich 

 some imperfection cannot he noted. Ani- 

 mals and plants abound witli imperfect 

 and useless organs, mo?tly rudimentary 

 and without any function— such as eyes, 

 legs, lungs, mammary glands, muscles, 

 teeth, wings, pistils, stamens, etc. There 

 are animals that live, in the dark with 

 blind eyes : the dugong has tusks that 

 never cut through the gums ; calves have 

 teeth in the upper jaw that never cut ; the 

 Guinea pig has teeth that are shed before 

 it is born ; the boa-constrictor has little 

 bones under the skin towards the tall 

 which are the mere rudiments of hin* 

 legs and a pelvis ; there are whales and 

 fishes with useless bones in the hinder 

 parts of tlieir bodies, wliicli seem to be 

 either intended for,or the remains of, hind 

 legs; in the "Aiiguis" worm there is a 

 set of shoidder-hnnes in the body, but no 

 legs attachiMl to them ; then there are the 

 "dangling horns " in some cattle, and the 

 "bastard wing" in some birds, and 

 numerous other imperfect and useless or- 

 gans, had I time and space to enumerate 

 them. 



Selby, Ont. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Disastrous Effects of Honey-Dew. 



7— A. D. STOCKING, (4). 



I can now make my report as to winter- 

 ing. 1 think that the past winter has 

 been the most disastrous one to bee-keep- 

 ers that has ever been experienced in this 

 country, and there will be a great deal of 

 speculation as to the causes of the great 

 losses, but I believe that if a careful ex- 

 amination and study of the conditions and 

 surroundings are made, that a satisfactory 

 solution to the problem will be arrived at; 

 and I fully believi" that where the follow- 

 ing conditions existed, that the losses 

 have been comparatively light, consider- 

 ing the extreme severity of the winter ; 

 viz : where the hives vpere full of bees, 

 plenty of good spring honey or sugar 

 syrup for stores, and where they were 

 kept dry and protected with chaii cush- 



