AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



705 



can fully substantiate my claim, that 

 wit/i Wiethe black bees have been more 

 profitable than the Italians. 



As I glance over the numerous articles 

 in the various bee-papers upon this sub- 

 ject, I am greatly amused. One writer 

 says this : " I will concede that the 

 black bees cap their honey whiter ;" 

 another says they swarm less ; another, 

 that they sting less; another will re- 

 luctantly admit that they are superior 

 in this, another in that ; and when I 

 come to sum the matter all up, I find 

 that all of the valuable qualities have 

 been conceded to the black bees. 



Now, my claims for them are just 

 these : They winter better in New 

 Hampshire, cap their honey whiter, 

 swarm less ; they will work on any 

 flower, clover, or anything else, that any 

 other race of bees will work on. 



I care not what motive may be as- 

 cribed to my defense of my favorite 

 bees, I believe in time to come they will 

 be regarded in a very different light 

 than they now are. 



I would like to see Mr. A. E. Manum 

 or some other well known breeder, give 

 them the same careful attention that 

 they give their Italians, and note the 

 result. Before condemning them 

 further, why not breed them for their 

 good qualities, and see what can be done 

 with them ? 



Groveton, N. H. 



Laying Workers, Coiitraclion, Etc. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



I remember that the editor once sug- 

 gested that some of the Queries in the 

 American Bee Journal were excellent 

 topics for articles, especially such as 

 could not be fairly treated in the short 

 space allotted in the Query Department, 

 and in cases where misapprehension oc- 

 curs. 



What a tanglement and misunder- 

 standing we get into concerning workers 

 becoming fertilized (page ill), all be- 

 cause of the improper use of words. 

 Some of the respondents said that 

 workers were incapable of being ferti- 

 lized; then what have we meant all 

 these years past by the term "fertile 

 worker ?" What does " fertile " mean ? 



Productive soil is fertile soil ; it 

 means productive and not impregnated. 

 Worker-bees do at certain times become 

 fertile, what fertilizes them I do not 

 know, but they change from workers to 



egg-layers, and are probably fertilized 

 by a change of food. 



Some of us, however, used, the word 

 " fertilized" in two different meanings 

 in the same sentence. 



Prof. Cook, a very good authority on 

 this subject, seems to come nearer com- 

 prehending the querist's meaning than 

 did the rest of us, yet he was puzzled, all 

 from our habit of the improper use of 

 words. 



When we who responded came to see 

 all the answers, we all very quickly com- 

 prehended the source from which the 

 obscurity arose. lu the future let us all 

 be careful to use words properly.* 



CONTRACXrNG THE BROOD-CHAMBER. 



Query 814 is about contracting the 

 brood-chamber. Each one of us told 

 what we thought about results, and I 

 think it would be a good plan for some 

 of us to give the reasons why. 



One writer uttered a great and impor- 

 tant truth when he said that low grades 

 of honey were among the worst of 

 sweets, and that placing them upon the 

 market had done more to degrade our 

 product and cause the cry of "adultera- 

 tion " than all the adulterating that had 

 been done. You would be led to believe, 

 by some writers, that granulated sugar 

 was so bad and pernicious a sweet, as 

 compared with honey ; that every con- 

 sumer could instantly detect the least 

 particle of it in honey, when the facts 

 are that State and United States chem- 

 ists have made a gloomy fizzle with their 

 chemicals in attempting to detect adul- 

 teration in honey. 



The Washington fellows — the learned 

 gentlemen who have graduated from 

 some laboratory sufficient to tap the 

 people for nice, fat salaries — pronounce 

 Chas. F. Muth's bottled honey adulter- 

 ated. What bee-keeper believes that? 

 Not one, We all know Mr. Muth, and 

 by his works we know him better than 

 the chemicals of any chemist can tell 

 us. When the actions of chemicals fail 

 to tell the learned gentlemen whether 

 the honey they are analyzing is pure or 

 not (which is most of the time), they 

 have a method of guessing at it, and for 

 the guessing business they are assisted 

 by the label. When they read on Mr. 

 Muth's jars of pure honey, the word 

 "Cincinnati," they cried "Adulterated ! 

 the town is too big for pure honey, you 

 see !" But the facts still remain — the 

 American people care nothing for the 

 chemists, feeling wholly competent to 

 take care of, and judge for, themselves. 

 When they buy something which tastes 



