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499 



XIIODIAS «. I^E^V]»1A]\, 



EDITOR. 



VoinV. Ang, 10,1889. No. 32, 



All llie I^ong- August afternoon, 



The little drowsy stream 

 Whispers a melancholy tune, 

 As if It dreamed of June, 



And whispered in its dream. 



The thistles show beyond the brook 

 Dust on their down and bloom, 



And out of many a weed-growu nook 



The aster flowers look 

 With eyes of tender gloom. 



—Ameriecin Agriculturist. 



Ole J. Jlolinson writes us to send him 

 a pamphlet, but while he puts "Box 100 " in 

 one corner, fails to state what post-ofiBce, 

 county or State he receives his mail. We 

 must therefore wait for further information. 



Mr. Cowan, editor of the British Bee 

 Journal, has just removed Mrs. Cowan 

 from Switzerland to England, her health 

 having much improved. It will be remem- 

 bered tliat he lately brought her on a visit 

 to America on account of her ill-health, and 

 her many friends here will be pleased to 

 hear of her convalescence. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Cowan spend the month of August in Scot- 

 land, and September in Iceland, and will 

 then return to England for the winter. Mr. 

 Cowan writes that the weather in Europe 

 has been generally excellent for honey. 



• • # • ■ 



A I.,ittle Xliree-Vear>OI<I had the 



following experience with a bumble-bee re- 

 cently, as described by Mr. D. R. Rose- 

 brough, of Casey, Ills. : 



The other morning Mr. James Emley's 

 —Jittle three-year-old daughter was playing in 

 the dooryard, where a big bumble-bee was 

 working on somemorning glory bloom. The 

 little Miss thought that she would take the 

 iee in for a pet ; but she soon drnjiped it, 

 md went into the house crying, and said ■ 

 'Mamma, I caught a big, yellow bug, and 

 She dirty thing stuck a needle In my thumb." 



'■^■'■*- ' f^"— - ai 



Anollu^r !<$<i<-uiiiic IIInn<I«-i-. — 



The Medical SUnidnrd for June, 18S9, pub- 

 lished byG. P. Engelhard & Co., O'J Dear- 

 born St., Chicago, contains as a leader, an 

 article on "Embryology," by Edward C. 

 Spitzka, M. D., of New York. The learned 

 Doctor talks very knowingly of parthe- 

 nogenesis, or " virgin generation," (i. c, the 

 dnvelopment of living beings without a 

 father), and then adds: 



Bees, some butterflies, ants and wasps, 

 notoriously multiply their kind without 

 sexual congress. As a rule, the parthe- 

 nogenetic offspring are themselves incap- 

 able of lurther procreating their kind. 



But to this there are remarkable excep- 

 tions. The aphides multiply for many gen- 

 erations without the intervention of a male. 

 Weigenbergh has shown that the silk-moth 

 can be propagated as long as the male ele- 

 ment is permitted to act at every fourth 

 generation. The Artemia salma, a minute 

 crustacean living in saline springs, repro- 

 duces its kind for years without a male be- 

 ing present; males being produced at defi- 

 nite intervals only (v. Siebold). Among the 

 yertebrata parthenogenetic development 

 has also been observed, though rarely reach- 

 ing maturity. Thus segmentation occurs in 

 unfertilized ova of the chicken (Oellacher), 

 of the fish (Burnett and Agassiz), and of 

 frogs (Moquia-Tanden). The authorsawa 

 blastoderm form in unfertilized ova of the 

 toad-fish (Batachus tau). 



The Doctor then proceeds to prove " that 

 even the human ovum is capable of parthe- 

 nogenetic development," and declares that 

 "embryology, while declaring immaculate 

 generation improbable, does not pronounce 

 it impossible." However reasonable this 

 may be, the learned physician is unfortunate 

 in the following which he adduces as proof 

 of the proposition : 



A worker-bee is a highly-organized creat- 

 ure, with a well developed brain, wonder- 

 ful sense organs, intricate muscular appara- 

 tus, and yet it is an offspring of unimpreg- 

 nated queen-bee. What is a regular occur- 

 rence in one class of animals is sometimes 

 observed as an exceptional one in another 

 class. 



The astute Doctor oufflit to have 



known that a worker-bee is NOT " an 

 offspring of an unimpregnated queen-bee !" 

 Having made the subject of parthenogenesis 

 a study, it is inexcusable for him to make 

 such a blunder. An unimpregnated queen 

 is only capable of laying drone (male) eggs 

 —she is utterly powerless to reproduce her- 

 self, or to produce the worker-bees, which 

 are undeveloped females ! The worker- 

 bees are able, under certain circumstances, 

 to lay eggs, but as they are also incapable 

 of impregnation, such eggs produce only 

 males of doubtful use in the economy of 

 nature. 



glass, showing all the contents of the sec- 

 tion to the very best advantage possible. 



Wishing to learn at what price the grocer 

 retailed one-pound sections of honey, we 

 enquired, and was told that it was "30 cents 

 per box." We then remarked that it was a 

 fine specimen of wliat the bees could do in 

 their line of business, when the grocer, with 

 a knowing (?) smile, said, "Oh, yes, it's 

 nice honey, but then the comb Is mtinufac- 

 twcd ; at least tliat is what they tell me." 

 And just because "they tell me," the stupid 

 fellow believed it, and no doubt had so in- 

 formed customers concerning something of 

 which he did not have sense enough to know 

 that what " they tell " is not always the 

 truth. 



We at once informed the grocer that there 

 was no such thing as "manufactured comb," 

 and that it was utterly impossible and im- 

 practicable to make honey-combs and fill 

 them with honey ; also, that there is now, 

 .and has been for years, a standing reward 

 of 81,000 offered by Mr. A. I. Root, for a sin- 

 gle pound of manufactured comb honey. 

 We also have given him a copy of the Bee 

 JomtNAi, containing the denunciation of 

 the malicious falsehoods about honey, pub- 

 lished awhile ago by the Philadelphia Re- 

 cord and the Chicago Tribune and News ; 

 and which, we regret to be compelled to 

 record, neither of those metropolitan news- 

 papers have retracted, so far as we are 

 aware. It is almost discouraging to fight 

 such brazen misrepresentations, when such 

 leaders of public opinion as the daily news- 

 papers refuse to correct their slanderous 

 statements, when they have been shown 

 that their utterances were entirely wrong 

 and wholly unwarrantable. 



I(;noranceal>ont Comb Honey.— 



It is amazing to notice the amount of wilful 

 ignorance about comb honey that prevails 

 among those who should know the truth 

 concerning its production. We were forcibly 

 impressed with this fact recently, while 

 visiting a retail grocery in this city. Upon 

 the counter we discovered a beautiful sam- 

 ple section of new honey, whose pearly- 

 white and very even comb was encased with 



]%o Uiity on Imported Queen- 

 Bees.— An exchange has the following 

 item relative to a package from Carniola, 

 Austria, containing queen-bees. The Cus- 

 tom House officials ought to know that there 

 is no duty on such. It says : 



Collector Anderson, of Portland, Maine, 

 received a notice from the post master at 

 Mechanic Falls, saying that a sealed pack- 

 age had arrived there from Upper Carniola, 

 Austria. It was marked "Supposed liable 

 to custom duties." From the buzzing sound 

 inside the package the post-master judged 

 that it contained a queen-bee. According 

 to the regulations, he notified the nearest 

 collector of customs. Collector Anderson 

 has instructed him to open the package, and 

 if it contains nothing but a queen-bee, to 

 deliver it as addressed. Queen-bees are not 

 subject to duty. 



Bro. Mason should teach the post-master 

 at Mechanic Falls. Maine, not to be too offi- 

 cious. He ought to know that queen-bees 

 are admitted into America free of duty. If 

 it is news to him, then he will learn some- 

 thing. 



Bees are not transmitted through the malls 

 to all foreign countries from America as 

 yet, but a proposition is pending which. If 

 adopted, will admit thein to the malls ex- 

 changed between all the countries of the 

 Universal Postal Union. We will give 

 timely notice to our readers whenever that 

 matter is accomplished. 



