THi; mTmmmicmm mmm jO'Vimmmi^, 



831 



that business men ought to be careful 

 how they take up bee-keeping as a 

 I'ecreation. If they become so inter- 

 ested that they neglect their other 

 business, it is then "all day with 

 them." This is really a more serious 

 affair than one would suppose. " i," 

 said Mr. Taylor, •' got ui^on the hobbj-- 

 horse of bee-keeping, and couldn't gel 

 off, and nmo I don't want to get off." 



President Mason — I think that Mr. 

 Taylor is right. I have often thought, 

 although I have never before said it, 

 that I would have been better oti' if I 

 had never kept a bee. I think that the 

 warning of Mr. Taylor is appropriate. 



Uotlles tor Honey. 



R. McKnight showed some samples 

 of bottles for honey. Thej- were im- 

 ported ; none like tliem are made in 

 this country. One style is called the 

 "tie-over," because a parchment is 

 tied on the cork. Some of them had 

 screw tops. They varied in size from 

 one-half pound to 3 pounds. They 

 were almost unbreakable, as was shown 

 by the manner in which Mr. McKnight 

 kicked them about the platform, and 

 allowed them to be tumbled from the 

 table. He showed bottles tilled with 

 honey in 1888 that had never granula- 

 ted. The honey was heated to near 

 the boiling-point, then sealed up while 

 hot. He admitted that the llavor was 

 slightly affected by the heat. 



Swarniins: M''ithoiit Oroiies. 



"Do bees ever swarm before the 

 queen has laid any drone-eggs ?" was 

 asked. 



President Mason said "Yes;" and 

 gave this as a reason why he thought 

 that the use of wooden combs would 

 not prevent swarming. 



4Joiiibii>e<l Supers and Sliippins- 

 Ci-ates. 



•' Can honey be produced in the 

 same receptacle in which it is to be 

 shipped ?" 



E. R. Root — It can, but it is scarcely 

 advisable. 



R. L. Taylor — I have two brothers 

 (farmers) who produce honey in this 

 manner, and secure nearly as much in 

 price as those who clean and crate 

 their honey. 



The convention then adjourned un- 

 til 1:30 p.m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 1:30 p.m. 



Mr. Ivar S. Young, of Christiana, 

 Norway, sent a sample case of honey 

 to be shown at the convention. If the 

 sample sent is a fair production of the 

 honey of that country, the inhabitants 

 have no need to be ashamed of it. It 

 is verj- light in quality, and very ele- 

 gant in flavor. Considerable time was 



taken up in inspecting this honej', after 

 which the thanks of the association 

 were tendered Mr. Young for the 

 honor he conferred upon them in send- 

 ing the samples of honey to the con- 

 vention, ami that the Secretarj- for- 

 ward a copy of the resolutions to Mr. 

 Young. 



The Convention then listened with 

 delight to the reading of an essaj' Isy 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, illustrated with col- 

 ored charts, upon the 



Alimentai-)' Apparatus of Uees. 



If there be truth in the doctrine of organic 

 inertia, and if modification of organs and 

 organisms has risen wholly, or iu part, 

 through impringemeut upon their surround- 

 ings, then for the maximum of differentia- 

 tion, we should look to organs and organ- 

 isms most used, or those most important in 

 the organic economy. 



Nutrition is the great function of animal 

 life. To secure and prepare the food is the 

 chief worlj, at least of all the lower forms 

 of animal life. We should expect them to 

 find differentiation most marked in such or- 

 gans as are useful iu procuring the daily 

 bread. Among insects, the legs, wings and 

 alimentary organs are the real weapons iu 

 this important work of "bread winning." 

 In bees, where the habits are so marvellously 

 varied, we should expect a marvellous 

 variation or modification in these organs — 

 nor would we be disappointed. I think we 

 would hardly except man himself, in the 

 remark that nowhere in the whole animal 

 kingdom, do we find more interesting aud 

 startling structural developments than are 

 to be found in our study of the honey-bee. 



Two years ago, at the Chicago meeting 

 of this association, I showed how vividly 

 this is illustrated in the modification of the 

 legs. The modified-hairs, antennae-cleaner, 

 wax-jaws, pollen baskets, and pulvilli are 

 marvels of structural modification, for the 

 attainment of specific purposes. The func- 

 tional complexity of the legs of these in- 

 sects, is only equalled by thei)' marvellous 

 development aud structural differentiation. 



In this essaj-, I wish to explain the anat- 

 omy aud physiology of the alimentary sys- 

 tem of the tiee. In the tongue, and diges- 

 tive system of this insect, we find a struc- 

 tural modification even more surprising 

 than that of the legs, equally, if not more, 

 marvelous than is to Vie found iu any other 

 organic structures. 



In this essay I shall confine myself to a 

 discussion of the tongue, the glands, the 

 stomach, mouth, honey-stomach, and true 

 stomach. 



It is a curious fact that long and familiar- 

 ly as the bee has Iieen known, yet in all the 

 descriptions no one has rightly under- 

 stood the bee's tongue. I know not a sin- 

 gle discription that is entirely accurate. 

 Many of our latest writers are not as cor- 

 rect as was the grand old master Swammer- 

 dam. Even the last editor of the admir- 

 able Encyclopedia, Brittanica, is wholly 

 wrong. It says (Vol. Ill, page 485), "It is 

 not tuljular, as Swammerdaiu had sup- 

 posed, but solid throughout, and the minute 

 depression at the extremity is not the aper- 

 ture of any canal through which liquid can 

 be absorbed. It performs strictly the office 

 of a tongue, aud not a tube for suction." 

 Every statement in this paragraph is en- 

 tirely untrue. 



The bee's tongue is a double tube. The 

 inner or central tube of the tongiie is per- 

 forated at the end, and through this, nectar 

 is drawn from tubular flowers. This tube 

 is slitted. too, near the end, on the under 

 side, and the edges of this rigid slit are 

 united with the corresponding edges of the 

 outer tube by a somewhat folded mem- 



brane. The length of the tongue varies 

 from .23 to ,26 of an inch. It is longer iu 

 the yellow than in the black races. 



At the base of this double cylinder, just 

 anterior to where the ligula joins the men- 

 turn, the central tube opens by a short slit 

 on its up]>cr side. By holding bees by the 

 wings, aud permitting them to sip colored 

 liquids, and then by cutting off their heads 

 while still sipping, it is easy to learn just 

 how they sip. When they have access to a 

 large drop of nectar, they not only draw 

 the liquid through the central tube, but 

 also through a much larger extemporized 

 tube, formed by approximating their max- 

 illte. This is the way they suck the honey 

 from such bountiful sources as the linden, 

 where a single colony of bees may store 15 

 pounds in a daj'. 



In case the nectar is at the bottom of long 

 coroUa-tulies, then the bee can only use the 

 small central tube, and must sip very 

 slowly. Again, in case the nectar is spread 

 out thin on any surface, the bee can throw 

 the central tube out by tightening the fold- 

 ed membrane, and, by parting the slit, can 

 draw^ in and lap up the spread-out liquid. 

 This is also a slow process. 



The outer tube is imperforate at the end, 

 and by filling this with blood the tongue is 

 speedily elongated. Thus the tongue is ex- 

 tended by the action of the muscles, aided 

 liy this protrusive force of the nutritive 

 fluid which is also forced into the tongue by 

 muscular action. 



Connected with the digestive apparatus, 

 are three pairs of glands. The upper head- 

 glands are high up in the head cavity, and 

 in structure, resemble a compound leaf, or 

 the meibomian glands in our own eye lids; 

 that is, a central tube receives the ducts 

 from numerous follicles. These main ducts . 

 empty one on each side at the base of the 

 mouth. 



Below the glands just mentioned are the 

 lower head-glauds. These are compound, 

 racemose glands, and empty into a long 

 duct, which also receives the ducts from a 

 second pair of similar glands located in the 

 thorax. The common duct from these four 

 glands empties just at the position of the 

 slit at the base of the ligula, just where any 

 secretion could be best poured into aud 

 mixed with the stream of nectar that might 

 be drawn through the tongue iu any of the 

 three ways already mentioned. 



The function of these glands has, I think, 

 been misunderstood in part, by even such 

 authorities as Leuckart aud Schieraenz. 

 They think that the upper head-glands 

 secrete the larval food. I feel sure that this 

 is wrong. I lielieve they secrete the s.tliva 

 of bees, a substauco analogous to our own 

 saliva, in that it is mixed with the pollen 

 or bee-bre.ad, aud renders it soft and plas- 

 tic. More than this, I think the secretion 

 from the glands doubtless furnish the 

 ferment which aids to digest the pol- 

 len or albuminous food of the bees. The 

 fact that the nurse or young bees furnish 

 chyle or digested food to no\n-ish the thou- 

 sands of larvie of each hive, and also to 

 feed the queen and the drones, explains 

 why these glands are so large in the nurse- 

 bees. 



My reasons for this view are, that the 

 mouths of the ducts on the bee's mouth are 

 just where they should be ; the large size of 

 the glands in the nurse-bees is also in har- 

 mony with this view, and e.xcept for this 

 secretion we cannot explain the deglutition 

 of the pollen. 



The function of the secretion from the 

 other four glands is without doubt to digest 

 nectar of flowers. As is well known, this 

 nectar is neutral, and contains cane sugar. 

 Honey is acid, aud contains reducible 

 sugar. Thus honey is digested nectar, and 

 the secretion fi'om the large racemose 

 glands of the l)ee is the agent which effects 

 this transformation. The common duct 

 from these glands empties just where the 



