20 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



queens, since it will do away with some of tlie 

 objections made to the plan above described. 



The diagram will at once show how the 

 whole is arranged, when in use. It will be 

 seen that there is no chapce for the queen to be 

 lost, when tlie Citcher is once placed in work- 

 ing condirion. with the wire tube entering the 

 case and box. She must pass into the box, as 

 she goes out to meet the drones. The wire case 

 encloses the comb on which tlie young queen is 

 found, upon the fouith d.iy after she leaves the 

 queen cell. If a comb is also encased with 

 choice drones, in the s ime manner as for secur- 

 ing the queen, we can, by the same arrange- 

 ment, have the choice drones pass into the same 

 box — there being no chance for the drones to 

 become mixed after being selected and confined 

 in the case. An aperture is made at the lower 

 front corner of the wire case, to receive the 

 wire tube, as it stands in the hive or nucleus 

 box. 



Jewel Davis. 



Charleston, III. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Justice. 



Mn. Edtor:— In your May number Mr. 

 Walter Hewson, of England, among other 

 questions, says : 



" Tne Irtst question, though la^t is not least, 

 do we not all hold ourselves indebted to Mr. 

 Langstrolh ? Is he not tlie Father of modern 

 hives and the Prince ot modern Apiarians ? A 

 correspondent wrote some time back that we 

 owe him a dr-bt not only of g-alitude but of cash/ 

 Brother beekeepers, if this is so, (and it really 

 »•(), should we nut find a pleasure in attempting 

 to liquidate that debt ?" 



I desire to tliank Mr. Hewson for the gener- 

 ous feeling which prompted him to speak thus. 

 1 appreciate ii all the more, Coming as it does, 

 from an entire stranger, and being in such wide 

 Cofitrawt with the treatment I have received 

 from many of my own countrymen; some of 

 ■whom, atier profiling largely by my invention, 

 have not scrui)led either lo withhold as far as 

 posiible, any proper acknowledgment ot th-ir 

 obligations, or tempted others to use illeg«lly 

 my inveuvion ; and others s'ill have for years 

 denounced me as attempting to palm otf foreign 

 inventions as my own. 



If, however, I should allow Mr. Hewson's 

 question to pass without any comment, I should 

 ao the greatest injury to the celebrated Prussian 

 Bee Muster, Dzierzon ; who, by his di-covery 

 of the parthenogenesis in bees, has thrown a 

 fl )nd of light on points peitaining to their repro- 

 d iction -which puzzled the profound intellect 

 of Aristotle, and eluded the pitience and en- 

 tlmaiasm of a Swammerdam, a Reaumur, au'l a 

 Uuber. No true heal ted beekeeper can fail to 

 put the laurel crown upon the brow of Dzieizou, 

 and hail h m as fuciie princeps (our chief com- 

 mander) in the strife of thousands of years. 



While by this great discovery he has placed 

 bimself at ilie head of all, I may perhaps be par- 



doned for quoting from your letter, December 

 24th, 1852, published in the first edition (1858) 

 of my work on the honey bee : 



" You may certainly claim equal credit with 

 Dzierzon for originality in observation and dis- 

 covery in the natural history of the honey bee,* 

 and for success in deducing principles and de- 

 vising a most valuable system of management 

 from observed facts. But in invention, as far 

 as neatness, compactness, and adaptation of 

 means to ends are cone rned, the sturdy Ger- 

 man must yield the palm to you." 



It is with increasing reluctance that I am 

 compelled so o ten »o obtrude upon the public, 

 my claims and the various ways in which they 

 iiave been ignored by many beekeepers ; but if 

 your readers feel under obligation to me for the 

 invention of a hive which has confessedly given 

 a new impulse to beeculture, I can easily show 

 some of them a way in which they can do me 

 justice. Let them read my article in this num- 

 ber, "Reply to B. C. Auchampaugh's ques- 

 tions about Patent Rights and Claims," also the 

 advertisement of L. L. Laniistroth & Son, 

 showing what territory in the extended patent 

 is still controlled by them. If they are using 

 any style of hive c'early covered by my claims, 

 (see page 152 of the 8th number, volume 4, of 

 Bbe Journal), no matter of whom they may 

 have purchased the patent, they are using my 

 property for which they have paid me no equiv- 

 alent. Our advertisement will show them how 

 they can do us jus' ice. 



It is true that the larger part of the most Tal- 

 uable territory, has passed out of our hands ; 

 belonging now to Mr. R. C. Otis, of Kenosha, 

 Wiscons n, who by his untiring energy has per- 

 haps done more than any other person to intro- 

 duce thC' movable frame primiple to the public, 

 and who has not yet received any adequate re- 

 muneration for tiie lime, money, and enerfj 

 which, since 1856, he has devoted to this busi- 

 ness ; but like myself, i» a poorer man for all he 

 has done. 



L. L. Langstrots, 



Oxford, Butler Co., Omo, June 10, 1889. 



»Mr. Wagner doe' Dot seem to have appreciated Um 

 value of Dzlerzon'i discoveiy of parthenogeuesli. 



J^fOur remark was not meant to embrace partiitno- 

 yenesis- a matter tlien ?tlll controverieU bymany«mt- 

 nent phy lolo^Ms. The expression ihui happens to b» 

 broader than u ghou'd have been. At a not much later 

 period, the language would certainly have lt>e«:n so mudV 

 tied as to acc.rd Uue credit to Dzierzon for hia d»- 

 covery.— Ed. 



Madame Vicat says, "moths are most ready 

 to attack hives whi*h havei swarmed often* r 

 than once; bee .use in them tue combs, in 

 V hich the young queen bi es were reared, being 

 empty, serve both for shelter and food to thotf 

 magijots, which feed only on wax." 



Nature has endowed bees with an exquisite 

 sense of smeil, for they can scent hone/ and 

 wax at a great distance. 



