1907.] THE AMERICAN 



HISTORICAL NOTES OF BEE- 

 KEEPING IN ANCIENT 



ROME. 



PROF. BURTON N. GATES. 



Marcus Terentius Varro. i66 to 27 



B. C. 



BEE-KEEPER. 



173 



FROM THE ABLEST and the 

 most learned of the Romans, 

 one who has to his credit some 

 74 books, of which but two remain to 

 us in part today, we are able to gather 

 a few isolated facts relative to the con- 

 ditions of bee-keeping in Rome before 

 Christ. Like all the early writers, 

 Varro was a collaborator more than 

 an investigator. His writings reflect 

 the thoughts of those centuries before 

 him; but we trust that the reflection is 

 not so antiquated as in some writings 

 of the present day, which profess to be 

 truth and nearly original. It is little 

 credit to a nation's literature to accept 

 as truth unquestioned and untested, 

 someone's statement years outdated. 

 There has been too much of that, in 

 the bee press. We have read in books 

 not a century old, supposed truths 

 fortunately now disproved, which ap- 

 pear in Varro's writing. They have 

 thus penetrated down to modern times, 

 have persisted near two thousand years 

 and goodness knows how long before 

 Varro's time. 



Among things of comparatively re- 

 cent recognition, Varro realized the 

 role of the queen as mother of the 

 colony, but at the same time confused 

 her supposed control and rule over 

 the hive with the male sex, as was 

 customary at the time. 



He recommends the planting of nec- 

 tar-yielding plants, the re-queening of 

 dwindling stocks, care in the spring 

 that the strong do not rob the weak, 

 and constant care that the stocks are 

 healthy. Is this not imperative and 

 pertinent today? Expressed in the 

 ancient style, Varro says, "the symp- 

 toms of health are these; 'If there are 

 many in a swarm and if they are clean, 

 and if their work is even and polished. 

 In purchasing the buyer must see 

 whether they are healthy or sickly." 



As these things are modern in tone, 

 there are also ideas which are as 

 curiously ancient and absurd. For 

 instance, speaking of the origin of 

 bees, Varro recognized that they are 

 produced from their kind and "from 

 the putrified carcas of an ox; and thus 

 .A.rchileaus says, "Wasps are the off- 



spring of horses and bees proceed 

 from a bullock." It is peculiar the way 

 this view of bee genesis persisted, for 

 it was not until the middle of the 17th 

 century that it was completely demon- 

 strated that bees proceed from bees 

 as do other things from their kind. 



We gain little idea of the extent of 

 bee culture or of the methods; but may 

 conclude that since the art was impor- 

 tant enough for Varro to write about, 

 it must needs have been an important 

 industry. 



Worcester, Mass. 



^ » » 



DOCTORS IN BEE CULTURE 

 DISAGREE. 

 H. F. COLEMAN IN SOUTHERN AGRI- 

 CULTURIST. 



In minor matters pertaining to bee- 

 keeping it sometimes happens that the 

 best informed disagree. Instances of 

 this kind will be found in the follow- 

 ing: In the Knoxville Sentinel of 

 Saturday, March 2, 1907, Prof. T. C. 

 Karns, a very clear and concise writer 

 and master in the art of bee-keeping, 

 judging from his writings, says: 

 "When you have enough colonies and 

 want to keep your bees from swarm- 

 ing, it may be necessary to go through 

 the hives and destroy all queen cells. 

 Without new queens, of course, there 

 can be no more swarms." 



If the professor, in this statement, 

 has reference to what is known as 

 after-swarms he is eminently correct, 

 and if he has reference to swarming 

 in general he is in error. When bees 

 contract the swarming fever they be- 

 gin to erect queen cells, and in about 

 nine days the first of these cells are 

 capped over, and if the honey flow 

 continues and the weather is favorable 

 a prime swarm will issue, the old 

 queen going out with it. 



This is what I call normal swarm- 

 ing, and I have found out by actual 

 experience that when the swarming 

 fever is once contracted, as is indicated 

 by the presence of queen cells, the 

 bees will swarm in spite of all that 

 can be done in the way of cutting out 

 the cells, provided, of course, that 

 there is an old or fertile queen to go 

 out with the swarm, and the conditions 

 above mentioned are favorable. I have 

 tried cutting out the cells time and 

 again to prevent prime swarms, and 

 have never found that it did the least 

 bit of good — the bees would swarm in 

 about nine days after beginning the 



