218 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



they otherwise would have been. In 

 this observation, although there could 

 not possibly have been more than 24 

 hours' difference between the laying 

 of the first and the last egg, there 

 was about two days and a half be- 

 tween the hatching of the first and 

 the last drone. 



It is quite interesting to watch the 

 different actions of just hatched work- 

 ers and drones. The worker, true 

 to her name and office, begins to 

 crawl over the combs as if to feel her 

 legs, stops occasionally to clean her- 

 self up, and before long helps herself 

 to honey from an open cell. The 

 drone, on the contrary, is a born de- 

 pendant. His first ' act is to touch 

 the nearest worker he can reach with 

 his flexible antennae, and, begging to 

 be fed, he is at once supplied with 

 honey disgorged from the proboscis 

 of his attentive nurse. And so he 

 goes on all his life, seeming to prefer 

 to be fed, although perfectly able, if 

 needs be, to help himself. 



A very bad name has always been 

 given the drone. Virgil has his fling 

 at him, stigmatizing him as having 

 no proper office in the economy of 

 the hive — seeking only to devour the 

 stores which he had no share in col- 

 lecting. I wonder what the poet 

 thought he was made for ! or, as he 

 says that the bees collected their 

 young from the flowers, being too 

 chaste to breed them, what motive he 

 could have thought they had to 

 gather in such useless consumers ! 

 Aa:id yet without any special pleading 

 how much can be said in his defence ! 

 It is only too evident that his pro- 

 boscis is too short to suck honey from 

 the flowers ; that his legs have no 



pollen baskets ; and that he can se- 

 crete no wax. Great as his bulk is, 

 he has no sting, and can do nothing 

 for the defence of the common- 

 wealth ; but then, without him that 

 commonwealth could have no exist- 

 ence. The sole object of his life 

 seems to be, at the proper time, to 

 fertilize the young queen — and this 

 he is always ready to do. Now why 

 should we blame any creature which 

 fulfils the special object of its crea- 

 tion ? And yet I fear me in spite of 

 all that can so justly be said in his 

 favor, our poor drone will always be 

 cited as an incorrigibly idle reprobate, 

 who meets with only his just deserts 

 when after a life of pleasure he is 

 killed without mercy by the indus- 

 trious workers. He will always be 

 known as Shakespeare's "lazy yawn- 

 ing drone." 

 Oxfoi-d, Ohio. 



\_To be continued.'] 



FOREIGN NOTES. 



Bv Arthur Todd. 



Camphor is well known as a pre- 

 servative against moths in furs and 

 cloth, also against mildew. From 

 Russia we learn that Mr. Ossipow 

 has been applying this substance as 

 a remedy in cases of Foul Brood. 



One spring he found he had two 

 hives infected : one very badly,another 

 slightly. He wrapped up in a piece 

 of rag a piece of camphor the size of 

 a walnut and placed one on the floor 

 board inside each hive. Soon after- 

 wards he noticed that the first hive 



