194 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to decamp, I looked about for something to af- 

 ford them shelter. In similar circumstances, we 

 might, in this country, use the side oi,; top of a 

 common packing box; but not so in France, 

 for there dry goods are usually baled up in 

 coarse bagging. Unfortunately customers were 

 waiting, and I had nothing suitable for the pur- 

 pose. Yet there was no time to lose. I 

 chanced to espy the cover of a large and deep 

 cistern, which was always kept full, though used 

 only in lye-time. In France, linen being abun- 

 dant, families generally wash their clothes in 

 lye, only two or three times a year. — To save 

 room the cistern had no stone curbing, and 

 hence I hesitated to let it remain uncovered; 

 but reflecting that there were no children there, 

 and deeming it highly improbable that anj^body 

 would be drowned at night in a corner of the 

 yard where no one had anything to do, I resolved 

 to carry the cover to my bees, determined to 

 take it back again as soon as possible. 



The apprehensions, which during the day 

 freciuently recurred to my mind, disturbed me 

 in my sleep next night. I dreamed that some- 

 body had fallen in the cistern. I heard his 

 groans, intermingled with the rippling of the 

 water. At last fear and pain became so poig- 

 nant that I awoke. The splashing of the water 

 still continued. I doubted whether I was quite 

 awake. I sat up on my bed in order to re- 

 collect n\ysclf. Then the noise ceased, and I 

 imagined that I had the nightmare. Again the 

 rippling was renewed for some seconds, ending 

 in a cry or rather sob choked in the throat by 

 the suifocating Avatcr. Doubt was no longer 

 possible — in my imprudence I had caused the 

 death of some one ; and frantically I imagined 

 the miserable condition of the wretched creature 

 whom the water had swallowed up. With 

 lightning speed a thousand thoughts flitted 

 through my brain, and set the hair on my head 

 on end. I rushed undressed out of my room, 

 ran shrieking, and knocked at every bedroom 

 door. My messmates, believing the house on 

 fire, were soon gathered at the scene — not one 

 •was missing. Our old servant, Francois, came 

 first to the rescue. We lowered his lantern in 

 the cistern, and saAV a big white cat floating in 

 the water ! She was in the habit of descending 

 by the watcrpipe from the high wall enclosing 

 the j'ard ; and not suspecting on this occasion 

 that the cover had been removed, took her ac- 

 customary leap, and landed in the water. Her 

 fall and death-struggle had caused all my terror. 

 The reader will readily imagine that the cistern 

 remained uncovered no longer. 



Hamilton, III. Chas. Dadant. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The French socialist, C. Fourier, whose 

 genius comprehended at once the greatest 

 schemes as well as the smallest ameliorations, 

 besought the nations, some sixty years ago, to 

 organize industrial armies for the purpose of 

 piercing the Isthmus of Suez and of Panama. 

 In the same work he reproached naturalists 

 for occupying themselves principally with dry 

 nomenclatures, and subordinating thereto the 

 interests of practical science. In support of his 

 position he quoted their inability to find, either 



a kind of bees with a proboscis or tongue long 

 enough to gather honey from the blossoms of 

 red clover — thus allowing it to evaporate dailj'; 

 or to discover a species of red clover with so 

 short a corolla as to permit the bees to reach the 

 honey within. 



The accounts so discrepant published in the 

 Bee Journal, respecting the red clover and 

 Italian bees, led me to remember the work re- 

 ferred to above, and to think that the contrarie- 

 ty of statement on so plain a subject may be 

 caused by an accidental difference in the length 

 of that flower's corolla. This difference may 

 result either from differences in soil or season, 

 or may be the effect of some specific variation 

 become fixed in the very flower. This matter 

 can be elucidated by the bee-keepers, whose 

 bees are seen gathering freely on the red clover. 

 For this purpose let them carefully gather some 

 seeds, when ripened, from clover blossoms on 

 which the bees were seen to be busily foraging ; 

 and send those seeds to be sown in localities 

 where bees were never seen gathering honey 

 from such flowers. If the shortness of the cor- 

 olla be thus ascertained to have become a per- 

 manent characteristic, (and we daily witness 

 greater changes in cultivated plants), it would 

 be easy for the community of bee-keepers spread 

 throughout the United States, and who are for 

 the most part agriculturists also, to substitute 

 everywhere the short corolla clover for the long, 

 and thus introduce in the country a new and 

 valuable source of sweet income. 



Hamilton, III. Chas. Dadant. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



ChaBge of Progeny. 



Last year, as well as this year, I had several 

 bastard Italian s'ocks of honey bees, whose 

 queens gave birth to a predominant Italian 

 progeny, in their earlier i:»eriod of life ; but in 

 the second summer of tlieir existence, their 

 progeny was almost exclusively joure black 

 bees. A similar change was noticed by Dzier- 

 zon, and Berlepsch (Bee Journal, Volume 1, 

 page 18). Can any bee-keeper explain this? 

 If the sperm of the drone is preserved in the re- 

 ceptaculum seminis of the ciueen, and absorbed 

 gradually during oviposition, should we not 

 expect that the progeny of a queen fecundated 

 by a common drone, would be all alike during 

 her lifetime ; and if any change was probable, 

 should we not rather expect that the Italian, 

 blood would predominate in the progeny of a 

 bastardized Italian queen, during the latter 

 part of her life, rather than the contrary? Has 

 any naturalist ever ascertained, by means of 

 the microscope, whether one- fourth, or one-half, 

 or three-fourths of the contents of a regular 

 fertile queen's spermatheca, was used up in the 

 course ot one or two years ? A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wis. 



The experience of later times has taught that 

 bees are best jirescrved in winter, by a general 

 restraint from the open air; that they may pass 

 the time of no gain in sleep and slumber, with 

 little waste. — Butler. 



