1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



219 



I in town he will very likely have it. 

 Then, incidentally, the family be- 

 come partners in its consumption, 

 and the children, at least, demand 

 more. 



Who has the best of the argu- 

 ment? Let the reader judge. 



"Life is a leaf of paper wliite, 

 Whereon each one of us may write 

 His word or two, and then comes night. 



THE HONEY BEE. 



Orchardists and vignerons would do 

 well by keeping a few hives in tlieir 

 fruit gardens. 



It Is a well established fact that cross- 

 fertilization produces finer fruit than 

 self-fertilization and is often absolutely 

 necessary, more particularly with pears 

 and cherries. Numerous instances 

 might be quoted where plants entirely 

 depend upon the agency of insects for 

 their reproduction. As this, however, 

 does not lie within tlie scope of this 

 essay, it is not requisite to give details 

 regarding such well established facts. 

 It is an axiom that nature abhors self- 

 fertilization. Her tendency is to cross- 

 fertilize, and to accomplish this with 

 plants these have evolved nectar-secret- 

 ing glands, and in order to attract in- 

 sects toward the minute but luscious 

 morsels lying concealed at the base of 

 the florets, they emit diversely scented 

 odors or display showy colors. As the 

 insects pass from flower to flower to 

 satiate their cravings, they convey the 

 fertilizing dust by means of their hair 

 or appendages from the anthers of one 

 to the stigma of another, and in this 

 manner become instrumental of cross- 

 fertilizing them. 



As the greater number of the principal 

 orders of insects, during the whole time 

 of their mature existence, are uncon- 

 sciously active in assisting fertilization, 

 it would appear that one particular 

 species could not play a specially im- 

 portant part. But on reflection it will 

 be seen that by its habits of life the 

 honey bee contributes quite an extra- 

 ordinary siiare towards this object. Bees 

 are not solely attracted by the nectar 

 to feed upon it themselves, but tliey 

 gather the same to feed their young with 

 as well; and instinctively (or is it fore- 

 thought?) accumulate stores for the 

 suppitrt of the colony. Under this im- 



pulse they work from morning till nlghs 

 and in the course of a day visit many 

 hundred flowers in succession, whereat 

 other insects, whose young feed differ- 

 ently, visit tlie flowers entirely for their 

 own benefit, and may pass over less than 

 a dozen in a day. Besides nectar, bees 

 also collect great quantities of pollen 

 grains, wliich are the male reproductive 

 germs, and store these for food known 

 as "bee-bread." Whilst coUectingthe pol- 

 len they become, as is obvious, especially 

 active in conveying tlie ripe grains from 

 flower to flower, and by this means as- 

 sist fertilization in a broadcast manner. 

 — R. Helms in tlie Jfmrnalof Agriculture, 

 W. Australia. 



A summer where there are no bees be- 

 comes as sad and as empty as one without 

 flowers or birds. — Maeterlinck. 



LITERARY NOTES. 



As we come toward the Christmas holidays, 

 larger space in the magazines is given to fiction. 

 The Cosmopolitan includes a tragic story of the 

 Mexican foot-hills by Thomas A. Janvier, a very 

 clever society story by Carolyn Wells, one of the 

 Old French Romances by Richard Le Gallienne, 

 an unusually interesting Indian narrative by H. T. 

 George, and a wierd story by S. R. Crockett. 



Superstition Trail, a powerful tale of the West, 

 by Owen Wister, and illustrated by Remington, is 

 the opening story in Hallowe'en number (October 

 2ti) of the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia. 

 Other attractive features are a new episode in The 

 Love Affairs of Patricia and a striking poem by 

 Holman F. Day. Mr. Day's ballad, The Night of 

 the White Review, tells a wierd tale current 

 among Gloucester fisherman. It has all the swing 

 and movement of Mr. Kipling's Dipsy Chanteys, 

 and a strength and originality all its own. 



Take as many sheets as there are days in the 

 year. Paste at the head of each the date and in- 

 scribe a legend from your favorite poet. Leave a 

 space for your friends to write their names against 

 the day of the year when they were born. Bind 

 the whole between stiff cardbi ard, and tie it with 

 knots of ribbon drawn through holes made with a 

 large needle. If you are clever with pen and ink, 

 you may embellish y^ur book with drawings here 

 and there, or you may insert at intervals a picture 

 from an illustrated paper. — November Ladies' 

 Home Journal. 



Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. 

 For envy is a kind of praise. — Gay. 



Time, place and actions may with pains be 



wrought. 

 But genius must be born, and never can be 



taught. — Dryden. 



Genius finds its own road, and carries it.t 

 own lamp. — Anon. 



