94 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



anywhere, save in the fertile brain of Martin Metcalfe, 

 •who figured so prominently in opposition to the ex- 

 tension of the Langstroth patent, on which occasion 

 he tried inconsistently to palm it on the credulity of 

 beekeepers as an old thing, while claiming to be 

 himself the inventor of movable frames. We pre- 

 sume our correspondent got his idea of the alleged 

 invention, and his impression of its priority, from a 

 certain pamphlet published by Metcalfe, while lie was 

 yet flourishing in his own placard and biography, 

 like another notorious infringer, as " a distinguished 

 apiariau." On page 28 of that pamphlet, an eSort 

 is disingenuously made by its maladroit compiler, to 

 create the impression that the frame he figured and 

 presented to notice, and which was so obviously an 

 imitation of one of the forms of the Langstroth 

 original, was described and figured in Tajior's book, 

 published in England, in 1838— thus making it ante- 

 date the Langstroth patent. But the truth is no such 

 frame, nor frame of ant kind, is mentioned, de- 

 scrihed, or figured in that edition of Taylor'' s hook, nor 

 in any one of the four subsequent editions thereof. It 

 first came into view in the edition of 18G0 — nearly 

 eight years after Mr. Langstroth''s patent was obtained! 

 And it is not even then claimed by Taylor, as his 

 frame. He says, explicitly, that it is a modification 

 by some one else, as an improvement on the Bevan 

 bar hive ; but from the tenor of his statement, it is 

 manifest that he had seen and copied from Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's book (second edition, 1857) ; for, in a note 

 on page 205, he quotes verbatim from it, and refers 

 to Mr. L. as " an American author." It will thus be 

 Been that the insinuations and reckless assertions 

 I made by Metcalfe, respecting the alleged Taylor 

 frame, and the impression fraudulently sought to be 

 made by him, that it was described and figured in 

 1838, or anterior to the date of the Langstroth patent, 

 are wholly unwarranted — having no foundation in 

 truth. 



A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, who ap- 

 pears to be a good and successful practical beekeeper, 

 fails, we think, in some instances, in accuracy 

 of observation. Thus he says : — " In one case I put 

 a queen cell in a clean comb, and the next morning 

 she was on the combs, and the next morning she 

 had filled a frame six inches square nearly full of 

 eggs, which hatched out worker brood." We are 

 too well aware of the frequency of abnormal occur- 

 rences among bees, to accept everything that "the 

 books tell us," as undeviatingly correct under all 

 circumstances, or at all seasons ; but in the above 

 statement there are physiological difficulties involved 

 which make it evident that the writer must have 

 been deceived. Conceding that the young queen 

 may have left her hive in quest of drones on the day 

 she was hatched, (which is an extreme improbability, 

 though still possible), and that she was then fer- 

 tilized, the fact that time is'required for the formation 



and development of the egg-germs in the ovarian 

 tubes, and for their passage thence through the ovi- 

 duct, renders it further exceedingly improbable, not 

 to say actually impossible, that hatchable worker eggs 

 could have been laid by her so early in life as on the 

 day after she was hatched. Prof. Leuckart, of Giessen, 

 found that in a royal pup^, nearly ready to emerge 

 from the cell, many of which he has dissected, no 

 egg-germs were ever present : and Dr. DonhoflT, who 

 dissected a young queen forty-eight hours after fer- 

 tilization, found egg-germs only in the ovisacs of the 

 ovarian tubes. It seems thus exceedingly unlikely, 

 or rather physically impossible, that a queen could 

 lay hatchable eggs within twenty-four hours after 

 leaving her cell. We admit, freely, that bees some- 

 times indulge in unaccountable freaks ; but they are 

 never such as involve a palpable disregard of natural 

 laws, or grossly violate the process of physical de- 

 velopment ; and hence, we infer that, in this instance 

 of alleged precociousness, there must have been 

 unconsciously an error of observation. 



COESESPONDENOE OF THE BEE JOURNAL. 



Cornersville, Tenn., Aug. 17. — I have kept bees 

 all my life, and do not know how I did so long with- 

 out the Journal. I like it better the longer I take it. 

 My bees did very well till the first of June ; since then, 

 till now, tiiey have done nothing, though 1 hope they 

 will yet fill up sufficient to winter. The linden bloom 

 failed here this year. There was bloom on hardly 

 one tree in ten or fifteen. I have had only five nat- 

 ural swarms this year, out of Seventy box hives. lin- 

 tentled to transfer to Langstroth hives, but when 1 

 saw that the linden bloom would do no good, I con- 

 cluded to wait until next spring. — J. F. Love. 



Pelee Island, Canada, Aug. 13, 1871. — I see from 

 the correspondence of the Journal that the yield of 

 honey in diflerent localities, varies very much the 

 same season ; as also does the yield in the same local- 

 ity in diflerent seasons. Although our stocks may 

 be managed upon the most approved system, it seems 

 that the yield of honey is as much dependent upon the 

 diflerent atmospheric changes of the season, as a crop 

 of wheat or grapes, which are very uncertain in most 

 localities. My bees wintered well on their summer 

 stands ; found blossoms and pollen as soon as it was 

 warm enough for them to fly ; bred rapidly and made 

 early preparations for swarming ; but unfavorable 

 weather caused them to destroy queen cells and post- 

 pone it till the last of May and tlie first of June. A 

 drouth of six weeks cut short their supplies, and they 

 did not gather any until the first of July, when the 

 basswood came in blossom; and continued imtil the 

 10th. In the meantime we had rain and white clover 

 blossomed most profusely, but not a bee noticed it, and 

 they remained idle for ten or twelve days. When the 

 clover was nearly dried up, they commenced working 

 pretty freely upon what was left, but were hardly able 

 to supply their daily consumption. Now (Aug. 12), 

 they begin to gather pretty freely from some weeds 

 in woods and marshes, a dark colored honey. All 

 the white honey has been taken from them to give 

 room for this. — T. Smith. 



Otisco Valley, N. T., Aug. 21. — This has been 

 a very good season here (or bees. A large increase in 

 colonics, and a full average yield of honey. From 



