1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



117 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Washington, November, 1871. 



U^ We occasionally receive complaints from sub- 

 scribers that the Journal fails to reach them, or does 

 not come to them as early as it does to other subscri- 

 bers at the same or neighboring post offices. We can 

 only say that we do not think the fault lies M'ith us. 

 We are as careful as we well can be in addressing and 

 mailing the Journal, and are ever anxious that it should 

 reach its readers promptly. That it should reach all 

 by due course of mail is certain, as with a single ex- 

 ception since the publication commenced, all the 

 papers have, m each successive month, been placed 

 in the post office here on the same day and at the 

 same hour, and we are assured that they are regu- 

 larly despatched by the first following mail. So far 

 as is in our power we are always willing to supi^ly 

 missing numbers when informed of failure. 



Q^" For quickly furnishing a colony with the 

 requisite supply of honey or sugar syrup, we think 

 the large size Beebe Feeder is very convenient and 

 serviceable ; though if the main body were made of 

 glass it would, in many respects, be an improve- 

 ment. 



The following letter from our friend and corre- 

 spondent, Mr. Gravenhorst, reached us after unusual 

 delay. The discovery of fossil honey combs is an in- 

 teresting fact, particularly at this time, when the 

 twice exploded "develoi^ment theory" is again 

 pressed on the attention and acceptance of inquirers. 

 Whatever seeming evidence in behalf of that theory 

 may be drawn from other soiirces, it is very certain that 

 the natural history and physiology of the honey bee 

 furnish nothing of the kind ; but quite the reverse. 

 Apart from this, however, the fossil honey combs now 

 found show conclusively that bees were wax-secret- 

 ing, comb building, honey gathering, and honey- 

 storing bees— just such as they now are, as far back in 

 the distaut bygone ages as human investigation can 

 probably reach. We need not trouble ourselves about 

 the precise period at which the process of fossiliza- 

 tion commenced. We shall leave it to Lyall and the 

 geologists to settle, according to their principles, the 

 date of the stratum in which those fossil combs wei-e 

 found ; and then taking the changes effected in the 

 bee in the intervening period till now, to — 0, as the 

 facts prove, we shall, let Darwin and the transmuta- 

 tionists take up the "wondrous tale," and figuring out 

 on those data the problem of supposed pre-existent 

 changes and metamorphoses, tell us how much of 

 the antecedent eternity was requisite to develop the 

 fancied primordial germ of incipient existence into a 

 perfect bee, such as we find it to have been already 



at so remote an era of the backward abysm of time 

 when petrifaction began : 



Braunschweig, Germany, August 24, 1871, 

 The August number of the Bee Journal ioterested 

 me highly, in several respects. The article from 

 Prof. Menzel, on "7%e Age of the Houcij Bee,'''' I read 

 wiih much gratification, especially as 1 am in a posi- 

 tion to make ii. somewhat more comjilete. Meuzel 

 says: "The only specimen of the honey bee, in a 

 fossil state, hitherto found, occurs in the insect- 

 bearing stratum of the quarries of CEningen." (See 

 Bee Journal, Vol. VII., No. 2, August 1871.) When 

 Menzel wrote this he was of course not aware that 

 other and stronger evidence of the existence of the 

 bee — the Apu melhflca — in the antediluvian period, is 

 now at hand. Quite recently, when visiting the 

 Archducal Museum of Natural Science here, I found 

 therein three specimens of petrified honey combs dis- 

 covered wlien a large bone — tliree feet long and a 

 foot thick, evidently part of the skeleton of a mam- 

 moth — was exhumed, in the vicinity of Braunschweig. 

 These fossil combs have cells of precisely the same 

 diameter and deptli as those now built by our com- 

 mon or German bee, and are as attractive and beauti- 

 ful in appearance as though newly constructed. 

 Chance led me to the discovery, and Prof. Menzcl 

 will doubtless be greatly delighted, when I commu- 

 nicate the fact to him. I will shortly send to the 

 Bienenzeitung a more full account of this interesting 

 discovery, and shall be pleased if you will insert the 

 article in the Bee Journal. 



As regards the essay in the July number of the 

 Journal, " On the Introduction of Young Queens to 

 Colo7iies that are Queeiiless,^' I must say tliat tlie Rev, 

 Mr. Langstroth has herein again very correctly ob- 

 served and experimented. My experiences coincide 

 altogether with his ; and the process, properly ap- 

 plied, is of great value in bee-culture. 



Our honey ])rosiiects have improved greatly since 

 the beginning of July. On the 5th of that month I 

 fed my bees for the last time. Then a change in the 

 weather toolc place, and forage became abundant. 

 From the 7th of the month till now, with occasional 

 brief intermissions, honey flowed plentifully. Chief 

 of all, the heath district now warrants high expecta- 

 tions. On the 9th of this month I removed thither, 

 though twenty miles distant, nearly one hundred of 

 my stocks; and thus, if God please, we may perhaps 

 still be able, at the close of the season, to speak of a 

 good honey year. 



C. J. H. Gravenhorst. 



C^" We have repeatedly advised beekeepers to 

 disregard Kidder's claims to royalty for the use of the 

 triangular comb guides, yet still inquiries come 

 respecting the legality, or illegality rather, of his or 

 his agents' demands. We can only restate the fact 

 that he has no valid patent, and no right to make 

 any claim. 



On this subject we find the following remarks, by 

 the editor, in the " Western Farmer,^' published at 

 Madison, Wisconsin, where the fraudulently procured 

 decision, on which Kidder and his agents rely, was 

 obtained. 



"Mr. Kidder owns a patent issued to Mr. Clark, 

 which he claims covers a device used in the Lang- 

 stroth Hive. Mr. Langstroth claims that this patent 

 is invalid, and also that it does not, even if valid, 

 affect the device used in his hive. In the United 

 States Circuit Court, at Madison, Wis., in January, 



