10 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



ing a swarm up the mountain, they tacked to 

 the right and left, and so contused you. You 

 should have got a strong line of bees coming to 

 one spot, and'trapped them in a box. Then 

 moved directly up the mountain with them, and 

 let them out slowly, waiting till they formed a 

 line. If they still confused you, conclude that 

 the tree is still higher up. "Proceed again as 

 before, and when you have got as high up as 

 the tree, or higher, the bees will go in a direct 

 line to the tree. When you judge that you are 

 in its immediate vicinity, cross line them. 

 Where bees are hunted for in a thick woods, I 

 find that cross-lining them is the quickest course 

 to adopt. I will explain. Set your bait in an 

 open spot in the woods, and get your line. Set 

 some pickets or spot trees. Trap a lot of bees, 

 and move a half or a quarter of a mile at right 

 angles to the line. Find an open spot ; liberate 

 your bees ; and as soon as you have obtained 

 the line, set your pickets. Now sight both lines 

 through to where they crosa^ and you are some- 

 where near the tree. But recollect that should 

 there be a considerable hill between you and 

 the tree when lining bees, they will fly around 

 the hill instead of going over it, unless it is a 

 long one. They will also frequently go round 

 a heavy grove of tall timber, instead of going 

 over it. I once found a swarm on the edsje of 

 the high bank of a stream. When I first sfarted 

 them, the bees went directly west, but. when I 

 found them they were directly north. They Hew 

 west until they struck the stream, which they 

 then followed around a bend to the tree. In 

 that case, I trapped a large quantity of bees ; 

 and just before sunset, I opened a hole large 

 enough for one bee to come out at a time, and 

 then started on a run on the line. (You can 

 see a bee a long distance just at sunset). By 

 one bee coming directly after another, I could 

 follow them as well as I could a rope 

 stretched from the box to the tree. Of course I 

 left the box where I opened it. For scent to 

 attract the bees, I build a fire, heat some stones, 

 and put a piece of comb or beeswax between 

 the hot stones— putting three or four drops of 

 oil of anise on the wax or comb before burning 

 it between the hot stones. Then have some 

 good honey in the comb, if possible, for bait and 

 drop one or two drops of the oil on that also. 

 Burn your comb and have your bait away from 

 the smoke of the fire. At any time when bees 

 can fly out and cannot gather honey, they will 

 come to you, if you are auywhere near them. 

 The holes to those I have found have been 

 facing all points of the compass — some one 

 way, and some another. 



Should there be anything that you do not 

 understand, write, enclosing a stamp, and I 

 will endeavor to explain. 



Elisha Gallup. 



Osage, Iowa. 



It is an infallable sign of queenlessness when 

 -pollen-cells are found enlarged and transformed 

 to incipient queen-cells. And when the surface 

 of the pollen in the cells is very uniformly 

 glazed over, as though varnished or cov- 

 ered with size, it may safely be concluded that 

 there is no queen in the hive. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Respiration of the Beo. 



Man breathes through his nostrils or through 

 his mouth, and by this process throws off, in an 

 invisible form, a large proportion of the food 

 which he eats. In the case of the bee the same 

 ultimate is attained, although the passages by 

 which this breathing is effected are very differ- 

 ent and very differently situated. Instead of 

 breathing through its mouth, the bee breathes 

 through a series of holes or spiracles situated 

 along its sides. That the products of respira- 

 tion from these soiracles are nearly the same as 

 from warm-blooded animals (so called), I have 

 abundantly proved by experimental investiga- 

 tion. Carbonic acid and water are the chief if 

 not the sole products. 



The amount of carbonic acid evolved by a 

 moderate sized swarm is not very easily deter- 

 mined experimentally ; but it is not difficult to 

 arrive at an estimate which will be comparatively 

 correct, by considering the amount of food con- 

 sumed, and iis composition. 



Honey consists of twelve equivalents each of 

 carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, (0 12, H 13, 

 O 12). Twenty-five pounds of honey are sim- 

 ply fifteen pounds of water united to twenty 

 pounds of carbon or charcoal. It will thus be 

 easily seen that when honey is consumed, either 

 for making wax or for sustaining life, very large 

 quantities of carbonic acid and water are pro- 

 duced. When the carbon of the honey is burn!; 

 in the process of respiration, it forms carbonic 

 acid. Respiration, or rather the processes con- 

 nected with respiration, are as truly an act of 

 combustion as is the burning of the fire on the 

 hearth ; and the resulting carbonic acid is as 

 dangerous to the bees as the fumes of sulphur, 

 unless it is mixed with a very large proportion 

 of air. We confined a few bees in a glass jar, 

 and then introduced a quantity of carbonic acid 

 carefully washed from all impurities. In a very 

 short time the bees were all dead. Now, as is 

 stated in a recent article by Mr. Adair, this gas 

 (carbonic acid) is very heavy, so heavy that it 

 can be poured out of one vesssel into another, 

 like a liquid. We have repeatedly dipped up a 

 tumbler full of it out of a large jar, and then, 

 by pouring the contents of this tumbler on a 

 candle, have extinguished the latter. How then 

 does it happen that the carbonic acid, arising 

 from the respiration, does not collect in the 

 lower part of the hive, or in the lower part of 

 the atmosphere in general, and suffocate all the 

 inhabitants ? Mr. Adair states that it does so 

 fall to the gronnd. But in that he is mistaken, 

 as the upper regions of the atmosphere are ac- 

 tuary richer in carbonic acid than those at the 

 surface of the earth. This is due to causes not 

 pertinent to our present subject. If the facts were 

 as Mr. Adair states them, the greater part of the 

 surface of the earth would be uninhabitable. 

 The amount of carbonic acid existing in the at- 

 mosphere is sufficient to form a layer over the 

 entire surface of the earth to the depth of over 

 ten feet. No ocean would be navigable except 

 by vessels whose decks were elevated above 

 this ocean of fluid poison. Every valley would 

 be filled as with an invisible lake, in which the 



