18 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



to regard them as friends, as brothers, as mem- 

 bers of the same family, embarked in the same 

 business, engaged in the same interesting study 

 — that of the honey bee, its habits, and its nat- 

 ural history ; and when one of the number is 

 removed from us, the loss is felt. The Profes- 

 sor was sometimes severe in his criticisms, but 

 his exposures of parties engaged in swindling a 

 credulous bee-keeping public, were just. There 

 are one or two articles in late numbers of the 

 Journal, which may be regarded as open to 

 severe criticism, and I had hoped to see them 

 handled by him, as he alone was capable of 

 handling them. 



J. H. Townley. 



Brooklin, Canada, March 9. 



I was much surprised to hear of the death of 

 Prof. Varro. It is to be much regretted. 

 Though he might by some be considered ultra 

 in his opinions on bee-culture, yet he was a 

 learned and spirited writer. With a style pecu- 

 liarly his own, he "laid out 1 ' his antagonists 

 with " rare wit." His contributions to the Bee 

 Journal, though at times somewhat ambiguous, 

 were of much value. Doubtless the readers of 

 the Journal will feel his loss. 



J. H. Thomas. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Egyptian Bee. 



Having recently received a file of the back 

 numbers of the " American Bee Journal," 

 I find an inquiry from L. L. Fairchild, on page 

 173 of Vol. II, respecting the comparative fer- 

 tility of queen bees ot apis faseiata and the honey- 

 storing capacity of the workers. As no reply 

 appears to have been made to this question, I 

 may state that the Egyptian queens are deci- 

 edly smaller than those of the Italian or the 

 back bee, and in my opinion inferior to either 

 in point of fecundity. The workers also, being 

 smaller, cannot carry such large loads, and have 

 not therefore the honey-storing power of either 

 of the other species named. With regard to 

 their extreme irascibility it may be perceived, 

 by referring to page 164 of the same volume, 

 that I distributed my remaining Egyptians 

 among four British apiarians, three of whom 

 made public their experience,* (which fully con- 

 firmed my evidence as to the ferocity of these 

 bees, whdst the fourth, Mr. George Fox, whose 

 letter alone found admission into the "Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal," happens to be one of 

 those fortunate individuals whom bees never 

 appear to stiug under any circumstances, and 

 who may therefore well be able to manipulate 

 even the savage Egyptians with impunity. 

 T. W. Woodbury. 

 (" A Devonshire Bee-Keeper.") 



Mount Badford, Exeter, England, 30th 

 April, 18G8. 



* tST We presume that the experience of the 

 other three British apiarians, to whom Mr. 

 Woodbury consigned Egyptian bees, was pub- 



lished in some numbers of the Journal of Horti- 

 culture, or other London periodical, which did 

 not reach us, as we had no previous knowledge 

 that any such accounts had appeared. The 

 German periodicals, which reach us more 

 regularly, furnish no additional information re- 

 specting those bees — the Carniolian variety of 

 the common black bee exciting more interest at 

 present among bee-keepers ; though, so fir, its 

 disposition to swarm frequently, and thus mul- 

 tiply rapidly, seems to be the only traits that are 

 urs;ed in its commendation. 



Bees and Fruit. 



The following letters respecting the alleged 

 damage done to fruit by honey bees, were sent 

 to us for publication by Mr. Gould, of 

 Wenham, Mass., months ago, and should have 

 appeared sooner, but for our limited space and 

 the crowded state of our columns. The first is 

 from the eminent botanist, Asa Gray, Professor 

 of Natural History in Harvard University ; and 

 the second from Dr. II. A. Hagen, late of 

 Konigsberg, Prussia, but now of Cambridge, 

 Mass., a learned and distinguished German ento- 

 mologist, who has paid especial attention to 

 collecting and making a list of all the works and 

 papers relating to bee-culture. Prof. Gray 

 writes — 



"Harvard University, Feb. 17, 1868. 

 I thoroughly endorse the correctness of Dr. Packard's 

 statement. There is no doubt that the sole use and object 

 of honey in blossoms is to attract insects, so that they may 

 in their visits carry pollen from the stamens of one flower 

 to the stigma of another, and in that way insure the for- 

 mation of the fruit. I have no idea that the honey after 

 being secreted by the plant into the open flower, is ever 

 taken up again by it ; so that the plant loses nothing it 

 could ever use by the bees carrying off the honey." 



Dr Hagen says— 



" I have never known and find nothing in the literaturo 

 of bee-keeping now at rny hand, to prove that bees are ob- 

 noxious to fruit and to fields. I think it is possibly a mis- 

 take, lor other hymenoptera, i. e. that other insects of the 

 group (hymenoptera) to which bees beloDg, may do the al- 

 leged injury." 



We have not heard whether the venom of 

 the Wenhamites culminated in the actual ban- 

 ishment of Mr. Gould's bees or evaporated in 

 the vote of the town meeting. 



[For the American Bee Journal. J 



" Mathematics " of the Honey Bee. 



Mr. Editor : — I have not received my 

 Journal for last month, and would rather lose 

 one number of all my other papers (some five 

 or six) than the Bee Journal for any month. 



I cut the subjoined from the New York Tri- 

 Weekly Tribune. It is from a notice of a work 

 lately written by Mrs. Agassiz and her husband, 

 the Professor. 



"The following agreeable bit of natural history 

 will be read with interest, for the curious pro- 

 osss of insect architecture which it explains, as 

 well as for the light it throws on the much 

 vaunted "mathematics of the bee" in the con- 

 struction of its cell. 



