THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



79 



The man immediately ran to his house, and 

 on his return, rubbed the inside of the hive 

 -with honey, to make it more attractive to the 

 bees. The swarm was now shaken down anew; 

 but, alas ! the hive was hardly inverted over 

 them, when the bees, disregarding the honey 

 charm, rushed forth and took wing again. The 

 man was astounded ! 



At last, fearing to enfeeble the swarm, as 

 some o r the bees were already returning to the 

 parent stock, I showed the queen to the dumb- 

 founded gardener. Then, covering my hand 

 with the handkerchief to keep the bees from en- 

 tering my sleeve, I gent'y seized the queen and 

 presented her where most of the bees were 

 hovering. My hand was speedily covered by 

 them ; I shook them off in front of the hive, 

 and the swarm was soon quietly established in 

 its new home. 



This simple demonstration worked an entire 

 change in the bee-keeper's opinion as to my 

 teachings. After this I was visited nearly 

 every day by bee-keepers seeking counsel, and 

 asking questions as absurd as ignorance could 

 devise. 



Some four or five years later, when re'urning to 

 the city from a neighboring village, an unknown 

 person saluted me by name. Perceiving that 

 I did not know him, he said, "you do not recol- 

 lect me ; but I know you. I shall never forget 

 you, since you taught me some secrets about 

 bees. Since then no apiary in my neighbor- 

 hood can vie with mine. But do not fear ! I 

 shall never tell my neighbors how to know if a 

 swarm is queenless ; and how to help it to 

 make a queen! The secietsyou imparted to 

 me will be well guarded !" "You are wrong, 

 my friend," I replied, "I told you some of the 

 truths that science teaches us respecting bees, 

 not that you should keep them concealed, but, 

 on the contrary, that you might scatter them 

 everywhere, for the common benefit of all." 



I parted with that man, however, doubtless 

 without having convinced him of the propriety 

 of doing to his neighbor as I had done to him. 

 Thus over all old Europe jealousy and rivalry are 

 so intense and prevalent, that elementary 

 knowledge is repressed or kept secret by the 

 more foi lunate or more favored possessors ; and 

 the Governments countenance and maintain 

 this ignorance, for it is the corner stone of their 

 power. 



Ch. Dadant. 

 Hamilton, Ills. 



Bees breed best, saith Aristotle, when they 

 gather most honey; but herein he was deceived, 

 for they gather most honey, according to his 

 own position, when the honey dews fall, which 

 saith he is not ante vergiliarum ortum, before 

 the rising of the Pleiads. But we have often 

 swarms, a first, and a second also, out of 

 the same hive before that time. And generally 

 all good hives are furnished with young before 

 that time of the year. Indeed, honey is not the 

 ordinary food for the nymphs, but bee-bread, 

 which from mid" March, and in some temperate 

 springs from mid February, they plentifully 

 gather.— Purchas. 



[For the American Beo Journal. ] 



Do Toads Eat Worker Bees? 



Some days ago, when carrying several nuclei 

 to my cellar, to test the Kohler process, s me 

 worker bees dropped on the sand. A large toad 

 issuing from a dark corner of the cellar, came 

 within an inch and a half of the first bee, stop- 

 ped a second or two, and the poor bee disap- 

 peared down his throat. Then it hastened to 

 the second, which was despatched in the same 

 way. So likewise was the third, and finally the 

 fourth and last. Had I rot seen the toad's 

 mouth opened and closed, I should not have 

 known where the bees had gone, so rapid was 

 the motion of the viscous tongue. Seeing there 

 was nothing more now to devour, the toad re- 

 turned to his dark corner, as gravely as he had 

 come. 



That toad is well known to the inmates of 

 my family, having for months cleared the cel- 

 lar of all flies, spiders, and other insects, and 

 has thus come to be regarded in the light of a 

 friend. 



Last year, whi'e digging a trench near my 

 apiary for wintering my bees, we uncovered 

 more than a dozen such toads which had alrea- 

 dy retired to winter quarters. But if I encoua- 

 ter any this year, I shall destroy them without 

 mercy. I advise other bee-keepers to do the 

 same. 



Ch. Dadant. 



Hamilton, III., Sept. 5, 18G8. 



IWWe doubt whether toads should be thus 

 summarily doomed, without a hearing. They 

 may and prob, bly do "gobble up " a few wor- 

 kers in the course of a summer; but rarely have 

 they a chance to seize any except the crippled, 

 diseased, and disowned, which had better 

 be suddenly consigned to the capacious stomach 

 of a toad, than die a lingering death by starva- 

 tion. There have been dozens of toads in our 

 apiary, year after year, and we regarded them 

 as beneficial on the whole — ridding the grounds 

 of spiders, millipeds, ants, and various kinds of 

 bugs and laiva? quite as "ugly and venomous," 

 and needing some such natural enemy to pre- 

 vent their undue increase. 



The Imbedded Bees, 



The Liverpool, (England), Advertiser eind 

 Times, of November 24, 1817, contained a long 

 account of three bees being found alive in a 

 huge solid rock from Western Point Quarry. 

 This attracted the attention of scientihe men, 

 who made a careful investigation and cleared 

 up the mystery, by discovering a "sand hole " 

 in the rock, through which the insects had made 

 their way. 



Vicious Bees. — Two valuable horses be- 

 longing to A. B. Butler, near Richmond, Union 

 county, were stung nearly to death on the 28th 

 ult , by thirteen or fourteen swarms of bees, 

 belonging to Reuben Barnet. Mr. Barnet's 

 bees, three or four years ago, killed in this man- 

 ner thirty hens and one gobbler. — Ohio Farmer, 

 Sept. 11), 1868. 



