78 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



"Progressive Bee-Oultnre."— Answer to Mr. 

 Dadant's Oriticism. 



In the August number of the A. B. Journal 

 is an article by my old friend, C. Dadant, which 

 purports to be " a criticism " on Progressive 

 Bee-Culture, but is not, from the fact that every 

 quotation aud statement he makes from the 

 book and dissents from, is misconstrued or 

 misunderstood by him. I do not charge him 

 with intentional perversion, for it may result 

 from my awkwardness and incapacity to ex- 

 press my meaning. I propose, in as brief a 

 manner as possible, to correct him. 



1. He pretends to quote what I say regarding 

 the instinct of the bees as contradistinguished 

 trom reason, and makes me say " that they act 

 according to the laws which govern matter," 

 etc. There is no such statement on page 2, nor 

 in the book. This is the old tale of the man 

 who vomited living crows, which, when in- 

 vestigated, turned out to be that he only threw 

 up something as black as a crow. What I say 

 on the subject occupies nearly a page in the 

 book, and is too long to quote here ; but the 

 only part of it that could convey such an im- 

 pression is where it is said that the actions of 

 the bees "are all reducible to certain rules, 

 that are as unvarying as the laws governing the 

 mathematical sciences;" in other words, I took 

 the position that the labors of the bees were 

 the result of instinct, not reason. I did not 

 attempt to draw nice distinctions between rea- 

 son and instinct, nor to define instinct, for our 

 most learned naturalists do not agree where the 

 line is to be drawn between tlie two, but it is 

 conceded by all oi them that when an action is 

 performed, either by man or lower animals, 

 which is to accomplish a certain end, and does 

 so, under circumstances that show that it was 

 done intuitively, aud without former experience, 

 and Without knowing for what purpose the 

 action was performed, aud as often afterwards 

 as it is necessary to the same end, it is repeated 

 in the same way, it is said to be instinctive. 



Instinct, does not deny to animals mental 

 powers, or even memory, such as Mr. D. in- 

 stances, (the queen returning to the spot from 

 wh.cU she was released, for she will do that as 

 olten as repeated), for tlie instinct that enables 

 the bee to return to her point of departure, 

 or her home, without anytbing to guide her so 

 far as we can see, is remarkable, and surpasses 

 man's powers or that of reason. 



I was surprised that Mr. D. should contend 

 that bees could be educated, and admit that I 

 am loo dull to see that he has proven it iu the 

 instances he brings forward, although he 

 modestly confines the education of his bees to 

 robbery and stinging. If he has read my articles 

 in late numbers of the A. B. Journal, he will 

 see that I contend that, instincts as well as 

 corporeal structures can be modified, and that 



the conditions of climate and other surround- 

 ings do modify and change them, but this is 

 quite a different thing from education ; that is, 

 taking a bee, or even a colony of bees, and 

 learning them anything. A continual effort to 

 excite anger in a colony of bees might make 

 them cross, and if you expose sweets to them 

 they will try to appropriate them, for self- 

 preservation strongly endows them with in- 

 stincts to defend themselves and to gather 

 means of subsistence. 



2. "Eggs. — According to Mr. Adair the eggs 

 of bees do not differ substantially from the seeds 

 of the poppy or the tomato.''^ 



Mr. Dadant not only attributes this language 

 to me, but he puts it in italia,. Did I say so? 

 This is another flock of black crows. In 

 speaking of the queen I say : "sbe has certain 

 organs called ovaries, in which eggs are pro- 

 duced in a manner not substantiaily different 

 Jrom the seeds in the capsules of the poppy, or 

 in the fruit of the tomato," etc , but I proceed 

 to jDoint out how they are fecundated. Now 

 this is quite a difference. He says, I said they 

 did not differ from the seeds, when in reality I 

 said they were produced in a manner not sub- 

 stantially different ; and the context shows that 

 I stated no such absurdity as he says I did. 



3. He quotes : " In a normal colony such eggs 

 always produced worker bees, and. although 

 from the same eggs, queens may be produced, it 

 is only when there is some disarrangement in 

 the proper balance of the hive, and conse- 

 quently is abnormal." 



" Drones are an abnorm-aZ-ity." 



The difficulty with Mr. Dadant in his com- 

 ments in this quotation is, that he is talking 

 about a very different tiling from what Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Culture is. He construes it into 

 my saying, that the production of queens and 

 drones " is an irregular act.''' If he will read it 

 over he will see that I did not say so. I was 

 speaking of the constitution of the colony, and 

 not of the act of the production of drones. 

 Drones are normally productive when there is a 

 necessity for them, and the mating of the sexes 

 is not an irregularity. But in describing a 

 a perfectly balanced colony of bees, I say that 

 in such there is no necessity for any other 

 members than a queen and workers, and, not- 

 withstanding Mr. Dadant's opinion, I speak 

 advisedly when I say, " That so long as the 

 balance is perfect, no drone comb will be con- 

 structed by the bees, nor will any queen-cells 

 be constructed." 



I had, the present season, a hive that held 

 sixty frames. The bees were supplied with 

 abundant room, in empty comb aud empty 

 frames, with a very prolific queen and not a 

 drone-cell was built, nor a drone produced, 

 although there was drone-comb placed in the 

 hive and inside of the brood nest. The queen 

 produced bees enough to occupy fifty of the 



