108 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



swarming. I could quote from the book, but 

 it is not necessary. Let us see the same adver- 

 tisement as above : 



The inventor has produced the only 



NON-SWARMING HIVE EVER CONSTRUCTED. 



The section hive alone has many other advan- 

 tages, if we believe its inventor. For instance, 

 I read in a circular entitled "Adair's Melex- 

 tractor " — 



" The section hive is the only hive that can 

 be successfully used in fertilizing queens in 

 contiiiement." 



Of course, in the price list, for 1871, I find 

 the fertilizer in confinement, with drone drop, 

 etc , price $3. 



But enough of this gaUimatia. 



Mr. Adair maintains that there are no reason- 

 ing faculties in bees, but instinct. Instinct is 

 undeveloped intelligence. New born children 

 have instmct. Intelligence and the faculty of 

 reasoning are the same. Animals have instinct, 

 but their organs remain unfit to develop their 

 intelligence as fully as that of man is devel- 

 oped. Yet their maternal solicitude sometimes 

 increases so much their intelligence, that we 

 can no longer refuse them some reasoning fac- 

 ulties. I will quote an instance of intelligence 

 in the swallow. 



A friend scientist, Mr. Touchet, who had de- 

 scribed, years ago, the nests of swallows, was 

 very much surprised two years ago when he 

 saw swallows building their nests upon newly 

 constructed houses, in Rouen, had ad(*pted a 

 pattern entirely difi'erent from that which he 

 had described. He examined the birds; they 

 were exactly the same. The old houses, having 

 old nests occupied by swallows, he destroyed 

 several of them, and thev were all reconstructed 

 upon the new model. The old nests were half 

 globular in form, and deep, with a small round 

 opening lor entrance; while the new nests were 

 enlarged, flat, and had an opening nine to ten 

 centimeters in length, and two centimeters 

 wide. In the old nests the small birds were 

 heaped up, lacking air, while, in the new, the 

 birds were more at ease, and had the pleasure 

 of enjoying plenty of air, and the view of the 

 surroundings. 



Can Mr. Adair say that the swallows did not 

 reason, in improving the construction of their 

 nests? If he persists to say that that is in- 

 stinct, not reason, I will answer that his theory 

 of immutable laws, in regard to the workings 

 of animals, is a nonsense ; fov the instinct of 

 swallows has varied. 



The same birds show another instance of 

 reason. Sometimes a sparrow, too lazy to build 

 a nest, takes possession of a aest of swallows. 

 Then, the swallows of the neighborhood assem- 

 ble, and the poor sparrow, unawares, is walled 

 up in the nest by the earth that every swallow 

 brings to shut up the door of the nest. 



If swallows hare reason, or if their instinct 

 can vary, I cannot see how it can be admitted 

 that bees cannot reason, too, or why their in- 

 stinct cannot vary. 



The denial of Mr. Adair as to the intelligence 

 of bees, will no more destroy their reasoning 

 faculties, than his erroneous ideas on bee cul- 

 ture, although printed, will stop progress. 



Chas. Dadant. 



[For the American Bee Journal,] 



Pennsylvania Bee Keeper's ABSOciation. 



The Pennsylvania Bee Keeper's Association 

 met at the rooms of the State Agricultural So- 

 ciety (Noble's Block), in the city of Erie, Oct. 

 1, 1873. The meeting being called to order, 

 the following ofiicers were elected for the en- 

 suing year : 



President, Seth Hoagland, of Mercer Co. 



Vice Presidents, John Smull, of Dauphin Co., 

 and A. J. Lee, of Crawford Co. Secretary, W. 

 J. Davis, of Warren Co. Treasurer, James 

 Russell, of Venango Co. 



Mr. Small, of Harrisburg, moved that the 

 President and Secretary be invested with the 

 authority to use such measures as they may 

 deem necessary to promote the prosperity of 

 the Association. Carried. 



At the request of several members, the 

 President gave some very interesting remarks 

 on the superiority of the Italian over the com- 

 mon black bee, and stating that his colonies 

 had paid him in surplus honey and increase 

 the past season an average of $80 per colony, 

 spring count. At the close of his address, 

 Mr. Hoagland was greeted with a shower of 

 questions upon various topics connected with 

 bee culture. Mr. J. R. Eby (President of 

 State Agricultural Society) said it had been 

 asserted that the honey of Western Pennsylva- 

 nia was superior to that of the Eastern part of 

 the State. He wished to know if such was the 

 fact, and if so, why ? Mr. Hoagland replied 

 by saying that the honey of each locality de- 

 pended upon its floral products, and these 

 again were influenced by the soil from which 

 they grew, and the kind of weather prevailing 

 while such flowers were in bloom, and pnasibly 

 by their growth prior to blooming. Th^ bee 

 herself is not a honey-maker, but a honey- 

 gatherer. He could not see why the same kind 

 of flowers grown in similar conditions should 

 not produce the same kind of honey, — thought 

 the honey producing plants of Eastern and 

 Western Pennsylvania were similar, 



Mr. Rhey, of Westmoreland Co., wished to 

 know what made the bees die oflf so the last 

 two winters. Mr. Hoagland — That is just 

 what I want to know. I attended the Nation- 

 al Convention at Indianapolis last winter to 

 learn, if possible, a solution of that question, 

 but returned no wiser than I went. He 



