52 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



out having given to it any brood other 

 than that left by its own queen before 

 her departure, has been found to have 

 laying workers before its new queen has 

 commenced to lay, then we must bid 

 good-bye to the old tradition. 



It cannot be disputed that traditions 

 are not the most reliable things in the 

 world. I think a little investigation will 

 make Mrs. Atchley lose respect for an- 

 other tradition, which locates the sper- 

 matheca of the queen "on one side of 

 the forked stem" in such way that only 

 the eggs that pass down one of the stems 

 become impregnated. The fact is that 

 the spermatheca is located on the com- 

 mon oviduct, after the union of the two 

 oviducts that proceed from the two 

 ovaries. So a worker-egg may come 

 from either siie, and also a drone-egg. 



Even if careful dissection had not 

 shown that the spermatheca is attached 

 to the common oviduct, a little reflection 

 might make it appear rather unreason- 

 able to think the drone-eggs come from 

 one ovary and worker-eggs from the 

 other. For the two ovaries are always 

 represented as being equal in size, in 

 which case there ought to be as many 

 drones as workers in a hive, and we know 

 there are only a few hundred drones to 

 the thousands of workers. 



But that doesn't change the practical 

 result. For it would be just as easy for 

 the queen to decide at will from which 

 ovary an egg should come, as to decide 

 at will when an egg should, and when it 

 should not become impregnated as it 

 passes through the common oviduct. 

 And while you are in very good company, 

 Mrs. Atchley, in thinking that just "as 

 you can move your right or left hand," 

 so the queen can will to lay either kind 

 of egg, yet is it anything more than a 

 guess ? 



Prof. Cook thinks with you, and 

 Cheshire in speaking of the view held by 

 Wagner and Quincy that mechanical 

 pressure is the agent in deciding the sex 

 of the egg, says, "This notion, so re- 

 pellent from its bald crudity, is shown 

 to be utterly without foundation." Yet 

 at the risk of being thought to harbor 

 baldly crude ideas, I must say that I 

 cannot see that Messrs. Cheshire and 

 Cook give us satisfactory proof that the 

 kind of eggs is entirely a matter of the 

 queen's will. To be sure, Cheshire says 

 that experiment proves it, because if a 

 colony has only drone-comb workers will 

 be reared in drone-cells. But he does 

 not tell us that in such cases the bees 

 never narrow the mouth of the cell so as 

 to make it nearer the diameter of a 

 worker-cell. * 



Dadant cautiously says, " It is very 

 difficult to admit that the queen is en- 

 dowed with a faculty that no other ani- 

 mal possesses, that of knowing and de- 

 ciding the sex of her progeny before- 

 hand." On the whole, I think it is pretty 

 safe to say that this is one of the things 

 we don't know. 



CBUEL, DK. GRESS AND BEE-STINGS ! 



Why, Mr. Editor, do you allow Dr. 

 Gress to make such unpleasant sugges- 

 tions as that on page 730, where he in- 

 timates that it might be a proper thing 

 to apply from 6 to 20 stings to Mr. Root 

 or me ? Don't you know. Doctor, that 

 stings hurt, even if they don't swell or 

 last long ? It may be all right to have 

 Mr. Root thus numerously pierced, as a 

 matter of experiment, and for the ad- 

 vancement of science no one should ob- 

 ject to a little pain, and I am willing to 

 sacrifice friend Root in the cause of 

 science, but I protest that one is enough, 

 and it is very unkind in the doctor to 

 want me to suffer. 



Marengo, 111. 



[How kind it is of Dr. Miller to con- 

 sent to the sacrificing of Bro. Root in 

 the interest of science ! Perhaps, he 

 too, might object, especially if he con- 

 sulted his own feelings at all. For once 

 our good friend. Dr. Miller, didn't say, 

 "I don't know" about it, when it was 

 suggested to numerously perforate his 

 epidermis for the advancement of med- 

 ical science. — Ed.] 



■^-^ 



Pass the " Pure Food Bill," then 

 Enforce the Law. 



Written for the American Bm Journal 



BY J. R. COMMON. 



As a member of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Union, I now wish to give my 

 opinion as to the advisability of enlarg- 

 ing its duties so as to include getting 

 laws passed to punish the adulteration 

 of honey. 



As the Paddock Pure Food Bill is now 

 before Congress, no time should be lost 

 in assisting those that are now trying to 

 get the measure passed. If it becomes a 

 law, the Bee-Keepers' Union should see 

 that it is enforced as far as honey is 

 concerned. There has not been any law 

 agitated in many years that would be of 

 greater benefit to the whole country at 



