84 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



case of a slight trace of impurity, in 

 either parent, there should be seeming 

 evidence for this law, and yet really be 

 none. It would seem more probable in 

 case of mammals than with birds or 

 bees, for here not only are the sperm- 

 cells present, but a half-blood foetus is 

 present in the uterus all through gesta- 

 tion, and possibly might, through cell 

 inoculation, so affect the mother as to 

 affect her subsequent progeny. Yet" I 

 must say that it seems to me so impossi- 

 ble, that I question the whole position. 



In case of poultry, where the law is as 

 stoutly defended as with mammals, 

 there is no organic connection, for birds 

 are oviparous. Here, then, any affect 

 must come wholly through the simple 

 presence of the sperm-cells, for a brief 

 time, in the oviduct. To test this, I 

 secured some light Brahma and brown 

 Leghorn fowls. These are so different 

 as to color, markings, eggs, etc., that 

 they afforded an excellent chance to test 

 the matter. I kept cocks and hens to- 

 gether in one pen all winter, and saw 

 the cocks of one breed repeatedly mating 

 with the hens of the other breeds. In 

 the spring I separated them, putting the 

 Brahmas in one pen, and the Leghorns 

 in another. I waited three weeks, and 

 commenced to set eggs. I reared over 

 100 chickens, and yet saw no trace of 

 impurity. Both breeds were entirely 

 true to standard. We know how a mere 

 trace of Brahma blood will put feathers 

 on the legs. Yet every Leghorn had 

 legs as clean as ever seen in the most 

 typical Leghorn. I hardly need to say 

 that I now have still less faith in this 

 law as applied to poultry. 



When Messrs. D. A. Jones and Frank 

 Benton went to the Orient for bees, I 

 rejoiced in the chance to get some of the 

 Asiatic bees that I might test the same 

 law with them. I got a fine Syrian 

 queen, and reared a number of queens 

 from her eggs the first summer. Of 

 course all of these were mated with 

 Italian drones, for as yet we had no 

 other. The next spring we had abun- 

 dant drones from the old queen, and 

 many more from the young queens 

 mated with Italian drones. The first 

 were from a purely-mated Syrian — one 

 mated in the Orient — the others were 

 from queens mated here before we had a 

 Syrian drone in the apiary. Here we 

 had hundreds, yes thousands of cases, to 

 test this law in case of bees. 



All who have seen Syrian drones need 

 not be told that they are so different 

 from Italians that no one could mistake 

 them. Yet in all these cases all the 

 drones were emphatically and entirely 



Syrians. I could never see a trace of 

 Italian markings. I had many persons 

 look with me, and all were of one mind 

 in the matter. Thus with me, the mat- 

 ter is settled. The drones from a pure 

 queen ivill be pure and of her blood, no 

 matter how she is mated. If drones show 

 taint, then the queen is impure. This 

 must be true, from the law of agamic 

 reproduction, which holds in the produc- 

 tion of drone-bees, unless the mere pres- 

 ence of sperm-cells in the reproductive 

 apparatus affects the entire reproduc- 

 tive organism of the queen. Thus I 

 think we may say no in case of birds and 

 bees, and I claim the right to use an in- 

 terrogation point in case of mammals, 

 like our horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. 



Sometimes bee-keepers think that 

 they have evidence that bees have re- 

 moved sperm-cells from worker-eggs, 

 and that worker-eggs have produced 

 drones. I think there must be a mistake 

 here. The sperm-cells are very minute. 

 It takes a high-power microscope to even 

 see them. They pass at once into a 

 microscopic opening — the micropyle — of 

 the egg and becomes incorporated into 

 the substance of the egg. Thus the bees 

 could not see or handle these cells, even 

 if they could reach them, and this, of 

 course, they could not do. Thus in all 

 such cases some other explanation must 

 be sought. 



Eggs often refuse to hatch. This is 

 true of eggs of all animals. Such fe- 

 males are barren. We cannot say just 

 what is wrong, only that the ovaries are 

 diseased, or at fault, and so the eggs are 

 worthless. It is no wonder that this is 

 so. The wonder is, that there are not 

 more cases, when we consider the ex- 

 treme complexity of the whole appara- 

 tus. The sperm-cells, as well as the 

 eggs, may be worthless, in which case 

 the male is diseased. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Good Prospects for Bee-Culture 

 in California. 



Written for the Amervvin Bee Journal 

 BY W. A. PRYAL. 



This year has opened up in grand 

 style. The weather for the past three 

 or four days has been charming — clear 

 and bright, and balmy. It is like April 

 or May weather. As we have had an 

 abundance of rain, and as there is no 

 doubt that more will follow at the right 

 time. It is pretty safe to say that Cali 



