AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



109 



and go to sleep on this matter, as far as 

 I am concerned. 



I will admit, that in the majority of 

 cases, laying workers are not present 

 until all hopes of rearing a queen is 

 past. While lots of good old traditions 

 are true and correct, I will agree with 

 Dr. Miller that traditions are not the 

 most reliable things in the world. Such 

 as making a witch mad would cause the 

 cows to give bloody milk ; and we must 

 put a horse's shoe in the milk and take 

 it to the supposed witch, by moonshine, 

 to get the witchcraft cured, etc. 



Now, right here, in this same article 

 of Dr. Miller's, I feel almost forced to 

 relate some experiments about the sex 

 of the egg, etc., that I was not ready to 

 tell, as I have many experiments under 

 way whose results I wish to relate after 

 awhile. While my examinations under 

 the power of a glass (that makes anickle 

 look almost as big as wagon-wheel) do 

 not quite agree with Dr. Miller's in re- 

 gard to the location of the spermatheca, 

 and that the eggs pass from the ovaries 

 through the oviduct in such a manner as 

 to be impregnated, etc., I see nothing in 

 this for us to disagree upon. But, to 

 relate my experience that I speak of is 

 this: 



I wish to banish the tradition of me- 

 chanical pressure being the means of 

 the sex-changing of the eggs, just like I 

 did the laying worker theory. Now, 

 listen. When this was being discussed a 

 good while ago, I took a gentle old queen 

 that was so full of eggs that she could 

 hardly get her breath, or at least it 

 seemed a misery to her. 



Well, I let this queen lay about two 

 dozen eggs on my hand, and I removed 

 them to the combs of aqueenless colony, 

 put some in drone-cells, some in worker- 

 cells, and some in queen-cells ; and 

 every egg that I got to grow, or that the 

 bees did not destroy, produced worker- 

 bees. Out of the first trial T got three 

 or four workers in drone-cells, and twice 

 as many in worker-cells, and none in the 

 queen-cells. I have tried ten since, and 

 I never have succeeded in getting a 

 queen to lay any but worker-eggs in my 

 hand, or in the cage. I have tried this 

 business until I must say that mechani- 

 cal pressure may lie down and go to 

 sleep, as far as I am concerned. 



Now, I have often thought if bees can 

 change the sex of an egg, why did they 

 not make drone-bees out of the eggs I 

 put into drone-cells ? Or did the little 

 things "catch on " to my trick, and fool 

 me, as I know queenless colonies love to 

 rear drones as well as queens ? 



If I were able, I would quit work one 



year and go on to an island (18 miles 

 out in the sea) one mile wide and about 

 twenty long, that I know of, and experi- 

 ment with drones from laying-workers, 

 and drones from virgin queens, and 

 those from a queen (Italian) mated to a 

 black drone ; and drones from a queen 

 (black) that had mated with an Italian 

 drone, and a whole lot of other experi- 

 ments too numerous to mention. Take 

 them clear beyond dispute of flight, 

 range, etc. I have thought of trying to 

 get help from the Government, or other- 

 wise, for I would just like to settle these 

 points, so they can be answered with a 

 "yes" or "no." But if I quit my regu- 

 lar work it might not be long until soul 

 and body might be holding a conference 

 as to how long they should stay together; 

 that is why I cannot carry out my ex- 

 periments. 



Now, Doctor, to close this article, 

 please permit me to relate a bit of the- 

 ory, that two Irishmen were said to try 

 to put into practice. They were said to 

 have gone up on the side-hill above a 

 river to cut some rail-timber, and they 

 felled their trees in such a manner that 

 as soon as they cut oflf a log it would 

 roll down into the river and be lost. 

 Moikey says to Pat, after becoming 

 tired of the state of things, " I have 

 caught on to a plan to stop the logs." 

 " Well, Moikey, what is it ?" 

 " Faith, and I will get me a rope, Pat, 

 and toy around me body, while you, Pat, 

 cut the log off." 



"All right," says Pat, "Good." 

 And Pat cut it off, and the log started, 

 and Moikey, not being able to hold it — 

 away went the log with poor Moikey ; 

 and as he went rolling into the river, 

 Pat hollowed out, " Hold on Moikey, 

 you are on top half of the toime !" 



Now, Doctor, don't think I have com- 

 pared you to Moikey, but far from it. 

 I thought of this joke, and could not 

 withhold it. So you see this was theory 

 that did not work in practice. 



Now, I am glad to know that I am in 

 the same boat with as safe a person as 

 Prof. Cook, and while we iire out at sea 

 together, I feel he won't let me drown. 



And I had confidence in Dr. Miller, 

 to feel safe in his boat, when he and I 

 go out to sea together, until I saw the 

 way he was willing to have Bro. Root 

 "butchered," and himself escape. Now, 

 Prof. Cook, don't you think that Dr. 

 Miller is getting dangerous, anyhow ? 



Well, I guess Prof. Cook and I will 

 have to acknowledge that Dr. Miller is a 

 head of us at least half of the time. 



J. A. 



