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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL-. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Greenville. Texas. 



Will of the Q,ueen— Big- Profits. 



Mks. Atchley : — I see that Dr. Miller 

 takes Issue against you in regard to the 

 will of the queen. A thought occurred 

 to me when reading his reply, and I give 

 it to you for what it is worth. If, as the 

 Doctor maintains, the queen's abdomen 

 is so compressed by the sides of the cells 

 when laying in worker-cells, as to force 

 fertilization of the egg, how shall we 

 account for the fertility of the egg layed 

 in the large, wide-mouthed queen-cell, 

 as is done in natural swarming? Why 

 does it not develop into a drone ? 



Fair Dealing, Ky. D. L. Nelson. 



Friend Nelson, I do not think that Dr. 

 Miller takes issue against me, exactly, 

 nor do I believe that he is settled on 

 that point, but he just argued the case 

 in defence of some one else. He has not 

 said that he was right, or that I was 

 right. You see Dr. Miller is a "hard 

 case," and he is fully posted, and up 

 with the times, and he will fight back 

 just to get something good out of us. 

 The Doctor is dangerous, and we must 

 watch him, or he will go trotting off, 

 laughing in both sleeves at us. 



You have probably heard of the two 

 lawyers that argued a case before the 

 court at daggers' points, then when 

 court was oyer, they got into a buggy 

 and drove off, laughing and talking to- 

 gether. Well, that is the kind of " law- 

 yers " Dr. Miller and I are. 



There is bound to be mechanical pres- 

 sure, if a queen lays at all ; but the 

 pressure caused by the curve of the body 

 or by the mouth of the cell, having any- 

 thing to do with determining the sex of 

 the egg, I say is all hosh. 



Dr. Miller takes sides against me, or 

 against an article that I wrote for the 

 American Fanner, and calb my report 

 of an average of $8.75 from a single 

 colony in the hands of a beginner 



" fishy." I must inform the Doctor that 

 this was not my estimate at all, but was 

 made by about 20 farmers and begin- 

 ners assembled together not long ago. 

 Their average for several years back 

 was 50 pounds for each good colony in 

 the spring, and 50 pounds for the 

 swarm ; and I based my figures upon 

 their decision. So you see, Doctor, I 

 must be right, as what everybody says 

 must be so. I know that the tale seems 

 pretty "fishy," but the truth ought to 

 prevail, and the hewer ought to go to 

 the line, and let the chips fall as they 

 may. 



You see, the Doctor is away up in Ice- 

 land (Illinois), where they have about 

 an eight-months winter, while we work 

 with our bees ten months of the year. 

 And if they miss a honey crop the first 

 time, they seldom have a second or third 

 chance as we do, which makes the differ- 

 ence. The beginners are the ones that 

 usually get the most honey down here, 

 as they only have a few colonies, and 

 reap the full benefit of a large field, and 

 are usually very attentive to their bees 

 at first, and will do as you tell them ; 

 and, then, the bees in Texas liave no 

 more sense than to work and store as 

 much honey for a beginner as a veteran. 

 While the beginner, in a few years, be- 

 gins to think he knows it all, and won't 

 listen to anybody, he gets but little honey. 

 Isn't that the fix with us "know-alls," 

 Doctor ? I used to think that I knew 

 lots about bees, but find now that I am 

 only an A B C scholar, catching at every 

 " straw " that blows down this way from 

 Marengo, and from all other sources. 



J. A. 



The North and the South. 



i was indeed glad to learn that we 

 were going to have a department for the 

 South in one of the well established bee- 

 journals, as there are so many points of 

 difference, in caring for bees, between 

 the North and our region. 



While the bees of the North are shut 

 up in their cellars, or buried under their 

 quilts and chaff cushions, ours are 

 bringing in pollen and small quantities 

 of honey from time to time, and flying 

 around the neighboring hives looking 

 for cracks and crevices through which 

 to enter and help themselves to their 

 neighbors' hard-earned stores, and visit- 

 ing even the kitchen and dining-room 

 of our houses to see if we are setting out 

 any honey or syrup or fruit from which 

 they can help themselves. 



While the Northern apiarist is dis- 



