THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



39 



only the man was wanting, able to 

 make one grand, general experiment, 

 embracing the preceding observations 

 and discoveries; and who, like Huber, 

 would be able, with unbending will, to 

 pursue this new system of natural phi- 

 losophy to the conviction of its oppo- 

 nents. 



^nd this man was none other than 

 Dzierzon. To desire to take away from 

 him the merit of being the real founder 

 and discoverer of this new system of 

 Bee-cultui*e, would be but the repetition 

 of that old, and oft -repeated history, in 

 which little minds seek to oppose the 

 genius that discovered a new idea. 

 This jealous spirit is so. deeply implant- 

 ed in mankind, that, among the an- 

 cients, it often served as a source of 

 ridicule. When Pythagoras had dis- 

 covered his renowned mathematical 

 theorem, for thankfulness he offered to 

 the gods one hundred oxen (hecatomb) ; 

 and since that time it has been said, 

 all oxen shudder when a clever thought 

 is revealed to the world. 



John Dzierzon, born in 1811, in a 

 villiage of Middle Silesia, studied, in 

 1830, at Breslau. Roman Catholic the- 

 ology, having at the same time, a 

 strong inclination for natural history 

 studies. In 1835 he was located as 

 a priest at Carlsmarkt, in Silesia. His 

 parish was small, and his labors light. 

 All his spare time was given to prac- 

 tical Bee-culture, and the careful study 

 of all the previously published Bee lite- 

 rature, and the careful testing of the 

 various discoveries concerning the nat- 

 ure of the Bee. Of great value to him 

 now, in his observations and experi- 

 ments, was his arrangement of the hive 

 with movable combs, which he used 

 long before they were known in other 

 circles. His first essays appeared in the 

 Fraxiendorfern Blattern. His first con- 

 tribution to the Eichstadter Bienenzei- 

 tung appeared in No. 12, of 1845, p. 122. 

 Shortly afterwards, a new and im- 

 proved system of Bee Culture, by Pas- 

 tor Dzierzon, was published by Bruck- 

 isch, commonly called '' Theorie and 

 Praxis.'' So little profit did Dzierzon 

 then anticipate from this valuable work, 

 that he allowed it to pass into other 

 hands, and it was published with vari- 

 ous notes, which served to deteriorate 



and mar it. Later, his supplement to 

 "Theorie and Praxis," was publisherl 

 under commission by Beck, in Nord- 

 lingen. Since 1846, he has been a con- 

 stant contributor to the Eichstadter Bi- 

 enenzeitung, and, at the great annual 

 gatherings of the German Bee-keepers, 

 he is the king around whom they all 

 cluster. 



But he had a hard battle, until he 

 had broken the way, and made .such 

 able oj)ponents as Busch and Baron von 

 Berlepsch, his friends and well wishers. 



It is well known how he searched 

 deeper into the natural history of the 

 Bee, and called to his aid the honored 

 Zoologists, Leuckart and Yon Siebold. 

 The result of all his scientific research- 

 es and practical experiments, he gave 

 to the world in his great work, the 

 second edition of which was published 

 in 1869, by Schneider, in Mannheim, 

 '' Die Biene und ihre Zucht mit bewe- 

 gliehen Waben in Gegenden ohne 

 Spatsommertracht." We are not ex- 

 aggerating, when we call this work an 

 achievement-an event which marked the 

 beginning of the new era, since it is a 

 storehouse containing within itself all 

 the theoretical and practical knowledge 

 of bees gained by past observation. 

 More than this it points the waj^ into 

 those regions from which the vail has 

 not vet been raised. 



Is Black Comb Useful? 



Black comb, unless it be very old and 

 choked with pollen and filth, is as useful 

 for breedig purposes as any other. For 

 guide combs it is better than any other, 

 as it is tough and will not break away 

 from its fastenings as new comb will. 

 Care should be taken, notwithstanding, 

 to discard all comb from which the Bees 

 of former seasons have not hatched out. 

 Sometimes in old combs some cells may 

 be observed from which the sealing has 

 not been removed, some such cells may 

 have small perforations in them, their 

 crowns being sunken, and their contents 

 dried up; others may still retain the re- 

 mains of dead brood, but wherever these 

 are seen the comb should be consigned 

 to the melting-pot, for there is danger 

 that the combs are infected with foul 

 brood . — British Bee Journal. 



