128 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



be an act of dishouosty, and would sooner 

 or later bring its own reward. 



Please do at least give us the credit of 

 disinterestedness in this matter, for we feel 

 sure the business will pass along more 

 briskly if queens are sold as soon as fertile, 

 at a low price, and the accommodation will 

 be on both sides. When the possessor of a 

 queen has tested her himself, he is satisfied, 

 and lie is rarely otherwise. 



Many are the beekeepei-s who would feel 

 that the business paid tolerably well, were 

 it not for the unceasing demands and con- 

 tinued outgoes; if we have shown any, how 

 they could lessen expenses and still be just 

 as well off, we shall have fulfilled our pur- 

 pose in writing. If in our zeal we have 

 now and then gone to extremes, please ex- 

 cuse it on the ground that it was only what 

 might be expected from your old friend 



Novice. 



P. S. — When we get each one of our 

 twenty-two colonies built "out" so that 

 they fill a ten-foot hive, we suppose the 

 queens will be worth ten dollars each, and 

 were it not for spoiling their wings, we 

 might cut them up in ten square slices at a 

 dollar each. Speaking of wings, reminds 

 me that we have read of ants biting off the 

 wings of the mother ant as soon as she was 

 fertilized, for some reason best known to 

 themselves. Can't some one tell us more 

 about it, and are the ants to be censured for 

 going contrary to nature ? 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Do Bees Injure Fruit? 



W. F. Clark : — Dear Sir : — In the March 

 number of the A3ierioa2^ Bee Jouknal, 

 (p. 63) Mr. A. O. Kruschke, of Berlin, 

 Wis., accused the iV. Y. Tribune of not 

 publishing an article on the above-men- 

 tioned subject, in reply to and in censure of 

 " that wise (?) Prof. Riley." To show that 

 the accusation was unjust, I mailed the 

 correspondence of the Tribune, which you 

 have kindly published in your April num- 

 ber (pp. 76, 77). Permit me to say further, 

 in reply to Mr. K's remarks, that I have no 

 personal feeling in this matter, and I can 

 well attbrd to leave it to your readers to 

 decide, from which side comes the person- 

 ality. For while the charges of crime and 

 presumption, the taunts of sapieucy and 

 "wisdom," and cowardice might well 

 arouse some feeling of the kind, I have en- 

 deavored to avoid such. My object is to 

 state the truth, and my opinions are based 

 not on a single experiment, but on repeated 

 observation. Mr. K. may stigmatize them 

 as presumption, but others will show more 

 consideration and less egotism. Mr. K. 

 may consider it liis " duty to be a bee-de- 

 fender," but I know no other duty as a nat- 

 uralist, than to state my convictions as to 



the truth; and herein lies my "crime." I 

 have seen bees cut into fruit, and there is 

 no imagination about it. The wisdom of 

 my recommendation to the horticulturist 

 who in extreme cases suffers from bee- 

 injury, may be questioned; but none but 

 prejudiced persons will dotibt my statement 

 of fact, and call my opinion based thereon 

 presumption. Facts so often witnessed in 

 the vineyard are not overthrown by a sin- 

 gle adverse experiment. We have laws to 

 protect us from the inroads of cattle left 

 roaming at large, and if in exceptional times 

 when the ordinary food of the commons is 

 short or entirely lacking, our neighbor does 

 not take proper care of his four-legged 

 stock, but allows it to depredate on crops, 

 legal redress is at command. But under 

 similar exceptional circumstances, we have 

 no legal protection from his six-legged 

 stock. 



Finally, I hope Mr. K. will, as he prom- 

 ises, continue his experiments; and as they 

 may not all turn out like his first, he may 

 yet learn to cultivate a due degree of mod- 

 esty in the use of unpleasant and personal 

 epithets; for truth will in the end " shame 

 the devil." 



Inline 15, p. 77, " observe " should read 

 "obscure." Yours, etc., 



C. V. Riley. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping in the South. 



We of the South, the native home of the 

 bee, know but little yet of his management 

 as practiced by our Northern neighbors; 

 and, in fact, the results produced by some, 

 as at least claimed, are perfectly astound- 

 ing to us. Some, however, pretend to ac- 

 count for it by saying that bees know their 

 necessities, and prepare for them according- 

 ly; that in cold climates they lay up greater 

 stores than in warm ones, and that on the 

 peninsula of Florida, where there is no 

 frost, they lay up no stores at all. This 

 theory I believe to be nothing more than 

 theory, and that upon trial will be proved 

 to be wholly without a foundation in truth. 



We have none but the native bees here, 

 yet, and I wish to learn to manage them 

 more successfully before making any furth- 

 er investments. I saw the first movable 

 comb hive last year. Transferred two col- 

 onies on the 25th of July. One was de- 

 stroyed by moths ; the other did well They 

 arc now working vigorously, and, if not 

 prevented, will throw out a swarm in a few 

 days. I have watched bees more closely 

 the past winter than ever before, and I do 

 not think there were ten days in succession 

 at any time during cold weather that they 

 could not rty out; and by the 14th of Feb. 

 they were in full blast, gathering honey and 

 pollen from a thousand fiowers. This must 



