132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



organs of the eye is necessary to preserve 

 the sight. Should we clip the fins of these 

 fish for a like number of generations, 

 would not the muscles whidh propel the 

 lius, wholly or partially perish from lack 

 of proper exercise, and thus produce either 

 a finless race or one with puny fins. Con- 

 fine the arm in a sling from childhood to 

 manhood, and thus suspend the exercise of 

 the propelling muscles of the arm, and 

 what is the result ? a shrunken and useless 

 limb ; on the other hand, for the same 

 length of time, wield the blacksmith's 

 sledge with the same arm, and^OAVcrfully 

 developed muscles are the result. 



We are told that a race of bob-tailed 

 dogs has been produced by the s,uccessive 

 severence of the dorsal extremity. 



We know the turkejs, and other do\nes- 

 tic fowls, as well as animals, have by 

 domestication been dwarfed in their powers 

 of locomotion by the no longer vigorous 

 exercise of those muscles which speed their 

 movements ; and their progeny are like- 

 wise feeble in the muscles of propulsion. 

 Thousands of analogies might be adduced 

 to show that -'like begets like " but these 

 would seem to suffice. In all the cases of 

 impaired locomotion the propelling muscles 

 have been idle for generations, and thus 

 weakened. The progeny of the succeeding 

 generation partakes of the weakness in this 

 respect of the preceding. 



If bees should excel in any one thing, it 

 should be in their powers of flight. Now 

 clip the wing or wings of- the queens or 

 mother bees, and keep up this clipping for 

 generations, thus stopping in the line of 

 descent the healthful exerciser of the wing 

 muscles, must it not inevitably result, if not 

 in a wingless, at least in a race with impair- 

 ed wings. Long before they became wing 

 less the operations of the hive would cease. 



3ud. I believe the workers re^rd a clip- 

 ped mother with suspicion, and at times 

 supersede her, or else she dies more readily 

 from this cause. Three out q| five of my 

 clipped queens died last sea^ii^ two of 

 which I found dead in front of tlMr hives ; 

 whilst out of thirteen undipped queens, I 

 lost not one that I know of. 



3rd. Clipping does not always prevent 

 the queen from trying to lead the swarm, 

 in which case she falls and may perish. 



4th. It is inconsistent with the spirit of 

 the age, which is to improve both animals 

 and plants rather than to deteriorate. Clip- 

 ping cannot improve or produce a more 

 perfect insect. Some writer even advocates 

 clipping one leg. If the queen has any use 

 for wings and legs, that use is impaired by 

 this practice ; and is it not wiser and safer 

 to' pursue that course which to say the least 

 cannot injure, in preference to that which 

 may, and let her wings and legs alone V 



Decherd, Tcnn. E. D. Sankokd. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Natural and Artificial Pood. 



Among the many peculiar conceits of 

 mankind, there is none perhaps more com- 

 mon than that of investigating one's own 

 ideas with a greiy deal of importance ; even 

 though the same ideas, or supposed dis- 

 coveries have been common to others long 

 before and not emblazoned as anything at 

 all wonderful or astonishing. 



An Ohio bee-keeper having been led from 

 some cause or other to feed sugar to bees 

 with seeming good results, straightway 

 proclaims the fact to the world, as a great 

 discovery of his own, when the truth is 

 that it had often been done before, and 

 without very greatly agitating the bee 

 world. 



Doubtless bees can be wintered on sugar 

 syrup, if properly prepared ; but that it is 

 in any way superior to the food which 

 nature has taught the honey bee to gather 

 for its own use, I am very far from believ- 

 ing. 



Man may often by scientific knowledge 

 concentrate, intensify, or direct nature's 

 forces to certain ends and objects, but 

 when he attempts to substitute one of her 

 provisions for another, he very rarely 

 improves ubou the original. While I 

 disbelieve in the superiority of sugar as 

 food for bees, still less do I believe in its 

 prophylactic properties. At its first sug- 

 gestion as a remedy for or preventive of 

 so called dysentery in bees, I am incredu- 

 lous for the foregoing reasons, and the 

 results of many experiments of eminent 

 apiarians as well as my own, has tendered 

 to dissipate entirely the idea of its sanitary 

 qualities. 



Perhaps an item of my own experience, 

 bearing upon this question might not prove 

 uninteresting. 



In August 1872, after basswood had 

 ceased to yield honey — which is the last 

 we get here of any consequence — I found 

 that my bees' stores were insuflicient to 

 winter upon ; consequently I fed to some 

 25 stocks, U barrels of A coffee sugar 

 made into syrup. It was fed during the 

 hot days the last of August, so the bees 

 could put it in good shape for winter ; and 

 in order to thoroughly test the properties 

 claimed for it, I fed a few late swarms, 

 which had made considerable comb, but 

 little honey, sufficient sugar syrup to last 

 till spring'. In order to show that the 

 syrup was well prepared, I would say that 

 I can show any amount of it to day in the 

 combs of the hives, out of which the bees 

 died, that is not grained at all, but is of 

 good consistency and in fine condition for 

 bees. 



About the 1st of January following, my 

 bees connnenced dicing of dysentery, and 



