THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



133 



men. Yet while Mr. Quiuby was doing 

 just this very work, many bee-keep- 

 ers thought him to be seriously injuring 

 their business and were forever crying out, 

 " My occupation's gone." 



High as Mr. Quinby ranked as an apiar- 

 ist, he stood still higher as a man. We 

 who were accustomed to gather at his 

 fireside, can never forget his wholescniie 

 hospitality. He was a true gentleman, 

 unfettered by the stifling conventionalities 

 of modern life. He was always the same, 

 always having a hearty welcome for his 

 friends, and a kind word for every one. 

 True to his Quaker education, he was an 

 intense hater of shams, especially of the 

 human kind. He was honest; a charac- 

 teristic that is getting to be as rare as it 

 is valuable. There is no principle in 

 business better established than that 

 " Honesty is the best policy." Mr. Quinby 

 unlike most men, was honest from prin- 

 ciple. 



The mental, rather than the motive tem- 

 perament predominated in him, that is, 

 surplus vitality, would more naturally de- 

 velop into extra mental work than into 

 intense muscular activity. He was a 

 thinker, an investigator ; an originator, 

 rather than an imitator. He was calm 

 and deliberate, not excitable; did not plan 

 one minute to execute the next and de- 

 stroy the following. As he viewed a sub- 

 ject from many standpoints, he was not 

 quick in forming conclusions. In quick- 

 ness he could not keep pace with many 

 who were of lighter caliber than himself. 

 Muskets sometimes hang fire, but big can- 

 non are not usually handled with the 

 rapidity of small arms. Slow to anger, he 

 was not tame in spirit when he had just 

 •cause for indignation. He had a verj- 

 modest opinion of himself, and in meas- 

 uring others, did not set himself up as the 

 standard of perfection, as is the manner 

 of some. 



His last years were his best. His best 

 and most enduring work was done after 

 he was sixty years old. His famous as- 

 sertion then made, so ably defended, that 

 cold usually kills the bees, has never been 

 successfully contradicted. He never 

 wrote so well as in the later years of his 

 life. He continued to improve in both 

 subject-matter and manner of expression. 

 His bodily powers were gradually failing 

 him, but his reasoning faculties were 

 never so keen as in the last five j'ears of 

 his life. With more of the elements of 

 the politician about him, he would have 

 ranked higher during life, but his reputa- 

 tion would not have been so enduring. 

 Now his merits are just beginning to be 

 appreciated. 



How fitting that a life so calm and pure 

 should have so peaceful an ending. On 

 the 27th of May last, he retired at his 

 usual hour, in seeming good health and 

 spirits. Before the hour of midnight. 



without awaking from his slumbers, he 

 passed from time into eternity. Thus at 

 the age of sixty-five, ended the life-work of 

 our counsellor, friend and public benfac- 

 tor. He was more fortunate than the 

 most of men, for he was able to take with 

 him his most valued possession, the hard- 

 earned accumulation of a lifetime — a no- 

 ble character. 



"So live, that when thy summons comes to join 

 The innumerable caravan that moves, 

 To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 

 Ilis chamber in the silent halls of death, 

 Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, 

 Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and 



soothed 

 By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 

 Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 

 About him and lies down to pleasant dreams .^' 



[Bryant. 

 m ■ » — 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Partheno-genesis. 



In the January number of Moon's Bee 

 World, Mr. J. W. Howell expresses some 

 doubt as to the usually advanced theory 

 regarding the production of drones, before 

 impregnation, and says further that he 

 has come to the conclusion " that the 

 various writers on bee culture must be 

 mistaken in regard to the rearing of 

 drones, and the whole subject, it seems to 

 me, ought to be rehashed and gotten up 

 on more scientific principles." 



As there are many others that have mis- 

 givings as to the truth of partheno-genetic 

 production, I have condensed, in the fol- 

 lowing lines, some information derived 

 principally from German sources. 



It is now fully thirty years ago that the 

 Rev. Dr. Dzierson announced, in a qviiet 

 manner, that "drone eggs do not require 

 fecundation, but the co-operation of the 

 drone is imperatively necessary for the 

 production of worker bees." 



Of course there was no want of per- 

 sons who were ready, with their pens, to 

 inveigh against such bold attacks upon 

 the iToly Truths of science; but all who 

 investigated the matter experimentally, 

 were compelled to acknowledge its truth; 

 thus was the sanction of science at last 

 obtained, and the fact or law discovered 

 by Dr. Dzierson was thenceforth called 

 partheno-genesis. 



But few apiarists push their inquiries 

 any further tlian the narrow limits of the 

 apiary ; but few know whether this law is 

 restricted to the bee alone or whether it 

 holds a wider dominion in animated na- 

 ture. 



Of all investigators of the subject in 

 Germany, Messrs. V. Siebokl and Leukart 

 have contributed most towards placing 

 the law upon a firm scientific basis. 



The former has given to the public the 

 result of many years' labor in his latest 

 work, entitled " Regarding Partheno-gen- 

 esis of Anthropodes " (Leipsic). This 

 work exhibits a conscientious and labori- 



