THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



277 



An Old Bee Book. 



Books iire landinaiks in the field of 

 truth; milesloues on the highway of 

 knowk'dge. Not many years ago, some 

 laborers while excavating in Broadway, 

 N. Y., came upon an old milestone that 

 still persisted in saying, "One mile to 

 New York," though it was found in the 

 very heart of that great metropolis. In 

 like manner, old books often show them- 

 selves to be far behind the times, by their 

 now obsolete contents, but in some cases 

 they surprise the reader by showing that 

 items of knowledge supposed to be new 

 and modern, are very old and time- 

 honored. 



Both these remarks find numerous il- 

 lustrations in a bee-book i)uhlished sixty- 

 two years ago in London, England. We 

 came upon it while scanning a highly- 

 varied assortment of second-hand and 

 old publications, exposed for sale at a 

 book-stall in an Eastern city. Originally 

 sold at eight shillings sterling, an outlay 

 of forty cents constituted the writer its 

 happy owner, and it is no exaggeration 

 to say, that the costliest new novel of the 

 age, would not be half so interesting to 

 an intelligent bee-keeper, as this now 

 venerable volume. 



The title-page is as follows: "A trea- 

 tise on the breeding and management of 

 bees, to the greatest advantage. Inter- 

 spersed with important observations 

 adapted to general use. Deduced from a 

 series of experiments during thirty years. 

 By John Keys. A new edition." This 

 "new edition," the writer states in his 

 preface, is in reality a new book. He 

 says that in 1780, he "ventured to pub- 

 lish a work of this kind," according to 

 the best knowledge and experience he 

 then had. Now, thirty-four years later, 

 the author, "in tlie vale of life," dis- 

 covers, that as the result of his research- 

 es, observations, and experiments, he 

 differs to such an extent from himself, 

 that "instead of a second edition, a new 

 book became necessary." 



There are few active-minded men, bee- 

 keepers or others, who do not differ 

 amazingly from their former selves, both 

 in opinion and practice, after the lapse of 

 thirty-four years ! 



In the course of the i)reface, the author 

 assures "apiators" that to the best of his 

 knowledge, "every hint or information 

 that has been found of any real service, 

 in any writer of note, foreign or domestic, 

 is comprised in this volume." A foot- 

 note contains a list of these writers, and 

 we own ourselves not a little astonished, 

 at the number of names given. "Butler, 

 Mew, Geddy, Purchase, Wolridge, Rus- 



deu. Warder, White. Thorley, Mills, 

 Wildmans, Debraw, and Bromwich. 

 Foreigners: Miraldy, Reaumur, Bonnet, 

 Shirai'h, Needham, Norton, Seykers, and 

 others of less note." It is rather extraor- 

 dinary that Iluber is not included in this 

 enumeration, for it was reading the 

 works of Reaumur and Bonnet, that 

 interested him in the study of bee-life, 

 and long before 1814 he had become 

 widely known as a writer in that depart- 

 ment of natural history. Indeed it was 

 in 1814, that his numerous papers pub- 

 lished through various channels, were 

 gathered into one collection. He pro- 

 bably ranked then among "others of less 

 note," though he subseiiuently became 

 more distinguished than any of them. It 

 is safe to infer that Keys was not much 

 indebted to Huber, or there woqld have 

 been more distinct acknowledgement of 

 obligation to him. 



The preface further states that within 

 a few years, "warm disputes" had ari.sen 

 between different naturalists and apiarian 

 societies on the continent, "relating to 

 the generation of bees, and the formation 

 of artificial swarms in consequence of 

 some new and wonderful principles ad- 

 vanced by a Mr. Schirach, secretary of 

 an apiarian society. "Eight years of ex- 

 perimenting at the cost of much loss and 

 disappointment had convinced Mr. Keys 

 that Schirach's method cannot prove of 

 public utility. 



By way of redeeming this introductory 

 paper from dullness, we append a few 

 amusing extracts from Chapter I., illus- 

 trative of the queer ideas about bees that 

 were in vogue 64 years ago. Speaking 

 of the queen, he says, "The more full of 

 eggs, the more yellow is her belly." Note 

 this, ye breeders of Italian queens and 

 let it settle for ever the controversy 

 about light and dark queens ! "She is 

 five times longer in laying a royal egg, 

 than a common one." "The queen is im- 

 pregnated about August, by virtue of 

 which she is enabled to breed in the 

 spring, till she produces fresh drones." 

 The idea of one impregnation for life, 

 had not dawned on the apiarian world at 

 that date. Drones are said to be discard- 

 ed late in the season, because at that time 

 they have become "devoid of the sper- 

 matic milky liquor." The large number 

 of drones found in a hive, is accounted 

 for because "the queen, containing some 

 thousand eggs at a time in her body de- 

 mands a larger supply of the prolific 

 juice than a few drones are equal to fur- 

 nish." This is noted as a matter of won- 

 der, "the many thousand times I have 

 observed drones in the combs, I never 

 beheld one with its tail in a cell." Like 



