THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



231 



[From tlie Bienenzeitung ] 



A Hostile Demonstration. 



At certain times and under peculiar circum- 

 stances, conditioned perhaps by the state of the 

 -weather or of the quality of the puslurage, bees 

 are much more ill tempered and irritable than 

 at others. Ordinarily, however, they are peace- 

 able, though an untoward occurrence may 

 quickly excite their anger or even render them 

 furious and ungovernable. An instance of such 

 transcendent and really ferocious passion oc- 

 curred within my knowledge. 



An inhabitant of a neighboring village usually 

 kept his dog chained in a yard, but found it 

 necessary one day to remove him to make room 

 for the passage of a wagon bringing in a supply 

 of turf. Taking him to liis garden, he chained 

 him to a plum tree, about fifteen or twenty steps 

 from the stand of the only bee hive there. The 

 dog being thus at an unaccu tomed place, was 

 naiiirally restless, but was soon m;ide more so 

 by the bees, which happened then to be flying 

 in that direction His strugg es were seen and his 

 whining heard, but were disregarded as mere 

 evidences of his efforts to break loose, caused 

 by the presenc e in the yard of a number of men 

 and horses. But in a short time the dog came 

 rushing among them howling terribly, and dis- 

 colored so as scarcely to be recognized. lie 

 was completely covered by a dense mass of bees, 

 and in his agony had broke the chain, and now 

 came running to his master for refuge and pro- 

 tection. The bees were thus brought Into the 

 yard, though their hive was several hundred 

 yards away, and men and horses were instantly 

 assailed by them. It was with difliculty that 

 the latter could be rescued and brought into a 

 serure place, as the enraged insects followed 

 them more than thirty rods from the premises. 

 In their fury the bees then atiaikedthe resi- 

 dents of the neighboring houses ; and one 

 living on the souih, with houses, trees, and 

 shrubbery intervening, was so stung by them 

 while striving to save his dog, that it was feared 

 he would die Children phiying at a distance 

 were stung, and had hastily to be carried to a 

 place of sa'ety; and swollen faces were com- 

 mon all around next day. Several hours passed 

 before the bees withdrew and beca'me pacified. 

 The dog first attacked speedily died from the 

 innumerable stings inflicted on him. 



Gekasch. 



The Agency of Insects in Fertilizing 

 Plants — I have made some observations and 

 experiments, says Mr. W. I. Beal, in the Amer- 

 ican Naturalist, on the fertilization of Phoe- 

 nogamous Plants, showing that in the genera 

 Kabiiiuand other genera also, insects are neces- 

 sary to carry pollen from flower to flower in 

 order to fertilize the pistils. 



1 have found also, that of many plants which 

 produce perfect flowers, in some the stamens 

 discharge all the pollen before the stigmas of 

 the same flowers are exposed ; while there are 

 others in which the pistil is fertilized before the 

 pollen of the flower is discharged. In these 

 two ways they act as though they were mouse- 

 cious plants. 



[For the American Bee Journal J 



Poisonous Honey. 



In the American Bee Journal, Vol. 2, page 

 188, two reasons are given why honey creates 

 colic in some persons and not "in others. 1st. 

 Honey gathered from poisonous flowers. 2d. 

 The poison proceeding from the sting of the bee. 



As to the first reason, it may occasionally be 

 the cause, but all are affected who eat such 

 honey and not just certain ones. 



Referring to the second reason, T would ask 

 whether the bees always poison their honey? 

 Why does honey al^ayx produce colic in some 

 persons V Would not a man of fifty or sixty 

 years of age get sonie honey during his life that 

 •was pure and not poisioned by the sting of the 

 bee V Yet we meet old men that say they nei^er 

 c-ould eat honey without it caused them a fit of 

 colic. 



I think we must ^ook in some other direction, 

 for the cause, and when we direct our attention 

 to the connUtution of certain individuals we are 

 probably looking m a proper direction. Every 

 one is aware that certain persons have pecu- 

 liarities about themselves, thai render them very 

 susceptible to morbid impressions from causes 

 that in others have no effect wha ever. 



Physicians tell us that certain persons are 

 met with who are veiy suscepiible to the action 

 of all mercurial preparations, one or two grains 

 of calomel producing severe salivation, whilst 

 there are others that can rake twenty or thirty 

 grains without being salivated in the least. 

 Some persons cannot eat cucumbers, nor even 

 be at the table where thej'^ are served. Certain 

 persons are affected with nettle-rash (Urticaria) 

 whenever thej^ eat pork. Some persons are 

 seized with a fit of asthma the moment a par- 

 ticle of the root called ipecacuanha is brought 

 in contact with their bodies. And to this pe- 

 culiarity existing in some persons we must at- 

 tribute the cause of hone)" creating colic in some 

 persons and not in others. 



W. H P. 



Buena Vista, Ohio. 



Bees in Brandenburg. 



In 180G, Christian Pehlemann, an invalid, re? 

 ident in the village of Odenburg, in the Prussian 

 P'ovince of Brandenburg, loaned the then hard 

 pressed King of Prussia, lour hundred rix-dol 

 lars, the suiplus profits of an apiary of thirty 

 hives of bees by whose labors and products he 

 supported himself. In 1812, the King repaid 

 the loan with interest, and presented to the pa- 

 triotic lender a gold medal having a hive and a 

 cluster of busy bees embossed thereon. 



In 695 villages of tliis province there are 3312 

 bee keepers and 32,814 hives of bees. The av- 

 erage annual yield of these hives, according to 

 the statement of the bee-keepers, is four dollars 

 each, making an aggregate of !fl31,256 At 

 the same rale the entire product ot honey in the 

 proviuc;e would exceed half a million ot dollars. 

 The soil is sandy, and the country may on the 

 whole be considered as rather a poor honey 

 district. 



