1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



79 



of our race, though we used to be 

 told that we were Asiatics. Has the 

 bee followed us in our wanderings 1 



Now as to government aid to bee 

 keepers. I for one am not opposed 

 to it, but we must be careful. The 

 hunt for new species alone would fur- 

 nish a great chance for a number of 

 junketings and also a lot of nonsense. 

 We shall have to get a ver)- much bet- 

 ter administration of the Agricultural 

 Department than we have had hereto- 

 fore, in fact, I distrust their ability 

 altogether. Why is the apicultural 

 division put in with the entomologi- 

 cal department ? Scientific men gen- 

 erally class bee keeping as belonging 

 to botany, that is, the fertilization of 

 flowers. The botanist can tell us 

 more news than the entomologist. 

 Herman Miller and Darwin have plac- 

 ed this beyond the shadow of a doubt. 

 Pasturage is the great problem of the 

 future. But this is another story. 



I think if the government were to 

 give the Smithsonian Institute a grant 

 of monej' for this object for a term of 

 years it would satisfy everybody, the 

 money to be granted for the express 

 purpose of making experiments on 

 the difierent species of bees and their 

 influence on flowers. The Smithson- 

 ian could attack this job better than 

 any one else, and, moreover, get the 

 assistance of the whole scientific 

 world. They would be able to see 

 the job from all sides. Still, there 

 would be plenty left for the Agricul- 

 tural Department to do , such as gath- 

 ering statistics, getting uniformity 

 among hives, promoting the sale of 

 honey, and so on. 



As to getting new bees the Smith- 



sonian can do it better than any one 

 else and at less expense. We can 

 keep our weather eye open. 



There are many other references on 

 bees in modern books of travel ; in 

 fact, some just published mention 

 them, like Lawrence Kashmir, where 

 the bee men know enough to feed 

 millet meal for pollen, and keep the 

 hives inside ; but enough has been 

 noted to show how matters stand. 



Devonshire, Bermuda. 



PLENTY TO EAT. 



When at its zenith the Roman Enapire 

 laid all the barbaric countries of the world 

 under contribution to supply the tables of 

 its nobles and wealthy citizens with the fine 

 luxuries of life. Asia and Africa poured 

 in the rich spices and fruits of the tropics ; 

 Germany and the great north countries rais- 

 ed the grains and wild berries; Italy and 

 the fertile land of the Frank.s cultivated the 

 vineyards to make or express the wines ; 

 every strip of sea-coast from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Baltic contributed its quota of 

 fish ; and the forests of Brittany yielded the 

 wild game of the woods, — birds, beasts and 

 fowls, — for the banquets of the proud, disso- 

 lute rulers of the vast Empire. With the 

 choice products of a great world so easily 

 obtained, there were wanton waste, fo )lish 

 extravagance, and a strange disregard of the 

 value of expensive luxuries, and the histor- 

 ian dwelling upon these times delights in 

 recapitulating the various articles of diet 

 arranged in tempting manner upon the 

 groaning tables at the great feasts ;ind ban- 

 quets. 



But, excepting Nero's disli of peacock 

 tongues and Cieopatara's cup of wine with 

 the dissolved pearls in it, the n enu of our 

 modern banquets would c(»m})are favorably 

 with those spre;id in the times when glut- 

 tony, licentiousness, and greed for luxury 

 were insiduously sapping the strength of 

 Rome. — George E. Walsh, in Manh Lip- 

 pincott's. 



