93 



GLEANINGS IN HEE CULTURE. 



Fek. 1. 



and finally to our ambassador In Constantino- 

 ple. Now, it may here be said we were four 

 brothers, bee-keepers; and, having our apiaries 

 in different parts of the country, naturally 

 enough we could not all be in one place; and 

 when the tax-gatherers came, an act of polite- 

 ness was omitted by some of us. It is custom- 

 ary among Arabs to invite these officials tosit 

 down, drink a cup of coffee, and converse about 

 different topics (not the weather), and last, but 

 not least, about the tax laid on; and, in a gen- 

 tle way, to mak(> one understand that his taxes 

 are very high, etc., no matter what he has laid 

 on. This had been omitted. I said, and the 

 official's wrath at such i-eception got the village 

 mayor and his municipal council on their side, 

 by promising them a share in the spoil, while 

 on our part my brothers warned them to be 

 careful and mind our consul. Eat the officials 

 knew better; and our consul, like all other con- 

 suls, as was proved afterward, was our repre- 

 sentative to defend our per.so?i.s. but has noth- 

 ing to do with our prnperUi, and does not inter- 

 fere in tax-gathering. A last act, or trial, 

 toward mending affairs was begun after six 

 months' arguing. In an assembly of Jerusalem 

 nobility — the Effcn(Us—a.re descendants of the 

 great Mohammedan warriors and generals. 

 Chalid and Houssein. I thought of appealing 

 to their noble qualities, as representatives of 

 holy men and guardians of the most holy tem- 

 ple at Jerusalem, to touch a chord of sensi- 

 bility; but they took it as satire, and closed the 

 question by condemning us to pay $150. O. S., 

 equal to something over ^lioo. 

 Nice, France. 



(Continued in our next.) 



HEREDITY. 



By C. V. Miller. 



The fight is still on, across the ocean, with re- 

 gard to heredity. Mr. Metelli, in the Italian 

 bee-journal, yipicoffore, asks the question, "Is 

 it true that the exchange of the queen of a lazy 

 colony for a queen of proved excellence often 

 fails to change the natural qualities of the col- 

 ony, and after the exchange it remains just as 

 lazy as before?" To this he replies, that; ac- 

 cording to his experience, with not many ex- 

 ceptions, a cliange of queen* does not suffice, 

 and thereby time, trouble, honey, and a good 

 (|ueen are uselessly sacrificed. This, he argues, 

 is inexplicable on the ground that, from the 

 queen, come all the characteristics and instincts 

 of a colony. But th(; matter is no mystery on 

 the ground of inheritance from the workers, if 

 we concede that, in every fertilized egg, lie in- 

 closed all slumbering instincts and character- 

 istics of the race, both good and bad, in their 

 various degrees, and that it depends on the 

 special itfiuence of operating circumstances, 

 such as food, climate, etc., whether these char- 



acteristics shall develop more or less, in this or 

 that direction, or one at the expense of the 

 others. 



That keen observer, Herr Reepen, quotes Dr. 

 Metelli in the German C en.tr alhlatt, and replies 

 that practice has sufficiently proved that the 

 character of a colony changes on the introduc- 

 tion of a queen of another variety. A colony 

 not given to swarming becomes a swarmer after 

 the introduction of a Carniolan queen, and a 

 cross colony in most cases becomes gentle after 

 receiving a Carniolan or Italian queen. He gets 

 in a sharp rejoiner by saying that, if it is true 

 that a good queen of proved excellence is use- 

 lessly sacrificed when given to a bad colony, 

 how does Mr. Metelli know that the queen re- 

 moved was of bad character? and how does he 

 know that the new queen is one of proved ex- 

 cellence, if the queen exercises no influence in 

 changing character ? In other words, how can 

 you prove that a queen is excellent by the ex- 

 cellence of her workers, if those workers do not 

 inherit their excellence from her? 



Whatever may be the reply to this, it seems 

 to me that we should not so much spend a great 

 deal of energy in finding the reason for suppos- 

 ed facts, as to find pn-itively what the facts are. 

 And that should not be so very difficult. Say 

 colony No. 1 is very cross, and No. 3 very gentle. 

 June 1, exchange queens. Aug. I. if the colo- 

 nies have remained without change, we may 

 conclude that the workers then present have 

 inherited their dispositions mainly from the 

 workers. If the colonies have exchanged dis- 

 positions, we may conclude that the disposition 

 is mainly inherited from the parents. I say 

 m,oi7i7j/, for it is possible that it may turn out 

 that, while it is true that traits do come through 

 the parents, and mostly in that way. still the in- 

 fluence of the food taken in the larval state 

 may have no little influence on the young queen 

 in deciding what characterisiies she shall be- 

 queath to her offspring. 



Another test, perhaps more satisfactory, al- 

 though taking a longer time, would be this: 

 From the same batch of queen-cells let one be 

 given to the bees of a very cross colony and the 

 other to the bees of a very gentle colony, and 

 then note the difference in the bees of the two 

 queens thus raised. 



The question of interest to practical bee-keep- 

 ers — and it is an important one — is this: What 

 attention, if any, am I to pay to the nurse-bees 

 that raise the young queen? If the influence 

 of the nurse-bees is even a very small one, we 

 want to take advantage of that small part, es- 

 pecially as it will not be such a great deal of 

 trouble to use our best workers to raise queens. 

 No single observation, of course, can decide 

 much; but if all bee-keepers have their eyes 

 open during next season, and then report, the 

 sum of the evidence ought to leave the matter 

 practically settled. 



Indeed, no little could be done if there were 



