536 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



tablespoonful mixed with as much tar, put 

 under the frames in a little box, open enough 

 to allow evaporation, but bee-tight. That's 

 the whole cure, renewed every three months. 



Ramblek goes just a little too far on p. .505, 

 when be claims that " a card properly adjusted 

 around the neck " will keep bees out of a veil. 

 I suppose he has " keep out" written on the 

 card, and wants us to think the bees can read 

 it. I don't believe a word of it. [An error— it 

 should read cord. — Ed.] 



The American Bce-kecjjer is hard down on 

 the use of " friend " and " brother " among bee- 

 keepers. Thinks it indicates too close famil- 

 iarity. Isn't it just as familiar to call a man 

 "dear" sir? It says iht^ terms are never seen 

 in the journals elsewhere. You're out there. 

 Read the German bee-juurnals. 



The British Bee Journal says that a clipped 

 queen, when its colony swarms, "being unable 

 to fly, drops to the ground, where, if discovered, 

 she is joined by the bees of the swarm." Of 

 the hundreds of cases I have had, I never knew 

 a swarm to join a queen on the ground. Aren't 

 you theorizing, respected B. B. J.f 



The foundation in my sections, according 

 to B. B. J., is all hung the wrong way. In the 

 picture, the B. B. J. seems right, but the wrong 

 way works all right with me. Wonder if there's 

 a kink in the theory. [Wonder if actual tests 

 would show any preference in favor of having 

 the foundation hung one way instead of the 

 other. We never noticed that the wax behaved 

 better one way than the other. — Ed.] 



The brilliant prospect of the middle of 

 May had a bad setback. Cold set in, and drouth, 

 and up to June 12 starving and dragging out 

 brood was only too common. To crown all, 

 scarcely any clover bloom was in sight. June 

 16 came a grand rain, and June 20 clover is 

 blooming, and the bees are having a picnic. 

 [Glad your bees are having a picnic on clover. 

 We haven't any white clover here this season, 

 to speak of. — Ed.] 



S. T. Pettit finds blisters of water under the 

 paint of hives containing bees. That's one 

 way I " toioTO moisture will go through un- 

 painted hive-sides" (p. 492). Look here; don't 

 you know that water will soak into and through 

 an unpainted pine board ? [It will soak in to a 

 certain extent; but will it pass through? If 

 we accept your idea, we surely want paint be- 

 cause the moisture from without, together with 

 a baking sun, is what ruins — i. e., checks and 

 rots boards. Moisture from within is a small 

 item. Now, then, do you know that bees in 

 unpainted hives winter better than in those 

 painted ?— Ed.] 



" Honestly, I wish that there were some way 

 of cleaning one's fingers of honey, so clean that 

 they vvould not be sticky, without the trouble 

 of going to the honey -house and washing 



them.'''' — Hutchinson. Try my way, W. Z. 

 Wash them with dirt. Clean soil is ever so 

 much better than stickiness. [Tlie idea of 

 washing hands in dirt to clean 'em ! Well, it is 

 a good one, and, come to think of it, we have 

 practiced it ourselves. It removes the unpleas- 

 ant sticky feeling entirely. We have often, in 

 a similar way, cleaned grease off our hands in 

 sawdust. When we were working among the 

 bees every day we kept a pail of water handy; 

 and whenever we passed that pail in the height 

 of the honey season we gave those sticky hands 

 a souse. Perhaps a pail of sawdust smoker- 

 fuel might be used for a double purpose — wash- 

 ing hands and filling the smoker. — Ed.] 



MORE ABOUT INHERITANCE. 



By E. T. Ahhott. 



I presume I shall not be misunderstood if I 

 venture to offer a few suggestions on this sub- 

 ject, and show where I can not agree with the 

 article written by my good friend Dr. .Miller. I 

 am impelled to join issue with some ol Lis con- 

 clusions, as I think they are founded on false 

 premises. A brief review of a few of his state- 

 ments will bring out clearly what I mean. 



Dr. M. talks of "inherited characteristics." 

 Now, I do not think of characteristics as being 

 inherited. Character is something taken on 

 from without, and is always post-natal. Inher- 

 itance is the result of forces operating from 

 within, and is always pre-natal. Or, to put it 

 in another form, character is made; inherit- 

 ance is inbred. However, his expression may be 

 admissible. 



In speaking of the calf, Dr. M. says. " The 

 germ, when implanted in the womb of that 

 mother, had no tendency to white." It seems 

 tome it had no other tendency, so far as the 

 mother's influence on color extended. As will 

 be apparent further on. Dr. M. seems to hold 

 that the germ comes from without; when the 

 truth of the matter is. it is the product of forces 

 working within. Oinne vivum ex ouo, "every 

 animal is produced from an egg," is the law of 

 birth laid down by Harvey, and, as I think, ful- 

 ly demonstrated by Agassiz. "All animals," 

 says he, "without exception, high or low, of 

 whatever ultimate complexity or simplicity of 

 structure, originate from eggs, and from eggs of 

 the same character." 



It follows, then, that whatever predisposition 

 that calf was to receive or inherit from its 

 mother was in the egg the moment it was form- 

 ed, and this was very early in the life of the 

 mother; for Agassiz has shown that eggs are 

 sometimes formed in the womb of the anima 



