I88(i 



GLEANINGS IN J5EE CULTrUE. 



4:*. 



rtwindle away by degrees and die in the spriiiji-. or 

 come through with but a fraction of a workinj>- 

 force. 



Others prefer a medium course; viz., upward 

 ventihition throug-h a thick layer of chatf or other 

 porous material. Here tlie chatf is not really an 

 absorbent, but only serves to restrain the upward 

 current of air. If any moisture is absorbed it is 

 soon dried out by the rising- air. This is much 

 better than unrestrained upward ventilation, or 

 absorbents without upward ventilation, but it is 

 also very wasteful of the heat of the colony. Any 

 thing- like an upward current is injurious, causing- 

 the bees to become uneasy, and consume a greater 

 quantity of food, rendering- them more liable to 

 starvation and diarrh(ea. 



It is scarcely necessary to remind any of the read- 

 ers of Glbanings that warm air is lighter than 

 cold, and therefore has a tendency to rise; that the 

 top of an apartment containing any source of heat 

 is warmer than the bottom, or that, if a hole be 

 made in top of such an apartment, a draft will be 

 created which will lower the temperature of the 

 room by removing the warm air; neither is it nec- 

 essary to remind you that moist aii- is heavier than 

 dry air, especially when cool. 



In the face of these facts I can hardly see why 

 bee-keepers follow the unscientilic and unnatural 

 plan of using absorbents or upward ventilation to 

 remove the moist air which would run out of the 

 hive itself if permitted, carrying- very little heat 

 with it. " All-out-of-doors " is the best, cheapest, 

 and most extensive absorbent of moisture we can 

 find. To gain this end, the entrance should be 

 large— I would have it not less than 12X '-'i, the win- 

 tering apartment small, so that the bees can warm 

 all parts of it, and its walls protected by some non- 

 conducting material, the thicker the better, in or- 

 der that they may be kept warm so that moisture 

 will not condense on them. These walls, sides, and 

 top, should be of some material imi^ervious to air or 

 moisture; then the watery vapor generated bj' the 

 bees, being- heavier than the air, will sink to the 

 bottom and flow out at the entrance, while the 

 warm air will remain confined at the top of the hive. 



The prime cause of our wintering troubles is cold. 

 Retention of moisture in the hive, or ventilating it 

 out at the top, must lower the average tempera- 

 ture, which is something we should carefully guard 

 against. 8— J. A. Ghken, 85—100. 



Dayton, III., Jan. 6, 1886. 



Friend Green, your reasoning is good, and 

 the most of it I am prepared to follow. But 

 it seems to me you are going a little to the 

 e.xtreme when you recommend a small win- 

 tering apartment, impervious to air or moist- 

 ure. Of course, you recommend that this 

 small apartment should be well protected by 

 some non-conducting material, and that the 

 entrance be large. I agree with the latter, 

 and may be with the whole of it ; but to be 

 sure we understand you exactly, suppose you 

 put your bees into a bottle having a large 

 mouth, the bottle to be just the size to con- 

 tain the colony, and to be protected abund- 

 antly by warm packing over all the bottle 

 except the mouth. Would this be just the 

 thing y I am rather inclined to think it 

 would, if the mouth of the bottle were of 

 just the right size ; and VJ, inches by I, or an 

 equivalent, would probably be rtbout right 



for an iiveiage colony. Yon will see, by 

 looking at llie A I> (' book, that I come pret- 

 ty near on to your ground, though I confess 

 I should li;ivt' feared to recomend a glass 

 bottle. I say (jUass. l)ecause glass is a better 

 non-L'onductoi- of heat than metals, or, 1 

 might have said, a water-tight tin box. 

 Now, if your position is the right one (that 

 we can confine every bit of the animal heat, 

 provided we keep the frost entirely away 

 from the impervious covering), I do not knovv 

 but we are going to make a l)ig step in this 

 matter of wintering. J notice the poultry 

 journals are recommending just this thing 

 exactly. Let the fowls roost in an air-tight 

 apartment, except an oi)ening below, where 

 they hop up on to their roosts. This, of 

 course, is for zero weathei-. 



VISION IN INSECTS. 



.\N INTEKESTING T.\LK ON EYES IX (i IC.N EK.\I,. 



J' SUPPOSE many of the readers of Gle.4.nings 

 '' know that the eye is a verj' complex organ. 

 t The window of the eye- the cornea, marked C 

 ■ in the drawing— is transi)arent as clearest glass. 

 This bends the rays of light that pass it, as 

 does water. We all l^now that this is why the stick 

 in a glass of water appears to bend. The rays of 

 light do bend, and so the stick appears to bend. 

 The aqueous, or watery humor. A, back of the cor- 

 nea, is simply a filling; it varies the ray of light 

 leaving the cornea, almost none at all. The iris, I, 

 is what gives color to the eye. It is the window- 

 curtain, which the eye dexterously raises or lowers 

 as it wishes more or less light. This is to the eye 

 what the diaphragm is to Ernest's microscoi)e. 

 The reason that the iris is colored is from its con- 

 taining- a coloring material called pigment. The 

 same material in the hair or skin gives color to 

 those parts. 



The albino has none of this pigment, so his hair 

 is white, his skin pink as a baby's — the blood- 

 vessels show through— and his eyes are pink for the 

 same reason. The albino 

 can not close the shutters, 

 as his iris Is transparent, 

 and soin daylight his vision 

 is dazzled, and, like an owl, 

 he can see better bj- night 

 than by day. 



The pupil is the little 

 Iblack hole in the center of 

 jthe iris, where all rays of 

 A. SECTION. >FMiiMAx EYE. \^g\^^ ^ust cntcr ovcry eyc 

 —except those of the albino. This little port-hole is 

 black, only because it opens into a black chamber. 

 Just back of the ))upil and iris is the beautiful 

 crystalline lens, C L. This is a double-convex lens 

 in form, and no crystal is clearer. My students, in 

 their dissections and study of the eye, always ex- 

 claim at the marvelous beauty of this crystalline 

 lens. This crystalline lens,'like the cornea, bends 

 the rays of light still more, so that all from any 

 point of an object Uvhercver thej' Imay enter the 

 eye come to a focus on the retina, K, the part of 

 the eye that is able to perceive or take note of light 

 and color. Thio focusing is absolutely necessary to 

 lierf ect vision. In near-siglited people the rays are 

 bent too much ; in old pcoplc^too little. The cry8- 



(f~R An 



