.564 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



OlTLY 



ing potato-liugs. I never use poison. I put a large 

 bale, made of a barrel-hoop, on a common tin i)an 

 and then fasten a pasteboard, H or 1(1 inches wide, on 

 one side of the pan, i-eaching half way aroimd. This 

 pi'events the bugs from Hying over when T brush 

 them in. I use a brush nuide of broom corn, wliich 

 does not injure the vines; and if bugs are plentiful 

 I go over the vines every otliei- day. A. T. Cook. 

 Clinton Hollow, N. Y. 



BEES AND BEE-KEEPING." 



A REVIEW OF THE SAME BY PHOF. f'OOK. 



TT is only from lack of time that I have delayed 

 |MF reviewing this excellent work, the first half of 

 ^t whicli has now been in the hands of bee-keep- 

 -*■ ers for some weeks. This part of the work is 

 wholly scientific, and is very thorough and 

 complete. I can hardly describe the interest and 

 pleasure 1 have derived from its careful study. 

 This is not lessened bj' the fact that its criticisms 

 of my own work seem rather harsh. When I am 

 wrong I am only too glad to be corrected; and if, 

 in my intensely busy life, I have at times been too 

 hasty or less careful than I ought to be, it may be 

 well that I should receive even a sharp reminder. 

 Of the six or seven points criticised, two were cor- 

 rected before I saw this work; and if the other 

 criticisms are found, upon examination, to be well 

 grounded, as will very likely prove true, I shall cer- 

 tainly profit by them. As Mr. C. says, 1 drew 

 largely from Hyatt's monagraph. He has done the 

 same, yet he does not even hint that I differed to- 

 tally from Hyatt in the structure of the ligula and 

 the process of taking nectar, or that I was first to 

 give the description which he substantially follows. 

 When I first read Mi-. Cheshii-e's article on the 

 cause of foul brood, and noted how he spoke of the 

 German scientists who had discovered the cause 

 of the malady, I wondered that so good a scientist 

 could mar his work by such unkind references, es- 

 pecially as his own work is largely compilation, 

 though he has given us much whicii is new. This 

 latter, if correct, as it doubtless is, in the main, gives 

 us great reason to thank him. 



In this review I shall speak only of some of the 

 most interesting points of the work, suggesting 

 that, Avhile it is rather technical in places, for the 

 unscientific reader, no live bee-k«»eper can read and 

 study it without great benefit. 



Mr. Cheshire is a skillful microseopist, and it is in 

 this field that he has done the principal, original 

 work. It is generally known by scientists that lar- 

 val bees, no less than the larva' of other insects, 

 shed their skins. The author shows just how and 

 where these discarded garments are tucked away. 

 I have found that these shreds of the rejected 

 skins of bumble-bee larva? are managed in similar 

 fashion. It is stated that the cocoons extend but 

 a short distance from the outer end of the cells, and 

 that Huber was wrong in stating that those of 

 queens were much less e.xtensive than those of the 

 other larva>. 



No part of the work is more interesting than that 

 describing the glands of the mature bees. He calls 

 attention to the three pairs of glands, two in the 

 head and one in the thorax, which were pointed out 

 bySiebold; also the Hask-shaped gland at the base 

 of the mandible, which is beautifully illustrated 

 by Woltf in his admirable monagraph. Mr. Chesh- 



ire argues, and with no small show of reason, that 

 one pair of these glands of the head secretes the 

 most ol' the food of the larval workers, nearly all of 

 that of the larval queens, and the most— all of the 

 nitrogenous food of the (jueen. The fact that this 

 gland is absent in the queen and drones surely 

 gives strong support to the view, as does the fact 

 that the gland seems more active in young than in 

 old bees. It is argued, that the other glands are 

 digesti\-e in function, and probably servo to con- 

 vert the cane sugar ol' nectar into the reduced 

 sugar of honey. Here Mr. Cheshire makes a strange 

 ei'ror, in the statement that our saliva is wholly a 

 digestive liquid; that it changes starch into sugar. 

 It is well established, that our saliva is almost 

 wholly mechanical in its function, and that the pan- 

 creatic juice digests the starch; though 1 think we 

 can hardly doubt Mr. Cheshire's proposition, that 

 this secretion of bees is digestive in its action. 



In commenting u)jon the fact thai the queen is 

 probably fed, when she is actively engaged in lay- 

 ing, upon the rich secretion which affects the rapid 

 development of larval bees, it is estimated that 

 the queen lays eggs to double her own weight each 

 day. Surely, she needs good food, and to have it 

 well prepared. Fancy a hen laying from twelve to 

 twenty pounds of eggs a day ! Is it possible that 

 we may secure such fowls by taking hint from the 

 bees, and preparing a rich diet already suited for 

 assimilation '? If so, we must remember that nature 

 has b?en very slow in developing her marvels, and 

 we must copy her and not hurry. 



The description of the alimentary canal is vei'y 

 full, and as full of interest. The explanation of 

 the stomach -mouth of Burmeister, and its valv- 

 ular and separating functions, will be read with 

 much interest. This method of separating pollen 

 from honey shows how skillful nature is in her op- 

 erations, and explains why honey has so nuich less 

 pollen in it than does the nectar from which it is 

 derived. It is shown that the intestine of bees 

 serves as a gizzard; and the suggestion is made 

 that the intestinal teeth serve the purpose to break 

 or cut the still undigested pollen grains. 



The part of the work treating of the mouth parts 

 will be read with no small interest by the bee-keep- 

 er who loves science. Mr. Cheshire thinks the pe- 

 culiar tongue-structure, which, if I mistake not, I 

 was the first to correctly describe and illustrate (see 

 fig. 'Z2, Manual) serves the purpose of cleaning out 

 pollen grains which may find lodgment in the cen- 

 tral slitted rod, or plicated membrane, uniting edge 

 of rod and edge of outer case. Thus the bee has no 

 need of a tootlipick, as the evolution of the tongue 

 itself serves to clean it. 



No part of this work will be studied more profit- 

 ably than the description of the antenna-. The his- 

 tology of these organs is well portrayed, both by 

 words and figures. Mr. C. contends, with much 

 show of reason, that these complicated and very 

 useful organs serve not alone for touch, but also 

 for hearing and smelling. 



The legs are fully desci-ibed and illustrated, and 

 their complex and wonderful structure explained, 

 as also the function of each part. It is suggested 

 that the Jaw-like arrangement between the basal 

 tarsus and tibia serves as pincers to grasp and car- 

 ry the wax scales from wax-basket to mouth. The 

 claws and pulvilli are also described, and their 

 purpose to hold on is correctly stated; but that this 

 is new is certainly wide of the mark. 



