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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



FEKTILIZATION OF QUEEN-CELLS. 



18 IT FERTILIZATION, OR ONLY HIGH FEEDING 



AND PREMATDRE DEVELOPMENT FROM THE 



HIGH FEEDING? 



N ]«72 or '3, during- the months of July and Aug- 

 ust, 1 doctored, hlg\ fed, or fertilized, some fif- 

 ty or more queen-cells. The queens from the 

 cells that hatched were extra large, well devel- 

 oped, and very strong and plump. I was ex- 

 perimenting to prove or disprove the theory that the 

 sex of queens' eggs was the result of the different 

 food furnished by the bees. At that time, and up 

 to the present, I have always given to the nuclei- 

 raising queens a frame of eggs and unsealed larva? 

 when the queen hatched, to keep the bees at home 

 when the queen went out on her bridal tour. I did 

 notice that there seemed to be eggs and lar\^e in the 

 frame after I put it in. and supposed I had discover- 

 ed a means of getting large, well-developed queens 

 that laid some five or six days before the usual 

 time. I did not then, nor do I now, think that they 

 were fertilized, although it may in the end prove to 

 be so ; for, watch them as close as I could or can 

 now, I have never seen the usual signs seen on 

 young queens about the fifth day. 



At the time of the experiments I fertilized, or high 

 fed, by feeding the queen-larva an extra dose of the 

 food taken from another queen-cell, also in some 

 the food pFepared by the bees for the drone, and to 

 some I fed both kinds of food; and in some, besides 

 the food I put a drone-larva in the queen-cell, and 

 with a eamel-hair brush punched said larva, and so 

 got his juice, or moisture, on the queen-lai-va, and 

 mixed with her food some of the drone-larva. The 

 bees scaled up with the queen-larva when they 

 sealed the cell. The conclusion I came to then from 

 my experiments was, that extra-large, strong, well- 

 developed queens hatched that laid younger than 

 the usual time, as a result of the high feeding; and 

 that a premature development, sexual and physi- 

 cal, was secured; but I could then see nothing more 

 practical, and so discontinued my experiments. 



To-day I have three queens that commenced to 

 lay inside of 24 hours, two in four days. I will give 

 more particulars in my next. I have now 10 queens 

 from doctored cells; one has Imperfect wings, but 

 is otherwise well developed, strong, large, and looks 

 as if she were a laying queen. If she lays, I shall 

 be almost converted to the theory that they were 

 fertilized. One thing I am certain of: Open a cell 

 at the base. Insert a drono-larva about half the size 

 of the queen-larva, then on the fourth day open it 

 again, and the queen-larva has proved to be a can- 

 nibal, for the drone-larva is gone. 



In making the experimentof the drone-larva with 

 a queen-larva, don't put a drone-larva the size of or 

 larger than the queen, as, instead, you will have a 

 large, fine, well-develojx'd drone for your pains, in- 

 stead of a queen. J. M. Price. 



Tampa, Fla., Sept. 8, 188-1. 

 Friend P., your eommmiicatiou seems to 

 be 51 sort of luissin^- link in lliis new revela- 

 tion. Our friends will renieniljer that I have 

 for years insisted that it seemed quite prob- 

 able queens tluit have never been ferti- 

 Iteexl sometimes lay eg^s producing workers, 

 and you will tind something of the kind sug- 

 g«sted in the article on drones in tlie A B C 

 book. Now, friend Price tells us how this 

 comes about. Where a quei^n is from the egg, 



given an unusual amount of very strong 

 nourishing food, she may lay worker - eggs 

 without fertilizing; and' drone -larvae, giv- 

 en at the proper age, seem to be unusual- 

 ly potent in helping along this rapid develop- 

 ment. In some of the earlier volumes of the 

 yl. ii. /., several articles were written by a 

 friend who advocated something similar to 

 this. I have now forgotten his name ; but 

 as J. M. Price, who writes the above, was a 

 correspondent at that time, he will perhaps 

 remember tlie circumstance. Learned men 

 and scientists may perhaps call all this imag- 

 ination ; but, truth is mighty, and will assert 

 itself. 



THE ART OF SAW-FILING. 



some VALUABLH hints on THE CARE OF SAWS. 



T HAVE just been reading in your ABC book 



Iff, J'our Instructions about filing circular saws, 

 W and I shall take the liberty to criticise a little. 

 ''*' What you say is all right so far as it goes, but it , 

 stops too soon, as you have left out one of the 

 most important items in dressing any saw, either 

 hand or circular; and that is, the "jointing." 

 Something over 25 years ago I was set to work with 

 a mechanic of a much larger experience than I then 

 had, at putting together some fine joiner work, and 

 he asked me if 1 was a good hand at filing my saws. 

 I answered, "No." So he volunteered to dress my 

 saw for mo. Well, I made out to get along with it 

 one forenoon, but it was impossible to saw off a 8- 

 inch casing with it, and follow a straight line, so I 

 hurried back from dinner and "jointed " and filed 

 it again. He had left the teeth all shorter on one 

 side than those on the other; and from that day to 

 this I have never seen the man who could beat me 

 dressing a hand-saw, for I at that time disooverd an 

 item in saw-filing that I have scarcely ever seen 

 used by a saw-filer. 



I have several times written articles to mechan- 

 ical papers on "the art of saw-filing," which have 

 been published. But, hold on; I have jumped the 

 track. I will switch back again, as I started to talk 

 on circular saws. 



When I got the Barnes foot-power saw of you a 

 few years ago I thought I could dress a circular as 

 well as a hand saw; but the 6-inch rip-saw soon got 

 so that it would not cut smooth; and all I could do, 

 I could not remedy it. I filed it over several times 

 one day, and the more I filed it the more it wouldn't 

 go smooth, so I did it up and mailed it back to the 

 Barnes Bros., with a complaint that it was too light 

 and thin; that it would spring too easy; but with it 

 I sent stamps for its return, with the proposition 

 that, if they could make it cut smooth, I would be 

 satisfied. Well, in due time it came back and cut 

 " smooth as a ribbon." They did not tell me what 

 was the matter, but I soon found out. It was out 

 of round, and wanted "jointing." 



Now, wherein you have failed in your A B C, is to 

 tell how this should be done. Here is my way: 



I put the saw on the mandrel, then raise the table 

 a little above the saw, then set it in motion at full 

 speed, and take a file (or a whetstone will do, but 

 the best thing is the flat side of an emery wheel) 

 and lay it flat on the table over the edge of the saw, 

 then with the set-screw (I have all of my tables to 

 adjust with set-screws) very carefully lower the 

 ttiblo until the sftw-tcetji towgli tUQ emery, and are 



