1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



133 



done, that the one great reason why bees winter so 

 safely in well-protected hives in the open air is, 

 that they have plenty of God's vitalizing air and 

 sunlight. T. F. Bingham. 



Abronia, Mich., Jan., 1888. 



Old friend, I am glad you have started 

 out on this thing— not because I feel sure 

 that you are right, but l)ecause it illustrates 

 a great point. People learn how to do 

 things in different avocations in life ; and 

 because they succeed with them they go on 

 doing the same thing year after year, when 

 the very thing to wliich they attribute their 

 success has nothing to do with it whatever. 

 Our experiment stations are shaking this 

 out of us a good deal, but it is not by any 

 means over yet. Daring our recent eclipse, 

 very many said, "There, we shall have 

 warm weather now." When I remonstrat- 

 ed they defended themselves by saying they 

 had noticed all their lives that the weather 

 changed after an eclipse, or that any sort of 

 eclipse makes the weather warmer. Sure 

 enough, the weather changed to warm di- 

 rectly after our last lunar eclipse. But all 

 these patient observers failed to notice that 

 the weather changes almost continually 

 when we don't have any eclipse. The man 

 who drives our team does not want to kill 

 the pigs unless the moon is '' right," and so 

 it is all around us. Peter Henderson says 

 that one of the greatest obstacles in the way 

 of intelligent gardening is, that people cling 

 to so many senseless manipulations; and 

 especially is this true of the old-country- 

 men. I'hey have so many formulas and 

 sleights that it occupies a good part of their 

 time to go through with them, and they in- 

 sist there is no success without it. Yet a 

 progressive young gardener, who discards 

 every thing without good common sense to 

 back it, soon discovers that these old pro- 

 cesses that have been treasured up and fol- 

 lowed so long do not affect the result at all. 



Now, then, in regard to light in cellars : 

 I told you, in an editorial on page 68, 1888, 

 that bees will fly whenever the temperature 

 is from .50 to 55. Now, my idea has been 

 for years that there is no need of having the 

 cellar dark, providing we can keep the 

 temperature below this flying-point. I do 

 not believe the bees would fly, no matter 

 how much light they have, providing you 

 keep them below 50. If you let the sun 

 shine directly into their hives when it is 45 

 in the cellar, the rays would very soon run 

 it up to 50 or more ; therefore, under such 

 circumstances darkness would be an aid to- 

 ward keeping them in their hives ; but if we 

 had a cellar that could not run above -45, 

 whether the sun shone into it or not, I 

 should not be surprised if they would do 

 just as well, or even better, to give them as 

 much light as possible. In raising plants 

 in the greenhouse, we must have light. All 

 the fertilizers in the world, with the very 

 best temperature imaginable, will not give 

 us a healthy growth without the light; in 

 fact, a great many plants will not grow at 

 all unless they have sunlight and plenty 

 of it. You know some of the friends rec- 

 ommend wintering bees in cellars that run 

 up to 60, 75, and one friend has talked about 

 even 90. Well, unless you have perfect 



darkness with these temperatures it seems 

 to me your bees would very soon have a 

 great big general picnic. It is true, bees 

 sometimes loaf in the open air when the 

 temperature is favorable, because they have 

 nothing to do ; but I think that, after a long 

 spell of confinement by cold weather, they 

 are pretty sure to fly. in doors or out, when 

 the temperature is above 55, and they have 

 plenty of light. Sometimes, you know, they 

 are confined by wire cloth : but under such 

 conditions it seems to me the room had bet- 

 ter be dark whenever the temperature 

 comes up to the flying-point. 



HERMAPHRODITES, AGAIN". 



PRCIF. COOK CONSIDERS THE SUBJECT FUUTHER. 



R. T. F. McOAMANT, of San Antonio, Texas, 

 writes me as follows: 



In Gf.eanings, p. 53, you say that " snails 

 are true hermaphrodites." Are you not 

 mistaken? They are very numerous here. 

 In summer, on wet days the bushes hang 

 full of them; sind in spring time I have seen dozens 

 of them mating. The shape of the shell is somewhat 

 differtMit from those of the North, but otherwise they 

 seem much the same. The shells are longer than 

 those of the Northern snails. When the weather is 

 warm I will try to send you some specimens; also 

 some specimens of our numerous species of ants 

 and other insects, if you will not consider it an 

 imposition. 



I am glad to respond to Mr. McC, for I can very 

 well see how he was puzzled to reconcile my state- 

 ments with his observations; and as others may be 

 confronted with the same puzzle, I think it well to 

 explain through Gt,eanings, especially as the mat- 

 ter is one of general interest. 



No, I am not mistaken; nor is Mr. McC. While 

 both angleworms and snails are genuine hermaph- 

 rodites, the species of both groups of animals 

 having both male orga7is (testes) and female organs 

 (ovaries), yet the animals are not capable of self- 

 impregnation. It has been said, and I think truly, 

 that Nature abhors close in-breeding. In plants we 

 see how this is prevented through the bees, and so 

 how the plants are benefited by the fact that bees 

 seek them in quest of pollen and nectar, and thus 

 close fertilization is prevented. 



It has been suggested, that, in case of both snails 

 and angleworms, the sperm and germ cells do not 

 ripen or mature at the same time, and thus the 

 animals must mate, though true hermaphrodites. 

 I think it quite likely that, in many cases, self-im- 

 pregnation is impossible structurally; and we may 

 reasonably conclude that in all cases it is prevented 

 through the instincts of the anima's. The old 

 Dutch writer and scientist, Swammerdam, whose 

 beautiful and accurate descriptions and illustra- 

 tions of the anatomy of the bee would be worthy of 

 a scientist of the nineteenth centurj', also illus- 

 trates the mating of snails, just as we may observe 

 it by careful observation at any spring time. An- 

 gleworms mate, usually, in the night, and so are 

 not so frequently observed. The large ring, about 

 one-third the length of the angleworm, from the 

 head, which is so large in early summer, is a gland, 

 and is a true mating organ of the angleworm. 



I am glad to know that Mr. McC. is to send me 

 specimens. I shall be glad to receive such from 

 bee-keepers everywhere. Let all send so carefully 

 that the insects, etc., will come without harm. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



