1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



221 



garding the thing which contributed to your 

 success, if you wish the greatest remuneration 

 from your labor. It is said that Lord Charles 

 Beresford received a most romantic reward for 

 what he did some years before. One bitter 

 night, when his ship was off the Falkland Is- 

 lands, there was a cry of "man overboard !" 

 The fallen one had disappeared beneath the 

 floating ice. Lord Charles, though clad in 

 heavy garments, instantly seized a coil of rope 

 and plunged into the sea. Down, down he 

 went till he almost feared that the other end 

 of the rope had been insecurely fastened. But 

 he soon seized his man ; the rope tightened, 

 and the ship's corporal helped them both out. 

 Several years elapsed ; and one night, when 

 Lord Charles was speaking in a crowded audi- 

 torium, there was seen a commotion near the 

 door. Cries of " put him out ! " were heard ; 

 but Lord Charles invited the man to come up 

 to the platform, and they would listen to what 

 he had to say. In great excitement the man 

 struggled forward. His great desire was to 

 shake hands with his rescuer. He was the 

 sailor who had been saved from the icy waters 

 off the Falkland Islands. No other invest- 

 ment brings back such rich reward as some 

 exertion or sacrifice which we may make for 

 others. It is not the bee-keeper who is all the 

 time looking out for "number one" who is 

 the happiest or receives the greatest reward 

 from his pursuit, but the one who gives the 

 most of what he knows, to help sweeten the 

 lives of others. 



center of the new comb ) about as large as the 

 palm of one's hand ; then see how she will 

 pass to the other side of the same comb, and, 

 without hesitation, commence laying her eggs 

 in the cells whose bases occupy the other side 

 of the septum or midrib, so that the brood 

 would lie back to back, as it were, for mutual 

 warmth. What power enables the queen to 

 do this? Can she see through the wall of 

 wax against which the cells are built ? The 

 same may be said of worker bees and honey- 

 storing. With equal regularity do bees fill 

 the cells on both sides of a comb. How is it 

 done? Do they utilize the X rays? I put 

 these queries, in which there is a field of 

 research for any one of a scientific turn, and I 

 leave it for exploration during the dull season. 

 Many other items in the economy of the hive 

 clearly point to the peculiar and extraordinary 

 range of vision possessed by bees, requiring 

 study to throw light thereon. — Henry IV. 

 Brire, in British Bee Journal for Dec. 30. 



[The foregoing is not fanciful, by any means. 

 It is, indeed, wonderful how bees can go from 

 absolute darkness to the strongest light. It 

 is equally wonderful that the queen can lay 

 her eggs opposite, as she does, in little 

 patches. These phenomena can be accounted 

 for only on the supposition that the bees have 

 two kinds of sight — one like ours, and the 

 other something after the order of a Roentgen 

 vision. Who is so wise as to tell us beyond a 

 peradventure ? — F^D.] 



INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS; HOW BEES SEE 

 IN A DARK HIVE. 



Without entering into a dissertation as to 

 the nature of Roentgen's discovery, or at- 

 tempting to deal with the peculiarities of the 

 ultra-violet end of the spectrum, it is plainly 

 apparent that there are rays of light of which 

 but little is known even in this age of discov- 

 eries. Thinking of this, and after close ob- 

 servation, it has occurred to my mind that, 

 although human vision is apparently not 

 endowed with such rays, some insects have 

 the power of utilizing them to a great extent. 

 For example, the question arises, How is it 

 that bees pass out into bright sunshine from 

 the absolute darkness of a hive's interior, and 

 fly off without hesitating for a second, and 

 evidently without any inconvenience from the 

 sudden change ? Should we attempt the same 

 thing our vision would be perceptibly affected 

 for some minutes. Again, what power of 

 vision enables bees to work with such beauti- 

 ful accuracy in complete and utter darkness ? 

 Or, to go still further, place a sheet of founda- 

 tion in a strong colony, and, when the comb 

 is drawn out, watch how the queen will deposit 

 a small patch of eggs (somewhere near the 



THE MOSOUITO-HAWK AND THE HARM IT 

 DOES TO BEES. 



I never realized till this year how much harm 

 the mosquito-hawks do to our bees. For two 

 months last spring I killed every day from 10 

 to 440, depending on the weather for them to 

 fly low or out of reach — an average of 100 a 

 day. I am certain that I never killed a tenth 

 of the hawks feeding all the time on the bees; 

 and counting only ten bees to a hawk each 

 day, when each one may kill 40 or inore, you 

 have a total of 10,000 bees gone every evening. 



Francis, Fla. Aug. Leyvraz. 



DOES SANDPAPER ON THE SECTION-CLEAN- 

 ING MACHINE FILL UP? 



In regard to a machine for cleaning sections, 

 you say, on page 100, you are afraid that the 

 sandpaper will become filled with propolis, 

 which it does. I made a machine a la Golden, 

 which works well for five or six sections, when 

 the sandpaper gets filled with propolis so bad- 

 ly that I have to renew it. The machine isn't 

 much faster than scraping by hand, but does 

 better work. R. B. LarkIn. 



Pueblo, Ind. 



[Your experience does not accord with 

 mine, friend L. I have tried a good many 

 more sections than the number you refer to, 

 and, contrary to what I expected, there is al- 

 most no trace of propolis on the paper. Per- 

 haps that which you use is too fine. It ought 



