826 



GLEANINGS IN BKE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



reports this year encouraging than discourag- 

 ing. I believe it is true that it is easier to 

 report successes than failures. Yes, it is easier 

 to commend a publisher for following a cer- 

 tain course than to do otherwise — Ed.] 



To THE QUESTION in Ajuevican Bee Journal, 

 "In casing comb honey for shipment to mar- 

 ket, what would be your rule as to the row of 

 sections next to the glass? " only four or five 

 of the twenty-two repliers seem to favor hav- 

 ing them better than the rest of the case. 

 The remainder agree with Doolittle, who says 

 " that they be as good as the average of those 

 in the case, then turn ' face ' side out." I 

 think that's the groimd Doolittle has held all 

 the time, but he has allowed himself to be 

 misunderstood. 



E. E. H.\STY, in Review, proposes to stand 

 up beside Editor Root against Editor Hutch- 

 inson and me, because he never noticed that 

 bees disliked black more than white. But, 

 friend Hasty, the testimony of a man who saw 

 me commit theft is not killed by the testimony 

 of another who did not see the theft. [In 

 view of the overwhelming testimony to the 

 effect that bees do regard with disfavor the 

 color black, I have been obliged to acknowl- 

 edge that I was wrong. Sorry, Hasty, to get 

 on the other side of the fence when vou so 

 kindly offered to stay on my side. — Ed.] 



The Apis dorsata in the Philippines, as 

 reported in Chicago Tribune, is "the largest 

 variety of this species." They are such per- 

 severing workers that they have lost dexterity 

 with their stinging apparatus, " and it takes 

 them 20 or 30 seconds to get their sting in 

 working order." [Yoii do not say, doctor, 

 whether or not you believe this statement. I 

 am under the impression that Apis dorsata 

 can sting, and sting viciously. I should doubt 

 very much whether the average native or 

 European would allow a bee of this sort to 

 remain on any portion of his exposed anat- 

 omy for 20 or 30 seconds, trying or getting 

 ready to sting. It must get in its work in a 

 much shorter time. — Ed.] 



Those queen-cells, p. 647, seemed to me 

 a little too pointed. Critic Taylor says, "If 

 our friends will have patience those cells will 

 all be nicely rounded off within a few days. 

 I have never noticed any difference in the 

 shape of the points of cells internally; but 

 often, after cells are capped, the bees decorate 

 the free end with a point of wax and pollen; 

 but this is all carefully removed before the 

 cells are ready to be opened by the inclosed 

 queens." And no doubt he is right. [Mr. 

 Taylor may be partly right; but we had one 

 colony last summer that seemed more inclined 

 to build pointed cells than rounding. It was 

 the best cell-builder we had. Yes, I know 

 bees will sort o' sandpaper off the ends of the 

 cells just before hatching. — Ed.] 



I BELIEVE you wrong Mr. Taylor, page 807, 

 Mr. Editor, when you call his reference to 

 Doolittle "sarcastic." Please don't think 

 that, because he makes too free use of sarcasm, 

 every thing he says must be sarcastic. The 

 strength of Doolittle's name does add weight 

 to his testimony, and that added weight makes 



Length. 



Diameter 



of 

 thorax. 

 .177 

 .157 

 .216 



it "heavy testimony." I think Mr. Taylor 

 was speaking honestly and not sarcastically. 

 Please apologize for misjudging him. [Per- 

 haps you are right ; but when I first read it 

 over, and even now as I read it, the impres- 

 sion seems the satne. However, I do not wish 

 to place any wrong accusation against our 

 friend, and I therefore gladly give him the 

 benefit of the doubt. — Ed.] 



Measurements in fractions of an inch are 

 given in U Apiculteur as follows : 



Width, 



tip lo tip of 



wings. 



.95 



90 



1.10 



[I have experimented quite extensively with 

 perforated zinc, and have found that jyo^j^ was 

 abotit as narrow as a bee could get through. 

 But i\,'\fg is about the correct figure, if my ex- 

 periments mean any thing. I notice in the 

 table above that the size of worker is given as 

 jVfrMi at the thorax. I should be inclined to 

 believe it correct, for if any larger it could 

 hardly squeeze through any thing smaller 

 than /oV(r.— Ed.] 



Iv. A. AspiNWALL, in Review, p. 298, speaks 

 as though Editor Root and I had been using 

 slang. I plead not guilty. I am in accord 

 with friend A. in his liking for pure language, 

 have always opposed the use of slang, and if 

 he will point out the place where I ever in- 

 dulged in it I shall be greatly obliged, and 

 will try to avoid a repetition of the offense. 

 [Look here, doctor, you are real mean. You 

 place the responsibility for the alleged use of 

 slang upon my shoulders. I, too, will plead 

 not guilty — that is, if " scrooch " for 

 "crouch," " smoled " for "smiled," and 

 "canine" for "dog" are not slang, as I firm- 

 ly believe they are not. Inadvertently I may 

 have used a word that might be so classed by 

 competent judges, but I do not now recall it. 

 Slang, as Mr. Taylor says, has its birth in 

 places of low resort. I can not believe that 

 the words I have used had their origin in such 

 places; but, after all, may be it is a good thing 

 to have a shaking-up on this subject, provid- 

 ing it tends to purer language. — Ed.] 



Replying to your footnote at the bottom of 

 p. 790, I don't know how much flavor is im- 

 parted to honey by comb, but I don't believe 

 any that the most carefid tasting would ever 

 appreciate. New comb has a flavor of its own, 

 but I don't think that flavor .=oaks into the 

 honey, and the flavor of the comb is so ex- 

 ceedingly mild that I think it's entirely lost 

 when honey is in the mouth. [All I know is, 

 as I have stated before, that visitors often re- 

 mark regarding the beautiful aroma that they 

 detect when going into our wax-room. They 

 say it smells like honey, and yet there is not 

 a pottnd of honey in the room. Does it not 

 seem to indicate that wax has an aroma of its 

 own ? Why, a bee-keeper once asked what 

 we put into our wax to make it smell so nice. 

 Nothing at all. I don't suppose that our wax 

 smells any better than the wax of any other 

 foundation-maker. Another point: If honey 

 be stored in a pine barrel, it will absorb some 



