80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FhB. 1. 



five-pound pails of extracted honey in the 

 vicinity of Chicago for 81.20 — 24 cts. a pound ! 

 Mr. Baldridge must be a graduate of some 

 standard typewriter company. 



ifc 

 The editor offers to be one of a hundred who 

 will give sl. 00 or $5 00 to prostcute the men 

 who robbed Edward Smith, of Illinois, of his 

 honey, a full account of which we gave in our 

 issue for Nov. 15. 



»</ 



PROGRESSIVE BEE-KEEPER. 



As to burr-combs and width of top bars, as 

 discussed by G. M. Doolittle, in his '" Recapit- 

 ulation," see editorials in this issue. 

 \ti 



F. L. Thompson, in the December issue, 

 makes a good point in his protest against the 

 persistent advertising of pure bees' honey — as 

 if pure honey were the exception, and bees 

 only one kit d of creatures that store it. He 

 thinks it creates an unjust suspicion. He 

 well says, " The only honey is bees* honey." 



m 



R. C. Aikin contributes Chap. XIV. of his 

 article on hives, here speaking of size, form, 

 and manipulation. Quite HkeJy these articles 

 in pamphlet form would be what Horace 

 Greeley called "mighty interesting reading," 

 and a valuable additon to standard bee- 

 literature. Mr. Aikin's experience is so long 

 and varied as to add weight to his conclusions. 



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HE OR SHE. 



Confab between Dr. Miller and E. E. Hasty. 



Did you ever see such audacity as that dis- 

 played by that man E. E. Hasty? I called 

 his attention to the fact that he owed Mrs. Bee 

 an apology for calling her "Mr." Bee, and, 

 instead of promptly apologizing to her, as any 

 gentleman ought, he just gets stubborn, and 

 insists he's going to keep right on being im- 

 polite, and will call her "Mr." whenever he 

 likes. See Review, p. 365, which I hope you 

 will copy, just to show how naughty he is. I 

 might have let the matter pass in silence if he 

 hadn't told in the last sentence what ails me. 

 I don't think it's nice of him to twit me of it, 

 even if I do like to show off. Lest he should 

 get a following, I hasten to do my best to show 

 his heresies. 



" Bible usage, literary usage, and household 

 usage " are claimed as supporting the practice 

 of calling a worker bee he. Friend Hasty, 

 why didn't you give us a few illustrations? 

 Suppose we look at the Bible. I think there 

 is no place in the Bible where a pronoun in 

 the singular is used for the word bee. The ant, 

 however, is a near neighbor, of which it is 

 said, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider 

 her ways, and be wise." Notice that her, 



Hasty. Also in this: "The spider taketh 

 hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." 

 You will find places where the masculine is 

 used to represent both sexes in general, but I 

 have some doubt whether you will find in the 

 Bible any case where the female is referred to 

 and called he. I'm just wondering whether 

 this hasn't been a deep-laid scheme of Hasty's 

 to get me to read my Bible. 



In literary usage, there conies to mind that 

 classic gem about the bee, which says, if my 

 memory is not at fault, 



How skillfully she builds her cell ! 

 How neat she spreads her wax ! 



As to household usage, I think I have yet to 

 hear for the first time a worker bee called he — 

 always it. 



That calf story doesn't count. Those poor 

 misguided boys are not to blame for using bad 

 language with such a man as " Uncle Emer- 

 son " to teach them. The only wonder is that 

 that calf isn't called John instead of Dinah. 

 Right in that same line it just occurs to me 

 that I've often heard a male cat called she, 

 but I think I never heard a female cat called he. 



Logically you think the worker should be 

 called it, but dislike that on account of stiff- 

 ness. I don't see that it makes it a whit more 

 limber to say he. At any rate, I don't believe 

 you ever hear any one call a fly he, nor indeed 

 any other insect, except you and your kind 

 when talking about bees. You always speak 

 of any other insect as it. 



But is the worker functionally a neuter? 

 Her functions are to keep house, nurse the 

 babies, and hustle around to get something to- 

 put on the table. If those are neuter functions, 

 then all of our household goddesses should be 

 addressed as it. 



"Tell you what ails you," Hasty. You've 

 been living so long on one meal a week, tak- 

 ing 12 ounces of honey at a mouthful, that 

 you've become somewhat dyspeptic, and have 

 soured on the female persuasion, else you 

 never would get stubborn and act this way 

 when one tries to teach you your manners. 



Marengo, 111., Jan. 11. C. C. Miller. 



[The paragraph in the Review reads as fol- 

 lows : — Ed ] 



No. comrade Miller, that apologv to Mrs. Bee will 

 not be forthcoming. Hasty wouldn't he Hasty unless 

 he could face the nearly unanimous company of his 

 fellow bee-beepers, and smoothly tell them that they 

 are wrong. The habit of calling the worker-bee 

 "she" is a mere fad, not well founded in the facts, 

 not in accord with the best u-age of our language ; 

 and the rest of the human race not bee-keepers neither 

 follow nor like the usage. Unless I mistake badly, 

 Bible usage, literary usage, and household usage are 

 all th'ee in accord in allowing masculine forms to be 

 used for real females, whenever the matter of sex is 

 immaterial or inconspicu ns (especially when the 

 writer desires his reader to ignore it ), and still more 

 is this the case with bees, which are not practically 

 females but neuters. At our house they are raising a 

 nice calf. Its name is Dinah. The two little boys of 

 the house and their mother are specially interested 

 in the calf. Now, when Dinah's name is put in a sen- 

 tence the pronouns must, of course, be- feminine; but 

 otherwise masculine pronouns are sometimes heard. 

 " He capers." " He has very small and quite sharp 

 horns." " He thinks it a solemn duty to drink up all 

 that's offered him, no matter how much there may be 

 of it " If I am right this style of speaking is nearly 

 or quite universal ; and popular usage, when founded 

 in reason, always defeats in the end even the great 



