1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



87 



we want you to come to Jamaica. You will 

 see plenty of springs, water power, waterfalls, 

 caves, irrigation works, magnificent scenery, 

 gardens (we have Earliest berries, ripe now), 

 and as many hospitable people as you ever 

 found anywhere. Won't you come? 

 Linstead, Jamaica, Dec. 22, 1898. 



[Thanks for your very kind invitation, 

 friend B. I have been talking about Jamaica 

 and the neighboring islands; but I confess my 

 enthusiasm gets a damper when I think of be- 

 ing seasick, not only 48 hours, but almost a 

 week. Perhaps I might go down to Florida 

 by rail, and thus get around old Neptune a 

 little. I should be very glad indeed to visit 

 your tropical island. — A. I. R.] 



THOSE HONEY-LEAFLETS. 

 When and Where Not an Aid in Selling Honey. 



BY j. L. HYDE. 



I see by Gleanings that you wish reports 

 on the honey -leaflets. I have used them to 

 some extent, but not as often as I shall in the 

 future if I try to sell honey. I have distribut- 

 ed them with the honey sold, at people's 

 houses, while selling honey from door to door, 

 and by leaving them at the stores when I 

 make a sale of honey. I can't say that I re- 

 ceived many responses from those that were 

 sent out with the honey; for if they liked my 

 honey they would buy again; but if not, noth- 

 ing that they would read or that I could say 

 would induce them to buy any more. I know 

 where I have left them, when on my first jour- 

 ney selling honey, the people that refused to 

 buy at first would buy on my second trip. I 

 can not say that the leaflets sold the honey, 

 though; but it seems to me that, if you leave 

 something with your name on while on your 

 first journey, they would have more confidence 

 in you when they see you the second time, 

 whether they read all in the leaflet or not. In 

 regard to leaving them when selling honey at 

 the stores, I have but one report to make that 

 would go to show that they did any good. 



This one is a fish-dealer, and carries my 

 honey put up in 1-lb. jars on his wagon while 

 peddling fish. At first he was met by people 

 who complained that it was cheaper to buy it 

 without the jar, as somebody was selling 4 

 pounds for $1.00 put up in some kind of a tin 

 pail, taken right from the bees, while he sold 

 mine for 20 cts. per pound with jar. He said 

 that the one who had it put up in tin pails 

 could sell his while mine would not sell, be- 

 cause it would seem to the one who bought it 

 as if it had been " monkeyed " with; so I put 

 him up some of my honey in three and four 

 pound cans so that he might sell them for 65 

 and 75 cts. per can. He reported, a short 

 time after, that, though he could not sell any 

 honey in the cans, the scheme, together with 

 dis'.ribuiing the leaflets, klled the other man's 

 trade and boomed his own; and a while after- 

 ward he reported, while I was talking with 

 him about his increase in his honey sales, that 

 those leaflets were what started the honey go- 

 ing. He said he printed his own name on 



them, which advertised his business as well. 

 I think that the honey-leaflets are all right as 

 an advertisement; but if something about how 

 bees make honey could be added to it it would 

 make the reading still more interesting, so 

 that they would be more sought after, for very 

 few people know how honey is made, and they 

 are greatly interested when talking to them 

 about it. 



Providence, R. I. 



THE DICKEL THEORY. 



Selection from the Proceedings of the Wander- Ver- 



sammlung of the German-Austrian and 



Hungarian Bee-keepers. 



BY F. GREINER. 



The convention was held in Salzburg, Aus- 

 tria, September 4-8, and about 300 bee-keepers 

 attended. From the proceedings I select but 

 two addresses, and can give these only in 

 extract. Dr. Dzierzon, as the first speaker, 

 gave his views and ideas about as follows : 



We celebrate to-day the 43d Wander- Versammlung. 

 Really it should be the 49th, for we organized in 1850, 

 in the city of Arnstadt ; but on account of three wars 

 occurring, six years were passed by without holding a 

 convention. 



The bee-keeping industry has made more progress 

 during these nearly fifty years than it had before in 

 many centuries. Men holding opposite views, meet- 

 ing one another face to face, soon found out the true 

 state of things, although some wrongly conceived 

 ideas and theories were uprooted only after long 

 fierce battling. For instance, it was believed, even by 

 Baron von Berlepsch, for a time, that the queen laid 

 only the eggs for workers, and queens, but not for 

 the drones. Drone-laying workers were believed to 

 attend to that. 



Feb. 13, 1853, I received the first colony of Italian 

 bees, and soon after, the matter was easily sifted to 

 the satisfaction of ev. rybody. In the following fall I 

 sent two Italian queens to Berlepsch, and soon after 

 that he had the satisfaction of seeing yellow drones 

 emerge when there was no possibilitv but that the 

 eggs that produced them must have been laid by the 

 queen, for all worker-bees were black. The introduc- 

 tion of the Italian bee helped to prove, also, that the 

 queen meets the drone outside of the hive. It helped 

 to unravel other mysteries. It was not well under- 

 stood that the queen should be able to determine the 

 sex of her offspring. I discovered that drone eggs did 

 not require the fertilizing influence of the spermato- 

 zoa, but would produce drones without. I then con- 

 cluded that the laying of fertilized eggs (producing 

 queen or workers) and the laving of unfertilized eggs 

 (producing drone-) was subject to the queen's will. 

 Our noted scientists have assented to this theory. No 

 doubts were expressed for many vears till now by 

 Dickel. He asks: "Where in all the world is there 

 another such case where a mother can determine the 

 sex of her offspring?" But what of that? Even if 

 the queen should be the only exception in nature she 

 does it, and therefore she has the ability. All of 

 Dickel's experiments prove nothing. His whole the- 

 ory is without foundation. I think it would be desir- 

 able that no more time be wasted with it. 



According to the program, Dickel was not 

 to speak till the next day. He then made his 

 reply, which in substance was about as follows: 



For many centuries the people in general, and es- 

 pecially the scientists, have been marveling over the 

 mystery of how the sex of offspring is decided. Even 

 the bee-keepers have tried their hand to solve this 

 question; but it seems so far they have siood outside 

 of or in opposition to the known laws of nature. 

 Before I develop my new theory, allow me to briefly 

 state the old, to which we have held : 



" In 1854 Dr. Dzierzon reasoned, based upon his ob- 

 servations, that the mother-bee has the faculty of lay- 

 ing impregnated and unimpregnated eggs at will. 

 From the first named, female and worker bees devel- 

 op ; from the latter, males or drones." 



