826 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



stated, I believe it made but little difference 

 whether we used larval food or royal jelly. 

 Assuming that they are the same up to the 

 fourth day, of course it could make no differ- 

 ence; but we have used it in cells when it was 

 older than that. — Ed.] 



" This way of making honey a main part of 

 the meal, and not a mere relish, a tickler, and 

 spur for the sated appetite, is a very important 

 point" (Anton Leister, 794). I read that to 

 my wife, and she said, "I should think it 

 would sicken them." I said, "He doesn't 

 mean to fill up mainly on honey, but to eat it 

 during the main part of the meal." " But it 

 ought to come at the last part of the meal as 

 a sort of dessert. At least I've been always 

 used to thinking of it in that way," said she. 

 This in spite of the fact that her mother, a 

 blessed old Scotch saint who has been for 

 some time a member of my family, takes it 

 during the main part of every meal as regular- 

 ly as she takes her " parritch " every morning. 

 It takes a lot of hammering to get out of peo- 

 ple's heads the idea that honey is not a food 

 but a fancy dainty. [A good many dainties 

 and foods, harmless and generally easily as- 

 similated, taken together after a full meal, 

 when the appetite is fully satisfied, will do a 

 great deal more harm than good, and conse- 

 quently get a reputation of not being health- 

 ful. I can sit down and eat some kinds of 

 puddings without distress if I make that the 

 main part of the meal ; but let me put that 

 pudding on top of a full meal of roast beef, 

 bread and butter and potato, and I feel decid- 

 edly full and dull afterward. Honey is gen- 

 erally eaten as a relish after a full meal, when 

 it should be used about like butter, along with 

 bread or whatever it is eaten with. Mr. Leis- 

 ter has the right idea. — Ed.] 



An objection to the whole scheme of hav- 

 ing any kind of color-samples is that "the 

 colors of the various honeys vary according 

 to the different localities," says ye editor, p. 

 802. Exactly and precisely on that account, 

 my dear friend, we need something for a stand- 

 ard. If a man tells me burdock honey is just 

 the same shade as this or that honey, I don't 

 know what he means for I don't know the 

 shades of honey in his locality. But if he 

 says it just matches the shade of card No. 6, 

 then I understand it, for the card is the same 

 in Maine as in Mexico. [Agreed ! Now if 

 we can get the transparent color-cards proper- 

 ly numbered, well and good ; but I do not 

 know where to write to get such cards, and 

 much less how to make them. They should 

 be made of celluloid or gelatin. But, look 

 here, doctor. A certain tint B \ inch thick will 

 be much darker when made 2 inches, as, for 

 example, looking through a bottle of honey. 

 Now, then, if I had a color-card that to my 

 notion represented white clover in this vicini- 

 ty, and should send it to my friend Coggshall, 

 in the heart of the buckwheat country, and 

 ask him if he had any white clover of the 

 color of my color-card sent, how would he 

 judge the tint — by what he could see in little 

 vials or by what he could see in a Muth or 

 Mason jar much larger? After all, I suspect 



that the surest and most reliable method of 

 apprising the purchaser of the color of the 

 honey is to send him a bottle of the honey 

 itself. The prospective purchaser makes an 

 offer ; the offer is accepted ; the honey is re- 

 ceived ; and if another sample in the same 

 kind of a vial is equal to the sample sent in 

 the first place, then the seller gets the price 

 offered. — Ed.] 



Stenog says (p. 791) that some time ago he 

 read in a foreign journal that Dzierzon was re- 

 vising his own theory, and that he might some 

 time abandon it. I think that foreign journal 

 must have been twisting facts. I've watched 

 the matter pretty closely, and I've never seen 

 a word from him receding in the slightest de- 

 gree. On the contrary he has expressed him- 

 self in the strongest terms against any change 

 of view. B. Hamlyn-Harris was present at 

 the late big German convention, and says in 

 British Bee Journal : 



On the second day Dr. Dzierzon again lectured; this 

 time on " The Groundlessness and ' Insecurity ' of the 

 New Theory." In his opening remarks the venerable 

 lecturer made mention of having, during his lifetime, 

 written no less than 3(0 articles to the German Bee 

 Journal, now edited by Mr. Dickel, and spoke of his 

 feelings suffering somewhat keenly at the idea of the 

 theory of parthenogenesis in bees lasting for only a 

 lifetime, and that on the eve of his departure all the 

 errors so long since abandoned should now be dug up 

 again. 



Does that look like abandoning the Dzier- 

 zon theory ? [In a private note referring to 

 this same matter, Dr. Miller sends the follow- 

 ing, which, as a matter of general interest, I 

 have taken the liberty of appending right here 

 as another Straw: — Ed.] 



Page upon page has been wasted upon the 

 Dickel theory in the German journals, and it 

 will be time enough to let it get into Glean- 

 ings when the leading Germans have accepted 

 it. I think the majority of them look upon 

 it as the wildest nonsense, some keeping quiet 

 for fear there may be something in it, a few 

 swallowing it entire. I suspect there's just as 

 much truth in it as there was in the Kirby 

 theory which occupied some space in the 

 American Bee Journal in 1861, holding that 

 workers rode on the drones' backs, gathering 

 the semen there while the drones were on the 

 wing, and bringing the semen to the hive. 



SOME SWEET DAY. 



BY EUGENE SECOR. 



Though clouds obscure the stars to-night, 

 The shadows shall not long remain; 

 Though life be not unmixed with pain, 



The star of Hope is ever bright. 



The dead, cold earth in winter time 

 Forbodes no harvest and no flowers; 

 But Hope, remembering vernal showers, 



Hears, far away, the bluebirds' chime. 



Ill fortune may reverse thy plan, 



And tardy Justice long delay; 



But Hope expects that, some sweet day, 

 Shall see removed the fateful ban. 



O blissful dreams of hope and youth ! 



Your fancies weave a web of gold; 



The heart that hopes shall ne'er grow old, 

 And some szveet day is thine in truth. 



