1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



393 



bounded to my shoulder, and rubbed her head 

 against my neck as much as to say, ' Good 

 morning — how d'ye do? Pretty well, how are 

 you ? ' No fear here, I said to myself. May 

 be cats are an exception to the rule ; but I 

 soon discovered that my horse was just as glad 

 to see me, and my cow was only too pleased to 

 have me come to her side with a milk-pail— 

 not one bit afraid, any of them. And then I 

 thought, how, when man has gained dominion 

 over animals by kindness, the fear is taken 

 away. Fear was necessary for their preserva- 

 tion when in a state of nature, or wild, but 

 not under domestication. You see, deacon, 

 as I said, we must compare Scripture with 

 Scripture if we would get its full meaning." 



" But what has all that to do with a breed 

 of non-swarming bees, I should like to know?" 

 inquired Fasset, from his seat on the nail-keg. 



1 noticed the deacon looked thoughtful, and 

 I went on : 



"Just this : In a state of nature the swarm- 

 ing instinct is as necessary for the increase 

 and preservation of bees as the instinct of 

 fear is to animals, or the migratory instinct in 

 birds for their preservation, while with the 

 skillful bee-keeper it is worse than useless." 



"But bees have been under domestication 

 for thousands of years, and this instinct for 

 swarming appears as strong as ever. At what 

 date of the popular era betore it is likely to 

 disappear ?" queried Fasset, with a twinkle 

 in his eye. 



'Yes, that is true after a fashion," Ireplied; 

 " but their domestication has been little more 

 than giving them hives to live in, and then 

 robbing them of their hard-earned stores, and 

 then feeding them, perhaps, when there is dan- 

 ger of their starving. I believe the real do- 

 mestication and cultivation or improvement 

 of Apis niellifica has only just begun." 



"lam inclined to think yoi' are right," 

 said the deacon hopefully. 



I felt encouraged, and continued • 



"Already I see signs of most important 

 changes in the character of some of our best 

 strains of bees. The nature of bees seems to 

 be a bundle of instincts. They have the 

 brood-rearing instinct, the honey and pollen 

 gathering instinct, the swarming instinct, the 

 comb-building instinct, and the inslinct for 

 defending their brood and stores, and the in- 

 stinct for gathering propolis and daubing it 

 over the insides of their hives, to say nothing 

 of others. The best of these we want to im- 

 prove and develop, while others we must get 

 rid of or modify so as to be harmless. Now, 

 there is the propolis instinct. We all know 

 how that, in a state of nature, or for wild bees 

 that live in hollow trees or cavities in rocks, 

 it is a very desirable instinct to fill up all the 

 cracks and crevices to keep out enemies ; but 

 with improved and carefully constructed hives 

 it is no longer necessary. We know how one 

 colony sitting beside another will be bringing 

 in propolis and spoiling what surplus they 

 have already gathered, while the other will 

 keep on storing honey without gathering any 

 propolis to speak of. Now, we must get rid 

 of it by breeding from the queens of those 

 hives that store the least of it until bees lose 



the disposition or instinct, so to speak, to 

 gather it." 



"A capital idea," said Fasset, from his seat 

 on the nail keg. 



"Yes," I continued, "it is a nuisance, and 

 no more necessary than horns on sheep or cat- 

 tle. H »rns were desirable and necessary to 

 defend themselves from wild animals in a state 

 of nature ; but when man has subdued all the 

 carnivorous animals horns are not needed, and 

 he is getting rid of them. The sheep are al- 

 ready mostly hornless, and the cattle-men, or 

 at least the dairymen, are fast following suit, 

 and dehorning their cows." 



" That's so," said Esquire Fullam. "Over 

 at our meeting of the I^airymen's Association 

 at Jonesboro we voted almost unanimously 

 in favor of dehorning You see, our winters 

 here are pretty cold ; and when we turn our 

 cows out of the stables to drink, unless they 

 are dehorned they are jabbing or raking one an- 

 other with their horns; and, besides, dehorning 

 makes them gentle. I tell you, with our dairy 

 cattle dehorned, and the sweet feed we have, 

 we can beat the world making butter. Our 

 dairymen are going to make an exhibit at the 

 World's Fair in Paris next summer. I don't 

 know whether the committee will place it in 

 the same room with inferior grades of butter 

 or not ; but they are going to have a large 

 canvas background with some mountains 

 painted on it." Here he coughed for a min- 

 ute or two, and then gasped an apology. " I 

 tell you, our air is so exhilarating it makes me 

 cough." 



I noticed a twinkle in Fasset's eye. He is 

 not naturally quite so enthusiastic as the 

 'squire. I knew something was coming. 



"Say, 'squire," said he, "you think more 

 of our State than a member of Congress who 

 lived down South in antebellum days did." 



" How is that? " inquired the 'squire. 



"Oh!" said Fasset; "when he saw the 

 strong anti-slavery sentiment up here in our 

 State he introduced a bill directing the Presi- 

 dent to have a ditch dug around it and the 

 whole thing floated out into the ocean." 



The deacon laughed heartily. I was glad, 

 for the deacon, as I told you, is a little quick- 

 tempered. I have heard that, within six 

 months after he was made deacon, Elder Grim- 

 shaw was going by his place one cold after- 

 noon in January, and he heard him training 

 his cattle around his barnyard in great shape, 

 with his pitchfork, and using language much 

 more erriphatic than pious. The elder stop- 

 ped his horse, and, standing up in his sleigh, 

 just inquired, " Is Deacon Strong at home? " 



" No, he isn't," said the deacon ; and the 

 elder drove on with a heavy heart. It was 

 just Zebadiah Strong as he used to be ; but a 

 fortnight later, when the elder called, the dea- 

 con was as humble, penitent, and loving as 

 Peter at the sea of Galilee after he had denied 

 his Lord. 



Do not forget to write to your Congressmen, 

 asking them to support the Brosius pure-food 

 bill. The time to do it is RIGHT NO W. If 

 you wait till to-morrow you will not do it. 



