434 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



I have not a fault to find with them since I 

 tried the new super springs and the new slot- 

 ted separators on 100 supers last year. I liked 

 them so well that I have forgiven the Root 

 Co. for shortening the end-bars of the Hoff- 

 man frames, and have ordered enough springs 

 and separators to fit up 400 supers. After all, 

 though, the short end-bars are all right in the 

 Root hives. I have had trouble with them, 

 however, in home-made hives, especially when 

 the " boss " didn't get the exact measurement 

 and got some of the hives a trifle too long. I 

 have not tried the new plain section yet, but I 

 do like the new slatted separators to be used 

 with the old-style sections, and I believe the 

 fences and plain sections must be fine. When 

 one is fitted with an outfit for the old style for 

 200 colonies he can afford to wait a little be- 

 fore changing so many super fixtures. 



There may be a few other things that I have 

 learned, but I don't happen to think of them 

 now. The first year or two that I kept bees I 

 could have written several large books ; but 

 after a few years of hard work and dearly 

 bought experience I can put all my knowl- 

 edge into a few pages. 



Mancos, Col., Jan. 8. 



CHEMICAL IMPREGN.4TI0N OF EGGS QUES- 

 TIONED. 



Germ and Sperm Cells. 



BY A. J. COOK. 



Dear Mr. Root : — As I am waiting here at 

 the opening of a farmers' institute I answer 

 your inquiry regarding Mr. Crane's reference 

 to chemical impregnation of eggs. I have 

 seen the report that Prof. Loeb, of Chicago 

 University, has caused the eggs of a sea-urchin, 

 which have never known the presence of 

 sperm cells, to develop by adding magnesium. 

 This needs confirmation, and I await further 

 evidence. I do not feel that the news will 

 necessarily be revolutionary, even if authen- 

 tically confirmed. The egg is a cell ; likewise 

 the spermatozoan is a cell. So we designate 

 them as the germ and sperm cells. Usually 

 the nucleus of each, or parts of these, unite 

 and become one before development takes 

 place. The lowest branch of animals — Proto- 

 zoa — consist of a single cell, and so are essen- 

 tially like the egg or sperm cell. They repro- 

 duce, as you well know, by division, just as 

 the egg divides in the morula stage. Often 

 two of these animals unite for a time preced- 

 ing reproduction. This temporary union, as 

 you know, we call conjugation. In this pro- 

 cess, which we see is not always precedent to 

 reproduction, but which often occurs, doubt- 

 less interchange of protoplasm occurs. This 

 doubtless stimulates vigor and the reproduc- 

 tive act. Every bee-keeper conversant with 

 the Dzierzon theory knows that, while most 

 eggs require that the sperm- cell shall enter 

 the egg, and its nucleus become massed with 

 the pro-nucleus of the egg, to insure develop- 

 ment, this is not true of eggs that are to pro- 

 duce drones. In this and all cases of parthen- 

 ogenesis, or agamic reproduction, eggs develop 



without presence or vitalizing aid of the sperm- 

 cell. Now, if these reports are true, and I 

 will not question them until I have reason, 

 then this is a case of parthenogenesis. If, as 

 reported, the magnesium helps the develop- 

 ment, or is necessary to stimulate its action, 

 we may not wonder. Environment often 

 starts growth, or excites new vigor. If we 

 wound a tree, adventitious buds start or devel- 

 op. May not magnesium be the irritant which 

 causes the egg to divide or develop ? Surely 

 if a bee's eggs may develop with no external 

 stimulation, we may not wonder overmuch if 

 the sea-urchin egg may develop by some ex- 

 citing cause, and that a chemical, like mag- 

 nesium, may stimulate such unusual action. 

 Ferris, Cal., Apr. 23. 



[The suggestion about parthenogenesis (life 

 from one parent) is very reasonable, and may 

 account for Prof. Loeb's experiments. While 

 I am not a scientist, my old professor of zool- 

 ogy used to say that science could perform 

 wonders, but that it could not develop the 

 principle of life, even in the remotest sense ; 

 and that man, with all his endowments, could 

 not do what the Almighty had foreordained 

 for himself. 



Prof. Cook is not so " flat-footed " on this 

 question as I had expected he would be ; and 

 yet, in spite of the "professional courtesy" 

 (which, of course, is proper toward a brother- 

 scientist), he shows very plainly that he does 

 not believe even a little bit in the implied as- 

 sumptions concerning the new discovery of 

 Prof. Loeb.— Ed.] 



IMPROVING STRAINS BY SELECTIONS IN 



BREEDING ; SOME OF MR. CRANE'S 

 STATEMENTS QUESTIONED. 



In Mr. Crane's article, page 256, he makes 

 some statements which I wish to question. 

 Sea-island cotton is a variety of cotton grown 

 on the sea-coast. If the seed is taken up coun- 

 try, and planted, in a short time (two or three 

 seasons) it becomes short staple again. Cot- 

 ton is not an annual, but is perennial, ripening 

 seed the first year, and is not hardy, so that in 

 this country it must be planted every year. 



The New Yor^ Journal, in one of its Sun- 

 day editions, stated that Prof. Loeb had been 

 able, not to make unfertilized fish-spawn 

 hatch, but that he had made one of the lowest 

 forms of marine life develop life ; this was em- 

 bellished with all the words and fancies which 

 this paper is capable of. 



The Standard Dictionary says, " The carrot 

 is any plant of the genus IJaucus, especially 

 any cultivated variety of Daucns carota, L., a 

 biennial which in the wild state is a widely 

 naturalized, noxious weed with a white root." 

 Gray's Manual of Botany says, " Daucus Ca- 

 rota, L., biennial." What Vilmorin did do 

 was to change the form of the root by selec- 

 tion. 



I do not think Mr. Crane needs to twist the 

 facts, for he has in selection all that is needed 

 to give him grounds for argument. I firmly 

 believe that a strain of bees in which the 

 swarming instinct will be latent is one of the 



