222 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



trial being made it was proved that they cease to grow 

 and multiply in a gelatine raedi ira. Experiments 

 have been made whereby the rays have been allowed 

 to pass through a hole in a metal disc and strike on a 

 small mass of gelatine containing active germs, with 

 the result that thev were developed, except on the spot 

 where the rays had struck. This undoubtedly proves 

 that a comb so treated would be sterilized, and that 

 radium may prove able to accomplish a cure of foul 

 brood. I ask no one to accept this as a truism until 

 the experiment has been tried and found a success. 

 All I now plead for is, that, theoreticnllv. it should do 

 what I claim for it. Some of our scientific bee-keepers 

 might be ab^e to bring a small piece of comb, con ain- 

 iD°- active germs of foul brood, under the action of ra- 

 dium ray-i, and prove if the deadly po.ssibililiesof germ 

 or spore would be rendered innocuous. The heavj' 

 cost of even the most minute particle may prove a bar 

 to any thing more than this simple experiment; but 

 this wonderful force is only in its infancy, and bv and 

 by will become more common and attainable. I hope 

 this is not merely a vain dream! 



Dr. Miller's remarks about Dzierzon, in 

 Straws, this issue, embolden me to refer to 

 something- I read a few days ag^o in a 

 Spanish journal concerning^ the venerable 

 bee-master. When all the talk is on one 

 side it is a little disagreeable to attempt 

 to sweep the Atlantic in another direction 

 bj' way of criticism. The article in ques- 

 tion, signed by a man named Weber, prob- 

 ably a German, begins thus: 



Some time ago the bee-keepers of other countries 

 had considerable to say concerning a s. ecies of idola- 

 try in which the Germans ho d Dzierzon. They 

 credit to him all discoveries, all inventions, all prog- 

 ress in modern apiculture; and when, at apicultural 

 reunions, Dzierzon speak*, all, even the mo'it nota- 

 ble, bow their heads before the oracle and are silent. 



At an apicultural meeting in Breslau, in 

 1901, Mr. Bassler, editor of Deiitsche Imker 

 aus Boehmen, made a speech in which he 

 inveighed bitterly against the servile atti- 

 tude of the Germans concerning Dzierzon, 

 and yet gave him a world of credit for the 

 good he has unquestionably done. The 

 speech is one of the finest I have ever read, 

 but too long to give here. One paragraph 

 concerning parthenogenesis is the most 

 striking of all: 



It is claimed that this good gentleman Dzierzon, 

 was the first to discover parthenogenesis — that par- 

 ticular property that a beeegg has of producing, with- 

 out being fertilize.1, a male b-e. I have shown to 

 him that 500 years before Christ, old Ari.stoteles pub- 

 lished this wonder; and that Huber, our great Geneva 

 bee-lover, had, at the beginning of the past century, 

 demonstrated scientifically by ana'omy the same 

 thing by the laying bees he sent to Miss Jurine. 



Concerning hives and frames he says 

 further: 



I,ikewise, to Dzierzon is attributed the invention of 

 the movable frame. I have shown him that movable- 

 ness of frames was practiced in France while as yet 

 there was no Dzierzon, who, to tell the truth, did not 

 invent movable combs, and was not himself converted 

 to "mobility" until the square frame was adopted in 

 all parts. Even to-day his frame is but an imperfect 

 one, and his hive only half movable, which even his 

 most ardent admirers do not use. 



While all this seems to be true, it is still 

 a greater satisfaction to know that Dzier- 

 zon's life is made happier by an overween- 

 ing fondness on the part of his fellow-citi- 

 zens than to think that father Langstroth's 

 life was embittered in this country by be- 

 ing so greatly underrated and misrepre- 

 sented by the very men who should have 

 pursued an opposite course. 



■^ 





ABOUT WINTER STORES. 



" I have been reading what you have 

 said about your severe winter in your lo- 

 calit3% and have come up from Georgia (by 

 letter) to have a little talk with you, and 

 invite you to come down and winter with us 

 next winter, for we have none of the snow 

 or zero weather which you have in York 

 State." 



" I thank you very much, Mr. Brown, for 

 the invitation; but I have so man}' ties 

 which bind me here that it is not probable 

 I can see my way clear to come. I know I 

 should enjoj' your winter ver}' much, for the 

 winters in the sunny South are very pleas- 

 ant; at least I found it so the winter I was 

 in Arkansas. Yet there is a certain enjoy- 

 ment up here at the North with our bright 

 coal fires and cozy rooms, in and around 

 which the family gather, bidding defiance 

 to the cold without, that is not to be had in 

 the South. 'Small comfort,' do I hear j'ou 

 say? Well, it may so appear to you; but 

 we manage to keep very comfortable the 

 most of the time." 



"f know there are blessings and comforts 

 at the North which we Southerners can not 

 realize; and the most of us are quite will- 

 ing to be deprived of them in considering 

 ours the better. But suppose we proceed to 

 the little talk I wish to have with you." 



" I am agreeable. What shall it be 

 about?" 



" My bees seem to be getting short of 

 stores, and I am afraid I shall have to feed 

 before April. I supposed I gave them the 

 regulation amount which you advocated (25 

 lbs.), last fall, but I might have failed in 

 this." 



" Perhaps I should have qualified my 

 ideas of winter stores somewhat. I was ad- 

 vocating that 25 pounds of stores should be 

 sufficient for colonies in this northern 

 clime." 



" Don't you think bees will consume as 

 much honey in the South from the middle 

 of October to the middle of April as they 

 would at the extreme North?" 



"As you put it, I would say that I 

 should estimate it would take more stores 

 to carry bees from the middle ot October to 

 the middle of April in the South than it 

 would at the North, but I should judge 

 that bees would winter on less with you 

 than with us." 



"I do not understand. Please explain 

 more fully." 



" What I mean is this: I should consider 

 that it would take more stores to ivinter a 

 colony where winter held sway for five to 

 six months, as it does here, than where 



