384 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 15 



There are two kinds of these pigment- 

 cells. The ones at the base of the cone, 

 pigm. 1, are two in number, and do not ex- 

 tend below the base of the cone. The other 

 pigment-cells, pigm. 2, extend from the lens 

 to the base of the ommatidium, and are 

 twelve in number. The pigment in these 

 cells is located principally at the outer 

 portion of the eye; and the retina cells also 

 contain pigment, thus making a complete 

 sheath of pigment around the nerve and 

 nerve-endings in the miHdle. 



The nerve-lines of the eye extend down 

 along the eight retina cells, and at the 

 bottom come together, and the united nerve 

 extends toward the brain. These eight 

 nerves are shown in the cross-section as 

 dots, and are omitted in the longitudinal 

 section, since I did not wish to make the 

 figure too confusing by putting in too many 

 parallel lines. 



The small triangular cells, /, which have 

 projections from them, are not nerves, but 

 form the bottom layer of the eye. 



I wish to explain here that the small 

 drawings at the side of Fig. 1 are cross- 

 sections of the ommatidium at points indi- 

 cated by the dotted lines. 



I have given here briefly the structure of 

 the eye, avoiding as far as possible the use 

 of technical terms, and hope that the read- 

 ers of Gleanings will be able to get an 

 idea of what a compound ej'e really is. The 

 technical terms of bee-keeping are Greek 

 to an outsider, and the same is true for any 

 other line of work; but I have, as far as 

 possible, explained the terms used. 



Grenacher was the first to work out this 

 structure; and in "The Honej^-bee," by 

 Cowan, will be found a figure from his 

 work, with a description. He does not, how- 

 ever, give the entire structure, and there 

 are certain errors in his work which the 

 advance in the methods of work makes it 

 possible to avoid now. I would not attempt 

 to detract from the value of the work of this 

 great zoologist, for his work will always 

 stand as a marvelous advance in science; 

 but zoological methods have been improved 

 recently to such an extent that it is now 

 possible to obtain more accurate results. 



Mj' apology for taking up rocm in Glkan- 

 INGS with material which is of no use from 

 a practical standpoint is that I feel that, 

 the more a bee-keeper knows about the bee, 

 the better he is. A man who cares simply 

 for the amount of honey he gets and the 

 dollars which come from its sale, may be a 

 fine bee-keeper, but surely he misses a gre it 

 many of the good things of life by limiting 

 his range of vision in this way. In all the 

 group of insects there is none of more inter- 

 est than the honey-bee; and narrow indeed 

 is the man who can work with them day 

 by day and not have a desire to know more 

 of them. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



[The article above will be followed by 

 another one in our next issue, by the same 

 writer, on the relative size of drones and 

 workers. — Ed.] 



BEE MATTER. 



Screening the Wheat from the Chaff ; Sheep in Bee 

 Yards ; Shaking for Foul Brood. 



BY CHARLKS B. ACHARD. 



On page 22 Mr. Louis F. Wahl asks for 

 some method of keeping track of the good 

 things in the bee- journals so we don't for- 

 get. I would refer him to Gleanings, page 

 49, 1903, where Mr. Doolittle gives his plan 

 for " separating the wheat from the chaff." 

 After reading Mr. Doolittle's suggestions I 

 thought out a little different plan for my 

 own use. I got a plain " Macey " card- 

 index box, also one set of alphabet index- 

 cards, and about a hundred blank cards. 

 Whenever I come across any thing in a bee- 

 journal that I think I might wish to refer 

 to afterward I mark the article, or part of 

 it, with pencil. About once a month I look 

 the papers over and note the subject, name^ 

 page, and volume of the bee journal on the 

 card, allowing a separate card for each 

 subject. For example: 



IVinferin^, requirements for successful — 

 J^ev., 102, i903. 



Wintering, ventilation — Rev., 114, 1903. 



Queens, introducing — GL, 376, 545, 1903. 



Oueens, introducing, shower-bath meth- 

 od— 6^/., 185, 1903. 



In this way, if I wish to look up any val- 

 uable suggestion it takes but a few seconds 

 to fiud what I want. Perhaps you may 

 think I would soon have hundreds of cards 

 filled; but I find that, daring the whole of 

 last year, I used but a few over 100 cards, 

 and they are, most of them, not half full, as 

 I can put ten to twelve items under a given 

 subjict on one card. I take four papers — 

 the American Bee-keeper, American Bee 

 Journal, Review, and Gleanings, and I 

 think the average bee keeper takes no more 

 than that. 



On p. 31 Mr. C. J. Pearse would like to 

 know about keeping sheep in an apiary, to 

 keep down the grass. I tried a sheep in 

 my apiary last season. Although I had a 

 few dwarf fruit-trees planted among the 

 hives, I thought if the lamb had plenty of 

 grass it would not eat the foliage of the 

 trees; but it did, nevertheless. One thing 

 I would warn friend Pearse of: Let him be 

 sure that the sheep are not bothered with 

 lice or ticks. They find the corners of the 

 hives an excellent place to relieve that itchy 

 feeling, as I found out to my sorrow. I 

 wonder if there are any readers of Glean- 

 ings who have tried sheep for keeping down 

 the grass. 



Last summer I had a little experience 

 in fighting foul brood, and learned a lesson 

 or two. Most instructors advise us to shake 

 the bees on foundation in the evening, just 

 before dusk. I did so. No sooner was the 

 sun below the horizon than I commenced to 

 shake the bees in the usual manner. But, 

 oh my I how thej' went for me! Instead of 

 running into the hive after being shaken in 

 front of the entrance, thej' flew up into the 

 air and attacked me from all sides. I re- 



