110 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Feb. 15 



ty. At the same time, it is a strictly fami- 

 ly association like early forms of human so- 

 ciety. 



We speak of human society as being or- 

 ganized, hence there must be some definite 

 principle dominating the grouping. Now, 

 as a matter of fact the dominating idea is 

 not always the same at all times and in all 

 places; but we can group them into two 

 broad classes — the communistic and the 

 competitive. Modern civilization is com- 

 petitive. It is a struggle for the possession 

 of the property produced, in which the best 

 man is supposed to be the winner. Ancient 

 society was apparently communistic as it is 

 to-day with the more backward races. In 

 the communistic form of society each indi- 

 vidual is supposed to produce according to 

 ability and to receive according to need. 

 The family is an example of the commu- 

 nistic spirit in modern civilization, and is 

 apparently a fragment of past conditions 

 carried over into the new. 



Colony bees, therefore, are apparently in 

 the first stage of social organization, hence 

 they are communists. Many writers often 

 loosely speak of them as socialists; but the 

 term is incorrectly applied, for in this pro- 

 posed form of society which many hope to 

 see realized, while the means of production 

 will be held in some form of common own- 

 ership, each able-bodied individual will be 

 rewarded according to his works, so it is not 

 so charming an ideal as the communistic 

 one. 



THE GROUPING IN A COMMUNISTIC SOCIETY. 



In a competitive form of society, classifi- 

 cation is along industrial lines. Broadly 

 speaking we have the owners and the work- 

 ers, and the latter are grouped according to 

 occupation, men and women mingling to- 

 gether in the same calling. But in com- 

 munistic society the grouping is according 

 to sex. Man is the flesh-producer; woman 

 provides the vegetables, and cooks the food. 

 Man is the warrior, so woman does all the 

 drudgery around the camp and on the 

 march. Even in civilized communities we 

 find isolated groups where the sex division 

 of labor is still the custom, as among the 

 fisher folk of Scotland and the peasantry of 

 Europe. 



The line of separation in a bee-hive is 

 strictly according to communistic rule — that 

 is, the grouping is according to sex. The 

 actual producers in the colony are females; 

 the males are concerned only with the prop- 

 agation of the species, and when their use- 

 fulness in this respect is ended they are 

 eliminated from the social organism. 



In a competitive form of society, as we all 

 know, the struggle for possession of proper- 

 ty is not a free-for-all fight, but must be ac- 

 cording to certain man-made rules which 

 are dignified by the title of laws. The more 

 prolific the production, the more numerous 

 the rules of limitation, until, in highly de- 

 veloped countries, the laws cover the pages 

 of thousands of tomes, all of which every- 

 body is supposed to know excepting lawyers 

 and judges in their official capacity. In 



communistic societies laws are few and far 

 between, if they exist at all, and so we nat- 

 urally find in a bee-hive that there is appar- 

 ently no government of any kind, and that 

 eacli member does the right thing at the 

 right time without direction or correction. 

 So far as we know there is no crime, im- 

 morality, nor vice in a bee-hive. 



While the subject of hive organization is 

 an extremely fascinating one, the writer 

 feels he dares not do more than outline its 

 broad principles; at the same time, he feels 

 he has said enough to indicate the reason 

 why the greatest intellects of the ages have 

 been induced to spend years in studying 

 the economy of bee society, and why or- 

 dinary people get more deeply interested the 

 more they knoA-. Only in recent years has 

 it been realized chat human society develops 

 according to laws, and efforts are now be- 

 ing made to formulate them. 



We have learned this much, that any 

 form of our social structure is but transient, 

 for all the time man is modifying his sur- 

 roundings — that is, his environment — then 

 he must alter the social organism to suit the 

 new conditions. To a student of sociology 

 the present day is probably the most inter- 

 esting period in human history. In mark- 

 ed contrast the colony bee has seemingly at- 

 tained already the end to which the human 

 race is moving, that of stable equilibrium 

 with the environment. This has been se- 

 cured by almost perfect control of the 

 means of reproducing the species, for only 

 that number of young bees is brought into 

 existence for which there is evidently a suf- 

 ficient food supply. Both race murder and 

 race suicide are long-established rules of 

 practice in a bee-hive whenever inclement 

 weather conditions necessitate their adop- 

 tion. Last of all, the number of consumers 

 who are not producers — that is, the drones 

 — is kept ivithin safe limits, and even they 

 are summarily disposed of when their exis- 

 tence is no longer a necessity to the social 

 welfare. 



Victoria, B. C. 



LIME IN A CELLAR WILL NOT DRY THE 

 AIR. 



BY F. L. HUGGINS. 



Referring to the footnote to the "Straw," 

 p. 4, Jan. 1, about slaking lime in a cellar, 

 I will say that the chemistry is not quite 

 sound. Lime is calcium oxide, CaO; and 

 when exposed to the air it absorbs moisture, 

 and the hydroxide, CaHjOj, is formed. In 

 this reaction no oxygen is released (this in 

 correction of W. H. Messinger, Review, 365). 



This hydroxide (slaked lime) has a feature 

 that is exceptional in chemistry — it dissolves 

 more easily in cold water than in hot. The 

 solution, the ordinary lime-water of medi- 

 cine, absorbs carbonic acid from the air, and 

 a thin skin of carbonate of lime rapidly 

 forms on the surface. 



