Aug. 1, 1911 



457 



uation in the East and the West. It seems 

 the Western fruit is taking the Eastern 

 markets right out from under the noses of 

 some of the Eastern fruit-men. 



We have only to substitute honey for ap- 

 ples, and the whole argument will apply to 

 the iDroduction. grading, packing, and sale 

 of comb honey. 



There is only one producing section which uses 

 the box as a vehicle in the disposition of their 

 fruit, and that is the Mountain and Pacific Coast 

 country. The fruit in New Yorlc, Virginia, and 

 N'ew England is not packed in boxes, except in a 

 very small way. The fact is, the growers in the 

 East do not .seem to feel inclined to take care of 

 their orchards, nor to give their orchards that atten- 

 tion which the Western grower does, with the re- 

 sult that the fruit in the East is not of sufficiently 

 good quality to be packed up in the boxes with any 

 good results. As you probably are aware, there is 

 about one bushel of good apples usually found in a 

 barrel, the rest being mostly off grades: and as this 

 off stuff is usually found in the middle of the barrel, 

 it can not be seen by the buyer; whereas if the 

 same stuff is packed in boxe.s, opening top, side, or 

 bottom exposes the poor fruit, with the result that 

 the apple-growers in the East prefer shipping in 

 barrels rather than boxes. 



The writer of this, it seems, thinks the 

 Eastern apple-growers are not as honest as 

 the Western growers. The rules of the 

 Western Association force the grower to live 

 up to the rules, and this makes him hon- 

 est. Carelessness is but a form of dishones- 

 ty. So we are not so different after all, 

 only we are working under different condi- 

 tions. Let's change the conditions. 



Boulder, Col. 



[See editorial comments elsewhere. — Ed.] 



THE LAW OF SWARMING FORMULATED. 



BY WILLIAM BEUCUS. 



W^hat is swarming? Why does it occur? 

 Is there a law which it obeys? These are 

 questions which have long pressed and are 

 still pressing for solution. Shall we find an 

 answer by stutlying the bees themselves? 

 or shall we find it by studying nature in 

 general? That the first method is inadequate 

 is proved by the fact that thousands of ob- 

 servers of the phenomenon of swarming, 

 and the conditions under which it occurs, 

 have failed to formulate the law. Let us 

 see if the latter method, that of studying 

 nature in general, may not help us. 



We will contemplate the subject first from 

 the viewpoint of the biologist. What are 

 the activities of life? They may be grouped 

 under two heads: First, those activities by 

 means of which the individual is preserved; 

 second, those activities by means of which 

 the species is preserved — that is, the rearing 

 of offspring. Of these activities the most 

 important for us to consider are those by 

 means of which food is secured. Force 

 stored up in food and absorbed by the botly 

 tends to expend itself in those functions by 

 which it was secured. We see this illus- 

 trated on every hand. Birds are busy dur- 

 ing most of their waking hours procuring 

 the force stored up in food, and again ex- 

 pending it to procure more food; and, when 



food is abundant, in warm weather, procur- 

 ing food above their own needs and utiliz- 

 ing it in the rearing of offspring. In hu- 

 man beings we see it among those who, 

 having a competency, still busy themselves 

 in performing the functions by which life, 

 without the competency, is made possible. 

 Cats and dogs, in rural districts at least, 

 satisfy this impelling internal force by en- 

 tering upon hunting-expeditions; and this, 

 too, even when, by man, they are liberally 

 supplied with food. Further evidence is 

 furnished, too, by observation of those su- 

 perfluous activities in which well-nourished 

 kittens and puppies indulge — the pursuit 

 and seizure of moving objects, and the biting 

 and clawing, this being identical with those 

 actions to be expended, at maturity, in the 

 actual pursuit and seizure of prey. In chil- 

 dren, too, this inherent tendency is shown 

 — little girls, whose function it will be to 

 care for offspring, duplicating the actions of 

 mothers in the care of dolls; and little boys, 

 whose function will be to earn for the fami- 

 ly the means of subsistence, duplicating the 

 actions of fathers and of primitive man, 

 who.se duty it was to provide food through 

 hunting. 



Without multiplying illustrations, it has, 

 perhaps, become sufficiently clear that force 

 absorbed in food tends to expend itself in car- 

 rying on those functions upon the perform- 

 ance of which the life of the individual and 

 the life of the species depend. 



What bearing has this truth upon the 

 phenomenon of swarming? We shall quick- 

 ly see. Bees, like other animate beings, are 

 composed of structures; and bees, like other 

 animate beings, live through the perform- 

 ance, by these structures, of their proper 

 functions. Having been placed in the spring 

 on summer stands, when pollen is abundant, 

 when there is some nectar in the flowers, 

 when there is honey and abundant room in 

 the hive, and when, for the queen, there are 

 numerous empty cells in which to lay, all 

 of the conditions are supplied which make 

 possible the full performance by each indi- 

 vidual of its functions. The queen per- 

 forms, unrestricted, her function of egg-lay- 

 ing; the young bees, if there are any at this 

 time of year, perform the function of caring 

 for the brood, and the fielders perform their 

 function by means of which these activities 

 are sustained. These activities proceed un- 

 interruptedly until there is somewhere a re- 

 striction of function, and this restriction 

 comes when the conditions external to the 

 hive are most propitious, and when, there- 

 fore, the force-impelling function is most 

 powerful. The weather is warm, and nec- 

 tar in the fields is becoming abundant. 

 But now the queen is restricted in her func- 

 tion of egg-laying, the combs being nearly 

 full of brood; the fielders are restricted in 

 their function of gathering and storing hon- 

 ey, being encroached upon by the queen, 

 and, in turn, encroaching upon her. Young 

 bees, too, are emerging by hundreds each 

 day, thus interfering with that freedom of 

 movement required for the performance of 



