90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1922 



c 



HERE is Low 

 Vergil in- 

 structed his 

 IJonian readers 

 to take honey, 

 e o ni m e n t i n g 

 in e a n w hile on 

 stings and insect 

 e n e in i e s, and 

 suggesting a 

 novel way to avoid bad wintering; 



"If e'er thou wouldst from its small shelf unseal 



The honied store, first having purified 



Thy lips and breath, with water sprinkle well 



And waft the wreathing smoke with wave of hand. 



Twice iu the year the teeming brood is born. 



Two harvests have they: when the Pleiad star 



Spurns with her winged feet the ocean's rim. 



And when in flight before the stormful sign 



She sinks from heaven beneath the wintry wave. 



This is the season when the wrath of be&s 



Breaks bounds, and if one harm them, they infuse 



A venom in each sting and in thy veins 



Implant a hidden barb, leaving behind 



Their own lives in the little wounds they give. 



If a hard winter bodes, and thy fond care 



Forecasts their future, pitying what would be 



Thy spirit-broken swarm's distressful state. 



Fear not to smoke them out with odorous thyme 



And cut the empty combs. Haply some newt 



Has bored the wa.x unseen or in the cells 



The sunbeam-fearing beetles throng, or they 



AVho sit at unearned feasts, the shirking drones. 



Or .some rude hornet with his mightier sting 



Has forced his way. or moth of dreadful breed. 



Or spider, by Minerva curst, has hung 



Her swinging webs at entrance of the hives. 



The more the bees feel poverty, the more 



They turn to eager labors and retrieve 



A fallen people's fortune, heaping high 



Their crowded marts and flowery granaries." 



And thus he described disease and recom- 

 mended treatment. 



"But if it chance, becau.se the life of bees 

 Has the same ills as ours, that their small frames 

 Languish in pestilence, these certain signs 

 Will tell thee of their plight: the stricken ones 

 Keep changing color and their visages 

 Are hideoTisly wasted; then the tribe 

 Bears slowly from its house the lifeless forms 

 With mournful pomp of death .... 



Bum at such t'me the sweet-breathed galbanum. 



Carry them honey poured in pipes of reed 



Tempting them thus to feed and calling them 



To the familiar feast. 'Tis also well 



To flavor it with sap of powdered galls 



And rose-leaves dried, or freshly trodden must 



Warmed at a fire, or raisin-clusters plucked 



From some choice vineyard; also leaves of thyme, 



Then there's a useful flower 



Growing in meadows, which the country folk 

 Call star-wort, not a blossom hard to find. 

 For its large cluster lifts itself in air 

 Out of one root ; its central orb is gold 

 But it wears petals in a numerous ring 



Of glossy purplish hue; 



The roots of this steeped well 

 In hot, high-flavored wine, thou may'st set down 

 at the hive door in baskets heaping full." 



Ill one place, after having described cer- 

 tain ways of bees, he wrote these lines of 

 deep loveliness: 



"These acts and powers observing, some declare 

 That bees have portion in the mind of God 

 And life from heaven derive; that God pervades 

 -Ml lands, the ocean's plain, th' abyss of heaven, 

 .\nd that from him flocks, cattle, princely men, 

 .\11 breeds of creatures wild, receive at birth 

 Each his frail, vital breath ; that whence they came 

 All turn again, dissolving; so that death 

 Is nowhere found, but vital essences 

 Upsoaring in the vast, o'er-vaulted sky 

 Move unextinguished through tiie starry throng." 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



1 



Grace Allen 



W^^^^^^^^^=^ 



K 



There is a long 

 passage a b o u t 

 fighting that is 

 hard to under- 

 stand. Dr. San- 

 born and I were 

 wondering about 

 it a few days 

 ago. What did 

 Vergil have in 

 mind when he wrote it, we wondered? Dur- 

 ing the first few lines I thought it was rob- 

 ing he was referring to, but, no, for he says. 



" they burst 



Impetuous from their portals, and the bees 

 • loin battle high in air." 



I have never seen anything like that. Yet 

 haven't I read somewhere about swarms 

 sometimes fighting? Most glowing and spir- 

 ite<l is the poet's description — how 



'The chieftains in the midmost war are known 

 By their far-shining wings" — 



])retty vivid imagination there, surely! 



There is "a loud alarm" — "a raging 



charge" — ^" little wings glitter'' — "stings 



are shar}) as javelins" — '"they grapple limb 



with limb. ' ' And at the last the victor 



" comi)els to panic flight his routed foe." A 



really laughable part follows, for 



". . . when the two chief captains homeward 



come 

 From conduct of the war, the vanquished one 

 Must be condemned to die!" 



And how they are garbed! 



". . . One now shines forth 



In golden flecked attire . . .strong and flour- 

 ishing. 

 Of haughty looks and bright with crimson scales, 

 The other in foul garb inglorious 

 Drags slothfuUy his swollen bulk along!" 



Yes, ' ' and like their kings, their follow- 

 ers ''; so some are 



■' foul and colorless 



As dust-cloud on a highway" — "but the others flash 

 With glittering beams and wear a glow of fire!" 



What was this battle, I repeat? For we 

 must remember all the Georgics, antiquated 

 tho they seem now, were meant to be very 

 practical when written. Vergil told how to 

 breed good colts and calves, how to graft 

 fruit trees — "nor is there one sole way to 

 graft and bud" — when to sow barley and 

 flax and millet, and when to begin work "if 

 vetches thou woulds't have or common kid- 

 ney bean. ' ' What had he seen in his Ital- 

 ian beeyard like a battle high in air, or 

 what had some beekeeping friend desciibed 

 to him .' 



* * s 



In August Gleanings of last year this de- 

 partment had an article on Francois Huber, 

 tlie blind naturalist of Geneva, who con- 

 ducted such wonderful investigations in the 

 life and habits of the honeybee a century 

 and more ago. Eecently a letter has come 

 to my desk, regretting that so little was 

 there told about H uber 's actual discoveries. 

 So liere is a l)rief account, itself necessarily 

 incomplete, of what there was no room for 

 in that article. 



