1490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



use of electricity. Indeed, we may remove 

 a muscle and excite it to act at once, and it 

 will act in every way as if it were working 

 in the living body as' has been its wont. In 

 fact, such a muscle may be loaded; and 

 when the electric shock is given, the fibers 

 will contract or shorten, and the weight will 

 be raised just as though the muscle were in 

 the body. If we galvanize such an isolated 

 muscle we find that a very brief time elapses 

 l)efore shortening commences. It then con- 

 tracts and then relaxes. Cold-blooded ani- 

 mals, like frogs, are slower to act, and 

 warm-blooded animals differ. As they show 

 greater vital activity, the muscles are more 

 quick to respond. It is interesting to note 

 that bees are among the very highest in this 

 quickness to respond. We also find that the 

 duration of a single muscular contraction 

 varies in different animals with their vitali- 

 ty. In the frog it is twice as long as in 

 riian, and in the insect only /s ^s long as in 

 man. Thus we see the insect measures up 

 well in the perfection of its muscular organ- 

 ism, even greatly distancing man himself. 



Temperature also affects strength and du- 

 ration of contraction. Too great cold les- 

 sens it, while heat also does the same, and 

 also destroys the power to act. A muscle 

 will raise a heavier weight after it has work- 

 ed a little. Both kinds of muscular fibers, 

 and the muscles of the heart, show this same 

 tendency to improve in power after a little 

 exercise. This explains why we often work 

 better after we have exercised a little. The 

 work that a muscle is capable of exerting is 

 35 to 4U per cent of the whole energy ex- 

 pended, which is more than twice the effi- 

 ciency of our power engines. The human 

 muscle is luore than twice as efficient as that 

 of the frog, of similar propoi'tions. Here, 

 again, our insect shines forth with surprising 

 superiority, as it is many times greater than 

 that of man. 



TETANUS. 



By tetanus is meant the continuous con- 

 traction of a muscle, consequent upon many 

 rapidly repeated stimuli. Here, again, the 

 number of stimuli necessary to produce com- 

 plete tetanus varies with functional activity. 

 In the frog it is but 20 or 30 per second, 

 while at the other limit, in bees, it is 300. 

 Prolonged work exhausts the muscle. Even 

 the isolated fresh musi^le will recover with 

 rest, and the fatigue will l)e much slower, if 

 a little time, only a very little, is granted 

 for rest between each stimulus. This is a 

 practical point, and will influence us to let 

 our hard-worked animals have short, fre- 

 quent rest-periods. 



From the above we no longer wonder that 

 the bee distances the railroad train, and 

 that the absconding swarm sometimes shoots 

 away with such surprising swiftness. The 

 bee has muscles of the highest quality, as we 

 know by direct experiments. Sensation and 

 voluntary motion are the preeminent ani)iial 

 functions. One of these is phenomenal in 

 its development in the highest insects. Must 

 we say, then, that bees are among the high- 

 est of animals? 



NEVER TOO LATE TO LEAUN; THE IMPOR- 

 TANCE OF KNOWING SOME OF THE SIM- 

 PLE FACTS OF SCIENCE. 



I l^elieve there is a feeling on the part of 

 many who have had only a common-school 

 education, and perhaps a very poor one at 

 that, that they must necessarily be debarred 

 from a knowledge of the sciences as something 

 far above their reach. I believe, and know, 

 further, that such thoughts or feelings are fan- 

 cies and fallacies that should he met and expos- 

 ed as false and pernicious in perhaps the major- 

 ity of cases. I know there is something rather 

 forbidding in all of the "ologies;" but if 

 squarely met in a courageous way they may 

 so far be overcome as to yield us great pleas- 

 ure. 



In my opinion, no other class of persons 

 engaged in rural pursuits are of more inquir- 

 ing minds than are bee-keepers. That they 

 should sit beneath the tree of knowledge, 

 with its branches bending low with golden 

 fruitage, and be unable either to pluck or 

 eat, seems indeed too bad. Take, to begin 

 with, entomology. How intensely interest- 

 ing to learn of the different families of in- 

 sects, how they are classified, their food and 

 habits, their relation to ea(^h other, and our 

 relation to them I How much better to know 

 that the dragon-fly, or, as it is often called, 

 "devil's needle," lives on Hies, moscpiitoes, 

 etc., than that it sews up the eyes of our chil- 

 dren! How much better to be able to tell an 

 ichneumon fly from a codling-moth than to 

 smoke a clay pipe? How much better to be 

 a))le to tell our friends from our enemies 

 among insects than to listen to the gossip at 

 the village store! 



Some years ago my garden was overrun 

 with the aphis (plant-louse). I tried to de- 

 stroy them with kerosene emulsion, as the 

 horticultural papers said, but they could in- 

 crease faster than I could kill. The next 

 spring they started in again: but, distrusting 

 my ability, I found a "lady-bird " and placed 

 her among them, and soon the aphis was 

 overcome. 



A few years ago we had an epidemic of 

 forest-worms, and many of our forests were 

 about as bare in June as Januai-y. Some 

 thought, and it looked certainly as though 

 our basswoods and maples woukl all be kill- 

 ed; but I found a little ichneumon tly at one 

 of my yards of bees, and I kne\v the days of 

 the worms were numbered. These little flies 

 had done more than manj^ regiments of men 

 could do, and soon the worms were all gone. 



If we take botanj' and learn the various 

 parts of plants, their relation to each other, 

 how classified, we may find it moi'e enjoy- 



