AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



147 



a stick. It will not become entirely 

 clear until the last fermentation is 

 nearly all over. 



Honey vinegar is far superior to the 

 best cider vinegar, and can compete 

 successfully with the very best wine 

 vinegar. 



There are only two drawbacks to the 

 making of vinegar. It takes a great 

 deal of room, and it spoils all the barrels 

 that are used. The acid eats up the 

 iron hoops wherever it happens to leak, 

 and the wood is often bored full of holes 

 by worms, when not in use. 



In making vinegar as above described, 

 any ordinary shed, such as is used for a 

 cider press, will do, if used during warm 

 weather ; and to keep the vinegar, any 

 ordinary cellar is suitable ; but, as we 

 said before, a temperature of about 80° 

 will best aid the making of vinegar. 



There is a quicker method of making 

 vinegar on a large scale, but this re- 

 quires a special building and apparatus. 

 — Gleanings. 



Hamilton, Ills. 



Wonderful Adaptability of Bees in Nature 



G. W. DEMAREB. 



When speaking of the works of Na- 

 ture, most writers speak in a way that 

 leaves one in doubt as to what they 

 mean by the very hard word " Na- 

 ture." It is not my purpose to discuss 

 the question of the source of all devel- 

 opment and all power. It is enough to 

 satisfy me when I inquire into the 

 marvelous adaptability of the things in 

 Nature, to accept of the faith of the 

 best and ablest of men who hold that 

 no other than the great Architect of the 

 universe could have so planned all 

 things as to make them work with such 

 marvelous harmony. 



The honey-bee is a small factor in 

 Nature's work's ; Taut when her career 

 is traced through to the end, her mission 

 cannot be computed in value in the 

 make-up of the total harmony. The 

 flowers secrete nectar (and the bees, 

 with eager, glad hum, gather it), but 

 not for the bees alone. The flowers of 

 fruits and plant seeds need the visits of 

 the bees to transmit the tiny grains of 

 pollen from one flower to another to 

 cross-fertilize the embryo seeds that 

 they may reproduce flowers to secrete 

 nectar for the bees. Without flowers 

 that produce nectar, there would be no 

 bees, and without the bees there would 



be a great reduction of varieties of 

 vegetation. 



It is a well demonstrated fact that the 

 red clover would produce no seed in this 

 country, and presumably nowhere else, 

 without the intervention of bees in their 

 office of distributing the pollen from 

 blossom to blossom. 



The honey-bee has a sharp " stinger " 

 as a weapon of defense, and she could 

 not defend her precious stores without a 

 dreaded weapon. The agency that gives 

 the sharp pain from the sting of a bee, 

 is formic acid. But the formic acid 

 serves another purpose no less impor- 

 tant in the economy of bee-life. It acts 

 as a preservative to the honey by pre- 

 venting fermentation. 



Heat in the hive is "necessary to the 

 incubation of the eggs laid by the queen, 

 and to develop the infant bees. But 

 heat serves another important purpose. 

 It holds in available form the formic 

 acid in the effluvium arising from the 

 body of the bees, while the honey in the 

 open cells absorbs the formic acid, which 

 makes the honey well-nigh imperishable. 

 The heat also raises the_ temperature of 

 the pellets of wax, and makes them sus- 

 ceptible of being welded and drawn out 

 into matchless honey-comb. 



The "hum "of the bee is caused by 

 the lightning speed with which its wings 

 beat the air, but this is not all, the 

 "hum" is the "voice" of the bee, and 

 is the chief means of communication be- 

 tween bees. The " hum " of the bee is a 

 simple mechanical sound, as much so as 

 the sound of the " iEolian harp ;" but 

 strange as it may seem, the honey-bee can 

 and does express her passions by the 

 sound of her wings. The gentle, har- 

 monious "hum" means contentment 

 and peace. The high, shrill "key" 

 means fierce anger, and the experienced 

 apiarist needs no other warning to avoid 

 a "black eye." The "hum" that imi- 

 tates the frying-pan just before dinner, 

 means " come in," " gather iuto a body." 

 But the invitation is only for " our set," 

 none other can enter. The royal, the 

 crowned of earth cannot cross the 

 threshhold unchallenged if they are not 

 of " that guild." 



Honey-bees often visilj deserted bee- 

 hives to carry away the bits of wax and 

 propolis they contain, and they often 

 visit hollow trees in search of the lib- 

 erated albumen and glucose substance 

 produced by the chemical changes that 

 take place in decaying wood, and while 

 thus employed they unwittingly serve 

 the economy of nature as "decoy bees' 



