THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



51 



A^<»- 





WmSnmmsL 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



JoLIIII, Jan, 27, 1886, 1,4, 



peyf^, 



Supply Dealers who are now preparing 

 to issue their Catalojfues, should be careful 

 to Ket the prices of Books and Periodicals 

 correctly stated. We notice that several 

 which have already appeared, give wrong 

 prices for Books, and also for the Amekican 

 Bee Jouknai,. It would be better to omit 

 mention of them entirely than to quote 

 them wrongly. It would save trouble and 

 annoyance. 



J. W. Po«ell Sc Son, says a local paper 

 of Mankato, Minn., report having 19.j colo- 

 nies of bees, ivhich produced 7,000 pounds 

 of honey ; of which they shipped .5,000 

 pounds to Iowa, Dakota, etc. They are 

 among the largest and most successful bee- 

 keepers of the State. 



Ci. B. Lieivin &. Co., of Watertown, Wis., 

 had an exhibit of sections at the Detroit 

 Convention, but by some "oversight," no 

 notice was taken of them by the committee 

 on exhibits. Of course it was unintentional 

 on the part of the committee. We give this 

 item to repair, in some measure, the omis- 

 sion, and we are sorry Messrs. Lewis & Co. 

 did not mention it soon enough to have a 

 note made of it in the body of the pamphlet. 



A Brier History of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, with a digest of its 

 ].') Annual Conventions, and a full iteport 

 of the Proceedings of the 10th Annual Con- 

 vention held at Detroit, Mich., on Dec. 8 to 

 10, 188.5. This is the titleof a new pamphlet 

 of 04 pages just issued at this office. Price, 

 2.5 cents. 



To compile this history and digest of all 

 the past meetings of the Society, has taken 

 much time and labor, and we have no doubt 

 but that it will be duly appreciated by the 

 apiarists of North America. 



This pamphlet also contains engravings of 

 the principal honey-plants, and portraits of 

 the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, of Ohio, and 

 Moses Quinby, of New York ; two of the 

 pioneers who helped to revolutionize Ameri- 

 can apiculture, and usher in a new era. 



Petrlfled Honey-Comb. — Mr. John G, 

 Kidcnour, of Elida, ()., on Dec. 21, 188.5, sent 

 us a piece of petriHed comb, and remarks as 

 follows concerning it : 



I send you a piece of petrified honey-comb 

 for the A.MEKKAN Bee .Iouiinai. Museum. 

 This petrification of honey-comb was found 

 an the hanks of the James river in Mon- 

 tana, by a friend, who said that he knew 

 what it was as soon as he saw it. by its shape 

 and rcs(Mnblance. He thought he must 

 have a piece for ine, as he knew of no one 

 else that had as much curiosity for small 

 things in an apiary as I have. Hold the 

 broken side to the "sun and turn it to and 

 from you, and you can see the sparkling 

 diamonds. 



It is evidently fossil coral, and not petri- 

 fied comb. It would be proper to call it 

 honey-comb"coral. We have several speci- 

 mens in our Museum already, and this is 



added to the number. Prof. Cook, in his 

 Manual, says : 



The animals of which these were once the 

 skeletons, so to speak, are not insects at 

 all, though often called so by men of con- 

 siderable information. 



The species of the genus Favosites first 

 appeared in the Upper Silurian rocks, 

 culminated in the Devonian, and disappeared 

 in the early Carboniferous. No insects 

 appeared till the Devonian age, and no 

 Hymeuoptera— bees, wasps, etc.— till after 

 the Carboniferous. So the old-time Favosites 

 reared its limestone columns and helped to 

 build islands and continents untold ages- 

 millions upon millions of years— before any 

 Hower bloomed, or any bee sipped the 



Grecious nectar. In some specimens of this 

 oney-comb coral, there are to be seen 

 banks of cells, much resembling the paper 

 cells of some of our wasps. This might be 

 called wasp-comb coral, except that both 

 styles were wrought by the self-same 

 animals. 



Tiew Prlce-LlKts have been received 

 from the following persons : 



J. R. Caldwell & Co., Hoopeston, Ills.— 16 

 pages— Given Foundation Press. 



Henry Cripe, North Manchester, Ind — tO 

 pages— Bee-Keepers' Supplies. 



M. H. Hunt, Bell Branch, Mich.— 8 pages— 

 Bee-Keepers' Supplies, Bees, Queens, etc. 



Jos. Nysewander, Des Moines, Iowa — i8 

 pages— Bee-Keepers' Supplies, Bees, Queens, 

 etc. It alsocontanis blank pages ruled for 

 memoranda. 



Any one desiring a copy of either of them, 

 can do so by sending a postal card to the 

 address as given above. 



WTien renewing subscriptions please send 

 an extra name or two with your own and 

 secure a premium. We have some colored 

 Posters, which we will send free, to put 

 up in conspicuous places. We will with 

 pleasure send sample copies to any one who 

 will try to get up a club. 



The <tupcn HeeldeM. — Recently the 

 LduinviUe Medical Neim appeared with an 

 editorial on the "Cause of Sex," assigning 

 it to the male and female, according to their 

 respective emotions, etc. Dr. G. P. Hachen- 

 berg, of Austin, Texas, who has one of the 

 most extensive apiaries of the South, took 

 issue with the views advocated in the edi- 

 torial, and in a communication to the editor, 

 advanced the following peculiar theory : 



It appears to me that we can only pass 

 judgment on such intricate subjects, by 

 reasoning from analogy. To do this. In 

 this case, the male never has anything to do 

 in determining the sex. The male only 

 imparts its own species, and a part of his 

 individuality, and nothing more; and the 

 intricate process of determining sex de- 

 volves on the female alone. That either sex 

 may have some of the features of either 

 parent, is no argument against these views. 

 But for proof : The female bee, usually 

 called the queen, has sexual commerce but 

 once in her lile, and for years afterwards, in 

 her propagation, she determines the sex 

 through a choice of her own. If the ijueen- 

 bee is the key to unlock this mystery of 

 animal life, then the physiological evolution 

 that determines the sex, is solely centered 

 in the female. For a wise purpose, the gift 

 of the queen, that is. the potency of her own 

 choice, has been denied to the latter to 

 determine the sex of her gestation, yet still 

 emotional influences on her part are not a 

 foreign necessity. Evidently the loual 

 efl'ects of the spermatozoa is an important 

 factor in regulating these emotions ; these 

 with local and constitutional conditions, in 

 the aggregate, favor the evolution of sex, 

 either one way or another. I think it well 

 to study the subject from this stand-point. 



Appreciation of the American Bee 

 JouRNAi, for 1886 is so often expressed by 

 our correspondents, that we could not find 

 room for one in a hundred, but the follow- 

 ing are a fair sample of all of them : 



J. E. Pond, Jr., Foxboro, Mass., writes : 

 "I am proud of the Journal as an Ameri- 

 can production. It, if possible, grows better 

 and better : at any rate I am pleased to find 

 that reduction In price is not followed by 

 reduction in labor or falling off in merit." 



Chas. H. Wiele, Stoddard, Wis., writes : " It 

 is but a little money for so many valuable 

 articles, I would not be without it if it had 

 been rained in price, instead of being re- 

 duced." 



W. J. Cullinan, Mt. .Sterling, Ills., writes : 

 " I have received the Bek JounsAiy and 

 your book, ' Bees and Honey,' and I consider 

 both invaluable to every one engaged in 

 progressive bee-culture. With the book I 

 am more than pleased." 



W. A. Pryal, humorist of the Oakland, 

 Calif., Express, is authority for this " funny- 

 dote :" 



"London has a regularly incorporated 

 association, the object of which is the 

 protection of the butterfly. The society 

 should also encourage the baking of the 

 buckwheat cake, which, according to the old 

 joke, makes the butter fly." 



Now, by all means, let a society he formed 

 for the propagation and consumption of the 

 flap-jack, for it will be the cause of making 

 the honey fly, too. The bee is not the only 

 insect that apiarists take a great interest in, 

 as will be seen by the above. 



A Correspondent sends us the following 

 inquiry. As he is a very young man per- 

 haps we may pardon him for this time, if he 

 will promise not to do so any more. It is 

 almost too pun-ny to be funny : 



Query— Did not the paper read by Prof. 

 Cook at the Detroit Couvention come nearly 

 "putting a head on" (Heddon) the pollen 

 theory ? 



