470 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the melon, it is logical to suppose 

 that they would attack the grapes in 

 force; but no such action takes place; 

 a few bees find the broken hulls and 

 suck the juices, but I have never 

 seen any indication of a perforation 

 of whole-skinned grapes. 



For many years wasps were plenti- 

 ful about my house, but finding them 

 depredators upon grapes. I have 

 broken up their nests and killed them 

 out at all times ; and now I hardly 

 ever see one. The bees have of late 

 failed to be seen about the grapes. 

 This year the crop was unusually 

 good, and left on the vines till frost ; 

 yet the grapes were all sound— whilst 

 the melons were visited, as usual, 

 with great avidity. I conclude, then, 

 that at limes the wasps and other 

 insect-borers of the grape, are killed 

 by the had winters, when the attacks 

 upon grapes subside. If the bees 

 could puncture the grapes, why 

 sh""ld not their attacks be regular V 

 1 1] ve also some vines on trellises of 

 posts and wire in the open ground. 

 Here the leaves fall more early, and 

 the grapes are attacked by birds and 

 insects, and the bees then aid in the 

 destruction of the grapes, whilst 

 those on the walls, hidden under the 

 lute leaves, escape insects, birds and 

 bees y 



White Hall.© Ky. 



[We are glad that a man of such 

 extended observation and practice as 

 Mr. Clay, sustains the views presented 

 in our last issue in regard to the 

 question whether honey-bees ever 

 puncture and injure grapes. — Editok 

 Southern Planter.] 



ror tne American Bee Journal. 



Formation Of "Cells" liyBees, 



"W. H. STEWART. 



Much has been written on the 

 wisdom of the honey-bee, as mani- 

 fested in many ways, and more es- 

 pecially in the construction of honey- 

 comb. 1 will give but one quotation 

 from a noted German w^riter, who 

 asserts as follows : 



" The cells of bees are found to 

 fulfill perfectly the most subtile con- 

 ditions of an intricate mathematical 

 problem. Let it be required to find 

 what shape a given quantity of mat- 

 ter must take in order to have the 

 greatest capacity and strength, occu- 

 pying at the same time the least S))ace 

 and consuming the least labor in its 

 construction. When this problem is 

 solved by the most refined mathemati- 

 cal processes, the answer is, tlie 

 hexagonal, or six- sided cell of the 

 honey-bee, with its three four-sided 

 figures at the liase." 



I agree that a portion of the above 

 statement is true; but I must insist 

 that other portions are erroneous. 

 Man, and bees, are products of Na- 

 ture ; they are subject to natural law ; 

 they cannot defy or operate outside 

 of " natural law ;" from it there is no 

 divorce. 



Let us resort to a simple experiment 

 " to find what s/wpe a given quantity 

 of matter must take in order to have 

 the greatest capacity.'' Place in a 

 suitable vessel a quantity of soft 

 water ; add to it enough soft soap to 

 make a strong suds ; dip the bowl of 

 a clay tobacco pipe into this soap 

 water, holding the mouth of the bowl 

 downward. When the pipe is raised 

 out of the water, " a given quantity " 

 of the slimy or soapy water will be 

 found adhering to the inner surface 

 of the pipe bowl. Now blow in the 

 stem of the pipe, and the current of 

 air will form a bubble, and if the 

 current of air is kept up through the 

 pipe-stem, this "given quantity "of 

 slimy water will take the shape of a 

 globe ; as yet more air is forced into 

 this globular bubble, it increases in 

 dimensions, all tlie while retaining 

 the same shape until its strength is 

 overcome, and it breaks. 



Now the shape of this bubble was 

 dictated by natural law. It was no 

 accident. The experiment may be 

 repeated, times without number, and 

 the bubble will be globular every 

 time, minus its elongation by gravity. 



If the given material in the bubble 

 would have contained a greater 

 amount of air in the shape of a hexa- 

 gon, then natural law and its cohe- 

 siveness would have dictated that it 

 should take that shape before sur- 

 rendering to pressure. 



The law actuating fluids to press in 

 every direction alike, would never 

 admit of the formation of a single or 

 lone bubble, in the shape of a hexa- 

 gon ; and if I mistake not, bees never 

 form a lone or single cell in that 

 shape. If we examine the scattered 

 drone cells found here and there on 

 the surface of worker brood-combs in 

 queenless colonies, where laying- 

 worker eggs are being developed into 

 drones, we will find all that part of 

 such lone cells, that is raised atiove 

 the plane of tlie worker-cells, roiuid, 

 and not hexagonal. Queen-cells are 

 never six-sided. 



Now experiment again with the 

 pipe and soap-water : Immerse the 

 bowl of the pipe, and blow through it 

 while it is under water, and thousands 

 of bubbles will be formed on the sur- 

 face. Examine them and you will 

 notice that all are liexagonal. Why 

 is this y It is because the air in each 

 bubble presses in all directions alike, 

 and as each individual cell comes in 

 contact with its surrounding fellows ; 

 and all having equal tendency to 

 globular shape, the sides of each are 

 flattened alike, and the tendency of 

 the watery mass to fill all the space 

 occupied by it, brings the bubbles in 

 contact with each other with equal 

 force on all sides. The surface of 

 this mass of bubbles will exactly rep- 

 resent the surface of honey-comb. 

 The side walls of both are "six-sided." 



Four-sided and six-sided cells are 

 the only ones that will fill the whole 

 space, and as the effort is for round 

 cells, the hexagon is nearer round 

 than those having four sides; hence 

 the hexagon. 



Bees wishing to build round cells, 

 and at the same time occupy all the 

 space, are compelled to build them 



hexagonal ; but it is not because of 

 their wisdom any more than because 

 of the wisdom of soap-suds that the 

 bubbles are hexagonal. 



Now in regard to the " three four- 

 sided figures "' at the base : I have 

 already shown that the base of a lone 

 or single bubble, is hemispherical. 

 It will be noticed that the tops of all 

 these soap-bubbles are hemispherical. 

 If each would contain more air by 

 being capped over with the material 

 in the shape of " three four-sided 

 figures," then they would naturally 

 assume that shape. 



Bees try to make the base or bottom 

 of their cells hemispherical, but as 

 bees on the opposite side of the foun- 

 dation are building cells in the oppo- 

 site direction, and using the sauie 

 material for the base of that set of 

 cells, each set of bees striving for 

 round bottoms, and in different direc- 

 tions, the base of the cells comes in 

 the shape that we (ind them— with 

 the "three four-sided figures" — not 

 because of the wisdom of the bees, 

 but in spite of them. 



Try an experiment with a frame 

 full of foundation. Let the bees work 

 on one side, and shut them away from 

 the other, and you will find where 

 cells are only built on one side of the 

 foundation, all will have the hemi- 

 sperical base, and the bees will turn 

 out minus tbat " peculiar wisdom." 



Orion, p Wis. 



f'ountry Gentleman. 



Hoiiey-Bees aiifl Horticiiltnre. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



It is a well-known fact that sex is 

 not confined to the animal kingdom 

 alone, but extends to the vegetat)le 

 kingdom as well. The sexual organs 

 of plants and vegetables are located 

 in their blossoms. The majority of 

 plants produce perfect blossoms ; that 

 is, blossoms having both stamens and 

 pistils. But we sometimes find blos- 

 soms having only stamens, or male 

 organs, others having only pistils, or 

 female organs ; and these male and 

 female blossoms may be borne on the 

 same plant or on different plants. 

 Some varieties of strawberries are 

 called pistillates, because their bios 

 soms have only pistils. These straw- 

 berries will not bear fruit unless 

 planted near those varieties whose 

 blossoms have stamens. 



The squash or pumpkin vine bears 

 both kinds of blossoms on the same 

 stalk. Soon after a squash vine has 

 put fortli runners, the blossom buds 

 begin to appear at the junction of the 

 leaf-stalks with the vine. As the 

 buds develop the stems develop also, 

 until they are a little longer than the 

 leaf-stalks. The blossoms now open, 

 and we have large yellow tlowers. At 

 the centre of each fiower is a yellow 

 cylinder, about an inch in length, 

 covered with fine yellow pollen. These 

 are the male flowers, and, from their 

 structure, can never produce 

 squashes ; th'>ir office is wholly to 

 supply pollen to fertilize the pistillate 

 blossoms. The first pistillate blossom 



