434 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Fertile Workers— So Called. 



Dr. I. P. Wilson, Burlington, Iowa, 

 forwards the following upon the above 

 subject : 



Is there such a thing as a fertile 

 worker V No. Is there such a thing 

 as a laying worker 'i i'es. The eggs 

 of a virgin queen will hatch, and all 

 the bees be drones. The eggs from a 

 worker will hatch, and they, too, will 

 all be drones. Both the queen and the 

 worker are females— the one perfectly 

 developed and capable of beins ferti- 

 lized, the other imperfectly develniied, 

 and not capable of being fertilized. 

 There is no such a thing as a fertih 

 worker, any more than tliere is such a 

 thing as a fertile virgin queen, hence 

 the term "fertile worker" is a mis- 

 nomer, and should be abandoned by 

 scientific bee-keepers. What do you 

 say, Mr. Editor 'i 



We must say, while we have the 

 highest regard for Dr. Wilson person- 

 ally, and the deepest respect for his 

 opinions, we wholly disagree with his 

 first negative. The admission that 

 there are workers which lay eggs, and 

 that those eggs will be productive of 

 drones, is an acknowledgment -per se 

 that they are fertile workers, if we 

 place any value upon the definition of 

 the word " fertile," as given by the 

 compilers of Webster's Unabridged 

 Dictionary, which is almost univer- 

 sally acknowledged the best lexicon of 

 the English language. The word is 

 there defined : 



FERTILE. [Lat. tcrtilis, from ferre, 

 to bear, produce ; Fr. fertile, Pr., Sp. 

 and Pg. fertil ; It. fedile.] 



1. Producing fruit in abundance ; 

 fruitful ; able to jiroduce fruit abund- 

 antly ; prolific ; productive; rich; in- 

 ventive ; produced in abundance ; as, 

 fertile land or fields ; a fertile mind or 

 imagination. 



2. (Bot.) Capable of producing fruit; 

 fruit bearing ; as, fertile flowers or 

 anthers. 



Syii.— Fertile, Fruitful. Fertile 

 implies the inherent power of produc- 

 tion ; fruitful, the act. The prairies 

 of the west are fertile by nature, and 

 will soon be turned by cultivation into 

 fruitful fields. The same distinction 

 prevails when tliese words are used 

 figuratively. A man of fertile genius 

 has by nature great readiness of in- 

 vention ; one whose mind is fruitful 

 has resources of thought and a readi- 

 ness of application which enable him 

 to think and act to effect. 



The first clause in the synonym 

 covers and justifies the use of the 

 word " fertile " as applied to laying 

 workers, as also to virgin queens which 

 lay eggs tlia'twill hatch drones,foreach 

 possesses the " inherent power of pro- 

 duction." If there is any impropriety 

 in the use of the word, it is in connec- 

 tion with the queen after mating, for 

 it then implies a queen can only pro- 



duce progeny after mating, when the 

 reverse is true. A queen, as also all 

 workers, under certain conditions, 

 for aught we know to the contrary, 

 possess the inherent power of produc- 

 tion of drones, but not reproduction 

 of kind, i. e., workers or queens. It 

 is true the derivations from the word 

 "fertile," as frequently used, would 

 imply an after preparation or qualifi- 

 cation, as, to fertilize soil when it is 

 already fertile, or the fertilization of 

 the queen, when she is by nature in- 

 herently fertile. We might as approp- 

 riately claim that education was nec- 

 essary to man to fertilize his brain. 



We are not altogether certain that 

 science has yet determined how far 

 the queen possesses the inherent 

 power of production. We do know 

 that in the continued absence of a 

 queen from a colony of bees, if there 

 be no eggs nor larvae from which to 

 rear another queen, fertile workers 

 are liable to be developed ; or, if a 

 young queen be reared and she fails 

 to mate with a drone, she will be fer- 

 tile with drone progeny only ; or, if 

 she be injured or become very old, she 

 will lay only eggs which develop 

 drones. Certainly, nature has had 

 some wise purpose in providing for all 

 contingencies with drone progeny, 

 and there remains for science the 

 deepest mystery yet unsolved, to de- 

 termine how far the perpetuation of 

 the colony depends upon drone pro- 

 geny only ; as also the economic neces- 

 sity for fertile workers when all other 

 resources have failed. 



We can see no objection to using 

 the words " laying worker ;" but cus- 

 tom has sanctioned and legitimatized 

 the use of the word " fertile " in this 

 connection, and certainly the strict 

 definition of the term justifies its use. 



Honey Labels.— We have received 

 samples of some very attractive litho- 

 graphic labels for honey, from Mr. D. 

 A. Jones, of Beeton, Ontario, Canada. 

 They are mainly intended for extrac- 

 ted honey in tin pails, but some are 

 suitable for sections of comb honey. 

 They are not only exceedingly hand- 

 some, but, being varnished, they will 

 not easily become soiled. The fig- 

 ures of straw hives on nearly all of the 

 labels may be objectionable to some 

 apiarists having progressive ideas. 

 These, however, could be omitted 

 without detriment to the present hand- 

 some appearance of the labels. The 

 Bee Jourkal has urged the necessity 

 of attractive labels, and Mr. Jones 

 has happily caught the inspiration. 



Saccharine Secrets.— This is the 

 main caption of a lengthy article in 

 the Chicago Tribune of July 6th. Our 

 readers are undoubtedly aware that 

 much time and money have been ex- 

 pended in the effort to make cane 

 sugar from grape sugar — that is, to 

 make from glucose a granulated sugar 

 free from the gummy or waxy starch 

 which characterizes all grades of 

 glucose ; but until quite recently, it 

 appears, misdirected science has been 

 unable to overcome the difliculties in 

 the way of its successful accomplish- 

 ment. Latterly, however. Prof. H. 

 C. Friend, of Chicago, claimed to have 

 discovered a method whereby he 

 could transform 100 lbs. of grape 

 sugar into 90 lbs. of perfect cane sugar. 

 Now, as ordinary cane sugar contains 

 but 86 to 96 lbs. of saccharine matter, 

 it will readily be seen the Professor 

 (if correct) would make a superior 

 article from the bogus. 



Finally, this wily Friend succeeded 

 in persuading several capitalists to 

 join him in his enterprise ; a stock 

 company was organized with a capi- 

 tal of 32,000,000 ; machinery was pur- 

 chased ; quarters were fitted up, and 

 the royal road to wealth seemed fairly 

 opened. But unaccountable delays 

 occurred. Anxious days spent by the 

 stockholders were lengthened out into 

 weeks, and these accumulated into 

 months, and yet no sweet reward did 

 the stockholders behold, excepting 

 the beautiful samples which the Pro- 

 fessor exhibited as tlie result of many 

 successful experiments in his labora- 

 tory. Hope gave way to distrust ; 

 distrust gave way to dispair ; and 

 this was succeeded by desperation. 

 The Treasurer brought suit against 

 the company for rent, and other 

 parties brought suit for moneys ad- 

 vanced, while warrants were sworn 

 out for the arrest of the friendly Pro- 

 fessor, charging him with obtaining 

 money on false pretenses. Probably 

 many others will mourn the spasmodic 

 collapse of the " Grape and Cane 

 Sugar Kefining Company," and ana- 

 thematize the scientific " sheeny." 



Tr.ansferriiig. — We wish to call es- 

 pecial attention to Mr. Heddon's arti- 

 cle on transferring, on page 437. It is 

 the most practical article on the sub- 

 ject we have yet seen in print, and 

 will prove valuable to any person hav- 

 ing bees to transfer. We have prac- 

 ticed a similar method upon several 

 occasions, and had thought of writing 

 an article on tlie subject, but have 

 never been able to reach it. 



