254 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



AjiT- 18, 



than if fed in the hive ? When fed in the hive don't they 

 always set out on a tour of investigation, and fly about a good 

 deal more than the short distance from the hive to the open- 

 air feed-dish? 



Conducted tiy " BBE-MA.STER." 



Bee§ and Strawberries. 



In further confirmation of what Mr. Abbott says on this 

 subject on page 19t), it may be remarked, that in a little work 

 prepared to accompany a set of illustrative diagrams published 

 by the British Bee-Keepers' Association, the following passage 

 occurs : 



"Pig. 53. Strawberry. A, anthers; B, stigma. For 

 fertilization, insects are required, since the stigmas are ripe 

 long before the pollen is produced. Bees especially, walking 

 over the bloom seeking honey, carry pollen to the stigmas. 

 Where fertilization takes place, the strawberry develops, but 

 if it fail in part we have there a hard, shrunken, and greenish 

 mass. Any dish of strawberries examiued will give instances. 

 Without this fertilization no crop follows. To produce a 

 single perfect strawberry, from one hundfed to double or 

 triple that number of fertilizations must be accomplished. In 

 the blackberry or raspberry, every little rounded mass {drupel} 

 has its stigma, which an insect has visited." 



How clear it is from all this that our fruit crops are aided 

 not a little by the presence of bees ! Dr. Johnson, the great 

 lexicographer, used to say, "No doubt God Almighty might 

 have made a better fruit than the strawberry, but it is quite 

 certain he never did." Well, for this best of fruits we are 

 indebted to "the little busy bee." No bees, no strawberries. 



Hon. Eugene Secor is quite right in supposing the wind to 

 be the chief agent in pollination in the case of a large multi- 

 tude of flower blooms. The wind and insects are the two 

 servants upon whom flowers are dependent for the perform- 

 ance of this work. Wind-fertilized, or anemophilous flowers, 

 are, as a rule, honeyless, scentless, and inconspicuous. But 

 flowers that require the aid of insects must invite their visits ; 

 hence honey is offered, sweet perfumes attract, and fine colors 

 reveal. 



The experiments of Darwin on "Cross Fertilization" are 

 very interesting, especially those which disclose the precau- 

 tions taken by Nature to prevent in-and-in breeding. Flowers 

 have frequently about them wonderful devices for making in- 

 sects, aud amongst them, bees especially, the instruments of 

 procuring for them cross fertilization. In this, as in all parts 

 of the Creation, we see evidences of design, which loudly pro- 

 claim the presence, power and wisdom of a Designer. 



More About IHoviuff Bees. 



Having read Edwin Bevin's article on page H4, Iwill 

 give an account of a trick I did last summer, in the moving 

 line. X had five colonies in one yard, which I wished to move 

 to another, a few rods distant, so one cool morning I closed 

 the entrance of one of the hives with wire-cloth, the entrance 

 was ^4 inch high and 13 inches wide, so I thought this would 

 give sufiicient ventilation. I moved the hive to the other yard, 

 intending to place a board in front of the hive and let them 

 out the next morning to mark their new location. As I had 

 read of doing so in some of the bee-papers, I did not think 

 there was any danger, so I went about my other work till 

 dinner time, when I looked to see how they were, and found 

 them trying to get out, but seemed to be all right, so I left 

 them till night. 



I came home to supper, and went straight out to the hive, 

 when, to my dismay, I found honey running out the entrance, 

 bees all dead, and the combs all down in a heap in the middle 

 of the frames. The other four colonies staid where they were 

 till the present day. But if I ever do move them, I shall cover 

 the whole top of the hive with wire-cloth, and raise the board 

 cover a little, then with a piece over the entrance, surely there 

 will be enough ventilation. 



We learn a great deal by experience, in bee-keeping, 

 although sometimes it is rather expensive. 



EXPERIENCE WITH A QUEEN. 



Last winter I had a colony of Italians that did not winter 

 very well— there did not seem to be many bees left in the 

 spring, and apparently no queen. There was no brood on 



June 1, so I concluded there was no queen, and having a 

 swarm of blacks issue shortly after, I hived it in this hive 

 with the Italians, and I tell you they tried their best to keep 

 them out, however the blacks took the fort and held it. 



Some time after this, about 3 or 4: weeks, maybe, I 

 noticed Italians coming out of this same hive, and on examin- 

 ing it found an Italian queen and nearly all Italian workers. 

 Now the question is, whether this queen was in the hive all 

 the time, or did she come from some other by mistake? 



Harwood, Out. Geo. McCullock. 



CONDnCTED BY 



Rei'. Emerson T. ^\bbott, St. Joseph, Afo. 



Do Bees Hear?— "I don't think they can."— Prof. 

 Cook's answer to the query on page 194. 



When I read the above, I turned to the subject in the 

 " Bee-Keepers' Guide," and I must confess that I am at a loss 

 to know how to reconcile some of the statements there with 

 the flat denial found above. My friends Cook and Cowan both 

 seem very averse to recognizing any fact as being true which 

 was set forth by the late Mr. Cheshire, but I am very much in- 

 clined to think he was correct in this special case, at least. 

 Prof. Cook says that Mr. Cheshire gives no proof that the pits 

 in the antennae are organs of hearing. Now, I was laboring 

 under the impression that Mr. Cheshire had made out a very 

 good case, aud I suggest that while the subject is fresh in his 

 mind, the reader turn to his book and read over carefully all 

 he has to say. 



Prof. Cook further says that the pits which Cheshire de- 

 scribes are not ear-like in their structure, and that nothing 

 answering in the least to ears, structurally, has yet been dis- 

 covered. The question arises, what does he mean by "ear- 

 like?" I will admit that there is nothing that bears any 

 resemblance to our ears, but are ears like ours the sine qua 

 Hoii of hearing? Other animals hear which do not possess 

 any organs that bear any resemblance to ears as we ordinarily 

 think of them. Take the following statement from Sir John 

 Lubbock as evidence of this fact: 



" Different plans seem to be adopted in the case of other 

 animals. In the Crustacea and Insects there are flattened 

 hairs, each connected with a nerve fiber, and so constituted as 

 to vibrate in response to particular notes. In others the ear 

 cavity contains certain minute solid bodies, known as otoliths, 

 which in the same way play upon the nerve fibers. Sometimes 

 these are secreted by the walls of the cavity itself, but certain 

 Crustacea have acquired the remarkable habit of selecting 

 after each moult suitable particles of sand, which they pick 

 up with their pincers and insert in their ears." 



Now, the organs here described bear no resemblance to 

 ordinary ears as to structure, but the animals hear with them 

 all the same. The truth of the matter is that Prof. Cook 

 admits that bees can hear, in the scientific definition of that 

 term, when he says, "That insects are conscious of vibrations 

 which with us cause sound, I think no observing person can 

 doubt." " There is some reason to believe that those delicate 

 touch organs may enable them to discriminate between vibra- 

 tions." Vibrations with us do not " cause sound," but they 

 arc so!t?i(?, and any animal which can "discriminate between 

 vibrations" can hear, with all that this term implies. In 

 other words, hearing is simply gathering up and focalizing 

 vibratory motion, and whatever can discriminate between the 

 slow and rapid vibrations can hear. I also insist that the abil- 

 ity to make what we call a noise implies the ability to focalize 

 the vibrations which that noise is. If the theories of the 

 evolutionists are true, and I believe they are now admitted to 

 be true in the main, I do not see how one can escape this con- 

 clusion. Therefore I would be glad if Friend Cook would rise 

 and explain why he says, " I don't think they can." 



ABC of Bee-Culture.— This is the fine cyclopedia 

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