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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 1, 



stricted by the great distances to be traveled. He is not 

 positive as to how the society can be brought to the highest 

 state of effectiveness, but thinks it might be accomplished 

 thus : 



"Amalgamate the North American and the Union ; merge 

 the functions of both organizations in one ; secure an ener- 

 getic business man to manage the society's work; have him 

 devote his whole time to build up and extend its influence, and 

 let him be adequately remunerated for his services." 



The editor favors the union, enters somewhat into history, 

 and says : 



"The Union was organized for a specific purpose, and has 

 done its work well, but a close observer must have noticed 

 that the amount of work that it does lessens as the years go 

 by. At first there was more work than money with which to 

 carry it on, while its manager worked for nothing ; now he 

 has a salary (and most richly does he deserve it), yet money is 

 accumulating in the treasury. Some excellent and righteous 

 decisions have been secured, and these have a most quieting 

 effect when shoved under the nose of some would-be perse- 

 cutor. For this reason the number of expensive lawsuits 

 have decreased. This is a condition that would naturally be 

 expected and is desirable. Now the question arises, would it 

 not be better that some of this money should be used for the 

 good of bee-keeping; rather than that it should go on accumu- 

 lating year after year ? (Perhaps a lowering of the fees 

 would be a better plan.) Of course, those who contributed to 

 the making up of this sum are the ones to say what shall be 

 done with it. By the way, Bro. Newman says this sum was 

 raised for the purpose of defense. This is true, but it is also 

 true that it can be used to prosecute adulterators of honey, to 

 secure legislation — in short, for any purpose thought advis- 

 able by the Advisory Board." 



An editorial on this subject in Gleanings for July 15, 

 reads thus : 



" Shall the Bee-Keepers' Union be consolidated with the 

 North American ? is a question that is now and should be 

 thoroughly discussed preparatory to the next meeting of the 

 latter at Toronto. It is being advocated by the American Bee 

 Journal and the Bee-Keepers' Review. So far as I at present 

 see. Gleanings is also in favor of the scheme. Bro. York 

 thinks it would give us a membership of 500 or 1,000, and a 

 fund from both treasuries of §800 ; and then, as he pertinent- 

 >y remarks, " we could petition Congress or State legislatures, 

 in such a way that they would hear and — grant." You are 

 quite right, Bro. York. Of course, the consolidation would 

 not affect the workings of the Union. 



Carjadiat) Beedorr?^ 



Clipping^ the Wings of <tucen$. 



Although this practice has the support of distinguished 

 names in the ranks of bee-keepers, I have never become a con- 

 vert to it. If I had no other objection to it, the maiming and 

 disfigurement of the queen would be enough for me. I have a 

 feeling toward a beautiful Italian queen somewhat similar to 

 what I have toward a beautiful woman, and pity a clipped 

 queen as I would a lovely woman whose arm had been am- 

 putited. When I visited the Misses Linswik's apiary some 

 years ago, I found that they indulged in the pretty conceit of 

 naming their queens after the fabled goddesses of antiquity, 

 and after the famous historic women of the past. It was 

 swarming-time, and several swarms came off the day I was 

 there. I confess it seemed rather incongruous to see Juno, 

 Venus, Cleopatra, or Joan of Arc tumbling about on the 

 ground and making abortive hops in the vain endeavor to fol- 

 low their subjects that were flying majestically in the air, 

 while they were grovelling in the dilst. 



" That's all sentiment," says a very practical bee-keeper, 

 adding probably the question, "What has sentiment to do 

 with bee-keeping ?" Not much, I confess, in the case of a 

 great majority of bee-keepers, who would be greatly improved 

 in various ways if they could be cured of this defect. The 



same barbaric tendency which leads them to care nothing for 

 the looks of a queen, leads them to despise appearance in 

 everything else. They have no eye to tasteful and beautiful 

 surroundings about their homes, their apiaries are slovenly- 

 looking, and their very dress is devoid of neatness and good 

 taste. Who has not observed this latter feature at bee-con- 

 ventions ■? More sentiment added to industry, energy and 

 perseverance, would do these regal qualities no harm. 



But this reference to sentiment is only introductory, not 

 to an exhaustive discussion of the subject, but to a brief ref- 

 erence to one feature of it, which was impressed on my mind 

 the other day while studying the subject of the queen's wings. 

 I find that it is so arranged in the physical economy of bee-life 

 that the wings receive constantly a large share of nutrition, 

 and that both nerves and large trachea pass into them. All 

 advocates of clipping queens' wings argue that the wings are 

 not organs of vital importance, and that loss of part or even 

 all of them is of no consequence. Prof. Cook goes farther 

 than this, and on the principle that useless organs are sus- 

 tained at the expense of the organism, pleads that it is a pos- 

 itive-advantage to clip queens'wings. Clippers who have no 

 regard to the figure cut by the queen after the operation, con- 

 tent themselves with removing the larger wing on one side, 

 while those who have some eye to looks and would maim 

 esthetically (?) say this interferes so much with the beauty of 

 the queen that it is best to give her a " symmetrical " appear- 

 ance by cutting off the greater part of both larger wings. 



Now, what I want to come at is the probable, if not cer- 

 tain, effect of this deprivation of an important organ in the 

 mother-bee on the workers, after this process of clipping has 

 been continued for several successive generations. Many gen- 

 erations of bees can be had in a very short time, and unfavor- 

 able results may be induced within the brief space of one or 

 two seasons. Though the organs of flight are used but seldom 

 in the case of the queen, degeneracy in her wings will be apt 

 to reproduce itself in the wings of the workers, and it is a fair 

 question, of vital pertinence to the best interests of bee-keep- 

 ing, whether you can diminish the efficiency of bees' wings 

 without impairing their usefulness ? 



There is another view of the matter : Even though you 

 were to suppose that no injury would be done to the force of 

 worker-bees, the importance of strong wing-power to the 

 queen herself can hardly be overrated. Nature's great law, 

 which provides for the survival of the fittest, operates in con- 

 nection with the queen's wedding tour. It is a race, in which, 

 as in the case of courtship with human beings, the female 

 makes a feint of trying to get away from the opposite sex. 

 What is mere hypocrisy with womankind, is reality with the 

 queen-bee. She puts forth all her powers of flight, and it is 

 the strongest, best drone who wins the coveted prize. Lessen 

 her wing-power, and is she not likely to fall into the clutches 

 of some poor, feeble drone whose exercise of the paternal 

 function would be a curse rather than a blessing to the hive? 

 It reminds one of a story concerning Mrs. Anna Dickinson, 

 who, being on a lecture-tour, spoke one evening in a certain 

 place pretty plainly on heredity. Next morning, in the cars, 

 a small burlesque of a man, in a somewhat loud voice, asked 

 if she were not the lady who had lectured the previous even- 

 ing ? On being told she was : " Well, madam," said the little 

 fellow, " I am the proud and happy father of eleven children." 

 Speaking up so that all in the car could hear, Mrs. Dickinson 

 exclaimed : "Just think of such a little, scrumtified speck of 

 humanity as that duplicating himself eleven times!" An in- 

 ferior drone duplicates himself many thousands of times. 



Xliat ^'e>v Song — " Queenie Jeanette" — which is being 

 sung everywhere, we can send you for 40 cents, postpaid, or club 

 it with the American Bee Journal for one year — both for only 

 $1.10. Or, send us one new subscriber for a year (with .?1.00), and 

 we will mail you a copy of the song free. 



