666 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 17, 



about the same pitch. Let the tie pieces on the bottom pro- 

 ject out six inches on each side; nialie the rafters quite 

 close together, and tie every rafter with a cross-piece, as stated 

 above. Ten feet is the length to be convenient in handling. 

 Then close up the end tight, of every other one. In other 

 words, make one end of every roof tight, and the other open, 

 so that when No. 1 is placed in the ditch, the joining end of 

 No. 2 can rest on top of No. 1, where there are two or more 

 desired, and so on. 



You will then place the cover on the ditch, and put the 

 dirt to be placed on this roof from six to nine inches deep, per- 

 fectly air-tight. If this Is done correctly, I will assure you 

 that the bees will come out next spring in a nice condition, 

 dry, clean, and healthy. But be sure to remove the bottom- 

 boards from the hives before putting away. 



If two tiers are placed, put two blocks of wood — I use 

 stove-wood — on the lower hive. This gives the second hive a 

 space for all dead bees to drop away. 



If there is anything in this that cannot be exactly under- 

 stood, I will be only too glad to answer by letter or through 

 the Bee Journal. Monticello, Iowa. 



Catjadiat;) Beedojirj^ 



Some Toronto Conrention Folks. 



The Toronto convention is a thing of the past, and my an- 

 ticipations have been partially realized. I am sorry to say I 

 met with some disappointment. The first and greatest was, 

 that a number of our*Tnited States brethren whom I expected 

 would be present, were conspicuous by their absence — notably 

 Dr. Miller. But, nevertheless, it was a great pleasure to me 

 to sit in that convention hall and recognize the faces of those 

 United States bee-keepers whose writings I have devoured 

 with great relish during the past five years ; and I would re- 

 mark to a friend who was sitting at my side (who is so unfor- 

 tunate as not to be a reader of the American Bee Journal, and 

 therefore not so familiar with the faces as they appeared 

 therein from time to time): "There comes York. There 

 comes Newman. There comes Doolittle. and here Dr. Ma- 

 son," etc.; and any one could have observed a broad smile cov- 

 ering all my face, and perhaps running over my head and half 

 way down my back. 



Now, while I have always thought that those Yankee 

 bee-keepers were a jolly, sociable and good-hearted lot of men 

 (and in meeting them personally my conceptions have been 

 fully realized in that respect), yet I have some fault to find in 

 them ; and I have met them personally, and " sized up " their 

 stature and avoirdupois. I am not afraid to say so, because, 

 excepting Doolittle and Dr. Mason, they are only little fellows 

 like myself ; and, more than that, by this time we are from 

 200 to 500 miles apart, and I feel quite safe in saying, in the 

 first place, that if Mr. Root and I ever meet in convention 

 again, which I hope we shall, and he persists in sticking to his 

 corner, and (like myself) never open his mouth until he is 

 compelled to, I shall move that the association call in a police- 

 man, take him by the north ear, and make him ( root )out. In 

 all other respects I like Bro. Root, for I am sure what he did 

 say was all right, and what he didn't say— well, I will leave 

 some one else to say what that might have been like. 



Now, Bro. York, what shall I say about you ? In the first 

 place, you just step behind the curtain while I say you're just 

 my height and weight, and within a few days of my age ; and 

 I think pretty nearly as good looking, and therefore I rather 

 like you. I hope that we ( I mean you and I ) will be permit- 

 ted to meet again. 



Now, there is Bro. Newman— well, what a great, big man, 

 done up in a very small parcel. Who would ever expect to 

 hear such oratory from so small a physique — and lest Mr. 

 Newman should develop the "big head"— a thing which 

 would be out of proportion to his otherwise make-up, except 

 In speech and good-nature — I will merely say that his address 

 was simply admirable. 



I next come to a trio of apicultural lights, in the persons 

 of Father Langstroth, Dr. Mason and O. M. Doomuch, and I 

 do not feel myself equal to the occasion, so I will simply say 

 that in my opinion no bee-keeper, or any one else, could fail to 

 to be happy while in the presence of those three men. 



There are a whole lot of nice things which I would like to 

 say about more of our United States brethren, but I am afraid 

 they might see it in print, and feel ashamed of it, so I will on- 



ly say that I never enjoyed myself more in any gathering 

 than I did at the North American convention, in Toronto. 



1 was a little disappointed in learning that the power of 

 selecting the next place of meeting had been delegated to the 

 Executive Committee, for I had fully intended, when thatcame 

 up for discussion, to move that the yoting "upstart" from 

 Nebraska, whom I expected would be there with a bag where- 

 in to dump the convention, be ejected, bag and baggage ; for 

 you know we Canadians wanted the convention in Toronto 

 again. But all our plans failed because we never had an op- 

 portunity to manifest our desires. 



I have said nothing about the Canadian bee-keepers, and 

 lest some Yankee might think that we have no distinguished 

 bee-keepers in Canada, I want to say right here that we have 

 just as good men as you have, Mr. 'V'ankee, but I must admit 

 that some of the Canuck brethren have not learned to conduct 

 themselves so admirably in convention as Uncle Sam's boys. 



Now, lest some one will " down me " with an apicultural 

 club, I will stop rtght here. D. W. Heise. 



Bethesda, Ont. 



<-•-» 



The Honey-Sac. 



There is hardly anything in nature more complicated and 

 indicative of creative wisdom than theinternal economy of the 

 honey-bee. Microscopic disclosures of the organs and func- 

 tions of this wonderful little insect, form an endless field for 

 study. It has been truly said, "an undevout astronomer is 

 mad," and surely the same is true of the undevout bee-keeper. 

 The evidences of design and adaptation are innumerable. 

 These imply a designer — an adapting mind. 



In no part of the construction of the bee is this more evi- 

 dent than in the honey-sac. An examination of its construc- 

 tion and functions will show, if one may so speak, that extra 

 pains and care have been bestowed on this organ. The ques- 

 tion arises. Why all this skillfully contrived mechanism, if, as 

 some contend, the honey-sac is only a receptacle ? So far from 

 this being the case, it is in reality a laboratory in which im- 

 portant chemical changes take place in regard to nectar 

 Nectar, when first gathered, is not honey. Its cane-sugar 

 must be acted on by certain glandular secretions furnished in 

 the honey-sac, by means of which it is changed into grape-su- 

 gar. No sooner does a drop of nectar pass into the honey-sac 

 than a pumping system is put in operation by means of which 

 the saliva is mixed with the nectar, and the chemical change 

 just spoken of effected. This done, at the will of the bee, the 

 honey thus produced, is either passed on into the digestive 

 apparatus, or regurgitated, and stored in the comb-cells. Re- 

 gurgitation is provided for by very strong muscles, and pas- 

 sage to the digestive organs takes place through a most ingen- 

 iously contrived stomach-mouth. 



The honey-sac would seem to have at least two uses — that 

 of a store-house and a compounding vessel. How thoroughly 

 the latter work is done may be gathered from the fact that the 

 honey-sac only holds about one-third of an ordinary drop. To 

 transmute this small quantity of nectar takes but little of the 

 glandular secretion, whatever it may be. Some have sup- 

 posed, so high an authority as Prof. Cook among the number, 

 that the process of digestion, partially or wholly, takes place 

 in the honey-sac. but, in reality, the process of digestion does 

 not truly begin until the next chamber — the chyle-stomach — is 

 reached. If, as some think, the honey-sac is only a food-bag 

 similar to the "crop" of birds, why all the expenditure of 

 pains and skill upon it, which has just been referred to? 



There is in nature no waste, none of man's ridiculous dis- 

 play of skill for no apparant object but the ostentation of it. 

 Everything has some object, hidden or apparent. That of the 

 secretory organs of the honey-sac is obviously the transmuta- 

 tion of nectar into honey, after which it is ready for immedi- 

 ate use as food, or for storage in the comb-cells for future con- 

 sumption. 



These observations are suggested by Dr. Brown's " Bee- 

 Talk " on page 542. 



Tlie Alsike Clover Leaflet consists of 2 pages, 

 with illustrations, showing the value of Alsike clover, and 

 telling how to grow it. This Leaflet is just the thing to hand 

 to every farmer in your neighborhood. Send to the Bee Jour- 

 nal office for a quantity of them, and see that they are dis- 

 tributed where they will do the most good. Prices, postpaid, 

 are as follows : 50 for 25 cents ; 100 for 40 cents ; or 200 

 for 70 cents. 



-*-'-^ 



NO'w is the Time to work for new subscribers. 

 Why not take advantage of the offers made on page 658 ? 



