686 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



" But are you not referring to the dualjilan 

 for introducAng'^ In our opinion the Jay did 

 not mean that," footnote, page 611. Sure, 

 that's just it; heretofore the term "dual- 

 queen system" has been restricted to that 

 introducing plan; but if the Jay goes to us- 

 ing it for other things — well, the Jay ought 

 not to do that sort of thing. [A distinction 

 should be drawn, surely Can you suggest 

 a set of terms that will do this? — Ed.] 



"Normal respiration of the bee is three 

 or fovir times a minute; under abnormal con- 

 ditions, as high as 124," said Mi". House, at 

 Ontaricj convention. AfteV-thinker Hasty 

 timidly gives a half-assent to this in Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, but seems to think that it 

 is not generally known that bees breathe. I 

 wonder, now, whether there are many of the 

 brethren who never noticed a bee panting at 

 the entrance on returning from the field, its 

 abdomen extending and contracting like an 

 accordion. Cheshire makes a bee breathe 

 faster than Mr. House, "the normal respira- 

 tions of the bee, when at rest, varying from 

 20 to 50 per minute." 



Municipal Judge Cleland. of Chicago, 

 one of the most highly respected jurists of 

 the country, says: " Nearly every defendant 

 brought before me for what may be termed 

 ' domestic offenses ' spends every cent he 

 makes, whether $1 or $5 a day, and almost 

 all of it for drink." And to think that good 

 Christian men are all the time casting votes 

 which practically say, "I give my consent 

 that the law shall throw its protecting arms 

 about the man who sells to these poor wretch- 

 es that which shall pauperize their wives and 

 children, and ruin their own souls!" [Vote 

 for men who will stand against the rum 

 power irrespective of party. In other words, 

 vote in such a way that the effect will be felt 

 in the immediate future, and for all time. — 

 Ed.] 



That doctor who, last summer, in one of 

 the bee-papers, wrote ecstatically about his 

 " new discovery " of two laying queens in 

 one hive, mother and daughter, to whom 

 reference is made by Mr. Pressler on p. 617, 

 must have been taking the bee papers with- 

 out reading them. So many cases of the 

 kind (mother and daughter in the same hive) 

 have been reported that one may indeed ask 

 whether it is not the rule instead of the ex- 

 ception that a superseded queen disappears 

 only after her daughter begins laying. Nei- 

 ther is it any thing so very new -to find two 

 unrelated queens laying side by side. I re- 

 ported a case some years ago, and also anoth- 

 er case in which two unrelated queens peace- 

 ably remained in the same cage. [But even 

 you, with your forty years' experience, have 

 seen only two cases of a plurality of unrelat- 

 ed queens in a hive. To make a practical 

 application of the idea is new.— Ed.] 



Prof. Cook, if you weren't so far away I 

 would like to sit down with you and coax 

 you to put in some exceptions or modifica- 

 tions to about all of the things "what we 

 kiKj A " to such a dead r-ertainty. from evo- 

 lution down, page 621. I'll mention only one 



— queen-excluders. For years I've produced 

 sections without thinking it worth while to 

 use them, with 150 excluders lying idle. Lots 

 of company too. If you find them necessary, 

 I wish you would tell us whether your sec- 

 tions are fiUcd with foundation. For ex- 

 tracted honey we've been in the habit of say- 

 ing that excluders were absolutely necessary, 

 but when such good bee-keepers as Messrs. 

 Dadant and Townsend say "Better not," it 

 isn't best to be too sure. [I agree with you, 

 doctor, and will add another to the objec- 

 tionable list. Prof. Cook states that one en- 

 trance is sufficient for one hive at all times. 

 Do you subscribe to that doctrine? — W. K. 

 M.] 



Prof. Brander Matthews says: "Eng- 

 lish is gradually becoming the world lan- 

 guage. There are 130,000,000 persons who 

 speak it to-day, and over Continental Europe 

 it is struggling to supplant French as the 

 "second" language. If the incongruous 

 spelling which Europeans can not under- 

 stand, and seem unable to acquire, can be 

 simplified there is great likelihood that Eng- 

 lish will supplant French as the world lan- 

 guage." St if you want Gleanings to help 

 make P^nglish the world's language, get busy 

 reforming its spelling. [Y-es, but it would 

 be like casting a pebble against a stone wall, 

 and we refrain for the present, or until a 

 few big fellows begin throwing boulders. — 

 Ed.] 



[Aulx chat, doctor! Don't you know that 

 Frencih has been the court language of Eu- 

 rope for centuries, and yet its spelling is so 

 much more difficult than English that com- 

 parison is useless? About 35 per cent of the 

 printed French consists of silent letters. The 

 Spanish spelling is entirely phonetic, as you 

 want English to be, and yet the language is 

 falling off. Changing a nation's spelling is 

 a difficult thing toudoux. Ne le savez-vous 

 pas?— Stenog.] 



Hard crystallized rock candy in lieu of 

 sealed stores has served an excellent purpose 

 during the cold month of April. 



All hives should be looked over carefully 

 to see if any lack stores. The backward 

 spring, with almost no opportunity to gather 

 any honey, will render feeding necessary in 

 many cases. 



Queen-breeders in the South as well as 

 in the North have been so delayed by the 

 very backward spring that they will be un- 

 able to fill orders for young qr.eens as early 

 as usual. Beo-keeper.s should lie willing to 

 extend them a little leniency in time. 



