530 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Spet. 



let some one else make the hives. But I 

 think that some one who knows just how to 

 handle a Barnes saw would make it go nice- 

 ly, even in your Florida pine.— In regard to 

 the sour honey, if there are enough bees, 

 and you give them time enough, they will 

 sweeten it all out, if left in the hives. I see 

 you have accepted friend Ilasty's explana- 

 tion as to the way in which bees ripen their 

 honey. — No, I am sure yon ought not to get 

 lazy with 100 bee-hives and three acres of 

 orange-trees. 



THAT 90 MSLiES AN HOUR. 



fNASMUCH as friend Root has said that he now 

 believes that bees do sometimes fly 90 miles per 

 "^ "' hour, it is my inteation to re-claim what he has 

 conceded, by showing that all the facts presented 

 thus far tend to show that in no instance has it been 

 Bhown that bees fly even 40 miles per hour. 



FRIEND PHIN 



takes me to task for arguing about things in which 

 my knowledge may be incjmplete, and proceeds in 

 a very logical way to show that bees fly 90 miles per 

 hour; while if he had compared the wing power of 

 his pigeon with that of the hawk or eagle, — birds 

 possessing great wing power, and adapted to carry- 

 ing heavy burdens, but slow in flight, — it is easily 

 seen that his deductions would have been against 

 him. This being true, his argument possesses no 

 special merit in this case. 



FRIEND DOODITTLE'S ARTICLE 



appears to be mostly guesswork. So he will excuse 

 me if I guess that, in observing that train, he would 

 be like the person mentioned in the Scriptures, who, 

 beholding himself in a glass, turning away, forget- 

 ting, etc. 



I have hunted and found bees in Ohio, Iowa, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, and Illinois. I have followed them 

 over hills and hollows, through timber, across fields 

 and open prairie; and if friend Doolittle has any 

 way of determining that bees actually fly faster 

 when half a mile from the apiary than they do with- 

 in 10 or 15 rods of it, T should be glad indeed to have 

 him explain. I am aware that not a few bees about 

 an apiary fly very slowly; but these are the old vet- 

 erans in the cause, which have their wings ragged 

 and worn from the many miles they have flown in 

 their toil for the precious sweets, and their flight is 

 just as slow in the fields as it is about the apiary. 

 Those able-bodied fellows whose flight in the clear 

 bright sunlight is like a flash, are just as difficult to 

 get sight of at a distance of 100 yards from their 

 hives as they are 100 rods away; and if friend D. 

 doubts the correctness of this statement, I suggest 

 that, for the sake of science, he try hunting bees a 

 few days in some community where he Is not familiar 

 with all the surroundings. 



VELOCITY OF WIND. 



The best I can do at present concerning the veloc- 

 ity of wind is to give the folio wing table, taken from 

 a work on natural philosophy: 



6 miles per hour, - - - - Pleasant wind. 



10 " " " Brisk wind. 



15 " " '•---- Very brisk wind. 



20 •' " " High wind. 



.30 " " " . - - . Very hiffh wind. 



40 " " ".---.-- A storm. 



60 " " ------ A hard storm. 



«0 " " " A great storm. 



80 " " ".._.. A hui Wcane. 



100 " " " - - - - A violent hurricane. 



I may be mistaken about a 90-mile wind taking 

 fr end D.'s hives out of his yard; but it does not fol- 



low that, because an 83-mile wind did not move his 

 hives, a wind increased one-tenth that velocity 

 would not carry them away. At least, I should not 

 care to have the matter tested in my apiary. 



OUR RAILROAD FRIEND. 



The only data given so far, from which any defi- 

 nite conclusions can be arrived at, is that from our 

 railroad friend. But I am sorry that he should have 

 given us the details of his experiments, and at the 

 same time summed up his conclusions just the re- 

 verse of what his experiments teach. 



Our friend evidently liberated his first bee inside 

 the car, or he would have had no occasion to darken 

 the car windows. The car being closed, the bee 

 would fly from rear to front of the car just as easily 

 as it would if the car were standing still, because the 

 atmosphere, which is the medium of flight, is carried 

 with the car. fie says the bees reached the window 

 in "10 or 15 seconds," a distance of about 35 feet, I 

 suppose, the car being some 28 or 30 feet in length. 

 As those bees circled about in the car, just as any 

 other bees would do in a strange place, it is no more 

 than fair to say that they traveled about 100 feet be- 

 fore they reached the car window; 100 feet in 10 

 seconds is 10 feet per second, or a little less than 7 

 miles per hour; while a velocity of 90 miles per 

 hour is 132 feet per second — a velocity so great that 

 I am prone think that an object so small as a bee 

 could not be seen. 



Now let us look at the bees liberated outside of 

 the car. Every one who knows what a train of cars 

 is, knows that a passing train disturbs the air about 

 it just in proportion to its speed; and although it is 

 easily observed that the air is disturbed much less 

 above than at the sides of the train, I think that no 

 one will deny the fact that it is disturbed several 

 feet above it. This disturbance must of necessity re- 

 sult in carrying the air in the direction of the passing 

 train, so that at 6 or 8 feet above the train the air is 

 moving in the same direction at least 'b or 1-10 the 

 speed of the train; so it is evident that a bee, by 

 keeping inside of this circle of disturbed atmosphere, 

 can keep up with a train without flying as fast as 

 the train is running. 



"Who is it, of apiarists, that does not know that a 

 bee, when liberated in a strange place, moves about 

 very slowly, and circles around very closely to the 

 spot where it first takes wing? These two facts of 

 themselves are conclusive evidence that my position 

 concerning the motion of the atmosphere about a 

 moving train is correct. This being true, it is easily 

 seen that a bee liberated from a train running 45 

 miles per hour could, by keeping close to the train, 

 keep up with it by flying only % or M as fast as the 

 train was running, because the atmosphere carries 

 it along at the rate of ?3 or J^ the velocity of the 

 train. 



It Is evident, that bees can not fly fast when flying 

 in small circles; yet it seems our friends have all 

 overlooked this point in their argument. 



I mentioned before, that bees can not face a very 

 strong wind. If a bee can not make any headway 

 against a wind blowing 30 or 35 miles per hour, how 

 can it be argued that a bee can fly 90 mile 5 per hour, 

 when at a velocity of 20 or 25 miles it would meet 

 with the same atmospheric resistance in a still at- 

 mosphere? 



Some of the friends may think to gain a point here 

 by saying that, if the bee would go with the wind It 

 would make 50 miles per hour. I admit that it would 



