628 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Oct. 



medicine good. Three cheers for Dr. Virgil (!) (!)(!) 

 We would be glad to know if Virgil had met any 

 cases of foul brood; but he mentions no unmis- 

 takable signs of it. The smell of glue, the glue-like 

 masses in the cells, and the little ragged holes in 

 sunken caps, these are prominent signs; and as 

 they are not mentioned, most likely foul brood was 

 not known to the writer. 



(2) The color of the juices of the body and of the 

 contents of the stomach have some effect on ex- 

 ternal color. Tn fact, you remember that some of 

 our strong Ttalianists wanted to make it out that 

 the black bees friend Jones saw near Rome were 

 only pure Italians that had been eating too much 

 huckleberry pie. But the change of color in ailing 

 bees is mainly owing to the contraction of their 

 bodies, which slides the light-colored portion of each 

 scale in out of sight. 



(3) Probably a sick bee has no more hairs on him 

 than a well one; but he certainly looks as though 

 he had, and that is sufficient. He feels to lifeless 

 to brush himself as usual, and so goes looking like 



hold on, we won't have her name in print 



when she comes to breakfast with pillow -bangs 

 streaming all around her head. 



(4) These bees have been superseding a worthless 

 queen; and, having got so far as to raise one smart 

 enough to kill off her rivals, they will come through 

 all right. Nothing better for them now than good 

 stimulative feed; so Virgil is a safe guide so far. 

 How do we know this? Why, sti-ange as it may 

 seem, bees do often form a sort of funeral procession 

 where a dead queen has been dragged out, and keep 

 crawling back and forth along the line which their 

 keen sense of smell tells them she has passed over; 

 but they always treat dead drones and workers with 

 perfect contempt. 



(5) You rather stump me here, dear Virgil. Sure- 

 ly you haven't let them get so full of honey and 

 brood that they have to hang out. I rather fear 

 that the Interior is so corrupt with dead brood that 

 they hang out for fresh air; if so, I don't believe 

 amellus root and wine will save them. But you 

 may try It though. 



(6) Starvation is what's the matter with these bees; 

 but there may be some disease behind It that made 

 them get so poor, and run out of food. When bees 

 fear that they are going to run short, it makes them 

 quite enterprising to snatch and rob, oftentimes; 

 but when want actually comes they do not behave 

 at all like starving animals would do — no tearing 

 around like a hungry bear among them. By cling- 

 ing all together In a dense mass, and entering the 

 semi-torpid state, letting animal heat run down to 

 the lowest point, they can live a considerable time 

 on almost nothing, hoping and waiting for a change 

 of weather, and a flow of honey, and this Is the 

 course they almost always take, I believe. 



(7) The tone of a sound Is high or low according as 

 the undulations are rapid or slow. Bees torpid with 

 cold or hunger wave their wings very gently — only 

 fast enough to make the lowest possible buzz. 

 From this upward through all the bee-moods and 

 tenses there Is a long scale of sounds, ending with 

 the horrible " sing " of a frantic one that Is digging 

 in your hair, trying to get down where he can give 

 you a taste of the "bitter end." 



(8) The variety and richness of Virgil's resources 

 is well shown by these comparisons to Illustrate the 

 sounds made by ailing bees; the last especially is 

 very striking, and within the experience of all. 



(9) Virgil shows familiarity with two kinds of 

 feeding. The food mentioned at the end of the next 

 caption, amellus root and wine, was not too excit- 

 ing to be fed outside the hive, and so It Is placed In 

 proppr vessels by the entrance. The vessels, I be- 

 lieve, were baskets made tight by the use of pitch 

 or wax. A float to keep the bees from drowning Is 

 not mentioned; but perhaps the"cani8tra," made to 

 carry liquids, usually had a floating cover to secure 

 the contents from slopping over. Soakage through 

 the wall of the basket itself might be made to sup- 

 ply the bees. If the thing was got up just right. The 

 kind of feeding proposed at (9) is substantially the 

 Jones method. Trustingthat the hive will be waxed 

 tiyht at the bottom. It is tilted back a little, and a 

 small hole made, through which honey can be pour- 

 ed by means of a reed pipe. Whatever honey does 

 not adhere to combs or bees, rests on the bottom- 

 board till the bees carry it up and store It. 



(10) This is a quite Important point. Bees, If far 

 gone, may starve very near to plenty, if the keeper 

 does not make sure that they get started at the 

 food. 



(11) To counteract dysentery by the use of astrin- 

 gents Is a thought that easily occurs to Intelligent 

 minds; but I believe modern experience Indicates 

 that it is not often worthwhile to medicate food; 

 possibly we are too heedless in this, and the ancients 

 wiser than we. 



(12) See under note (9). 



The translation and notes on pages 563 and 582 I 

 will mostly defer till next time, when the same pas- 

 sage will come under consideration. It Is with 

 some feeling of regret that I tell you we have reach- 

 ed the end of the scientific part of the poem. The 

 fourth Georgic is composed of two very dif- 

 ferent parts; the first, as we have seen, is rich, 

 meaty, and wise ; the second is very light reading 

 indeed — a batch of enormous mythological yarns — 

 which same the poet knew his countrymen loved so 

 well — put In to keep the sensible part from sinking 

 into oblivion. The account of the spontaneous pro- 

 duction of swarms of bees forms the natural step- 

 ping-stone between these two parts. 



And what shall we do with the rest of the poem? 

 At first I thought to stop when bee-ology played 

 out; then I planned for a sort of review of the lat- 

 ter part, with selections here and there; and now I 

 don't know but that we could extract fun enough 

 out of It to pay for going over the whole. By the 

 time we get through with that well-pounded bullock, 

 we will see what shall come next. E. E. Hasty. 



Richards, O., Oct. 8, 1883. 



Friend H., I, too, feel sorry to think that 

 we are at the end of your interesting trans- 

 lation — especially so because so many valu- 

 able facts have been brought out by it. Our 

 good friend Mr. Langstroth, in talking to 

 me in regard to Virgil when we were at the 

 convention — by the way, I want to digress 

 long enough to say that friend L. and I 

 roomed together, and we not only talked 

 until after 12 at night, but he waked me be- 

 fore 6 in the morning to tell me of some 

 more grand ideas he had just thought of. I 

 would not for the world have you think that 

 I objected to being wakened so early, for, my 

 friends, if there is a pleasant bee-enthusiast 

 on the face of the earth, in the way of col- 

 loquial powers, it is good friend L. Well, 

 among other things we talked about you, 



