THE AMERICAN BEK JOURNAL. 



311 



shown, and has chemically proved to 

 be dilteient in its composition, there 

 can be uo doubt that it is a digested 

 food elaborated iu their chyle-stom- 

 ach, and that the bees at will vary 

 the ingredients thereof to suit their 

 particular purpose. They can vol- 

 untarily add the necessary ingre- 

 dients, such as pollen, honey, and 

 nectar, more or less diluted with 



So far as can be ascertained there 

 do not appear to be any particular 

 bees set apart for the purpose of feed- 

 ing particular grubs, but that up to a 

 certain age the feeding capacity is 

 the same in all cases. We suppose 

 that the bees must have the voluntary 

 power of supplying one kind of food 

 or the other as may be wanted. 



This subject is a very important 

 one, because upon it, to a great ex- 

 tent, is based the rearing of queens. 

 The question naturally arises, are 

 queens that are reared by natural 

 means as good or better than queens 

 reared otherwise? Now, I always 

 maintained, and I think I have good 

 reason for maintaining, that queens 

 should be reared from eggs, because 

 they get the better food from the very 

 first day when the eggs hatch. The 

 analysis of Dr. Planta, and the con- 

 clusions he comes to, go a great way 

 in favor of that theory. 



Queens must be better if reared on 

 the best food from the commence- 

 ment. I have known queens started 

 on larva; four days old. If a queen- 

 cell is started after the fourth day, 

 there has been one day in which the 

 development of the ovaries has been 

 arrested, and she can never make a 

 good queen. Also microscopically Dr. 

 Planta has been able to show that the 

 worker larv» receive this digested food 

 for the tirst three days, and after that 

 pollen and honey ; drone larvae are 

 reared after the fifth day; while the 

 royal food is always a chyle food, and 

 never has either pollen or water mixed 

 with it. 



I think I have now placed this mat- 

 ter before you as fully as I am able to 

 do. It appears to me that we may 

 now look upon this question as de- 

 cided, namely, that the food is pro- 

 duced in the chyle-stomach of the 

 bee, and is not a secretion. I do not 

 msh it to be understood that the 

 secretion of the glands has nothing to 

 do with the food, because Schonfeld, 

 Holtz, and others admit that the 

 secretions from the glands are added 

 to the chyle-food, but are not the 

 actual food itself, which consists of 

 digested pollen and honey. The re- 

 sults of the investigations referred to 

 will be published in Germany in about 

 a fortnight's time, and I hope then to 

 be able to say something more on the 

 subject in the columns of the Bee 

 Journal. 



It is supposed that the workers that 

 became fertile had received an extra 

 large proportion of rich food. Instead 

 of being weaned at the proper time, 

 the rich food had been continued to 

 thera beyond that period. If a worker 

 were fed thus for four days, the or- 

 gans would have one day's develop- 

 ment. In an ordinary worker they 

 were stopped on the tliird day. 



For tno American Bee Journal. 



Tlie Voice of SprinE. 



MISS EI)N.\ A. THO.MPMON. 



Now we hear the voice of spring 

 In the soHi; Ihu blue. birds sing ; 

 Hear the " humming of the Ijees" 

 Through the liudding forest trees. 

 Going to and from the Bowers 

 In the morning siinlit hours. 



Watch the cleaning of the hive, 

 where tiie tiusy worliers thrive : 

 How they guard their little store, 

 From the robbers at the door ; 

 Worlsing on from day to day. 

 Stopping not to rest or play. 



When the linden comes in bloom, 

 Then they woric from morn till noon. 

 Thankful for the light or shower ; 

 And obey thoir Sovereign Power, 

 Something as the human race ; 

 Though, perhance, with better grace. 

 Clark's O. 



For the American Bee JoumnL 



Tlie Yncca or Spanisli Bayonet. 



W. A. PETAL. 



These plants are quite numerous on 

 the mountains and foothills in the 

 southern part of California, and when 

 in bloom, their white crests can be 

 seen for miles, towering above all 

 else. The early Catholic missionaries, 

 when they tirst came to California, 

 called this plant "Our Lord's Candle 

 Stick." W. W, Bliss remarks thus: 

 —I have seen it stated that the bees 

 gather large quantities of honey from 

 this plant, but I do not think that this 



YUCCA BRUSH. 



is the case, although I have seen bees 

 at work on the flowers. The most 

 important use of this plant to bee- 

 keepers, is the brushes which are 

 made from the leaves that grow at 

 the bottom of the plant. These 

 brushes are decidedly the best thing 

 that has yet been discovered for 

 brushing bees off from the combs in 

 extracting ; they are a vegetable hber, 

 soft and pliable, yet almost indestruct- 

 able, and never come loose in the 

 " handle," no matter how much they 

 are exposed to the weather. 



There are several varieties to be 

 found growing through California, 

 Arizona and Utah. There is one 

 variety found in Arizona, and though 

 not sostately as the above described, 

 it is, nevertheless, more useful, as the 

 fiber of it is now being made into 

 paper of a very fine quality, which 

 commands a high price in the market. 

 We have not learned that it is yet to 

 be had in large quantities in the mar- 

 ket. Several other important uses are 

 made of this last-mentioned variety. 



North Temescal,K) Calif. 



For tue AmerlcaJi Bee JounuiL 



Cost of Cellar-Wintering of Bees, 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



I believe that one of the unwritten 

 laws of literature is, that no author 

 shall defend his own works. I also 

 believe that we bee-keepers are a law 

 unto ourselves — we care more for 

 truth than for some of the hair- 

 splitting rules of authorship— and so 

 strong is my faith in this belief that, 

 in the conclusion to my little book, I 

 announced that I should hold myself 

 in readiness to explain and defend my 

 views, or, if necessary, acknowledge 

 my errors. I will now fulfil this 

 promise. 



First, I wish to thank my friends 

 Clarke and Cook for having noticed 

 my little book so kindly and so fairly. 

 As one of the principal criticisms is 

 that I have placed the cost of cellar- 

 wintering at too low a figure, I will 

 "explain and defend." Before doing 

 this, however, let me show Mr. Clarke 

 what good company he has. I have 

 received a good, long letter from (and 

 a sprig of orange blossoms) Mr. Pop- 

 pleton , of Florida. After stating how 

 completely his views agreed with 

 mine in regard to the importance of 

 spring protection, even going so far 

 as to say', " I would no more think of 

 trying to keep bees without spring 

 protection in the short, changeable 

 seasons of northern Iowa or Michigan 

 than I would without movable comb 

 hives," he also says: "Ain't you a 

 little careless or wild in the statement 

 that ' the saving of stores in cellar- 

 wintering will pay for the expense 

 four times over?' Compared with 

 unprotected, out-door wintering, you 

 are correct ; but so far as my experi- 

 ence goes, the difference in the con- 

 sumption of stores between the cellar 

 and a thoroughly-packed colony out- 

 of-doors, is too small to be considered. 

 The only reliable statistics that I 

 have seen upon this subject are those 

 published by A. G. Hill, of Indiana. 

 If I remember correctly, these tables 

 cover several years of experiments, 

 with an average of say 50 to 75 colo- 

 nies each year ; and the average dif- 

 ference between cellar and out-door 

 wintering was, I think, not far from 

 only one pound per colony. This, of 

 course, applies only when hives are 

 properly protected ; not where the 

 work is only half done." 



W^ F. Clarke says : " Let Cyula 

 Linswik, A. G. Hill, A. I. Root, and 

 other successful out-door winterers 

 give us their figures, and I do not 

 think they will sustain this strong 

 flss^rtion." 



While Cyula Linswik has been suc- 

 cessful in wintering bees out-of- 

 doors, her experience in cellar-winter- 

 ing is. I believe, limited to a single 

 experiment with only one to two 

 colonies ; hence she has been unable 

 to make any comparisons upon the 

 point under discussion. Of course if 

 her bees consume but little if any 

 more honey than the cellar-wintered 

 bees of somebody else, such testimony 

 would be in point, provided other 

 things were equal ; but there are so 



