THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



691 



THOUAS a. NEWUAK, Editor. 



o\T0£M4 g 



;iniii"iii ''"''- 



yoLIHII. Not. 2,M No. 44. 



Tbe Air Is Fall of honeyed sounds. Tbe 

 bee, 



Within the waxen lily's honeyed cells. 



In monotone of mellow measures tells 

 Its yet unsated jiiyance ; drowsily 

 Tbe swallows spill tbeir liquid melody 



As down the sky ihey drop, and faintly 

 swells 



The tremulous tinkle of the far sheep bells, 

 While wind'haps sigb in every crowned tree. 



Beneath the heechen shade tbe reapers lie. 

 Upon their lips a merry harvest tune ; 

 Knee-deep within a neighboring stream 



the kine 

 Stand blinking Idly in the clear sunshine. 

 And like a dream of olden Arcady 

 Seems the sweet laogor of tbe summer 

 noon. —Clinton Scullard. 



Sir. 'W. Z. Hutchinson has removed to 

 Flint, Mich. Correspondents will please 

 make a note of this. 



■yes; Very TTeikk Colonies of Bees 



can sometimes be wintered, but as a general 

 rule it is much better to double them up 

 and thug make strong colonies. 



Tbe Editor has been confined to his 

 house by sickness during the past week— the 

 physician having fought valiantly against a 

 threatened typhoid fever. Letters requiring 

 personal answers have suffered accordingly. 

 He Is now at bis post again, but with weak- 

 ened energies. 



Father Langstroth is now having a re- 

 lief from his brain troubles again. We trust 

 It may this time give him a long release 

 from the "dark cloud," as he expresses it. 

 He Is one of tbe grandest men of modern 

 times— full of "the milk of human kind- 

 ness," and has a heart large enougb to take 

 In the whole human family. 



Tbe IVonderfnl Kytm of tbe Bees are 



now the model used by scientists for ex- 

 periments which are Intended to demon- 

 strate the " optic track " which leads to the 

 brain. In Murray s Magazine we find the 

 following very Interesting article on this 

 subject : 



Any one who will take tbe trouble to ex- 

 amine with a lens the head of a bee will see 

 on either side the large, rounded compound 

 eye. and on tbe forehead or vortex, three 

 bright little simple ejes. Tbe latter are, as 

 their name implies, comparatively simple In 

 structure, each with a single lens. But the 

 compound eyes have a complex structure. 

 Externally the surface is seen to be divided 

 up Into a great number of hexagonal areas, 

 each of which is called a facet, and forms a 

 little lens. Of these tbe queen-bee has on 

 each side nearly five thousand, the worker 

 some six thousand, and the drone upward of 

 twelve thousand. Beneath each facet Is a 

 crystalline cone, a so called nerve rod, and 

 other structures too complex to be here de- 

 scribed, which pass Inward toward the brain. 



It will be seen, then, that the so-called 

 compound eje, with its thousands of crys- 

 talline cones, its thousands of " nerve rods " 

 and other elements. Is a structure of no 

 litile complexity. 



The question now arises. Is It one struc- 

 ture or many ? Is it an eye, or an aggregate 

 of eyes ? To this question the older nat- 

 uralists answered confidently— an aggre 

 gate. And a simple experiment seems to 

 warrant this conclusion. 



Paget, quoted in Goldsmith's " Animated 

 Nature," adapted the facets of the eye of a 

 minute aphanipterous Insect of tbe genus 

 Pulex— so as to see objects through It under 

 the microscope. "A soldier who was thus 

 seen, appeared like an army of pigmies, for 

 while it multiplied It also diminished the 

 object ; the arch of a bridge exhibited a 

 sped acle more magnificent than human skill 

 could perform, and the flame of a candle 

 seemed the Illumination of thousands of 

 lamps." 



Although Mr. Cheshire, of London, in his 

 book on tbe bee. adonts this view, and sup- 

 ports It by reference to a similar experiment, 

 it numbers to-day but few supporters. 



One Is tempted to marvel at the ability of 

 the drone to co-ordinate 24 000 separate 

 images into a single distinct object. Picture 

 the confusion of images of one who had 

 sipped too freely of the sweet but delusive 

 dregs of the punch bowl I Under similar 

 circumstances human folk are reported to 

 see double. Think of the appalling condition 

 of an inebriate drone 1 



Those who believe the facetted eye to he 

 one organ with many parts, contend that 

 each facet and its underlying structures 

 give not a complete Image of tbe external 

 object as a whole, but the Image of a single 



Eoint of that object. Thus there is formed, 

 y a juxtaposition of contiguous points, a 

 stippled image, or an Image in mosaic. 

 Hence this view Is known as Miller's mosaic 

 hypothesis. 



Lowne has experimented with fine glass 

 threads arranged lilie the cones and nerve- 

 rods of the bees eye, and finds that (even 

 when they are not surrounded by pigment, 

 as are the elements in an Insects eye) all 

 oblique rays are got rid of by numerous 

 reflections and the interference due to tbe 

 different lengths of the rays. Some modifi- 

 cation of the mosaic hypothesis is now gen- 

 erally adopted and Dr. Hlckson has recently 

 worked out with great care the structure of 

 "the optic tract" which lies between the 

 crystalline cones and tbe brain. 



By the Virginia Papers we notice that 

 Mr. E. C. Jordan exhibited at the Winches- 

 ter Fair, in Virginia, a scrap book filled 

 with Selections for many years, even ante- 

 dating the late civil war. It Is a volume of 

 great value. 



Mr. Jordan also presented tbe editor of 

 the Winchester New» with samples of hla 

 domettlo wine. 



The Bees in Winter.— A correspondent 

 writes us as follows : 



I have had a discussion with a neighbor 

 about the condition of bees In winter. He 

 thinks that they need not 'be disturbed at 

 any time after being prepared in the fall 

 and left on the summer stands. I contend 

 that they need careful watching, and some- 

 times manipulation. We have agreed to 

 leave It to you to decide as to which is right. 



If they have plenty of food for winter, 

 and are well-packed or protected from the 

 winds and severe weather, they do not need 

 much manipulation. But they should have 

 careful watching. Mice are sometimes 

 troublesome, and make inroads ; dead bees 

 clog up tbe entrances; ice accumulates on 

 the alighting-board ; caps blow off in high 

 winds, and sometimes the whole hives are 

 tipped over. These calamities should be 

 remedied as soon as possible. A piece of 

 wire 18 inches long, with a short hook bent 

 at tbe end. Is very bandy with which to 

 clear the entrances. During cold weather 

 the bees require but little air, and the 

 entrances should then be contracted, but In 

 warm weather they need more ; if closed In, 

 they may become excited and smother. 



No Excitement Here.— It has heen 

 asserted in other cities that there will be 

 considerable excitement In Chicago during 

 the week of the Anarchists' executions. 

 Several have written to us to ask If It Is 

 likely to Interfere with the Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention. To all, we have written that 

 there is no excitement here, and we do not 

 think there will be any trouble. Mr. Grln- 

 nell, the States' Attorney, makes this state- 

 ment : 



There Is no such state of feeling In Chi- 

 cago, and no such extraordinary precau- 

 tions have been made. Tbe police are simply 

 doing what they always do when an execu- 

 tion is about to take place. The people are 

 not moving out of the houses near tbe jaU 

 in anticipation of an outbreak. My office Is 

 as near as any place can well be to the place 

 of couflnement, and If a bomb was to be 

 found anywhere one might expect to look 

 for it there, but 1 have not the slightest 

 apprehension of anything of the kind. 



No one need consider the matter In con- 

 nection with the Bee Convention. 



Now Is the Time to protect the bees 

 from winter's cold blasts. It they are to re- 

 main on the summer stands. Pack them 

 with chaff or leaves, or If nothing better is 

 at hand, build a corn-fodder shock around 

 each hive, or set boards up around them to 

 protect them from the wind. Of course it 

 would be better to pack them all around 

 with 6 or 8 Inches of chaff ; shade the en- 

 trance from the direct rays of the sun, so 

 that the bees will not be enticed out when 

 It li too cold. 



Honey Production In England.— The 



London Journal of Horticulture makes the 

 following statement about the amount of 

 honey produced in England since we visited 

 Europe In 1879. Then there had been no 

 advancement worth mentioning In 40 years: 



There has been a great Increase In bee- 

 keeping throuahout the United Kingdom 

 during the past seven years, and where 

 cwls. of honey were produced ten years ago, 

 tons are now gathered In and sent to market. 



When Mr. Cowan was here he remarked to 

 us: "You would be astonished to see the 

 present state of the pursuit hi England now, 

 as compared to what It was when you 

 visited us eight years ago I" 



Among the Industries of Paris, says 

 the Leeds (Eng.) Mercury, the keeping of 

 bees is one that is much practiced, and fre- 

 quent complaints have been made to the 

 police about the nuisance this occasioned. 

 One inhabitant alone in tbe 14th Arron- 

 dissement keeps from 800 to 900 colonies, 

 and there are a great number to be found in 

 the 13th Arrondlssement, near the iroo<U 

 station at Irry. 



