AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



191 



puncturing the leaf or stem. The liquid 

 is exuded from some little horns at the 

 rear. He formerly blamed the ants for 

 killing his cherry trees, but he had since 

 found that they were going up the trees 

 to milk the aphides, 



D. A. Jones — When Prof. Cook visited 

 Beeton, some years ago, they had gone 

 into the bush, near one of the out-api- 

 aries, and cut off branches, on the leaves 

 of which were thousands of these aphides, 

 and when exposed, under a microscope, 

 they could be actually seen puncturing 

 the leaves. 



Wm. McEvoy asked why it was most 

 prevalent during dry weather ? 



J, B, Hall — The reason was that if we 

 had lots of wet weather, it would wash 

 off the leaves ; when dry, the exudations 

 dried on the leaves, and in the morning, 

 when wet by the dew, the bees gather it, 



R. McKnight believed that the pres- 

 ence of honey-dew was accounted for by 

 the atmospheric conditions, but the sac- 

 charine matter comes from the plant, 

 and not from above. 



[To be Continued,] 



Wintering Bees in tlie Cellar, 



D. B. CASSADAY. 



Last Fall I dug a cellar under my 

 house in which to winter my bees. I 

 made it 12x14 feet, and 8^ feet deep. 

 The soil was sandy and very dry, and 

 having no stone to wall it up, I curbed 

 it with oak planks, I drove posts into 

 the bottom of the cellar, and placed a 

 wide board on them, on which to place 

 the hives, taking care that the edge of 

 the board projected far enough over the 

 posts to prevent the mice and rats from 

 getting at the bees. 



I then took some stove-pipe, ran it 

 through a hole in the floor, and con- 

 nected it with the pipe of the cook-stove. 

 There is a strong draught going up that 

 pipe all the time, and there is no bad 

 smell or dampness in the cellar. The 

 pipe comes down to within a foot of the 

 bottom of the cellar. 



After I had placed the hives on the 

 board, and covered the brood-frames 

 with old sacking, I put empty cases, 6 

 inches deep, on top of them, which I 

 filled with dry forest leaves. I then 

 raised the front of the hives one inch, so 

 as to give air and plenty of room for the 

 dead bees. 



My bees are doing well so far, and the 

 cellar keeps at a temperature of 38^ to 

 40^ all the time, I put the bees in the 

 cellar on Nov. 28, 



Bees did poorly here last year, the 

 weather being too cold and dry in the 

 early part of the season. They gathered 

 no surplus until the buckwheat and Fall 

 flowers bloomed, then some of the 

 stronger colonies gathered a little. I 

 think they have enough stores to 

 winter on. 



Litchfield, Minn., Jan. 17, 1891. 



ADicnltnral Inventions. 



F. D. LACY. 



I have read with some interest Ernest 

 R. Root's article on the above subject, 

 and I am glad to see one from him of 

 such a conservative character. Yet, I 

 differ with him as to the field of inven- 

 tion being narrowing down ; I claim that 

 it is broadening out. The field for 

 thought enlarges as the mind increases 

 in wisdom, and new requisitions are 

 called for by man, as he advances in intel- 

 lectual development ; and in accordance 

 with this demand, the requirements are 

 supplied. As man has not learned all 

 there is to be known, the field for inven- 

 tion is still limitless. 



Ernest says, that some inventions are 

 like some men — "It were better that 

 they had never been born." I will say, 

 it might have been better had the inven- 

 tion never been born, but as to the in- 

 ventor being born, that was under the 

 jurisdiction of a higher power, to whom 

 I do not wish to dictate. Let us not 

 criticise God's authority. 



If a worthless patent has been grant- 

 ed, let us not deride the patentee, for he 

 believed it. to be a good one, and sacri- 

 ficed time, hard study, and cash upon it ; 

 and for his exertions he deserves our 

 charity and kind feelings, since he has 

 been the unfortunate loser. 



Many poor people have been duped by 

 worthless inventions, yet that does not 

 justify the discouragement of improve- 

 ments in every line of industry ; and, as 

 self-preservation is the first law of Na- 

 ture, let each guard prudently his own 

 interest. The benefit a patentee gets for 

 a poor invention, is his labor ; still, some 

 will get duped with his device, for there 

 was never one foolish person without 

 another to match him, and like assimi- 

 lates to like. 



The art of invention becomes a habit, 

 and whoever encourages his mind in such 

 direction, is liable to become as much a 

 slave to it as a drunkard is to whisky ; 

 and his cogitations are constantly upon 

 how to improve this or that mechanism ; 

 and during nights of sleeplessness, he 



