220 



THE MWdERICftPf MMM JQVMUmi,. 



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otliei- line of conduct, until the young 

 queens are on tlic uin^r ; anil as they 

 <io not .sally foilli until long after noon, 

 why should I go abroad any earlier ? 

 I can assure you, that if bridal excui'- 

 sions were in order, as many hours in 

 the day as the flowers secrete honey, 

 no worker would ever be earlier to 

 rise, or later to go to bed than myself. 

 ini^represented* 

 I, an idle, lazj-, listless lounger, for- 

 sooth ! Does any one wish to witness 

 the most perfect embodiment of inde- 

 fatigable activity ? Let him then look 

 at me, when at the proper time, with 

 an eager, impetuous rush, and a manly, 

 resonantTvoice, I sally from the hive ! 

 See with what amazing speed, I urge, 

 what our old friend Samuel Wagner, 

 called my " circumvolating " flights! 

 For ought you know, I may cover 

 greater distances in describing these 

 vast circles, than the busiest worker, 

 in the longest summer day. There is 

 great need then, that I should be 

 abundantly provisioned for such ex- 

 hausting excursions, and it is only a 

 law of nature, that on my return from 

 them, all that I carried out with me, 

 should be found to have been used up. 

 If you taunt me either for the full or 

 the empty stomach, I merely ask you 

 if you have never heard of honey- 

 moon trips among your own people, 

 which began with extra-full purses, to 

 end only with uncomfortably light 

 ones ? 



Savage Dellgtat over my Deatb. 



To cap the climax of your abuse, 

 what savage delight you take in seeing 

 the workers drive me from my pleasant 

 home ! and how glibly you can moral- 

 ize, over what you call a righteous 

 judgment upon a life spent in glut- 

 tony, and inglorious ease ! Just as if 

 you did not know that the whole econ- 

 omy of the bee-hive is founded on the 

 strictest principles of utilitarianism. 

 Is not a worker-bee when disabled by 

 any accident, remorselessly' dragged 

 out to die, because it can no longer 

 contribute to the general good ? Even 

 so exalted a personage as the queen- 

 mother herself, as soon as it is plain 

 that her fertility is too much impaired, 

 has a writ of stqjersedeas served upon 

 her, in favor of one of her own 

 daughters. 



Knowing well the law under which 

 I was born, I urge nothing against 

 being put to death when Shakespeare's 

 " pale executioners " deem the day of 

 my prospective usefulness to be over. 

 Trulj-, the sword of Damocles is sus- 

 pended over mj' head, and from the 

 hour of m^' birth, till that of my death, 

 it may fall at any moment. Many bit- 

 ters are thus mingled with my sweets. 



I have time to mention only one 

 more. While I know that most of the 

 young queens come safely back from 



their wedding excursions, I cannot 

 help sometimes foreboding the worst, 

 when I see that no drone ever returns 

 to tell us of his experience. 



Appreciated by Bonner. 

 I will close my defense by remind- 

 ing you how the good father of the 

 great Scotch bee-keeper, Bonnei', 

 showed his appreciation of our perse- 

 cuted I'ace. It was his custom to 

 watch every year for the first flying 

 drone. Its cheerful hum so filled him 

 with delight, as the happj' harbinger 

 of approaching swarms, with their 

 generous harvest of luscious sweets, 

 that he called an instant halt on the 

 work of his busy household, and de- 

 voted the rest of the day to holiday 

 feasting. The patron of the drones 

 ought forever to bear the honored 

 name of " Saint Bonner." 



Tlie Decision of tbe Court. 



Sir Drone : — This court having heard 

 yoin- defense, declares it to be a true 

 and manly one, all those to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding, who would 

 further injure you by calling it nothing 

 more than crafty special pleading. It 

 only regrets its want of power to pun- 

 ish adequately your slanderei-s. But, 

 alas, my worthy fellow ! you must not 

 expect too much from this acquittal. 

 Remember how difficult it is for Truth 

 to overtake a Lie that has got a start 

 of only a single day. No doubt the 

 time will come when those who have 

 been stigmatized as the 



"I^azT Fathers of tbe Industrious 

 Hive," 



will be held in due honor by the 

 world ; therefore console j'ourself with 

 this bright hope for the future of your 

 race, while you protest against the lies 

 that have had so many centuries the 

 start of your true story, that you may 

 well despair, in your short lifetime, of 

 ever overtaking them. 



inorals from tbe Drone's Plea. 



It were eas}' to draw more than one 

 good moral from the drone's plea, such 

 as, " Do not give even a dog a bad 

 name, unless you are quite sure he 

 deserves it," but the moral which I 

 think at the present time can hardly 

 help suggesting itself to well-read bee- 

 keepers, may be very fairly stj'led the 



moral of the Prof. Wiley Scientific- 

 Pleasantry Iiie. 



It is only too well known, to the sor- 

 row of most of our large honey-pro- 

 ducers, that some years ago Prof. H. 

 W. Wiley, an entomologist in the ser- 

 vice of the Government at Washing- 

 ton, published substantially this state- 

 ment, viz : That honey-combs, after 

 being manufactui'ed, filled with glu- 

 cose, and sealed over, all by human 

 skill, so nicely as to escape detection, 

 are largely sold as genuine bees' honey; 



when the bees have had nothing to do 

 with a single step in the whole cheat- 

 ing process. This absolute falsehood 

 having got a good start as coming 

 from a scientific man (?) has widely, 

 at home and abroad, prejudiced the 

 public against buying the purest honej-, 

 in the most beautiful combs. 



Many times have I heard the above 

 story spoken of as either undoubted 

 truth, or have been asked if it were 

 not the truth. It has been refuted 

 again and again, and large sums of 

 money have been oft'ered by responsi- 

 ble parties, to anj- one who will pro- 

 duce even a small specimen of such a 

 man-made product ; and j-et the story 

 is constantly appearing in print in 

 America, Europe — and not long ago 

 even in Australia. It has found its 

 way into a periodical of as high re- 

 pute as the British Bee Journal, and it 

 sometimes seems to have a greater 

 vitality /or mischief, than when it first 

 started out on its hurtful career. 



Prof. Wiley, when called to account 

 for fabricating such a story, thought it 

 a sufficient excuse to say that he meant 

 it only as a " scientific pleasantry.'''' 

 Could any one wish him a harder task 

 than over his own signature to try to 

 stop the march of such an inexcusable 

 utterance ? Could there be a stronger 

 condemnation of his conduct in this 

 matter, than the words of Holy Writ ? 

 " As a madman who casteth firebrands, 

 arrows and death, so is the man that 

 deceiveth his neighbor, and saith. Am 

 I not in sport ?" — Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. 



Dayton, O., March 8, 1888. 



THE IDEAL. 



Careful Breeding and Cro8§iug 

 Two Races of Bees. 



Written for the Western Tree Planter 

 BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



We often read of a large, brown bee 

 which was indigenous to this continent. 

 I think that any such bee is only a 

 variety of our common black bee, 

 which was introduced into America 

 long years ago, and so has become 

 widely distributed, and it would not be 

 strange if color variation had taken 

 place to quite a degree .... 



The good points of the black bees 

 are : They cap their honey thicker, 

 and so comb honey from them is very 

 white ; they are very ready to go into 

 sections or a surplus chamber on top 

 of the hive, at the dawn of the honey 

 harvest. This point is specially prized 

 bv many of our best bee-keepers. This 

 fact leads many of our wisest apiarists 

 to desire at least some black blood in 

 theu' bees .... 



I have had considerable experience 

 with SjTian bees, and like them very 



