THE ^_ME.RICaBf BE® JQISRHMS,. 



221 



much. I am now carefully crossing 

 Syrians and Carniolans in hopes to get 

 the vigor and i)rolificness of the former, 

 and the amiability of the latter. I be- 

 lieve that such a cross will give us the 

 ideal bee. As bees, unlike cattle, are 

 reared for a single purpose, there is no 

 objection to crossing them. Indeed I 

 believe one of the greatest lines of 

 progress lies in this direction. If we 

 can rear a race with the amiability of 

 the Carniolan, the vigor and fertility 

 of the Syrian, which shall also have the 

 excellence of the black bee as a pro- 

 ducer of comb honey, we shall surely 

 make a great advance. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



HIBERNATION. 



Review of Mr. Latham's Article 

 on Hibernation of Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY WM. F. CLARKE. 



I suppose Mr. Latham will feel 

 slighted if I do not pay my respects to 

 his article on page 167, but really it is 

 so hyper-scientific, that it well nigh 

 bamboozles me. It reminds me of a 

 young lawyer, who, in his maiden ef- 

 fort at the bar, indulged in such high- 

 flown language, and used so many 

 learned phrases, that the Judge, in 

 summing up, was led to remark, that 

 Mr. had " soared out of the juris- 

 diction of his court." One word es- 

 pecially bothers me, viz : " androgy- 

 nal." I am away from my library ; 

 *' Webster-on-a-bridge " is not within 

 reach, and lam obliged to "give it 

 up." 



Yes, Mr. Latham, we all know that 

 hibernate in its common unscientific 

 use, means merely to " pass the win- 

 ter," and in that sense, we human 

 beings, as well as the lower animals 

 and insects, hibernate. So do plants 

 and stones. But, as Mr. L. says, "in 

 the accredited scientific use of the 

 term, hibernation is used to designate 

 a conclition." 



Why does he assert that we cannot 

 arrive at any positive knowledge on 

 this subject, "so far as optical evi- 

 dence dcnnonstrates the actual hiber- 

 nal condition ?" We can see that, 

 under certain circumstances, bees 

 form a tight cluster, and remain in an 

 almost, if not quite motionless state. 

 We know, too, that when thus quies- 

 cent, they consume the minimum of 

 of food, thereby showing that they eat 

 seldom and sparingly. Many bee- 

 keepers have testified to observing the 

 bees when so torpid that it required 

 considerable disturbance to arouse 

 them, and that when they wintered 

 thus, their consumption of stores was 

 verj- meagre. 



Mr. Latham says, " The hive-bee is 

 only physically constituted to experi- 

 ence to a certain degree " the condi- 

 tion of hibernation. If it experiences 

 the condition in any degree, is it cor- 

 rect to say as he does, " that the hive- 

 bee does not hilx'rnate ?" The same 

 is true of the red-squirrel. It hiber- 

 nates "to a certain degree." It is so 

 constituted that it must arouse every 

 now and then, " and eat to replenish 

 the flames of life." Still, the red-squir- 

 rel is classed among true hibernators. 

 Why, then, should not the hive-bee be 

 similarly classified ? 



Mr. Latham says that no animated 

 organized being " can become frozen 

 solid, or even become sufiiciently be- 

 numbed by cold as wholly to destroy 

 its vital functions, and live." This is 

 not so. The black ant can. Mi'. Doo- 

 little demonstrated this a long time 

 ago, and in Gleanings of March 15, 

 1888, Prof. Cook states the same fact 

 in regard to the black ant. "Thej' 

 seemed utterly dead. Pinching or 

 rough treatment of any kind did not 

 arouse them at all !" But on being 

 subjected to warmth, they soon "be- 

 come wide-awake and lively." The 

 hive-bee is not so physically consti- 

 tuted as to he capable of this. It 

 must have a certain degree of warmth 

 to hibernate. Intense cold first arouses 

 it to abnormal activity, and then causes 

 it to succumb through exhaustion. 



Mr. L. says : "Life without the in- 

 fluence of motion on matter, is inad- 

 missible." Then there is and can be 

 no hibernation in any case. Even the 

 bear does not hiberhate, according to 

 this showing. The black-ant example 

 is in point here again. So are the 

 numerous well known cases of other 

 insects and chrysalides that freeze 

 .solid, and yet thaw out and come to 

 life again. Carp and other fish have 

 been known to pass through the same 

 experience. The fact is, we know but 

 little, after all, about the life-principle. 

 It is a great mystery. Life survives 

 under certain circumstances, and then 

 under apparently similar ones, becomes 

 extinct. Truly we are all as Tenny- 

 son says : 



" Like children groping for the light, 

 Lilte children crying In the night." 



I must " fyle a demurrer" to the 

 use of the terms " coma" and "coma- 

 tose " in relation to this matter. Tliey 

 designate a state of disease. " Coma " 

 is not healthy, normal sleep ; hiberna- 

 tion is. 



The statement, " it does not appear 

 that the comatose condition evinced 

 by the hibernating species, is habitual 

 with the hive-bee, as it does not ac- 

 company that insect from the regions 

 of tlowers and snow-storms, to the 

 ever-blooming flora of tropical climes." 

 admits of question. There is a sum- 



mer sleep, called by scientists, astim- 

 son (I think that is the term applied 

 to it), and possibh' the hive-bee takes 

 a turn at that in tropical climes. Our 

 brethren who keep bees in the " Sunny- 

 South," can perhaps inform us on this 

 point. Bees must have a period of 

 rest, surely, in the South, as well as in 

 the North. 



St. Thomas, Ont. 



POLLEN-MOTHS. 



At What Times do Mature Bees 

 Eat Pollen I— IVax-Moths, etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I notice in a recent bee-paper that 

 Prof. Cook claims that the diet of ma- 

 ture bees is largely composed of pol- 

 len. Well, I am no scientist, so I do 

 not suppose it would look well for me 

 to oppose the Professor, but as a " cat 

 may look on a king," so I suppose it 

 will not be objected to, if I ask him a 

 question or two regarding his position. 



What I wish to know is, at what 

 times, or under what circumstances, 

 do mature bees eat pollen ? Surely, 

 not at all times, or at their conven- 

 ience, as I thoroughly proved in my 

 experiments a few years ago, when I 

 killed several colonies trying to make 

 them eat it, as a means of support. 

 They starved to death just as soon as 

 the little honey was gone which I gave 

 them, never touching the pollen, as far 

 as I could see. 



When I gave the experiments in the 

 Bee Journal, to prove that old bees 

 do not eat pollen, as a rule, Mr. A. R. 

 Kohnke took it up and said they (mj"^ 

 experiments) proved nothing but my 

 failure. He further said, "This does 

 not prove that the bees do not eat 

 pollen, for we know they do. Pollen is 

 not, and cannot be the primary cause 

 (of bee-diarrhea) ; certainlj' not. Pri- 

 mary causes are those which compel 

 the ijces to eat the pollen when they 

 ought not to, viz., out of season. If 

 Mr. D. had furnished besides pollen 

 and a little or no honej', those other 

 conditions necessary to produce the 

 disease, I dare say he would have 

 succeeded." 



The above was written in 1883, and 

 in all the years since, I have been try- 

 ing to find out "those other conditions 

 necessary," to make bees eat pollen, 

 but so far, it has all proved a failure. 



Now, Professor, here is a chance for 

 you to get a great name, aiul do the 

 world much good, bj' telling us how 

 to know the conditions tliat are favor- 

 able to our success, along the lino of a 

 pollen diet for bees. Please tell us all 

 you know about it, because if we can 



