270 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



much scientific accuracy in apicultural lit- 

 erature several generations old. And very 

 little practical light as to how we can best 

 produce honey in this year of grace 185)3 is 

 to be had from such a source. It is sufficient 

 for the occasion if Wallace makes us pleas- 

 antly acquainted with the contents of these 

 queer volumes without the trouble and ex- 

 pense of owning and reading them — and a 

 heavy spanking for the groveling bread and 

 butter man who don't want to know the 

 ancient status of his handycraft. If the 

 ancients knew little of bees they scribbled 

 about them diligently all the same, as we 

 read that about 400 works were compiled for 

 the oldest save one of the volumes reviewed 

 (Samuel Purchas 16.57,) 



" Probably the English of those days never 

 dreamed that queenliood and utility ever exist 

 in the same body, and hence a queen in the hive 

 was supposed to be as useless as one on the 

 throne." 



The oldest of the lot is Butler's Feminine 

 Monarchy (1609), which is two years older 

 than our English Bible, and 166 years before 

 the Revolution. But the title is proof that 

 Butler knew more than some log gum chaps 

 of the present generation— did'nt call her 

 " the old king." He also gives us the germ 

 of the modern frame in wooden bars at the 

 top to which combs were built. He notices 

 that bees have poor eyesight — the cause and 

 extent of which is to this day unsettled. He 

 knew (what our average population have not 

 yet learnedj that it was usually safe to walk 

 quietly around among bees, while in standing 

 still near their entrances one catches it. 

 And (human nature) he was distressed as 

 much as we are by the ignorance of those 

 who went before him. And, anon, he tells 

 how bees were made to build a miniature 

 church, with steeple and windows and bells, 

 A Catholic woman slyly brought home the 

 communion wafer in her mouth and gave to 

 them. 



Rusden Q679) having got queens to lay in 

 his hand, found in the fact proof exactly op- 

 posite to the truth — they were kings ! Lots 

 of Rusdens with us still — make up their 

 minds how a thing is first, and then what- 

 ever turns up is proof. 



" In 1685 Stelluti published a description of 

 the parts of a bee which he had examined 

 throiigh a microscope." 



Here the morning dawns at last. Of 



course dunderheads will continue for a few 



generations to ignore the morning light and 



reiterate the midnight traditions, but the end 



is no longer in doubt. 



And how about the other strong men of 

 Gleanings ? A. I, is still at high pressure 

 gardening and strawberries ; and Ernest 

 nicely holds the even tenor of his way at 

 editing. Both with great facility are flash- 

 ing to and fro upon their wheels, Ernest af- 

 ter bee facts, and his father after garden 

 facts. By the way the latter 's wheel gained 

 terribly upon the wheels of Time and Gen- 

 esis when he got the heathen children, born 

 under the ministrations of John Williams, 

 parading and carrying banners just one year 

 from the good missionary's arrival. Never 

 mind. Somebody's Christian teaching saved 

 the children from being murdered. But 

 what a solemn thing is impartial history. 

 The same John Williams who spread the 

 name of Christ spread also the curse of to- 

 bacco wherever he went. But those young 

 folks at Medina, especially that little boy 

 who moved his playthings out of sight of the 

 circus when he had made up his own mind 

 not to go, I don't see as any discount comes 

 in there. May some reviewer sometime 

 write " Huber Root, the best editor, take him 

 all in all, that Gleanings ever had." 



Our Rambler still rambles, and improves 

 as he goes. Our Miller still grinds — grinds 

 straw — but lo, out of the butt end of the 

 straw there spins a stream of good flour. 

 And our Doolittle still contrives to do a little 

 in the interests of apiculture. After so many 

 years of writing, for so many different pa- 

 pers, the way Mr. Doolittle maintains the 

 freshness and interest and practical utility 

 of his writings is certainly very remarkable. 

 Time was when he was showered thick with 

 praises. Of late the fraternity seem to have 

 quit off from praising him — perhaps on the 

 same principle that Homer refrains from 

 praising the beauty of Helen — a man must 

 be a fool not to know without telling that 

 Helen was beautiful. But as some brethren, 

 in whom I fear the wish is the father of the 

 thought, venture to hint, or more than hint, 

 that Doolittle has written himself out, per- 

 haps it would not be a bad plan for us once 

 more to say what we think of our foremost 

 apiculturist. I sample recent utterances as 

 below. 



Does rain cause robbing ? No. 



" During a lieavy yield of lioney, bees seem al- 

 most glad of a rest for at least 24 hours." Page 



6;?s." 



" In all my experiencp for the faster) years, I 

 have never known of a single eyg being conveyed 

 from one cell to another ; but in scores of cases I 

 have known larvae to be transferred." Page 

 556. 



