300 



THE Bi:k'-S:EEPEBS' ttEVIlL^. 



colonies were consigned to the brimstone 

 pit — the heaviest, because their stores were 

 in excess of the amount required for winter 

 and spring use — the lightest, because of 

 insufficient winter stores. Ordinarily, 

 colonies possessed of vigorous queens and 

 consequently vigorous workers are such as 

 accumulate the largest amount of honey; 

 and, in those days of hap-hazard bee keep- 

 ing some of the very best, although late, 

 swarms with young queens would fail to 

 gather sufficient winter stores. By the 

 practice of sacrificing the heaviest and 

 lightest colonies the best queens were des- 

 troyed and the inferior left to perpetuate 

 the race, which is in contradistinction to 

 Nature's plan of the survival of the strong- 

 est. Then again the imperfect knowledge 

 of wintering often caused a loss of the best 

 of those which remained. The most popu- 

 lous and vigorous colonies are the ones 

 most liable to smother by reason of an 

 accumulation of dead bees at the entrance. 

 Doubtless there are those who will differ 

 with me as to winter losses in those days, 

 thinking that straw hives were a sufficient 

 guarantee against loss, even in extremely 

 cold winters. My grand father who was a 

 bee keeper of the old school not unfrequent- 

 ly lost most of his bees when wintering in 

 straw hives. So with the practice of des- 

 troying the best, and a similar loss in win- 

 tering, we can see a cause of degeneracy, 

 which, in the course of several geneiatious, 

 must have brought about deterioration of 

 the race. The black bee is extremely sus- 

 ceptable to the disease known as foul brood; 

 and I attribute it largely to degeneracy 

 caused by brimstoning the best colonies, 

 and perpetuating the race by inferior ones. 



After the introduction of Italian bees, I 

 noticed that they were far less susceptible 

 to foul brood contagion and apparently 

 more vigorous. The Italian bee so far as I 

 know has never been subjected to the fore- 

 going method of deterioration: and, had the 

 black variety been preserved in its purity 

 for ages, might they not have ranked equally 

 valuable ? 



In modern bee keeping, queen rearing as 

 a cause of degeneracy should not be pass- 

 ed unnoticed. How many have reared 

 queens with small nuclei, insufficient 1o 

 maintain the requisite warmth or furnish 

 sufficient food for the production of strong 

 •and vigorous mothers.? How many have 

 been breeding for color, without a due con- 



sideration of the one great qualifications- 

 vigor ? 



Can we forbear giving expression as to 

 the cause of new diseases such as bee paral- 

 ysis, decayed brood etc ? They were iln- 

 kuown, previous to this age of queen rear- 

 ing. 



I might also call attention to the trans- 

 mission of queens by mail as causing 

 nervous prostration, together with a weak- 

 ened constitution by being chilled, both of 

 which are symptoms in bee paralysis. 



Jaokson, Mich. Sept. 27, 1896. 



The Making of Honey. 



E. A. DAGGITT. 



H' 



;()NEY bees 

 gather from 

 plants a sweet ar- 

 omatic liquid sub- 

 stance called nec- 

 tar which they 

 take to their hives 

 and make into 

 honey. Nectar is 

 a secretion of cer- 

 tain floral orerans 

 known as floral 

 glands or necta- 

 ries and the special tissues of which they 

 are formed are demominated nectiferous tis- 

 sues. The nectar is secreted on the sur- 

 face of these tissues or else into pores called 

 sto7natae. 



The nectar secreting organs are some- 

 times situated within the blossoms and 

 sometimes without them, just as other floral 

 organs are all in one flower, or are separated 

 on the same plant, or part are on one plant 

 and part on another. Everything in nature 

 has a purpose. The secretion of the nectar 

 within the flowers is for the purpose of se- 

 curing the fertilization and cross fertiliza- 

 tion of flowers, and its secretion without the 

 flowers is probably to attract insects from the 

 delicate organs within them. Another pur- 

 pose of its secretion, and a most important 

 one, is to provide insects with food and by 

 means of the honey bee, man also. 



Nectar consists of water, and cane sugar 

 except a small part that contains the princi- 

 ples that give it aroma and flavor. It is 

 these principles that give to each kind of 

 nectar a different aroma and flavor, and it 



