A Bee's Sting a Useful Tool. jy 



A BEE'S STING A USEFUL TOOL. 



A new champion has arisen to defend the honey bee from the 

 obloquy under which it has always rested. Mr. Wm. F. Clarke 

 of Canada, claims to have discovered, from repeated observa- 

 tions, that the most important function of the bee's sting is not 

 stinging. In a recent article he says: 



"My observations and reflections have convinced me that the 

 most important office of the bee's sting is that which is per- 

 formed in doing the artistic cell work, capping the comb, and 

 infusing the formic acid by means of which honey receives its 

 keeping qualities. As I said at Detroit, the sting is really a 

 skillfully contrived little trowel, with which the bee finishes off 

 and caps the cells when they are filled brim full of honey. This 

 explains why honey extracted before it is capped over does n ot 

 keep well. The formic acid has not been injected into it. This 

 is done in the very act of putting the last touches on the cell 

 work. As the little pliant trowel is worked to and fro with such 

 dexterity, the darts, of which there are two, pierce the plastic cell 

 surface and leave the nectar beneath its tiny drops of the fluid 

 which makes it keep well. This is the ' art preservative ' of 

 honey. A most wonderful provision of nature, truly! Herein 

 we see that the sting and the poison-bag, with which so many of 

 us would like to dispense, are essential to the storage of our 

 coveted product, and that without them the beautiful comb honey 

 of commerce would be a thing unknown. 



If these things are so, how mistaken those people are who 

 suppose that a bee is, like the Prince of Evil, always going about 

 prowling in search of a victim. The fact is that the bee attends 

 to its own business very diligently, and has no time to waste in 

 unnecessary quarrels. A bee is like a farmer working with a 

 fork in his hay field. He is fully occupied and very busy. If 

 molested or meddled with, he will be very apt to defend himself 

 with the implement he is working with. This is what the bee 

 does; and man, by means of his knowledge of the nature and 

 habits of this wondrous little insect, is enabled, in most cases, to 

 ward ofl" or evade attack. It is a proof of their natural quietness, 

 industry and peaceableness that so many thousands of them will 

 go through a summer of ceaseless activity close to your dwelling- 

 house, and perhaps not half a dozen stings be inflicted during a 

 whole season' ' Scieniific American. 



The West Indian Birch is said to be the weakest; and the nut- 

 meg hickory of Arkansas, the strongest wood. The lightest and 

 most brittle is the blue wood of Texas, and the tamarack, the 

 most elastic. The recent scientific examination of woods is of 

 considerable economic value. 



