48 miner's AMERICAN 



the fall, and do not commence again until the following 

 spring ? Such queens have no possible opportunity to 

 have commerce with the drones, and yet they are fer- 

 tile. Here is undoubtedly a cessation of ovi-positing, 

 for some four months. Does the impregnation of the 

 spring previous, operate in this case ? It unquestion- 

 ably does, however strange it may appear. I look upon 

 the question in this light : — that the germ of the ovary, 

 after having been fructified, never wholly loses the effi- 

 cacy of coition, and though there be a cessation of lay- 

 ing, yet the germinating principle is never lost, but 

 rather lies dormant, until the genial warmth of spring 

 arouses it to action. 



If the foregoing premises be fallacious,' let us have 

 a proof of its fallacy. They who deny this theory, 

 do not pretend to adduce any theory at all, but rather 

 suffer the case to go by default. 



VISIONARY ALLEGED USES OF DRONES. 



Some apiarians, however, contend that the drones fruc- 

 tify the eggs as fast as laid, by some means that they can- 

 not well explain, and this is their sole use ; but when 

 asked how the eggs that are laid in the spring, before 

 any drones exist, become fructified, they acknowledge 

 their inability to answer. Thus is this question beset 

 vnth difficulties that will probably remain as long as 

 time lasts. 



The time when drones appear, as well as the time 

 when they disappear, strongly shows that their use can 

 be no other than the fructification of queens. If their 



