THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
187 
which calls for any other line of conduct, until 
the young queens are on the wing ; and as 
they do not sally forth until long after noon, 
why should I go abroad any earlier ? I can 
assure you, that if brid 1 excursions were in 
order, as many hours in the day as the flowers 
secrete honey, no worker would be earlier to 
rise, or later to go to bed than myself. 
MISREPRESENTED. 
I, an idle, lazy, listless lounger, forsooth ! 
Does any one wish to witness the most perfect 
embodiment of indefatigable activity ? bet 
him then look at me, when at the proper time, 
with an eager, impetuous rush, and a manly, 
reasonant voice, I sally from the hive ! See 
with what amazing speed, I urge, what our old 
friend Samuel Wagner, called my “ circum- 
volating ” flights ! For ought yon know, I may 
cover greater distances in describing these 
vast circles, than the busiest worker, in the 
longest summer day. There is great need 
then, that I should be abundantly provisioned 
for such exhausting excursions, and it is only 
a law of nature, that on my return from them, 
all that I carried out with me, should befoun 
to have been used up. If you taunt me eithe 1- 
for the full or the empty stomach, I merely 
ask you if you have never heard of honey-moon 
trips among your own people, which began 
with extra full purses, to end only with 
uncomfortably light ones ? 
8AVAOE DELIGHT OVER MY DEATH. 
To cap the climax of your abuse, what 
savage delight you take in seeing the workers 
drive me from my pleasant home ! and how 
glibly you can moralize, over what you call a 
righteous judgment upon a life spent in glut- 
tony, and inglorious ease ! Just as if you did 
not know that the whole economy of the bee- 
hive is founded on the strictest principles of 
utilitarianism. Is not a worker-bee when dis- 
abled by any accident, remorselessly dragged 
out to die, because it can no longer contribute 
to the general good ? Even so exalted a per- 
sonage as the queen mother herself, as soon as 
it is plain that her fertility is too much im- 
paired, has a writ of supersedeas served upon 
her, in favor of one of her own daughters. 
Knowing well the law under which T was 
born, 1 urge nothing against being put to 
death when Shakespeare’s “pale executioners” 
deem the day of my prospective usefulness to 
be over. Truly, the sword of Damocles is sus- 
pended over my head, and from the hour of 
my birth till that of my death, it may fall at 
any moment. Many hitters are thus mingled 
with my sweets. 
1 have time only to mention one more. 
While I know that most of the young queens 
come safely hack from their wedding ex- 
cursions, I cannot help sometimes foreboding 
the worst, when I see that no drone ever 
returns to tell us of his experience. 
APPRECIATED BY BONNOR. 
I will dose my defence by reminding you 
how good fat her of the great Scotch hee-keeper. 
Bonnor, showed his appreciation of our perse- 
cuted race. It was his custom to watch every 
year for the first flying drone. Its cheerful 
hum so filled him with delight, as the happy 
harbinger of approaching swarms, with their 
generous harvest of luscious sweets, that he 
called an instant halt on the work of his busy 
household, and devoted the rest of the day to 
holiday feasting. The patron of the drones 
ought forever to bear the honored name of 
“ Saint Bonnor.” 
THE DECISION OF THE COURT. 
Sir Drone : — This court having heard your 
defence, declares it to be a t rue and manly one, 
all those to the contrary notwithstanding, 
who would further injure you by calling it 
nothing more than crafty special pleading. 
It only regrets its want of power to punish 
adequately your slanderers. But, alas, my 
worthy fellow ! you must not expect too much 
from this acquittal. Remember how difficult 
it is for Truth to overtake a Lie that has got 
a start of only a single day. No doubt the 
time will come when those who have been 
stigmatized as the 
“LAZY FATHERS OF THE INDUSTRIOUS HIVE,” 
will be hel 1 in due honor by the world; there- 
fore console yourself with this bright hope for 
the future of your race, while you protest 
against the lies that have had so many cen- 
turies the start of your true story, that you 
may well despair, in your short lifetime, of 
ever overtaking them. 
MORALS IROM THE DUONe’s PLEA. 
It were easy to draw more than otic good 
moral from the drone’s plea, such as “ Do not 
give even a dog a bad name, unless you are 
quite sure he deserves it,” but the moral 
which I think at the present time can hardly 
help suggesting itself to well-read bee-keepers, 
may be very fairly styled the 
MORAL OF THE PROF. WILEY SCIENTIFIC- 
PLEASANTRY LIE. 
It is only too well known, to the sorrow of 
most of our large honey-producers, that some 
years ago l’rof. H. W . Wiley, an entomologist 
in the service of the Government at Washing- 
ton, published substantially this statement 
viz : Th >t honey-combs, after being manu- 
factured, filled with glucose, and sealed over, 
all by human skill, so nicely as to escape de- 
tection, are largely sold m genuine bees’ 
honey; when tie bees have had nothing to do 
with a single stop in the whole cheating pro- 
cess. This absolute falsehood having got a 
good start as coining from a seientirie man (?) 
has widely, at home and abroad, prejudiced 
the public against buying the purest honey, in 
the most beautiful combs. 
Many times have I heard the above story 
spoken of either as undoubted truth, or have 
been asked if it wore not the truth. It has been 
refuted again and again, and large sums of 
money have been offered by responsible par- 
ties, to any one who will produce even a small 
specimen of such a man-made product ; and 
