1S66.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
251 
recognizingtlicse Avilli expedilion and precision. 
" As the result of my own experience, founded 
on the examination of many samples of millc 
produced under tlie most varied circumstances, 
and purposely adulterated with known quauti- 
ties of water, I may state tliat milk maybe con- 
sidered ricli when it contains from 12 to 13 i per 
cent, of solid matters, 3 to oh per cent, of which 
are pure fatty substances. If it contains more 
than 131 per cent, of solid matter, and in this 4 
per cent, or more fat, it is of extra rich quality. 
Such milk throws up 11 to 12 percent, of cream 
ia bulk on standing 13 hours at 03° F., and has 
a specitic gravity varying from r028 to 1'030. 
" Good milk of fair average quality, as has 
been stated already, contains from lOi to 11 per 
cent, of dry matter, and in tliis about 3J per 
cent, of pure fat. It yields 9 to 10 per cent, of 
cream, and has a spocilio gravity of about I'OSO. 
" Poor milk contains 90 per cent, or more wa- 
ter, and has a lower specific gravity than 1027. 
Such milk yields not over 6 to 8 per cent, cream. 
"Skimmed milk throws up still less cream, 
has a bluer color, and is more transparent, and 
when undiluted with water has a slightly higher 
specific gravity than new milk. 
" Good skimmed milk has a specific gravity of 
about 1033 ; poor skimmed milk 1038 to 1-030. 
" Milk purposely watered yields only 5 to G 
per cent, of cream, and iiuariably has a lower 
specific gravity than l'03o. 
"If milk is both skimmed and watered it 
yields less than 4 per cent, of cream, and pos- 
sesses as low a specific gravity as l'02o lo 1'036. 
"A great many experiments have led me to 
the conclusion that within certain limits the 
specific gravity is the most trustworthy indica- 
tor of quality, and that for all practical purposes 
an ordinary hydrometer float, by means of which 
the gravit}' of liquids can be ascertained with 
precision, and a graduated glass tube, divided 
into 100 equal degrees, constitute the safest and 
readiest means for ascertaining the quality of 
milk so far as it is affected by the relative pro- 
portions of the normal milk constituents. 
"A set of such instruments or lactometers, 
one being a graduated glass tube for measuring 
the proportion of cream tlirown up on standing, 
and the other a gravity float or hydrometer, with 
plain printed directions for use, can be obtained 
at the cost of a few shillings. 
" A few years ago 1 made some accurate 
gravity determinations of pure milk before and 
after skimming, and of samples mixed purposely 
with 10 to 50 per cent, of water, and as the re- 
sults may be useful in comparing them with 
others, I give them in the subjoined table: — 
SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF WATERED MILK. 
Spectjic Gra- 
Specific Gra- 
vity at 62° F. 
vity at 0-2° F. 
brfo,e 
after 
Skimming. 
Skimming. 
Pure milk 
1-0314 
1-0337 
** " -f- 10 per cent 
. water 
l-02i)5 
1 -03118 
•• " -i-ao 
1-0257 
1-0-265 
•' •• -)-30 
" 
1-0233 
l-n-i4H 
" " +40 " 
" 
1-0190 
1-02118 
" " + 60 " 
" 
1-0163 
l-Ol-o 
Here follo-w analyses of milk from numerous 
localities m the richer and poorer districts of 
London, which show that the amount of cream 
bears a direct relation to the specific gravity of 
the milk. The author concludes from his re- 
searches that : " These facts afford a conclusive 
answer to tlie olyection that no dependence can 
be placed on tlie gravity test. The fact is, 
cream, though lighter than skimmed milk, is 
denser than watei^^ and any amount of waiter 
worth adding at all, can readily be detected in 
milk by the direct lowering of its normal spe- 
cific grtCvity." 
Perfecting Bees. 
BY BIDWELL BROS., ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. 
A colony of bees in a natural condition con- 
sists of a queen or mother bee, many tliousand 
workers, improperly termed "neuter bees," and 
during a yield of honey, several hundred, 
and at times thousands, of male bees, called 
drones. An examination shows the queen to be 
created for laying eggs, neuter bees for work, 
and drones for sires, and each for nothing 
else. All the workers, drones and futurequeens 
are bred from eggs laid by the queen. When 
we remove her from the hive, eggs cease, and on 
her return ajipear again. (Tliat so-called fertile 
workers sometimes la)' eggs is no exception, 
they are not workers proper, but imperfect 
queens.) On removing the queen, the following 
facts are ascertained : That those eggs in cells, 
in which workers are reared, all hatch in 3 daj'S 
(as worms) and are then termed larvre ; they are 
fed honey and pollen and water, called jell)', 
for 6 days, during which they grow to be large 
white worms nearly the size of the cell. The 
cell is then sealed over by the bees, and sub- 
sequently the wonn transformed into a perfect 
worker, emerges on the 11th or 13th day after 
sealing, or from 20 to 21 days after the egg is 
laid. If any drone eggs are in larger, or drone 
cells, they hatch in 3 days, are worms for 6* 
da3'S, and emerge as perfect insects on the 34tli 
or 2oth day from the time the egg is laid. If 
any queen eggs are in pendant cells, they hatcli 
in 3 days, are 5 days in the larva state, and ap- 
pear on the 16th da}'. They fly out to meet the 
drones usually on the 3rd day after leaving tlie 
cell, and 'if successful commence laying on the 
2nd day thereafter, producing worker, drone and 
queen eggs, as either may be required. Wlien 
a queen is removed, the -n'orker bees, on ascer- 
taining their loss, seek to replace her by enlarg- 
ing a worker cell containing a worker egg or 
lai-va. These intended queen cells, if in the 
body of the comb, are altered by removing the 
worker cells adjoining the one selected, extend- 
ing the base to increase the size, and are built 
out to clear the comb and hang down. If they 
are on the edge of the comb, they are built di- 
rectly down-sward in the shape of a pea nut. The 
drone and worker cells are built horizontally, as 
observed in a piece of hone)' comb; the larger 
cells are those in which drones are reared, and 
the smaller or ordinary sized are those fi>r 
workers. In the case of the drone and worker, 
they are fed water and honej', and pollen or 
farina, which is properly termed bee-bread, as it 
contains the principal elements that support all 
animal and insect life. The color of the food 
or jelly partakes of the color of the pollen ; at 
times it is yellow, bro-n-n, or red, as that of the 
flowers from which it is gathered. To show 
that the pollen of flowers is similar to wheaten 
flour, we might state that early last spring, after 
our bees had eaten all their pollen stored, during 
a long and cold -winter, 100 stocks consumed 
over two barrels of flour in brood raising, storing 
none, the stronger colonies necessarily using up- 
wards of 10 lbs. each, which affected the color 
of the jelly — converting it to a whitish mixture. 
The food of the intended queen is ascertained 
by analysis to be " a bread containing an albumi- 
nous compound," secreted by the -worker bees 
in the case of a natural queen, or compounded 
from the worker eggs for a forced queen. Tlie 
drone and worker bees lose time, so to speak, in 
assimilating their coarser food, vi\\\\a the queen 
gains time in her development by being fed a 
concentrated easily assimilated compound. The 
eggs in hatching require about summer heat from 
the nursing bees, which must be maintained 
throughout their maturing, or until their inter- 
nal organization is estabhslied to produce it. 
For tlirs reason, Italian bees can mature more 
brood in colder weather, tlic organization being 
more perfect, and better able to produce heat, 
and -withstand cold, and consequently they 
swarm earlier. AVe have observed that tlie dif- 
ference of a day in the maturity of the drones, 
or of the workers may be caused by the dif- 
ference in temperature. Wlien tlie heat of the 
daj-s is 70" F. or alwve, the shorter time is made. 
It is not then the size, nor the shape of the 
cells — for Sliiall and imperfect drones, and small 
and imperfect queens (called fertile workers), 
are reared in small or worker cells, — nor is it 
the food, nor yet the oxygen of the air severally, 
which developes life, but all acting in harmony. 
The ample cell, tlie quantity of nutriment and 
oxygen, produces a fullness, and the quality, a 
perfectiiess of development. The, identity of 
the character of the parent and offspring is 
shown to be dependent upon the continuation 
of certain influences acting harmoniously on the 
principle of life; hence, like produces like only 
under similar circumstances. In raising over 
300 Italian queens from one last summer, we 
observed that during a continued spell of scarcity 
of hone}', and hence of food, the queens were 
more deficient in vitality, and in protracted 
cloudy weather less bright in color, but where 
a superabundant harvest and extreme fair 
weather prevailed, the highest degree of excel- 
lence was attained, convincing us fully that nat- 
ural queens were far superior to forced or un- 
natural ones. Tlie influence of food in provid- 
ing an uninterrupted supply of honey producing 
flowers in summer, will give an increased de- 
velopment to the reproductive powers of the 
queen, and quiet industry to the workers ; and 
avoiding the climatic extremes of heat in sum- 
mer, which wastes and exhausts the system, and 
cold in winter, which tends to barrenness, will 
add health and strength to tlie bees, effecting 
more or less uniform changes, producing de- 
finite characteristics, and marking them ulti- 
mately as a distinct and perfected race. 
Get Out of Old Ruts. 
The consumption of barley is increasing year 
by year, as the Teutonic element in our popu- 
lation increases in number and wealth, and im- 
presses more or less upon the American people 
the liking for the mild brewed beverages of Ger- 
many. The sale to brewers is in fact so ready, 
that the raising of barley as food for animals is 
hardly considered. "We learn that oats in sev- 
eral extended sections of the country are, for 
some undetermined cause, beginning to fail to 
produce w-hat were considered good crops but a 
few years ago. This is particularly the case in 
some of the river counties ia tliiS State, and it 
would, perhaps, be profitable to drop oats and 
try barley, w-hich will probably do well upon 
the same soils. Hops are also recognized as very 
profitable, and like tobacco and other purely 
commercial crops, (tliose never consumed, but 
always sold), it may be cultivated so as to bring 
real advantage to the farm. It almost neces- 
sitates clean culture, and gives the farmer means 
to buy manure, do draining, etc. This follow- 
ing in old ruts of practice is one of the worst 
things a farmer can do, and an experiment with 
a new crop \\o\i and then is often the straight 
road to fortune. It should always be done after 
careful thought and investigation. 
