370 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
1873 .] 
to come. The Professor seems to have confounded the 
first with second or third swarms from a hive in this ex¬ 
planation. If is the appearance of rival queens that 
causes these after-swarms. 
“remarkable pacts concerning the queen bee.” 
Agassiz says: “The queen hee usually quite con¬ 
tented with her lot, watching over her progeny, active, 
and patient in the care of her eggs, becomes furious if a 
rival arises i.i the hive.” “Usually contented with her 
lot,” appears to be correct, but being “ active and patient 
in the care o> her eggs and watching over her progeny,” 
is all imagination. The truth of the matter is, she takes 
no more care of her eggs or progeny than the flesh-fly or 
mosquito. I feel safe in saying this, for I have observed 
hundreds or thousands of queens and never yet saw one 
thus engaged. 411 that the queen does is to deposit her 
eggs in the ceils, some do not even do that properly, a 
half dozen eggs being sometimes found in one cell. The 
supernumerary eggs must be removed by the workers. 
Any one can prove the truth of this by a littie attention. 
It is nearly true that if a rival arises in the hive the old 
queen will sometimes “ tight to the death. 1 Hut when the 
Professor explains how the rival appears, he errs again. 
“ So well is this understood in the hive that the workers 
take care to urevont such conflicts by holding back the 
new queen just, ready to be hatched from her royal cell 
until the bees have swarmed.” This is the mother queen, 
the old one, that i s spoken of now. Hut. the fact i s that when 
she issues with a 3warm there is no such thine/ ns ct new 
queen just readiito be hatched nor will there be short of a 
week, unless bad weather has kept her back. Tory 
many swarms and old queens come out especial.y with 
the Italians—when the young queen has not yet emerged 
from the egg, and no young queen in such case will 
hatch out short of twelve days. Nature has provided 
that they should leave when the young queen has pro¬ 
gressed to the larva state and has been sealed over in her 
cell. She is then a week longer in changing from the 
larva to the chrysalis and maturing to a perfect queen, be¬ 
fore which time she can not fight. Now the instinct 
that, teaches the old queen to leave with the first Bwarm 
before there is any possibility of a conflict is quite as 
wonderful to me as anything the Professor relates. 
He continues: “At such a time.” that is just before 
the issue of a first swarm, “ the workers will stand by the 
cell out of which a queen is to be born, ascertain how far 
her transformation is completed, and, should there be a 
disposition of the young queen shortly to creep out,, they 
increase I he deposit of wax upon the lid which shuts the 
cell, thus preveuung the egress of the royal prisoner. If 
she tries to break through or attempts to gnaw her way 
out, the workers crowd around the opening or accumulate 
such an amount of wax upon it as to frustrate all her ef¬ 
forts. When the. old queen has peacefully departed the 
new one is set free.” 
Now we have seen or can see if we observe properly 
that no such things happen with the old queen. We 
have hives in which we can examine all parts, can see 
every bee, and examine the condition of every cell at any 
time. With such hives nothing is easier than to show 
Agassiz to be in error. Had his remarks been applied to 
vourtrj queens they would have been nearer the truth, but 
then would not have hit it exactly. The way bees pro¬ 
ceed in swarming is briefly this. The old queen departs 
with the swarm as soon as the first royal cells are ready 
and sealed, usually leaving some unsealed. Tho re¬ 
maining workers go on precisely as before, nurse the 
young, seal up the unfinished cells of workers as well as 
the royal cells. The queen that first matures bites her 
way out before she has strength to fly, and makes it her 
business to go about and sting her royal sisters to death. 
This is exemplified when a hive throws otfbutone swarm 
in a season. But if a second swarm is to issue the case is 
different, and then is when the second and other maturing 
queens are kept back, not by depositing wax upon the 
lid, but by simply holding it shut; a little hinge on one 
side is all that holds and it can be pushed open in a sec¬ 
ond when the bees do not hold it. The first hatched 
queen is not ‘plowed to destroy the others, and seems to 
understand that they are deadly rivals and have strength 
to fight a decided battle. She seems greatly agitated, 
running about and stopping a moment occasionally to 
give a few sharp shrill sounds. Those in the cells repeat 
the notes in a hoarser key. I have taken out the combs 
and held a single one before me with the bees on it, and 
have seen the queen at tho time of making the notes. I 
have examined the cells just described containing the 
queens, and seen the bees holding the door shut. I have 
cut otT uch cells, held the door myself, heard tho piping 
noise in my hand, have laid the cell down and saw her 
majesty push open the door to freedom the next instant. 
This piping may always be heard a day or two before an 
after swarm or swarm with young queens. If the weather 
and all is favorable, the first hatched queen seeming to 
understand the consequence if she remains, leaves with 
ns many bees as choose to follow, and avoids further 
trouble. This occurs usually in just nine days after tho 
old queen issued. Another queen is liberated which 
proceeds like tho one first hatched, and if a third swarm 
issues it is under similar circumstances and only about 
two days after. When the bees are through swarming 
the queen which is at liberty destroys all her rivals and 
reigns alone. 
Now, a few words about the construction of cells. The 
Professor says : “ The swarm having alighted near a favor¬ 
able spot, a single working bee—one out of twenty thou¬ 
sand, perhaps—starts from the crowd and lays the first 
piece of wax, which is the foundation of a new comb.” 
—This is not quite true. If he had left out “ starts from 
the crowd,” and simply said “lays the first piece of 
wax,” it would have been nearer the truth. The first 
pieces laid are not always foundations of comb. The 
fact is, the first bee remains in the crowd when putting 
down the first lump, and is not in sight. Lumps of wax 
are stuck on the branch of a tree before the swarm has 
been there thirty minutes. A few hours after being 
hived they will have scores of these lumps, varying in 
size from a pin’s head to a small pea. These disappear 
after the combs are commenced. 
The lecturer continues: “The first bee having made 
the first cell, a second bee comes and stands opposite her, 
head to head ; then another at her side, so [that the two 
stand side by side ; and the rest follow in definite posi¬ 
tion, each building a cell around itself, until gradually a 
good-sized comb is built.”—I am much surprised at this. 
We have only to examine the process of comb building 
by taking out the bees occasionally, and we shall find no 
first cell at all until irregular lumps of wax joined toge¬ 
ther extend an inch or more downward. How a bee can 
“ build a cell around itself” is a curious speculation. 
If the bee had a thin sheet of wax just the right size 
rolled out like paper, and could wrap it around its body, 
it might possibly be conceived. But comb is built in no 
such way, and the great naturalist is nowhere more 
grossly in error than here. The bee uses neither hands 
nor feet, but mandibles, and these it uses very much as a 
mason does a trowel. We can see this if we look—not, 
indeed, by trying to see into the dense mass of bees just 
jjiyed—but by observing them through glass, when they 
have combs projecting outside the cluster, generally in 
"■lass surplus boxes best. We can see them detach a thin 
scale of pure white wax from the underside of the ab¬ 
domen, one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, then seize 
it with the mandibles and chew or work it into a sort of 
lump and apply it to the center of the comb or end of the 
cells. This lump is ten times the thickness of the par¬ 
tition wall of ordinary cells when finished. 'Warmth to 
make it pliable seems necessary. With their forceps 
they then remove the superfluous -wax until just a thin 
plate at the center is left. The bottom of the cell is fin¬ 
ished first, but wax is applied to lengthen the cell wall 
in the same way. It is polished with their teeth as they 
proceed. When the cell is onc-fourth of an inch deep— 
if the yield of honey is abundant—it is nearly filled with 
honey, or receives an egg. The lengthening of the cell 
continues. If for a bee, one-sixteenth over a half-inch 
in length is made. If for honey only, cells several inches 
long are sometimes constructed. One cell is not made 
first, but all advance together, and all are filled as they 
proceed, only leaving room to smooth and polish the 
end. Of course, the impossibility of the bee being in¬ 
side a cell nearly full of honey to build anything around 
itself is apparent. 
More might be said. But surely this is enough to show 
the folly of taking any man, however great, as an infalli¬ 
ble authority. I can only hope that the Agassiz teaching 
on other topics may be free from the mistakes which he 
certainly makes in this lecture on bees. 
Scrar-Fodder Making. 
The curing of various kinds of green fodder 
into sour hay is perhaps in the United States a 
not commonly practiced manipulation, espe¬ 
cially the souring of green corn, which should 
be practiced with more effect on the faims of 
the United States of America. The making 
of dry hay of green corn is an injurious 
manner of curing it. Although the writer 
of this is not acquainted with American farm¬ 
ing except by reading of the American Agricul¬ 
turist, nevertheless I communicate a method of 
preservation of juicy fodder peculiarly import¬ 
ant for corn-producing America. 
The corn is sown broadcast, or drilled in 
rows 9 to 18 inches apart, 2 mezens to 1 Austrian 
toch (or about 3.3 hectolitre to 1 hectare). 
[This is nearly 3i bushels to the acre.— Ed.] 
The cultivation remains the same; the field 
must be kept free from weeds. At blossom 
time the corn is mown, loaded into wagons, and 
hauled in. The home-brought corn is put in 
large ditches (German Grube, Miethe), 10 or. 20 
rods long, and is here pressed in by a few men 
walking on the green corn. The accompanying 
engraving will explain the whole. The dilch 
is 12 feet deep, 12 feet wide at the top, and 6 
feet at the bottom. The length will need to he 
sufficient to contain the fodder to he preserved. 
The ditch must he dug in dry ground. When 
the ditch is filled the green corn is built like 
a stack upwards about 10 feet over the level 
of the ground, as shown in the engraving. The 
finished stack is then covered with earth about 
DITCH DOR THE CORN. 
two feet thick on every side. It is best to cover 
the top of the stack at first, because the weight 
of the earth pressing down the green corn, as 
much earth is not needed for covering as is the 
case when the sides are covered at first. 
This sour-hay making enables us to store a 
large quantity of juicy fodder for the winter, 
and if well covered with earth it may be stored 
for a few years without any injury. The most 
important of all is, the-beasts being once ac¬ 
quainted with this sour hay, like it very much. 
With us (in Hungary) the sour hay is cut and 
mixed with corn-meal, or some other ground 
grain, and given to the cattle; but the sour hay 
may he fed uncut also. 
In sections where stones and bricks are to be 
obtained cheaply the sides of the dilch may be 
walled, but it is not necessary. 
I should be very glad if these lines would 
serve to encourage the sour-hay making of corn 
by the American farmers. G. C. 
Albrechtsfeld, Hungary. 
Joseph Arch. 
It is not often that the passage of a private 
individual from England to America is of any 
especial interest to others than the peison him¬ 
self and his immediate family. In the case of 
Joseph Arch, his leaving England and his ar¬ 
rival in America are of importance to both 
countries. The saying that “lie left his country 
for his country’s good” may he applied to Mr. 
Arch in other than the ironical sense in which 
it is usually employed. Within a few years Mr. 
Arch has risen to be the head of an important 
movement among English laborers. From all 
accounts he is thoroughly in earnest in his de¬ 
sire to benefit the English laborer, and takes a 
large and common-sense view of the matter, 
ne finds that the present depressed condition 
of the farm laborer, his low wages, and conse¬ 
quent poor living and ignorance, are due to 
overstocking the market. He regards the at¬ 
tempt to benefit the laborer as hopeless so long 
as labor is so abundant that the employer can 
