180 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 25, 1892. 
a little being given to insure evaporation and the consequent elaboration 
of the sap. The plants may be sprinkled over the foliage early on tine 
afternoons, avoiding the stems or collars, and closing before the tempera¬ 
ture has receded to 80°, so as to raise the temperature to 90° or 95°. 
Admit a little air at /5°, increase it with the increasing sun heat, and 
keep through the day at 85° or 90° by that means. Employ coverings 
over the lights on cold nights. 
M 
& 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
i ■ i - , . r-1. i - r - r . i ■ i ■ i - i ■ r- r - 
APIARIAN NOTES 
Fertile Workers—Wiiat are They? 
Some people deny the existence of fertile workers, others say 
that workers develop their reproductive organs when in their 
adult state and become egg layers, while others assert that some 
bees, it not all of them, have the power of mating. All of these 
propositions are errors. No worker bee is capable of mating, and 
n ?., on . e {U 9 the P ower of developing her reproductive organs 
while in the pupa state nor after she has crept from the cell. It 
is the food given by the nuise bee and the location of heat, 
together with the enlarged cell, and these things only, that give 
the insect, whether queen or worker, the power to lay eggs The 
most conclusive proof, and a beautiful example of a 'fertile 
worker proper, was an Italian Alp bee, bred contiguous to a queen 
cell, the two being the only ones in the piece of comb given to a 
queenless hive of bees, the queen in this case being lost. The bee 
laid eggs that produced beautifully marked Italian drones. I 
watched this bee after receiving court from the other bees and 
depositing eggs. 
Queens, perfect and imperfect, but which are drone-producers 
are termed by some of our modernists fertile workers, which is 
also an error. Many imperfect queens have little resemblance to 
perfect ones, but have all, more or less, the distinguishing marks, 
although not highly developed. Fertile workers proper in no 
respect resemble queens. Some imperfect queens mate like perfect 
ones, although in appearance they are, to casual observers, workers 
only ; but these queens never survive long while others never seek 
to mate, and often begin laying eggs shortly after birth. I had 
several of that sort this year. One very puny young queen might 
easily have been passed over for a worker amongst them, for 
she could scarcely be distinguished, and years ago I had similar 
experience. 
All the queen cells raised by drone-producing queens or fertile 
workers produced nothing but drones, the cells of which could not 
be detected from queen cells. The foregoing is the result of my 
experience and observation. Will “ Hallamshire Bee-keeper’’ 
explain how a worker bee can become a producer of worker bees 
and queens ? 
The Heatiier-Yoles. 
I am now at the Heather with my bees anxiously waiting for 
some sunshine to open the Heather, which, owing to the rainy 
season, is very late, and to the destruction by the voles, is not fine 
this year It is scarcely worth repeating, but when we see teachers 
telling the people that rain is good for producing fine Heather it is 
the weak link we judge them by. The voles spoken of are very 
destructive to pasture of all kinds, and large tracts of Heather are 
spoded by them. Cats and dogs that eat them become diseased, 
f am lncll ° ed to think aris es from the formation of the 
indigestible fur; but not having my microscope at hand I could 
not exa mine them closely. The head is large, the hind feet have 
five, and the fore ones four, toes ; the tail is short. With such 
traps as were noticed in your columns lately the country could 
soon be rid of them. They migrate readily to places of plenty 
and comfort. Although the papers made a burlesque of catching 
a number in a short time in a bottle thrown by accident upon the 
line, it was a valuable hint for exterminating pests. Voles are 
getting more numerous every year, and as they take to the water 
readily they may become a pest in more wavs than one._ 
A .Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
PRODUCING BETTER BEES. 
I 1IAVE been quite interested in Mr. Giles’ suggestions about 
obtaining a better bee by crossing some of the different races or 
varieties now known to us. 
f ,'F he so-called Punic or African bee, if it possesses even a part 
of the good qualities ascribed to it, might perhaps be crossed in the 
Italians, so as to give us substantially a new variety having the 
desirable qualities of both its parent races. 
. ^bat friend of the Italians would not be overjoyed if he could 
give to them the same readiness (I might even say eagerness) for 
working in supers so characteristic of the black or German bee, and 
the same power of sealing over their honey with such exquisitely 
white cappings i? Yet nothing of this kind has been brought to 
pass, in spite of innumerable crossings between the two races. 
Ihose who have read my observations on the only colony of 
1 umc bees I have yet seen, know that I certainly found in them 
some peculiarities which do not belong to the common black race, 
and 1 would advise those who have crosses between the yellow 
varieties and these bees to give them the closest attention 
I cannot agree with Mr. Giles that there is any promising 
outlook for breeding a race of stingless bees. Rats, mice, and 
most of the vermin race love honey, so do birds of various kinds, 
and bipeds of the human kind are often tempted to steal it. 
Now what defence could such a puny insect as a honey bee 
make against the vast hosts of its sweet-loving enemies if it had 
not such a formidable weapon as its venomous sting ? 
A little time spent upon pondering this question would soon 
satisfy anyone that we are never likely to see a stingless race of 
fioney bees. — L. L. Langstrotii, Dayton, Ohio (in “ The 
Apiculturist. ) v 
Mr. W. 
Messrs. 
Bulbs, 
Mr. C. 
Mr. W. 
Netting. 
Messrs. 
Messrs. 
Messrs. 
Messrs. 
Bulbs. 
Messrs. 
Messrs. 
Messrs. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Bull, 536, King’s Road, Chelsea, London, S.W.— Bulbs. 
. J. Carter & Co., 237 and 238, High Holborn, London.— 
W. Cousins, 13, High Street, London, N.— Bulbs. 
Cullingford, Eastern Road, Plaistow, London, E.— Garden, 
Dicksons, Limited, Chester.— Bulbs. 
E. P. Dixon & Sons, Hull.— Bulbs. 
Dobie & Mason, 22, Oak Street, Manchester.— Bulbs. 
hletcher, Douglas & Johnson, New Square, Chesterfield.— 
Herb & Wulle, Naples, Italy.— Bulbs. 
J. Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, London, S.E.— Bulbs. 
W. Iaul &; Son, Waltham Cross.— Bulbs. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS 
®* !3 A11 correspondence should be directed either to “ The 
Editor or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to 
Dr. Hogg or members of the staff often remain unopened 
unavoidably. We request that no one will write privately 
to any of our correspondents, as doing so subjects them to 
unjustifiable trouble and expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions 
relating to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should 
never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, 
and we do not undertake to return rejected communications 
Photographs (IF. G. G.). —We have received three photographs. 
Please send us a few particulars about them. 
Sweet Mace (Mace). —The flowering specimen arrived as we were 
preparing for press, and after the insertion of a note on the subiect in 
another column, which see. 
Heating with Gas (S. J. A.).—We have not taken any records 
relative to the consumption of gas for heating glass structures. Some- 
thing depends on the apparatus, and a good deal on the burner. 
1 hough no one can state with any precision the cost of heating a house 
without knowing its height, as well as other dimensions, also the area 
of glass exposure, we publish your letter in another column in case any 
or our readers can give information, founded on practice, on heating 
with gas. & 
Grubs and Endive (Bob Smith'). —You cannot do better than 
remove the soil from around the plants, and spread round them in its 
place a good thickness of wood ashes and soot. Watering with a 
mixture of soapsuds and petroleum is said to act as a deterrent, about a 
wineglassful of the oil in 3 or 4 gallons of the suds, stirring well at the 
time of using, and not pouring it over the leaves. A heavy dressing of 
lime would do your land good, or a light one of gas lime, but you had 
better write for particulars later in the season. 
