economy of the hive, except the sexual function. As already explained, the drone loses a portion of his reproductive organs, in mating, which act is attended with immediate death.

Though doubt is sometimes expressed as to the origin of drones by parthenogenesis, there is no such doubt among intelligent apiarists. If the wing of the virgin queen is clipped, or the entrance to the hive so contracted that she cannot fly, or again, if she is reared when there are no drones, she will be, not sterile, but from her eggs will come only drones. Often these will be in the small cells, when the drones will be no larger than the workers. The eggs from fertile worker bees, and also from old queens, with depleted spermathecas, will likewise produce only drones. In appearance and structure these drones are every way normal. I have no doubt but that they are functionally perfect. There is an interesting fact connected with the appearance and disappearance of drones, whose explanation seems to call for an intelligence above instinct. As the colonies become very populous in spring, the worker bees build drone comb, and rarely even tear down and replace worker with drone cells, and the queen lays the unimpregnated eggs in such cells, preparatory to rearing queens, and to swarming. If we remove a queen none but drone comb will be built. Now suppose a colony is strong and preparing to swarm, and suddenly, from lack of bloom, continuous rains or great drought, the secretion of nectar suddenly stops. Honey gathering of course ceases, brood rearing is discontinued, and, not infrequently, the bees kill all the drones, and even drag the larvæ and pupæ from the cells. As soon as the honey harvest is hopelessly cut short by the autumn frosts, the worker bees commence at once to bite and worry the drones, till the latter are driven forth to die. But if the colony be queenless, or if the queen has become superannuated, the drones will be permitted to remain in the hive all winter. The fate of the drones hangs on the prosperity of the colony. With rapid increase of bees and honey they are safe; adversity in these respects, unless caused by loss or impotency of the queen, betokens their speedy extinction.

Drones are tolerated in a strange colony, which is not generally true of either the queen or workers.

The longevity of drone bees, as we have seen, is largely dependent upon circumstances. There is good reason to believe that they may live through the entire season.

The worker bees are imperfectly developed females, which from receiving less and different food, while larvæ, are immature in their sexual development. A worker larva, less than three days from hatching, will, if given more and richer food, develop into a queen. If an apiarist allows a colony to go queenless for a long time, fertile workers are almost sure to appear, from whose eggs, however, none but drones are produced. Some apiarists suppose that such workers receive, perhaps by accident, a richer and more abundant pabulum. I have wondered if this might not verify Lamarck's idea of evolution. The bee desires eggs, and the deeply felt want induces the extra ovarian development.

The worker bees are shorter than the drones and queen, and less robust than are the drones. Their wings are small but strong, and move very rapidly in flight. When the bees are angry the rapidity is still more marked, and there is a corresponding increase of pitch to the hum.

The workers, as the name implies, do all the work of the hive, hence a reason for their better developed mandibles, with which they cut comb, remove cappings and dig pollen from the cells; their longer tongues and maxillæ, with which they extract nectar from deep tubular flowers, and the deep baskets on their posterior tibiæ and basal tarsi, which are wanting in the queen and drones, in which they carry pollen and propolis to their hives. As they protect the hives from intrusion, they need and possess a better developed sting than that of the queen, which is only used in dispatching rivals.

By the introduction of Italian bees, which differ greatly in color from the German or black bees, bee-keepers have learned that the old bees, for the most part gather the honey pollen and propolis while the young bees remain within the hive and secrete the wax, build the comb, feed the brood and cap the brood cells, though the old bees will do the work of the young ones if for any reason the natural equilibrium of the colony is destroyed.

That bees possess and use the sense of smell, is obvious to the apiarist. If he unite two colonies, they often engage in fierce combat, which only terminates when one of the parties is vanquished. By smoking, sprinkling with an essence, or otherwise giving to both the colonies the same scent previous to the union, perfect peace and harmony is secured. The same fact leads to somewhat similar precautionary measures in introducing queens.

In going to any place, bees seem to be guided by direction rather than sight. Thus if we move a hive, but for one or two feet, the bees will, for days, descend to the old position, and then turn abruptly to the hive. I have been led to notice a strange exception to this; by placing honey on a porch of one of two houses that are exactly alike, but about five rods apart, many bees were misled and swarmed about the porch on which there was no honey. The experiment was several times repeated.

Experience shows that bees will winter quite as well with pure honey or sugar syrup for food, as though they had pollen with it. They may be kept healthy at least for a time, in confinement, in summer, on a pure hydro-carbonaceous diet, and will secrete wax and make comb, with the usual activity. But pollen is a sine qua non to brood rearing. Probably it is also necessary for the old becs, at times of great activity. Bees also need water. Unless very active, this want seems to be met by the water of the honey; but in shipping bees they are now generally fed with candy or crystalized sugar, and unless water is added, they perish in a few days.

Nectar, as gathered from the flowers, contains much more water than does the honey. The bees leave the nectar, which is often nearly as thin as water, some time before capping, until the necessary evaporation has transpired. Bee-keepers call this the curing process. Some nectar is so thick that it is capped very soon, though frequently it remains for days, and rarely is it of such a nature that it does not thicken, and the bees refuse to cap it at all. Such nectar, usually from bark lice, etc., is unwholesome, and unfit food, even for the bees. If thin nectar is extracted, beekeepers evaporate the moisture from it by artificial heat, as it does not preserve its quality unless rid of the superfluous water.

One of the most terrible disasters that can befall the apiarist is to become the victim of foul-brood. In this terrible disease a fungus attacks the brood, which causes it to become putrid and disgusting. It is very contagious. The disease is common in Europe, and has brought ruin and discouragement to apiarists in several of our own States. Spraying with salicylic acid has been found an efficient cure.

The enemies of bees is certainly a matter of interest to all scientists, and especially to zoologists. Among mammals, shrews and mice are often quite destructive to bees. The king bird, Tyrannus carolinensis, captures worker bees, although it is

partial to drones. Toads and frogs seem to lap up bees with no inconsiderable relish, and often work quite successfully to deplete the hives.

Bees have many and formidable foes among insects. In the order Hymenoptera, a species of Xylocopa, probably X. micans, has been observed to kill bees in North Carolina. The cow killer, Mutilla coccinea, destroys bees in the States from central Illinois to Texas. It has been reported several times that ants are at times a serious foe to the honey bee. It is stated that they not only worry the bees by invading the hive, but that they sometimes kill both the queen and workers.

The only lepidopterous insect which annoys American apiarists is the bee-moth, Galleria cereana. And even this is no dread to the intelligent apiarist. It is found that strong colonies of bees, and no other pay, and especially if Italians, will always defend themselves against this enemy. It is only weak or queenless colonies that succumb to this foe.

Among Diptera, Bombylius mexicanus, is reported to enter the hives, in Texas, without resistance and lays its eggs, where the prospective larvæ will be nourished and cared for, without labor on the part of the mother fly. The family Asilidæ affords the most serious dipterous pests to the apiarist. Of these there are at least three species of Asilus, two of Mallophora, two of Promachus, two of Laphria, and two of Erax, that catch and kill bees. These predacious flies work the most serious mischief South, but are not exempt from blame even as far North as Ontario. A parasitic fly of the family Tachinidæ is destructive to bees in several of the States.

In importing bees, the bee louse, Braula coeca, has been introduced from Europe; but so far it promises to do little harm in our country.

Amongst Heteroptera, Phymata erosa is a dreaded foe of the honey bee. From its close mimicry of the flowers of many composite plants, in which it is wont to hide, it finds it easy to grasp the bees with its unique anterior legs, when it soon sucks out their life juices. Mantis corolina kills bees from Central Illinois to the Gulf.

Many of the Libellulidæ, chief among which is Anax junius, are so fierce in their onslaught on bees, that they have been termed bee-hawks. These marauders depredate in all sections of our country.

I need not speak, at this time, of the value of bees in fertilizing flowers, as that has been ably discussed by our botanical friends. That bees ever injure buckwheat or other plants, by seeking nectar from their bloom, as is sometimes claimed, is known to be erroneous by all. present. That they are equally harmless to grapes and other soft-skinned fruits is not so generally granted. Personally, I have never seen a case, though I have several times gone quite a distance to see them at the request of positive individuals. In each case, the bees were found never to attack sound fruit, but only to sip from such as had burst, or been torn by other insects or by birds. While I am not positive that bees are never guilty of such wrong-doing, I do feel certain that such actions if ever true, is quite exceptional. I have lived in California in the midst of apiaries and vineyards, and I have yet to see the first case of such depravity among bees.

The two great improvements in apiculture since the Langstroth hive, and scientific knowledge gave the apiarist such perfect control over his bees, are the extractor and comb foundation, both of which are recent inventions. In both cases the thought came from Germans, but perfection in carrying it out is due to Yankee genius.

The honey extractor works on the principle of centrifugal force, and by its use honey may be thrown from the combs before it is capped over, or afterward if the cappings be first removed with a knife. By this practice, the comb is used over and over again, and as a result, at least twice as much honey can be secured. Experiment proves that it takes at least twenty pounds of honey to secure one of comb, besides the time of secretion is lost, as bees are usually quiet when employed in secreting the wax-scales.

Extracting is often very necessary to furnish room for the queen, so that she may lay eggs. In times of great honey secretion, the workers so fill the cells with honey that the queen finds no place for her eggs, so brood-rearing ceases, and as the workers live only for a few weeks in the active season, depletion of the hive is rapid and sometimes is carried to a fatal extent.

When bees cease gathering, from lack of nectar secretion the queen stops laying, and all brood-rearing ceases. Nothing is found to pay the apiarist so well as to feed sparingly, whenever there is a cessation from gathering honey, and so keep his colonies strong. The extracted honey furnishes a cheap and excellent food for this purpose.