American bee journal (1916) (17492682914)

Title: American bee journal
Identifier: americanbeejourn5657hami (find matches)
Year: 1861 (1860s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bee culture; Bees
Publisher: (Hamilton, Ill. , etc. , Dadant & Sons)
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: UMass Amherst Libraries



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Vol. LVll.—No. 1 HAMILTON, ILL., JANUARY, 1917, MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR SEVENTY YEARS OF BEEKEEPING The First of a Series of Articles By the Editor, Reviewing the Development of Beekeeping Since 1845 To go back 70 years and view the scientific and physical world progress accomplished since then means probably more than any of us can realize at first thought. But it is only necessary to open any printed book, even a novel, dating back 70 years or more to appreciate the extra- ordinary physical change of conditions. Most of Dickens' stories, for instance, were written less than 80 years ago, but his characters traveled only in such conveyances as the post-chaise and the coach. Railroads came later. He knew nothing of telegrams, telephones, elec- tric lights, bicycles, automobiles or aeroplanes. The sea traffic was so slow that it took from one to three months to carry the news of a battle from one hemisphere to the other. Kerosene oil was unknown, and house lights de- pended upon wax, lard oil or tallow dips. The postal systems were crude and clumsy until postal stamps were used, and this did not happen in Eng- land until 1840, and in this country until 1847, less than 70 years ago. In addition to the delay to get news from Europe, a letter crossing the ocean re- quired 64 cents of postage. The Inter- national Postal Union was not created until 1874. The first successful trans- atlantic cable was not laid until 186(5. Seventy years ago we had no steam plows, no steam engines in fact, ex- cept very crude ones, no harvesting machines, no sewing machines, no type-writers. Steam-heated houses did not exist and bath tubs were luxuries found only in palaces or special houses. No automobiles ran on the then muddv roads of Europe. Tha inventors of fly- ing machines were laughed to scorn in their unsuccessful attempts and threat- ened with the insane asylum for reward of their genius. One of the rare indus- tries in which the conditions are still today very similar to those of 500 years ago is the shoeing of horses. Is it any wonder then that beekeep- ing should follow the trend of all ma- terial progress ? It is for a record of this progress and of the men who brought it about that this series of articles is now begun. We hope to entertain the reader while giving the student easy references to the work of the past. It would be a mistake for us to im- agine that books on beekeeping were rare before that time. Bastian, an Alsatian minister, in his book " Les Abeilles," published in 1868, gives a list of 664 publications, 24 of which were printed between the years 1568 and 1700. Of the others, 237 were published during the 18th Century, and the re- mainder during the first 65 years of the 19th Century. Four hundred and twenty-five of these publications were in German, 181 in French, 24 in Eng- lish, 9 in Italian, 8 in Latin, and the balance in 6 or 7 other tongues. But even his list is not complete, for the writer of this owns several works which received no mention in it, being evidently unknown to Bastian. His
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DZIERZON largest lists are of German and French works, perhaps because he read and wrote those languages himself. The first periodical on beekeeping of which we find any record was published in Landshut, Bavaria, from 1838 to 1843, then discontinued. In 1845, the famous " Bienenzeitung" was founded in Nordlingen, Bavaria, and continued many years, though it is now out of ex- istence, but replaced by many others. In 1845, Dzierzon, a Polish Catholic priest, of Karlsmarkt,SiIesia, discovered parthenogenesis in queenbees, the fac- ulty which they possess, in common with some other insects, of laying eggs that will hatch into male bees or drones, even though they have not mated. This discovery was the first real step forward since the time of Huber, and it was not accepted readily. The publication of Dzierzon's views by Schmidt, then editor of the Bienenzei- tung, almost threatened the existence of this journal. But Siebold, Leuckart and Leidy, all microscopists and scien- tific beekeepers, studied it and con- firmed it. The discovery was made under great difficulties, for the hive used by Dzierzon was just a " bar-hive," that is, its combs were hung on a plain top-bar without end-bars, so that at each visit the combs had to be cut away from each end of the hive-body before they could be taken out. To add to the inconvenience, as the hives were always placed in tiers, whether in doors or out-of-doors, probably to save space, they were made to open on the side and each comb had to be drawn out with pincers. If the third or fourth comb was wanted, the first two or three had to be first detached and drawn out. Yet Dzierzon became so accustomed to the handling of these hives that he used no other, even after movable frames were invented. The bar-hive is a very ancient invention. Berlepsch, a German, after having doubted or denied the possibility of parthenogenesis, became one of its 'warmest adherents, after thorough