Ought bee-keepers to make honey exhibitions at our county and state'sure' I think they had, and I believe that here is a field that has been too much neglected. The great point to be gained is that thereby we can increase the home consumption of honey. The benefit the great cause of apiculture would receive from a judicious exhibition of honey at our fairs is that it gives us a chance to bring our honey in its the competition, but causes the consumer to think they ought to buy cheaper. It may be urged that by these exhibitions we will induce many not now in the business to embark in it. I think not. I believe the better way is to come right out square and let them see what we are doing. I have made exhibitions at the Saratoga County fairs for a number of years and have yet to hear of any one starting in the business as the result, but I know it has been the means of helping hundreds, I may say thousands, of pounds of honey out of the glutted city markets. I think, perhaps, you will agree with me that for the cause of apiculture exhibitions at fairs are desirable, but will it pay the persons making them for their time and the necessary expense? We might ask does bee-keeping pay? Does any business pay? The answer depends in a great measure on the individuals themselves. It may not pay directly the first year, but if advertising is worth anything it no doubt will, in the long run. If your fair managers offer no premiums, make a good display one or two years without and I think they will then, rather than lose this attractive feature. There is also a great advantage in being the first one to start anything like this. Now, friends, if these few ideas that I have here advanced will result in increasing the home consumption of our honey, thereby helping to relieve the city markets, I shall feel repaid for all the labor I have given this paper. **Mr. Pond Criticised.** Mr. J. E. Pond should have risen earlier, his plan of introducing queens was given by Mr. H. H. Flick, October number '87 of the Magazine, and _to him belongs the palm for this country_. Mr. Pond should try and let the queen run in from the back side, that would be a new idea of his, _a la H_--. J. Victor Achard. Our bees starting out lively this spring. Wintered fine, with no loss. S. D. Starkey. **Bellefonte, Ark.** Paper read by Mrs. Harrison before the Illinois Farmers' Institute, at Peoria. **Bees and their Relation to Agriculture and Horticulture.** Before approaching the subject proper of this paper, it may be well to preface it with a few remarks upon the natural history of the honey bee. " Honey bees can only flourish when associated in large numbers, as in a colony. In a solitary state a single bee is almost as helpless as a new-born child, being paralyzed by the child of a cool summer night." On examining a strong colony in the hight of the honey season you will find **THREE KINDS OF BEES.** **1st, one of a peculiar shape, having a longer abdomen than the rest ; this is the queen or mother bee, she being the mother of the whole colony. **2d, several hundreds of large bees, called drones ; these are the males. **3d, many thousands of a smaller kind, called workers, or the common bees, such as are seen on the flowers. Many of the cells will be found to contain honey and bee bread or pollen, and vast numbers of eggs, and immature workers and drones ; and if near the swarming point, a few cells of unusual size, devoted to the rearing of young queens. Of the substances found in a hive, there is wax, a fatty secretion of bees, of which the combs are built; beebread, or the pollen of flowers ; honey; and propolisis, or bee-glue, which the bees gather from the resinous plants and flowers. The queen bee is the only perfect female in the hive, and all the eggs are laid by her, which is the only duty she is expected to perform. The drones are the males ; their office is to impregnate the queen, hover the young brood, and assist in the capping of the honey cells. The last point has been disputed, but careful observation has satisfied me of its correctness. _The workers arefemales_, whose ovaries are not sufficiently developed to enable them to lay eggs, but who retain the female instinct to care for the young brood. The time required for the reproduction of bees from the eggs is twenty-one days for the worker, twenty-one days for
## 10 The Bee-KeeperS' Magazine.