The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-02-27
The Bumble Bee.


Children, did you ever stop to con-
slider the immense power possessed by a
humble bee? An insect weighing no
more than tenth of an ounce is capable
of raising" man weighing 900 pounds
from bench in the public park, and
then have lots of lifting material left.
just stop and think of it! The stinger of
bee is not near as large as the finest
needle, but such is the force behind it
that it can be driven through heavy
pants cloth, backed by merino drawers,
and into the flesh about sixteen feet. If
man could WELD crowbar in compare
son, he could drive it through seven saw
mills and distillery at one blow.
Nature could not give the bee teeth and
claws without spelling its beauty, and, in
compensation she gave him this stinger
as a weapon of attack and defense. If
the bee had no weapon ,ants, beetles and
bugs could cuff him around as they
pleased, but as it is, he is the boss of the
walk, and won't take word from any of
them.
The humble bee is not naturally of a
quarrelsome disposition, but he can't sit
down over half an hour without feeling
as if some one was doing him great
wrong. If left to himself, he will crawl
up your coat sleeve, look around, and
crawl down and go about his business,
but if welcomed with blow between the
eyes, he is going to be revenged if he
breaks leg. He invariably closes his
eyes when he stings, and you have only
cover when he is fooling around, and
when he means fourteen per cent. per
annum.
The bayfield, is favorite resort of the
humble bee, but you can find him almost
anywhere else if you try hard. Having
no pair of long hind legs he cannot build
his nest in marsh like frog, and
having no beak in which to carry straws,
he cannot nest in tree, like bird He
therefore takes to the grass, and under
the roots of an old stump, or among a
pile of old rails, he rears his gentle
young and gives them printed instruc-
tions as to the difference between
singing six inch stovepipes and runaway
boys. The knowledge of old bees is
powerful. They know where the school
house is. They know when school is
out. They can sail miles away from
home, get in their work on farmers son
| wedding out corn, and return home with
out missing fence corner or in need OF
an afternoon nap. As rule, they are
early risers. Barefooted boys driving up
the cows at daylight will find the humble
bee out of bed and ready to begin the
arduous labors of the day. Along about
| sun down he quits work, counts noses to
see if the family are all in, and then
slows himself away for night of calm
and peaceful repose.
The legs of the humble bee are very
crooked. This seems too bad at first
sight, but you will soon discover that
nature was level-headed. His legs were
| thus shaped to enabl, him to hang to the
brim of q boys straw hat. Were his legs
straight he could not walk fence rail in
high wind, nor could he turn around
| after reaching the top of a mullen stock.
The stripes on bee look like waste of
| material, but such is not the case. They
furnish an extra covering over his ribs to
keep the frosty air off, and they serve to
stiffen his spinal column in his flights
through the air.
A humble bee can fly at the rate of
twenty miles an hour, if he wants to, but
there is no cause for him to fly faster
than boy can run. He sometimes
lives to be three years old, and is some
times stricken down before he has
travelled at all. His life is precarious
one. He may run deacon out of hay
field to-day, and be the big tree in the
nest, and tomorrow country school
ma am may knock his head off with her
umbrella. Nothing in natural history
weighs more for his size than the bee,
and nothing in science works easier with
out cogwheels or rubber rollers than his
stinger. It if always ready, never out of
repair, and satisfaction Ito the bee) is
is guaranteed in every case.