530 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



THE ITALIAN HONEY-BEE; 



OR THE 



CULTLTIE Ax\D ITALIANIZATION OF THE NATUD OR BLACK HONEY-BEE. 



BY RICHARD COLVIX, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND. 



The first attempt to import the Italian honey-bee into the United States, it 

 is believed, was made about the year 1855, by Messrs. Samuel Wagner and 

 Edward Jessop, of York, Pennsylvania; but, in consequence of inadequate 

 provision for their safety on so long a voyage, they perished before their arrival. 



In the winter of 1858-'59 another attempt was made by Mr. Wagner, Rev. 

 L. L. Langstroth, and myself. The order Avas placed in the hands of the sur- 

 geon of the steamer, (to whose charge the bees were to have been committed on 

 the return voyage,) with instiiictions to transmit it to Mr. Dzierzon on reaching 

 Liverpool ; but, in consequence of his determining to leave the ship to engage 

 in other service on his arrival at Bremen, it was not done, and this efibrt failed. 

 Subsequently arrangements were made by which, in the latter part of that year, 

 we received seven living queens. At the same time, and on board the same 

 steamer, Mr. P. J. Mahan, of Philadelphia, brought one or more queens, which 

 were supposed to be of doubtful purity. Only two or three young queens were 

 reared by us during that fall and winter, and in the following spring we found 

 all our imported stock had perished. 



In conjunction with Mr. Wagner I detei-mined to make another trial, and 

 another order wag immediately despatched. The queens, hoAvever, did not 

 arrive until the following June. Meantime, about the month of May, Mr. S. B. 

 Parsons, of Flushing, Long Island, received an importation of them from the 

 Borthern part of Italy, some of the progeny of which he placed in the hands of 

 the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, Mr. W. W. Carey, Mr. M. Quimby, and other 

 skilful apiarians, who, with Mr. C. W. Rose, a subsequent importer, and per- 

 haps some others, have bred and disseminated them pretty widely through our 

 country. 



In consequence of a severe attack of illness in the latter part of the summer 

 of 1860 I was unable to accomplish much beyond the rearing of some fifteen 

 or twenty queens, which were impregnated with native drones. Aware that 

 European breeders had found difficulty in breeding them pure, and learning 

 that similar difficulties seemed to be encountered by those breeding them in 

 this country, I determined, before disposing of any queens, to Italianize my 

 entire apiary from the purest stock to be procured, and accordingly made sub- 

 sequent importations from the most reliable sources, including the vicinity of 

 Lake Como. None, however, excelled, if equalled, those procured from Mr. 

 Dzierzon, from whose stock my present Italian apiary has been bred. 



As the natural history and cultivation of this race of bees does not, in general, 

 materially vary from that of our native bee, (and a detailed account of it would 

 be too lengthy for this article, and has ah-eady been published in the excellent 

 work of Rev. L. L. Langstroth, entitled "Langstroth on the Honey-Bee,") I 



