October, 1913. 



American Hee Journal 



home, after taking flight. In Switzer- 

 land many sunny days are so chilly 

 that the least cloud before the sun 

 causes the bees to perish, if they have 

 ventured out. Thus the colonies which 

 face north, and which are not readily 

 lured out by a ray of sunshine, manage 

 to savi-' their bees, while their better 

 exposed neighbors lose them. 



In the climate of Switzerland, the 

 great quality of the Italian bees to rise 

 early and take flight proves a disad- 

 vantage. The common bee, which is 



twice, and have never been stung ex- 

 cept when I accidentally crushed a bee 

 in handling frames. The hybrids which 

 are so cross in .\raerica usually, appear 

 as quiet here as the others, and I am 

 astonished at the steady ways of the 

 latter. They do not rush about on the 

 combs as they do with us ; and, in fact, 

 behave very much like our Italians. 

 However, they do not cling so tena- 

 ciously to the combs, and, in several 

 instances, 1 have seen them fall to the 

 ground. 



Orphrhnai de Belmont, J>res Soudr/ 



The Orphanage Conducted by Mr. Gi.slf.e. 



more accustomed to the climate, ven- 

 tures out less readily and succeeds bet- 

 ter. So we may be sure that our Ital- 

 ians are not to be condemned. 



ZURICH. 



The farther I go the more I am con- 

 vinced that our American apiarists are 

 on the right track in seeking to keep 

 the Italian race pure. But I should not 

 pass full judgment until I see them in 

 their own country, and that will be 

 next month. 



Bee-houses, such as they have here, 

 would not do in our country. The 

 work is too tedious in them. However, 

 there are some very positive advan- 

 tages. Yesterday, on the heights that 

 overlook this large city, we visited an 

 apiary which consists of two rooms, 

 one for the bee-hives, the other for the 

 implements. The owner gave us a very 

 clear idea of what comfort it is, on a 

 rainy day, and they are plentiful in 

 Switzerland, to be able to extract honey 

 or feed the bees without putting a foot 

 out-of-doors and without fear of any 

 robbers. Those are comforts which 

 we cannot claim. But our methods are 

 so much more expeditive that we can 

 well forego the pleasure of rainy-day 

 work. 



Tobacco smoke is used very gen- 

 erally, and I have been entirely cured 

 of the idea that tobacco irritates the 

 bees. In nine cases out of ten, I have 

 seen the apiarists light only a cigar as 

 a smoker. I have used a veil only 



The Carniolans are well spoken of 

 wherever tried, but the unanimous ver- 

 dict is that they swarm too much. 

 That is a great objection for our prac- 

 tical apiarists who already have as 

 many colonies as they want, but it does 

 not seem to be an objection in German- 

 Switzerland. 



I am writing in rather a hurried way, 

 for we go from one place to another 

 every other day; but I am taking some 

 notes, and will go over the subject 

 again soon. 1 want to mention the 

 men whom I have met, and show their 

 faces to the reader. I will also men- 

 tion some of their implements, which 

 are like their roads and their houses, 

 made to last and endure service. 



WITH MR. BERTRAND. 



Dear reader, we would like to tell 

 you at once all the experiences of our 

 trip. But we have only 4 numbers of 

 the American Bee Journal to do it in, 

 while we have material for 40. The 

 only thing we can do then is to give 

 short glimpses, reserving the bulk of 

 our e.xperiences for a series of " Travel 

 Notes," which will be published if we 

 don't tire you too much. If you can 

 be given one hundreth of the pleasure 

 we have had, it will be satisfactory. 



Last Sunday, Aug. 31, was the climax 

 day of our trip. At the fine country 

 home of Mr. Bertrand, on the north 

 shore of Lake Leman, a dozen or more 

 bee-keepers were invited to a tea in 

 our honor. Not only were local dis- 

 tinguished visitors present, but Mr. 

 Cowan, the learned editor of the 

 British Bee Journal, and author of a 

 number of bee-books, had seized this 

 opportunity to visit his old-time friend. 

 He had arrived from England that 

 same morning; a very pleasant sur- 

 prise to me. Mr. Cowan is a bacteri- 

 ologist, a microscopist, a botanist, and 

 a bee-keeper. He is a living, walking 

 encyclopedia, as we found out, for he 

 appeared to know the botanical name 

 of every plant, every blossom in the 

 park, and there are many. 



I cannot give here a detail of the 

 events of that pleasant day. We hope 

 to have a photograph which was taken 

 by one of the guests. We will then 

 have a more detailed account of the 

 doings and of the discussions on bees, 

 which took place in the afternoon. 



Siimmer home of Mr. E. Bertrand. iwhere the editor and his'wife were entertained 



LEWIS BEEWARE MEANS 



GOOD QUALITY, SCIEN- 

 TIFIC WORKMANSHIP 

 CAREFUL PACKING 

 EFFICIENT SERVICE 



Send for Annual CntnlojE^ n'hlcli -will toll 

 you «-ho In your nearest Distributer. 

 G. B. Len-is Company, Waterton-n, Wis. 



