December, 1913. 



American lee Journal 



same men in the chairs of President, 

 Secretary and Treasurer; and Mr. 

 Aaron Coppin, of Wenona, was made 



1st Vice-President. Mr. W. B. Moore 

 was elected delegate to the National 

 convention. 



Notes From W Ab r oad 



Notes from Abroad 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



WF,LL, dear rtader, I am again 

 writing from my desk at home, 

 after four months of travel. 

 The 50th anniversary of my 

 first arrival from Europe, when 

 a child, almost coincided with my re- 

 turn home, for I landed in Hamilton, 

 111., on the 19th of October, 1863, and 

 my wife and I landed in New York 

 from our long trip on the 18th of Oc- 

 tober last. Fifty years of residence in 

 a country ought to give one a fairly 

 good idea of the country. I am glad 

 to say that we returned to America 

 with the greatest satisfaction, and with 

 the feeling that it is the best country 

 of all, even though it is behind Europe 

 in many things. Mrs. Dadant, of 

 course, being born here, did not hold 

 a ditiferent view from mine. 



In glancing over the letters written 

 to the Bee Journal from abroad, I see 

 that I can confirm what I have already 

 written about the Italian bees. All 

 along our route, the verdict was the 

 same. The Italian bees are more ac- 

 tive than the common bees; they rise 

 earlier, stay out later, are fully as pro- 

 lific, if not more, and prove better 

 wherever the climate permits them to 

 follow their inclination. But there are 

 spots, and some parts of Switzerland 

 are of that kind, where the very activity 

 of the Italian bees is to their detriment. 

 I cannot do better than to give here 

 a comparison which I have expressed 

 to a number of beekeepers, and which 

 illustrates the conditions they face in 

 some cases and the results. Even 

 though this illustration is taken from 

 the vegetable world instead of the ani- 

 mal kingdom, the reader will plainly 

 see the point. 



When I built the house in which I 

 now live, here at Hamilton, I planned 

 to plant a number of hard maples, or 

 sugar maples (acer saccharum), in the 

 front yard. These, I thought, I could 

 secure from the woods around, since 

 the sugar maple grows naturally here. 

 But I could get only 6 good trees, and 

 I needed 21. So I asked a nurseryman 

 to supply me with the extra 15. These 

 were shipped from Wisconsin. As 

 Wisconsin is 2 degrees or more farther 

 north than we are here, I felt quite 

 sure that the trees from that State 

 would be fully as hardy as the local 

 trees, and would thrive. But the result 

 was exactly the reverse of what I 

 thought. As soon as a few warm days 

 come, in early spring, the Wisconsin 

 trees evidently take it for granted that 

 the winter is over, and they send forth 

 leaves and stems. After a few days a 

 frost comes that wilts all this growth, 

 and the trees are set back to such an 



e.xtent that they can make but little 

 growth. The home-grown trees, how- 

 ever, are so acclimated that they do 

 not trust the first warm days, do not 

 hasten to send forth their growth, and 

 when they do grow, all danger of frost 

 is over. So the trees from the colder 

 country are worse off than the others 

 because they trust an unknown climate. 

 I believe that where ihe Italian bees 

 fail, it is for a similar reason. They 

 are accustomed to the climate of Italy, 

 and their instinct prompts them to go 

 out at the first ray of sunshine. But in 

 some parts of Switzerland, as I pointed 

 out in my October letter, the bees that 

 venture out on doubtful sunny days are 

 often unable to return. The very ac- 

 tivity of the Italian bees thus turns 

 against them. Similarly, when a warm 

 spell during the latter part of summer 

 induces them to breed, they spend too 

 much in rearing brood, while the local 

 bees mistrust the short fair weather 

 and practice economy. The climate of 

 the Mississippi valley is certainly more 

 similar to that of Italy than to that of 

 the cool valleys of Switzerland. So 

 the Italian bees art suitable for our 

 climate, and we may still be sure that 

 they are preferable to the common 

 bees, or even to those of Switzerland. 



I heard very favorable comments 

 concerning the Carniolans and the 

 Caucasians. But the universal verdict 

 was that the Carniolans are very great 

 swarmers. Perhaps this habit could 

 be bred out by the use of large hives, 

 but if we wish to succeed we had best 

 begin with the races that are nearest 

 to our ideal. 



I will have more to say concerning 

 the Italian bees when describing the 

 apiaries of central Italy. I saw there, 

 in Bologna, at the home of Mr. Enrico 

 Penna, the most perfectly kept apiary 

 that I have seen anywhere, all things 

 considered, and I propose to give our 

 readers a full account of it. But so 

 many have asked me to write an ac- 

 count of our entire trip, not omitting 

 even the sight-seeing, that I feel bound 

 to acquiesce. Thus, if my readers find 

 columns that do not contain any bee- 

 news, in these " Notes from ."Abroad," 

 they will please remember that it is in 

 response to the wishes e.xpressed by 

 many, of a thoro\igh account. I have 

 a number of photographs, landscapes, 

 apiaries, bee-meetings, etc., which will 

 illustrate these notes as we go along. 



When we left the shores of .A.merica, 

 in June last, we found in our cabin, at 

 the departure of the boat, some 25 fare- 

 well letters, from our friends on this 

 side, and an immense bouquet, an arm- 

 ful of roses. We wanted to mention 

 this because we still feel the emotions 

 which arose in our breasts at the sight 

 of such fine tokens of friendship from 

 all around. If any of you have dear 



friends leaving for far-away shores, 

 you cannot please them better than by 

 anticipating their departure with some 

 such farewell. 



Arriving at Havre on July 2, we at 

 once took the special train for Rouen. 

 As the train slowly pulled out of the 

 docks, a swarm of ragged children fol- 

 lowed it, holding out their hands and 

 begging for coppers. We were very 

 indignant at this sight, but were told 

 that the New York arrivals are the 

 cause of this begging, because the 

 Americans amuse themselves throwing 

 small pieces of money to the children 

 to see them tumble over each other. 

 This is a bad practice, and ought to be 

 stopped. It actually creates beggars 

 by offering a reward to begging. The 

 practice of begging is much lessened 

 in Europe; we did not see a single 

 beggar in Switzerland, very few in 

 France, and it is time to put an end to 

 it everywhere. 



I will not say anything about our 

 visit in Rouen. The August number 

 contains a sufficient account. 



We reported having visited the office 

 of L'Apiculteur, of Paris, the principal 

 journal of apiculture of France. Very 

 few people know that this is now the 

 oldest periodical on bees in the entire 

 world. The oldest was the Bienenzei- 

 tung of Germany, but I am informed 

 that it has ceased its publication, there 

 being now several other journals on 

 bee-culture, in that progressive coun- 

 try. So L'Apiculteur is now the senior 

 of all the bee-journals, our own Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal being next to it in age, 

 and the oldest in the English language. 

 L'Apiculteur is now 57 years old. Its 

 first editor, Hamet, and my father had 

 very strenuous discussions upon the 

 advantages of the movable-frame hives 

 and the modern systems of bee-culture. 

 It was Hamet who called the honey 

 extractor " a useless toy." But he has 

 been dead many years, and his succes- 

 sors, Messrs. Sevalle & D'Autemarche 

 believe in progress. The president of 

 the " Societe Centrale," the National 

 bee association of France, is Mr. Bon- 

 nier, a great botanist as well as a bee- 

 keeper of note. He has lately pub- 

 lished a "Nouvelle Flore," and an 

 "Album De La Nouvelle Flore," which 

 contain descriptions and cuts of the 

 flora of France. He is now publishing 

 a " Flore Complete " of France, Switz- 

 erland and Belgium, with colored 

 plates of the finest finish. Two vol- 

 umes of this have already appeared, 

 and I have secured them. One feature 

 of his botanical works is that he never 

 fails to mention the plants that are use- 

 ful to bees. This is valuable to bee- 

 keepers everywhere. 



We called also upon Mr. Condamin> 

 the publisher of " L'Apiculture Nou- 

 velle," which is really the representa- 

 tive of American ideas in France. 

 This magazine, which is only 8 years 

 old, has begun on a progressive method 

 at once, reproducing many of the cuts 

 that are published in Gleanings in Bee 

 Culture. We are informed that it has 

 many readers on this side of the At- 

 lantic, some 500 of whom are French 

 Canadians. Those of our friends who 

 were kind enough to express the wish 

 that the American Bee Journal be also 

 published in the French language, are 

 respectfully referred to this publica- 



