1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



141 



lietter foi' us to give up business or for our fiiends 

 lo lock Ub. up 111 !i Uinatic-asj'lum. We think it 

 would be well for bee-keepers to examine tliLMu- 

 selves and see what leads them to be favorably im- 

 pressed with tlie ■• tlve-baiided Italian bees." Is it 

 not their beauty? Should they not rather regard that 

 as very seL-ondary, and look for the primary requi- 

 sites before launching' out in eulogies ? We have 

 tried vai'ious flve-banded queens from what were 

 supposed to be the leading breeders of these bees. 

 They have thus far done nothing remarkable in the 

 direction of good works, wliatever thi-y may do dur- 

 ing the coming season. Thus far we have not found 

 them p.irticularly good for building up— rather to 

 the contrary. Next, although they showed no mark- 

 ed trait when in a normal condition, we have found 

 the workers in two insiauces, being every instance 

 in our case, very irritable when ia that condition. 

 We remember a queen secured from a lady in the 

 South in the fall of 1893. A good big price was paid 

 for the queen, and also a second purchased. Al- 

 though going into winter quarters strong in bees it 

 was in pui)r couiiition iu the spring, and was on only 

 three frames when the next poorest was on eight. 

 After a gi'eat deal uf trouble, and the refusal on 

 our part to add another $5 to the returned queen 

 and get a " tirst-class," we had the otfer to give us a 

 $5 queen at half the price of the first. This we accept- 

 ed, and the queen came to hand, witli the admoni- 

 tion that, for $5, the progeny would not be all tlve- 

 banded. Thej' can not, therefore, be considered a 

 very tixed strain of bees. 



Last year the Ontario Agricultural and Experi- 

 mental Union took in hand to make tests with tiiese 

 live-banded Southern queens. Five iiueens of the 

 leather-colored Italian sti-ain were also supplied— 

 in all, 3.i. The queens were supplied between July 

 and October :i, and they are to be tested for gentle- 

 ness, longevity, honey ■ gathering qualities, euc. 

 Thus far every one having the leather-colored Italian 

 auu the li\x-banded Italian, without soliciLiug this 

 fall a reply in tliis direction, mentions the superior- 

 ity of tne leather-colored queen as to prolific quali- 

 ties. Four of the tive-banded queens have already 

 been superseded, which does not speak well for 

 their longevity; several were also lost iu introduc- 

 tion. We notice that the Vermont bee-keepers are, 

 at their coming convention, to discuss whether it is 

 advLsable, In view of the prevalence of bee paralysis 

 iu the South, to purchase queens from there. If 

 those wide-awake Vermont bee-keepers begin to 

 doubt the wisdom of such purchases, the rest of us 

 may well hesitate. Let us not add another disease 

 to battle with. 



I also notice that Editor Leahy, in the last 

 Progressive, pays his respects to them in this 

 fashion: 



I have never received a so-called "flve-banded" 

 queen from Mr. Doolittle, but 4 or 5 years ago I 

 ordered one direct from Mr. Hearn, paying him 

 SS.bO for her, this being his price of tested queens. 

 This queen produced the most worthless, and at the 

 same time most vicious bees that I ever had any ex- 

 perience with (hybrids not excepted), they being 

 small, with a black shiny spot at the end of the 

 abdomen. The following winter they dwindled 

 away and died on the summer-stand, yet they were 

 packed in sawdust. Since then 1 have ordered five- 

 banded queens from a number of other breeders 

 with .some very good results and some very bad. 



Editor Alley, in the Apicultvrlst, has been 

 giving those golden fellows " regular fits." Ed- 

 itor Hutchinson, in the Revttw — well, I can't 

 find where he stands, so I'll put him on the 

 fence, and p]ditor York beside him. I have 

 been on both sides of the aforesaid fence; but I 

 have stayed longer, and on the side of the op- 

 posers of the yellow fellows; indeed, I feel more 

 inclined to stay there because the majority of 

 the testimony seems rather to be against them 

 (the yellow bees). 



OUR KELKJIOUS PAl'EKS AND ELECTKOI'OISE. 



We copy the following entire from Electricity 

 of Jan. U, 18<».i: 



There can be no defense. The publications ac- 

 cepLing that advertisement confess a willingness to 

 make money by aiding a swindle. Yet the Cliunh- 

 inan has thehypocriticalefifrontery to descant upon 

 the evils of the Sunda> newspaper: 



"The discussion of the Sunday newspaper at the 

 Church Congress gave much satisfaction to Chris- 

 tians interested in the preservation of the brief 

 hours of the Lord's Day for the development of the 

 spiritual nature of man; and the words of the more 

 seriously minded of the spi'akers were uniformly 

 devoted to impressing upon churchmen the inev- 

 itable loss susiained by those who either neglect 

 di%'ine worship for the attractions of the Sunday 

 newspaper, or attend the services of the church 

 with minds and hearts indisposed by such reading, 

 to receive their hallowed influences." 



The evils of the Sunday newspaper, however great 

 they may be, would better be pointed out by some 

 paper like the Sunday Sclmul Timex, the Christia}) 

 Advocate of New York, or the Wenleru Christian 

 Aitviicatr of Cincinnati, papers whose advertising 

 space is not for sale to promote a fraud, and which 

 can at least come into the discussion of a moral 

 qutsuon with clean hands. 



We do not know how many other religious papers 

 are still carrying the Electropoise advertisement, 

 but the stain of dishonor and corruption rests on 

 every one of them. 



The moral is so plain that we need not add 

 any thing. However, I wish to call attention 

 to the e.xcellent recommendation they indirectly 

 give our old friend the Sunday School Times, 

 in the above. — A. I. R. 



COKKECTIONS. 



On page 110, the senior editor, in speaking of 

 the cement pavement used in Jacksonville, 

 meant to say that it is a sort of limy marl in- 

 stead of marble. He says his araanuen-si-s 

 wrote it marble, and that he is sure he corrected 

 it; but there it stands, as plain as print, with- 

 out a mark on it, marble. On page 111 he 

 meant to speak of the children as being neatly 

 dressed, and not motley. There being no loop 

 in the top of the c, the word looks just like 

 motly, and we supplied the last e, thinking he 

 had omitted it by a slip of the pen. 



A. I. R. IS again writing on the subject of 

 bees (see this and next issue), with his old- 

 time enthusiasm, of what he sees in Florida. I 

 speak of this because he has not written on 

 apicultural matters to any extent for a number 

 of years. His writings have been confined 

 largely to general subjects of travel, gardening, 

 and things that pertain to our general conduct 

 and its relation to heavenly things. 



