220 



gleanings IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



without finding- mold. The space between the hive 

 and outside ease is 4 in. The outside case is made 

 of seasoned lumber, 4 in. wide, matched, and well 

 painted. I have not looked to see if they were 

 damp or moldy since. 



I think I should prefer to make the outside box of 

 two thicknesses of narrow shingles running- up and 

 down. They would keep thewater out from the out- 

 side, and I think would admit enough air to the 

 chaff to prevent mold; and, if painted with some 

 cheap paint, would look well. 



Mr. Root's two-story hive is very convenient for 

 sections in broad frames, but for sections in cases it 

 is decidedly inconvenient; the upper story is in the 

 way. Don't use less than! in. of chaff; less might do, 

 but more would be safer. J. II. Towni-ky. 



Tompkins, Jackson Co., Mich. 



WHERE OID OUR HONEY BEES (O^E 

 FROM ? 



HOW MANY KINDS OF HONEY BEES HAVE WE, ETC ? 



^TIUEND ROOT: — The following quotation is 

 JP from a poem called "The Prairie," by W. C. 

 ' Bryant. Though I wish to call your attention 

 to only two lines, I have given the whole division of 

 the poem in which they occur. It is so beautiful 

 and so full of thought that you may deem it worthy 

 of a place in Gleanings. 



1. Is Bryant correct in saying that the bee was 

 brought by man across the (eastern deep) Atlantic ? 

 2. If so, at what time, and from what part of Eu- 

 rope, did it come ? 3. How many distinct kinds of 

 the honey bee are known ? 4. Are our common 

 black bees found in Europe? If not, this would 

 argue against Bryant's statement. 5. We import 

 Italian bees; is this kind of bee found only in Italy 

 or does it inhabit the south and west of Europe gen- 

 erally ? W. B. Terry. 



Keswick, Ont., Can., Mar. 12, 1880. 



Still this great solitude is quick with life. 

 Myriads of insects, gaudy as the flowers 

 They flutter over, gentle quadrupeds, 

 And birds that scarce have learned the fear of man, 

 Are her*», and sliding reptiles of the ground, 

 Start lingly beautiful. The graceful deer 

 Bounds to the wood at my approach. The bee, 

 A more adventurous colonist than man, 

 With whom he came across the eastern deep, 

 Pills the savannas with his murmurings, 

 And hides his sweets, as in the golden age, 

 Within the hollow oak. I listen long 

 To his domestic hum, and think I hear 

 The sound of that advancing multitude 

 Which soon shall fill the deserts. Prom the ground 

 Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice 

 Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn 

 Of Sabhath worshippers. The low of herds 

 Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain 

 Over the dark brown furrows. All at once, 

 A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream, 

 And I am in the wilderness alone. — W. C. Bryant. 



I think, friend T., that Bryant is correct, 

 but I am unable to say just when the bees 

 were first brought over. Neither can I say 

 from what part of Europe they came ; but 

 of this we are pretty certain : the bees 

 brought over were the common black bees 

 found all over our land before the advent of 

 the Italians. I believe the bees of England 

 were of the same variety, so that it would 



seem quite probable our bees were brought 

 from there, and, very likely, by the Pilgrims, 

 when they founded our republic. It seems 

 to me I have seen something to the effect, 

 that a swarm of bees was brought over in 

 the Mayflower, but I may be mistaken. If 

 any of our readers can put their hands on 

 these records, will they please let us know 

 about it? I presume you have all heard of 

 how the Indians called the honey bee "the 

 white man's fly," simply because it was by 

 them considered a harbinger of civilization. 

 Friend Cook, in his Manual, gives some 

 facts in the matter, and I am impressed that 

 the matter is fully discussed in some of the 

 articles in the earlier volumes of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal ; but, although I have all of 

 these works in my bee library, and, in fact, 

 almost all that has been written on bee cul- 

 ture, I am at present unable to And what I 

 wish. In fact, the number of the books 

 makes it a task to look up such things. One 

 of the clerks has now the matter in hand. 

 I believe there are none of our native black 

 bees to be found in Italy. Perhaps our 

 friend Frank Benton may be able to throw 

 some light on the matter. I know that he 

 has bestowed a great amount of study on 

 the matter of the different races of bees. 



BEE BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY. 



RED BUD. 



f~ SEND, by to-day's mail, some flowers, which are 

 called "red bud." Please let me know what they 

 are. The tree is large and these flowers put out 

 all around the stem. Bees have been working on it 

 for two weeks. My bees were working on the white 

 hyacinth on the 4th of this month. They were bring- 

 ing in pollen, I think, from the witchhazel the last 

 of Dec, when we had a freeze which killed all the 

 blooms. This is the mildest winter ever known here. 

 We have had ice only about four or five times. 



W. S. Logan. 

 Keachi, DeSoto Parish, La., Jan. 22, 1880. 



The tree mentioned as Red Bud is of the 

 genus Cercis, "Judas Tree" (so named from 

 the old notion that this is the tree whereon 

 Judas hanged himself). There are only two 

 species, Cercis Canadensis (American Red 

 Bud, to which the specimens you send be- 

 long) and Cercis Siliquastrum (European 

 Red Bud). It is doubtless a good bee plant, 

 as it belongs to the noted family Legurninosa: 

 or Pulse. "It grows wild from N. Y. south, 

 but probably not in Canada, as its name im- 

 plies" (Gray's Botany). Will some of our 

 nursery men inform us if it will grow and 

 bloom in Ohio? 



S. Valentine, Double Pipe Creek, Md., has sent 

 us some albino bees in a cage. They are perhaps a 

 trifle lighter in color, than those sent us by friend 

 Pike, but I should not have noticed them as differ- 

 ent from our usual light colored Italians, had not 

 friend V. written that they were albinos. The dif- 

 ference is just in the downy hairs, as explained in 

 the ABC. The bees seem unusually quiet and 

 gentle; although the cage contained no water, not a 

 bee was dead, and they all seemed as quiet and un- 

 concerned, as if they had always lived in such a cage 

 in the mail bags. It seems to be the general opinion 

 that such bees arc not hardy, but it may he a mis- 

 take, after all. 



