16 



January, 1915. 



trouble and annoyance without recom- 

 pense. 



'■ JSome time ago a beekeeper found 

 fault because a near neighbor com- 

 plained about the bees stinging mem- 

 bers of his family. He made little at- 

 tempt towards reconciliation, and I 

 quietly asked him if the tables were 

 turned and his neighbor kept a cross 

 bull running at large in a place he (the 

 beekeeper) or his children had to fre- 

 quent, would he make any complaint, 

 especially if the owner of the animal 

 arrogantly said he would not confine 

 the trouble maker or make allowance 

 for damages. 



This may be putting the matter too 

 strongly, but do not forget that while 

 we treat bee stings as a trivial matter, 

 many would prefer to cross a field 

 where a cross bull was at large rather 

 than to face a few angry hybrids. Let 

 us endeavor to follow the Ciolden Rule. 

 If we try to do as we wish to be done 

 by, these little difficulties will clear off 

 nicely without the aid of lawyers and 



American Hee Journal 



attendant law costs, not to mention all 

 the bad feelings that are engendered 

 when our affairs are ventilated in the 

 public courts. 



Early Winter— The Outlook 



An exceptionally warm fall, followed 

 by an early winter, is our monthly re- 

 port from here. At this date, Dec. 14, 

 we have already had two days with 

 zero temperature, and bees had no 

 general flight after the last days of 

 October, alth lugh they had a partial 

 flight in some yards about Nov. 10. 

 This is earlier by nearly a month than 

 last year, as bees flew freely last De- 

 cember on at least two occasions. 



Naturally this means a longer con- 

 finement for out-of-door bees, assum- 

 ing that spring flights come as in other 

 years ; and in the same proportion 

 chances of successful wintering are so 

 much poorer than last season, espe- 

 cially in hives where the honey is of 

 uncertain quality. 



of the seas," beautiful Venice. At the 

 station a " facchino " (porter) con- 

 ducted us to a gondola and we found 

 ourselves gliding softly and noiselessly 

 among tortuous and narrow canals or 

 water streets to our hotel, where the 

 dark-eyed gondolier landed us with the 

 pretty exclamation, "Ecco!" (There 

 you are !) 



If we were to describe Venice and 

 our stay there we would tire the reader. 

 Such a narration is outside of the lim- 

 its of a bee-paper. We spent only two 

 days there. They were well filled with 

 enjoyment. 



Early on the morning of Sept. 8 we 

 left for Bologna, passing through 

 Monselice, from which town we im- 

 ported hundreds of queens some 40 

 years ago. But our correspondent 

 there, Fiorini, has long been dead. At 

 10 o'clock we reached Bologna, and in 

 the waiting room met our old friend, 

 Count Visconti. In a few minutes 

 more we found Dr. Triaca, with Prof. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



By C. P Dadant, 



We left Milan early in the morning, 

 in a thick fog. But as our train reached 

 the fields, the atmosphere cleared and 

 we had a fine day of sunshine. The 

 plains of Lombardy are very level, 

 although the mountains show on the 

 northern horizon. The fields are small, 

 surrounded with hedges of locust trees 

 trimmed down. That is why we heard 

 so much about locust honey. They 

 also have sycamore and poplar in the 

 hedges and, in spite of the trimming, 

 these trees make a very thick shade 

 over the narrow roads. 



The grapevines are trained on trees 

 planted in rows instead of stakes or 

 posts. They hang to them in festoons 

 ■ that are very pretty, especially when 

 full of fruit. As there is no timber in 

 the country, their only fuel is secured 

 by keeping the trees trimmed. This 

 prevents them from growing tall 

 enough to shade the cultivated soil. 



Corn is grown in small fields exclu- 

 sively for human consumption and is 

 gathered in baskets carried by hand 

 from the field to the home. We caused 

 great astonishment among some of 

 the country people when we explained 

 to what extent corn was grown in Illi- 

 nois and how many hogs some of our 

 farmers raised. 



Irrigation is necessary to keep up a 

 sufficient amount of moisture. There 

 had just been a big rain and all the 

 ditches were full. 



The greatest cultivation of this re- 

 gion is that of the mulberry, to feed 

 the silkworms. They are in rows like 

 fruit trees. As their leaves have to be 

 plucked regularly for this purpose, the 

 trees soon suffer and dwindle. So 

 young trees are constantly planted to 

 replace the old ones which are worn 

 out from too constant plucking. 

 A great contrast exists between the 



peasants' homes with low roofs, small 

 windows and dark-looking interiors, 

 and the fine villas and palaces of the 

 higher classes, painted with all sorts 

 of designs, often representing mytho- 

 logical or biblical subjects, surrounded 

 with balconies, pergolas, terraces and 

 fine gardens. The vegetation of warm 

 climes is everywhere apparent, palm 

 trees, fig trees, olive trees. But it is 

 not far enough south for orange trees. 

 They have quite heavy frosts and snows 

 north of the Apennines. 



We passed through beautiful Brescia. 

 Its houses and villas are spread to the 

 top of the neighboring hills. There is 

 a pretty legend about this city and the 

 famous Bayard, "the knight without 

 fear and without reproach," who was 

 wounded there in 1512. 



A little later we skirted the south 

 shore of the Lake of Garda, which ex- 

 tends :i7 miles down from the Tyrol 

 mountains of Austria. It is as pretty 

 as Lake Maggiore. 



As we traveled toward Venice, we 

 saw the farmers doing their fall plo^v- 

 ing with oxen or cows. The ground is 

 of a brick-red color and must be very 

 hard, for they had from 6 to 12 oxen 

 hitched to a single plow. These lands, 

 near Venice, are only 30 to 40 feet 

 above the level of the Adriatic. The 

 streams that flow from the mountains 

 are walled on each side to keep them 

 from overflowing the land during 

 freshets. But the centuries have 

 brought sediment, sand and gravel, 

 and now some of those streams are 

 flowing on a ridge, banked on both 

 sides and a number of feet above the 

 roofs of the peasants' homes near by. 



A little before noon we crossed on a 

 low bridge, over a mile in length, the 

 shallow lagoon which separates the 

 main land from the former ' mistress 



E. Penna. of Bologna. Italy 



Attilio Cotini, of Ancona, the manager 

 of the Federazione Apistica Italiana. 

 This eminent apiarist had come to meet 

 us and escort us to Faenza, Forli and 

 Ancona. 



Now comes the most interesting part 

 of our entire voyage, a visit to the 

 summer home and apiary of Mr. Enrico 

 Penna, located some 3 or 4 miles from 

 the city of Bologna. Mr. Penna, a 

 widower, spends the summer in this 

 villa, with his father, mother, sister and 

 daughter. The estate, composed of 

 some 40 acres on a pretty hillside, is 

 entirely devoted to bees. Hives and 

 nuclei are everywhere, in the park, in 

 the orchard, in the vineyard. This is 

 a queen-rearing establishment, but he 

 has seven out-apiaries for honey pro- 

 duction. There were on these grounds, 

 at the time of our visit, 020 nuclei for 

 queen-rearing. These are not baby 

 nuclei, for they contain each 5 frames 

 about 8x10 inches. 



This is by far the finest and best 



