American Hee Journal 



March, 1913. 



Australia under the name oi " soola 

 clover." 



The May disease, our "paralysis " is 

 well known in Italy. They ascribe it 

 to cool, moist weather in spring, and 

 inferior honey or bad pollen. This 

 bad pollen theory was suggested in a 

 number of places. The .\osema apis 

 appears seemingly as an accompany- 

 ing feature, not necessarily a cause. 

 The disease evidently becomes en- 

 demic at times, as in the Isle-of-Wight 

 case which is but a variety of the same 

 complaint. 



In our trip through the country we 

 noticed a peculiar feature of each town, 

 houses built with fine front columns 

 and portals, so that one may go from 

 one end of a street to the other under 

 porticoes which form a roof over the 

 sidewalk. In a small village we saw a 

 dilapidate.d palace which served a a 

 blacksmith shop. It had stone columns 

 two feet in diameter, and a Latin in- 

 scription five or si.x hundred years old 

 over the frontispiece. 



Some cuts of our visit to the Pirna 

 apiary were published in Gleanings in 

 Bee Culture for April 1.5,1914. Through 

 some mistake Mr. Herrod, of England, 

 was reported to have been present. He 

 was not with us. 



The next day we were at Forli. Like 

 many other cities of Italy it dates back 

 beyond the Christian Era. These old 

 cities have a style all their own and 

 are very interesting. Here we were 

 the guests of Prof. Ettore Bovelacci, 

 already mentioned. He has volunteered 

 to teach beekeeping to high school 

 children and soldiers, without charge. 

 Many young ladies follow his teach- 

 ings, and he has already some 200 

 pupils keeping bees in the modern way, 

 with movable frame hives. His office, 

 right by his apiary, is very pretty and 

 ornamental, see photograph. This is 

 located at his farm, a mile or so from 

 the city. 



We found the bees everywhere ex- 

 ceedingly gentle. This was a rainy 

 day, but the bees allowed me to handle 

 them without smoke and without 

 trouble. 



In the city we visited a tinner, Mr. 

 Montevecchi, manufacturer of reversi- 

 ble extractors, under a patent of his 

 own. The most interesting feature of 

 his machines is a friction gear instead 

 of cogs, similar to that lately brought 

 forth by the Roots, made of some sort 

 of hardened cardboard. It is abso- 

 lutely noiseless. The cost of extrac- 

 tors of this kind, in Italy, is between 

 $20 and $30. They please me very 

 much, and I doubt thit any ot our 

 manufacturers make as desirable goods. 



When evening came we bade fare- 

 well to our good friend. Count Vis- 

 conti, who had accompanied us thus 

 far, and who was returning to Milan 

 while we continued towards Ancona, 

 with Prof. Cotini. Dr. Triaca had been 

 compelled to leave us a little earlier. 

 We were sorry to part from them, but 

 they had already given us more of their 

 time than was reasonable for us to ex- 

 pect, since they had accompanied us 

 some 17.5 miles. 



As we passed through S. .^rcangelo 

 and Rimini we were met at the stations 

 by several beekeepers who had attended 

 the Faenza meeting and had come to 

 bid us Godspeed. Among them was 



Signor Carlo Carlini, author of several 

 booklets upon bees and beekeeping. 

 This apiarist, owner of several hun- 

 dred colonies with his associate 

 Pedrosi, has given a thorough test to 

 the American system side by side with 

 the Sartori or German hives. The re- 

 sult of these tests is that he calls the 

 Dadant hive "la valorosa, la preferita, 

 la classica, I'internazionale, la regina 

 delle arnie " (the valuable, the preferred, 

 the classic, the international, the queen 

 of bee hives). I hope the reader will 

 forgive me lor reproducing such 

 eulogy. I promise not to do it again. 

 What a pleasure it is to find so 

 hearty a welcome! Those Italians are 

 hospitable; they are also fine looking 

 men, with dark hair and black eyes. 

 Many women are beautiful, even among 

 the " contadini '' or peasant cla's, and 

 we are not astonished that the old Ital- 

 ian masters were able to give the 

 world fine paintings and statues. They 



had fine models, if we judge the past 

 by the present. 



As we reached the shores of the 

 Adriatic , a thunder storm arose from 

 the east. It was almost sunset and the 

 colors made by the white foam that 

 lashed the s'lore, the greenish angry 

 sea and the blue-black clouds above, 

 with the setting sun shi ling full upon 

 them, made a picture to be remembered. 

 Beyond that flashing lightning, across 

 the stormy Adriatic, were the then 

 fighting Balkans. It seemed as if the 

 raging elements were trying to give us 

 a clue to the human strife beyond. 



At 8 o'clock, we reached Ancona, 

 one of the oldest cities on the Italian 

 peninsula, the birthplace of my father- 

 in-law, and the home of a number of 

 intelligent and thrifty beekeepers. 

 This was the farthest point reached in 

 our travel. We will speak of it in our 

 next letter and then slowly retrace our 

 steps towards home. 



THE APIARY OF AN ITALIAN PEAS.\NT-(By Prof, Carlini 



Montevecchi. Prof. Cotini. Prof. Piana. 

 Mrs. Uadant, Prof. Bovelacci, Count Visconli, Uadant 



—At Korli Sept. lo. lun 



