118 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAi^. 



It is well known that when a colony 

 is robbed, and the bees are left to starve, 

 or in almost any other case of starva- 

 tion, the queen usually holds out the 

 longest, being numbered among the last 

 to die. Is ii not reasonable to believe 

 that the queen uses the egg-material to 

 subsist on ? And if she does so in a case 

 of starvation, does she not do so when 

 caged, and has no other use for such 

 egg-material ? 



It is a well-known fact among poultry- 

 men, that hens laying prolifically, when 

 suddenly stopped laying, the embryo eggs 

 already formed will never be laid, but 

 will go towards the nourishment of the 

 body; but these same hens will, when 

 circumstances are favorable, lay after- 

 wards just as prolifically as ever. Of 

 course, the anatomy of a queen-bee no 

 doubt is somewhat different from a hen, 

 yet I think that a queen has the power 

 to take care of that egg-material with- 

 out injury to herself. 



Bellevue, Ohio. 



Italian Bees-SofflelMnE Historical. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. J. KOBINSON. 



On page 623 of the Bee Journal for 

 May 17th, the readers are informed by 

 M. M. Baldridge that "certain state- 

 iraents have appeared in the American 

 ■Bee Journal that were said to be his- 

 itorical facts ; but, on close inspection, 

 they did not prove to be." The readers' 

 attention is not called to any certain 

 "statements" that "did not prove to 

 Ibe " facts. Until Mr. B. shows that 

 "from time to time certain statements 

 have appeared in the 'Old Reliable'" 

 that were incorrect, his accusation may 

 be taken for naught, prompted by un- 

 worthy critics. 



Following Mr. B.'s accusation in gen- 

 eral, he proceeds to " prove " certain of 

 my "statements" wilfully false, be- 

 cause I differ from his version of what 

 occurred — facts in the history of the 

 earliest Importation of Italian bees. Mr. 

 B. says that I "insinuated that Mr. 

 Parsons was dishonest." Dishonest only 

 expresses a faint idea of the case when 

 the facts are known, and as he calls on 

 me " to explain," I am glad of the occa- 

 sion to " prove " by the records the dis- 

 honesty of Mr. Parsons, and the record 

 which I put in evidence Involves Mr. M. 

 M. Baldridge with Parsons. Facts are 

 justifiable whenever a controversy Is at 



issue, so I will make plain the meaning 

 I wish to convey. 



The facts in the case brought in issue 

 by Mr. Baldridge are as follows : 



In 1859, Mr. S. B. Parsons, of Flush- 

 ing, N. Y., a nurseryman and self-styled 

 botanist, obtained a commission from 

 the Chief of the Patent Office, then hav- 

 ing the supervision of the Department 

 of Agriculture, to travel in Europe and 

 purchase cuttings and plants for testing 

 in this country. While he was on his 

 mission, the Chief transmitted an order 

 to Parsons, directing to purchase colo- 

 nies of bees in Italy, and forward them 

 to the Department. He made his official 

 report to the Chief, which was printed 

 in the Annual Report of the Department 

 to Congress — seethe Official Report for 

 1859, page 543, wherein Parsons re- 

 ports among other matters that In pur- 

 suance of the said order, he purchased 

 ten colonies of Italian bees for the Gov- 

 ernment, and ten colonies for himself. 



What became of the ten colonies pur- 

 chased for the Government by Agent 

 Parsons ? The sequel is a matter of 

 record. Mr. Parsons reported that he 

 contracted with a Mr. Hermann (a Ger- 

 man) to purchase the bees in Italy and 

 transport them in original hives to 

 America, but Hermann sent an Austrian 

 by the name of Bodmer in charge of the 

 bees. In May, 1860, Mr. Langstroth 

 said the bees landed at New York the 

 18th of April, 1860, but this has, "on 

 close Inspection," been found not to be 



Prof. C. V. Riley, on page 208 of the 

 American Bee Journal for Feb. 16, 

 1893, mentions that the bees arrived in 

 May, and he quoted from the Govern- 

 ment records. But Mr. Riley was in 

 error in saying that the "Department 

 succeeded where private enterprise had 

 failed." The history shows that the 

 Department failed where private trans- 

 action succeeded. How about the fail- 

 ure and the success ? Mr. Baldridge Im- 

 plicitly says I am not reliable — "not 

 willing to stand corrected" — wholly un- 

 like himself — so I quote Mr. Langstroth 

 to "prove" my Items of history. Mr. 

 L. recorded (see American Bee Jour- 

 nal for March 16, 1881, page 82), 

 from which same page Mr. B. quotes a 

 paragraph: 



"I was called to Flushing, N. Y., by 

 Mr. Parsons, to visit him and advise 

 with him as to the best way of manag- 

 ing his Italian bees On arriving at 



Flushing, Mr. Parsons showed me five 

 hollow logs or 'gums' placed in an old 

 bee-shed," etc. 



Mr, Langstroth fixes the date of his 



