strong, early in the spring, give earlier 

 swarms, and more surplus. This is my 

 theory. 



In conclusion, 1 would say, should this 

 article be the means of starting some one in 

 the business, they should bear in mind that 

 about 9 out of 10, who attempt bee raising, 

 fail, for want of " luck," (i. e. study and 

 attention), and if you have not patience, 

 and some time to see to them, don*t go into 

 it, but as the saying goes, leave it for " those 

 who are too lazy for anything else but keep- 

 ing bees," which, I think is the reason of so 

 many failing in honey producing. 



I want Italians, only. I see by the Jour- 

 nal tiiat a few prefer the blacks. I have 

 tried both, and do not want any more bees 

 that furnish a home and food for moth 

 worms, to their own utter destruction. I 

 find no difficulty in getting Italians to work 

 in boxes. It is not their nature to be idle 

 when they have plenty of room to store in, 

 whether it is in boxes, hives, frames or 

 even glass jars and tumblers. Give them a 

 little nice comb ?for a starter— that is my 

 method of coaxing them. 



I send you a shadow of myself, for your 

 collection, dear Editor. 



Success to the Journal. Long may it 

 flourish. C. F. Greening. 



St. Paul, Minn., March 8, 1878. 



f Thanks, friend Greening, for the shadow. 

 It is placed up in our sanctum— looking over 

 our desk, where we toil every day in the 

 interest of all who love the honey bee.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



"Dadant vs. Himself."— Answer. 



In the A. B. J. for April, George Thomp- 

 son wants to know when and why I have 

 changed my views on the purity of bees in 

 Italy. Here is my answer : 



Although I had not received a single im- 

 pure queen from Italy, I had heard so many 

 complaints about the purity of imported 

 queens, that when I started for Italy, I was 

 altogether persuaded that the Italian race 

 was not pure. 



On my arrival at Milan, I narrated to L. 

 Sartori, that such was my impression. He 

 said that Lombardy was the home of the 

 Italian bee, and that nowhere in Italy 

 were the bees as pure as at Milan. Of 

 course, my letters from that place were 

 imbued with this idea. Soon after, I 

 learned that Sartori was only a queen 

 dealer, and bought queens from every part 

 of Italy— from Piedmont to Venetia; from 

 the Alps to Tuscany. Then I reflected that 

 Mona, a queen dealer too, who had journied 

 all over Italy, had no interest in writing 

 that all the bees from the Alps to Brindisi 

 are pure ; but, that on the contrary, Sartori 

 was interested in making me believe that 

 there were impure bees outside of Lom- 

 bardy. I saw, also, in the reports of the 

 Italian bee journal, UApieultui-e, that 

 there were queen dealers, in parts where 

 Sartori had told me that there were impure 

 bees. I received good queens from those 

 parts ; then I concluded that Mona was 

 right, and that I had misplaced my confi- 



dence in believing the assertions of Sartori. 



To give my readers the rate of confidence 

 to which this dealer is entitled, I will quote 

 a part of his advertisement that is in the 

 British Bee Journal. He writes, that his 

 " sole object in selling queens, &c., is to 

 forward the interests of bee-culture, ivlth- 

 out regard to his oi(;?i." Yet, if we look at 

 his prices, we find that his goods are adver- 

 tised at 25 per cent, more than the rates of 

 his competitors. 



I am just perusing the article by Mr. Geo. 

 Thompson, on the improvement of the 

 Italian bee, page 137, April number of 1877. 

 He quotes several testimonies, to sustain 

 his idea that the bees of Italy are not pure. 

 Mr. Deus, of Dusseldorff, found the orange 

 colored bees at Genoa, and the black 

 bees at Nizza ; and further, another writer 

 says : " We were surprised, on our arrival 

 at Nizza, to find only the common bee 

 there." 



For an answer, I beg my contradictor to 

 open a map of Italy. He will see that 

 Nizza, or Nice, is outside of Italy, sepa- 

 rated from this kingdom by the Alps. Nice 

 is a French city, which belonged to Italy 

 some 20 years ago, although French by 

 origin and language. 



My contradictor has now to rely on Varro, 

 Columelle, Virgil, and Spinola, all writers 

 of another era, to prove his assertion that 

 the Italian bees are a hybrid race. 



Hamilton, 111. Ch. Dadant. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Marketing Honey. 



During the past 20 years I have raised, 

 bought and sold more or less honey each 

 year, and I know what the trade demands. 

 I was among the first, if not the first to 

 introduce small packages of honey in the 

 Boston market, and to advocate the use of 

 small boxes. By consulting the back num- 

 bers of the Journal, perhaps it may be 

 found that I was the only person to recom- 

 mend the use of 3 &. caps, some 12 years 

 ago. Now the trade demands even smaller 

 packages. Sections that hold 1 and 2 lbs. of 

 honey are as large as are needed ; in fact, I 

 hardly think that larger boxes will ever be 

 called for again. 



Last fall I bought and sold 10,000 fts. of 

 honey. It was of an excellent quality, and 

 mostly in 4 lb. boxes. I could not get any in 

 1 and 2 lb. boxes. I have no doubt that I 

 could have sold more, and at much better 

 prices, had it been stored in smaller boxes. 



The crates contained too much honey, 

 and one man could not handle them alone. 

 Not over 30 lbs. should be put in one crate, 

 and any amount between 10 and 30 lbs. will 

 not be far out of the way. 



The smallest crates were sold first. Not 

 only do small crates sell more rapidly, but 

 the danger of breaking and damaging the 

 honey in handling is greatly increased by 

 using large crates. It is enough to make 

 one's blood boil, to watch the loading or 

 unloading of a lot of honey. They will put 

 a crate of honey on the "truck" when it 

 can be handled much easier and to better 

 advantage without doing so. 



I had a lot of honey shipped to Boston, 



