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CORREt 



CAEliTIOLANS. 



A Criticism of a Report Con- 

 cerning these Bees. 



Written for. the American Bee Journal 



BY C. J. ROBINSON. 



On page 488, Mr. S. A. Shuck essays 

 to compare Caruiolau bees with such 

 as he calls pure Italians. This asser- 

 tion, though strictlj' correct, is fraught 

 with suspicion of mistake. Even had 

 he named the breeder who selected 

 and tested his Carniolan queen, there 

 appears, on the face of his story, rea- 

 sons for suspecting that some of the 

 parties interested were ingloriously 

 fooled. As his aoeouut shows, it is 

 more than probable he did not, in fact, 

 "purchase" a queen that was a 

 straight lineal descendant of the Car- 

 niolan race of bees. 



He mentions that "every one of the 

 young queens mated with Italian 

 stock." Hence he was not in posses- 

 sion of Carniolan " stock" other than 

 the queen purchased. He credits the 

 Carniolans with being superior com- 

 pared with blacks in certain points — 

 " gentleness, and a disposition to stick 

 to their combs while being handled." 

 This much he is competent witness, but 

 his other comparisons in the matter 

 seem to be conclusions based on un- 

 certainties. 



Mr. Shuck says: "The old queen 

 swarmed twice " during the season 

 (June, July and August). If, under 

 ordinary circumstances, the old queen 

 (the so-called tested Carniolan) be- 

 came the own mother of three swarms 

 during that brief season, it is certain 

 she was a No. 1 queen. Queens are 

 the main-spring of colonies. If she is 

 not normally fruitful, the bee-master 

 cannot, by any means, make a colony 

 prosperous, but he may easily control 

 the limits of the brood as desired when 

 the over-breeding of a queen demands 

 it. 



He alludes to his " pure Italians " — 

 but he left out the most important part 

 of the information desired by his read- 

 ers, to-wit : How does he hnd it pos- 

 sible to keep imre Italians where all of 

 his virgin queens (Carniolans) mated 

 with Italian stock ? 



Well, he began the present season 

 with 125 colonies. Twenty-five of 

 these " had Carniolan queens " (how 

 call, or represent, these Carniolan 

 queens when, as he asserts, every one 

 of the Carniolan virgins mated with 

 Italian stock ?) Then he mentions 

 that about 20 per cent, of his virgin 

 Italian queens mated mostly with Car- 



niolan stock. He also compares black 

 bees in his trial test, so it seems he 

 was badlj' mixed. 



Mr. Shuck mentions that he obtained 

 a certain amount of honey from this, 

 that, and other colonies, but fails to 

 mention anything concerning the con- 

 ditions of the respective colonies, 

 which is all-important, if the colonies 

 are entered in the trial test. The dif- 

 ference he gives of the amount of 

 honej' taken from the colonies re- 

 spectively, shows no greater discrep- 

 ancy than is probable in any lot of 

 colonies worked in a similar way. 



Please note his pitiful conclusion : 

 " I think, now, that I shall be over 

 1,000 pounds short for the season, by 

 having Carniolans instead" (?) — that 

 is, just because in 1889 he purchased 

 what he calls a Carniolan queen, put 

 her into a colony and " superseded " 

 her in the fall— he,„ on July 2, 1890, 

 would fain have it understood that he 

 is doomed to lose 1,000 pounds of 

 honey ! He ostensibly gives the figures 

 as a warning, or, as he puts it "a 

 hint." 



Whatever was his aim, or however 

 he wishes us to construe his hint, it is 

 plain that Mr. Shuck is prejudiced bit- 

 terly against Carniolan bees, and that, 

 too. without cause, judging from his 

 writings. Such groundless attempts to 

 disparagement is fraught with danger 

 to readers. Fair pla}' and consistency 

 are the jewels, and they ought to be 

 heeded even by competitors. 



Richford, N. Y. 



HISTORIC. 



Some of the Curious Uses made 

 of Honey. 



Written for the Australasian Bee Journal 



BY T. J. MDLVANY. 



Honey appears to have been used 

 from very early times, in religious 

 ceremonies and in connection with 

 funeral rites. 



In "Rollin's Ancient History " (vol. 

 i. Introduction) the following passage 

 occurs in reference to some of the 

 oracles of ancient Greece : 



"The oracles of Trophonius in 

 Boeotia, though he was a mere hero, 

 were in great reputation. After many 

 preliminary ceremonies, as washing in 

 the I'iver, offering sacrifice, drinking a 

 water called Lethe, from its qualit}- of 

 making people forget everj'thing, the 

 votaries went down into his cave, by 

 small ladders, though a very narrow 

 passage. At the bottom was another 

 little cavern of which the entrance was 

 very small. There they lay down 

 upon the ground, with a certain com- 

 position of honey in each hand, which 



they were indispensably obliged to 

 carry with them." 



From another passage we find that 

 "it was the Spartan custom to cover 

 the bodies they would embalm with 

 honey," and failing to secure a supply 

 as in the case of King Agesilaus, who 

 died in Africa, they " made use of wax 

 in its stead." 



We have seen also, from an allusion 

 in the Koran (quoted in a former 

 paper) that before Mahomet's time, 

 '■ the Arabs used to anoint the images 

 of their gods with some odoriferous 

 composition, and with hone}." 



The early Christians, it would seem, 

 in the second century, used milk and 

 hone}' in the administration of baptism. 

 The following extracts upon this point 

 are from "Mosheim's Ecclesiastical 

 History " (Maclaine's translation) : 



"Thus they administered milk and 

 hone)% which was the ordinary food of 

 infants, to such as were newly received 

 into the church, showing them by this 

 sign that by baptism they were born 

 again, and were bound to manifest the 

 simplicity and innocence of infants in 

 their lives and conversion." — Vol. I. 

 page 205. 



" After baptism they received the 

 sign of the cross, were anointed, and 

 b}- prayers and imposition of hands 

 were solemnly commended to the 

 mercy of God, and dedicated to His 

 service, in consequence of which they 

 received milk and honey, which com- 

 pleted the ceremony." — Note, see 

 "Tertullian on Baptism," Vol. I. page 

 211. 



A curious instance of the use of 

 honey in the preparation of a con- 

 densed form of food for men in dan- 

 ger of starvation, is mentioned by 

 Rollin, in the account of the siege of 

 small island of Sphacteria, opposite the 

 town of Pyhis, in Messenia, during the 

 Peleponnesian war (B. C. 420). 



"The Athenians continued to keep 

 strict guard around the island to pre- 

 vent any provisions from being brought 

 into it, and hoped that thej- should 

 soon be able to starve out the inhabi- 

 tants. But the Lacedonians engaged 

 the whole country in their interest by 

 the views of gain, laying a heavy tax 

 upon provisions, and giving such 

 slaves their freedom as should bring 

 any into it. Provisions were therefore 

 now brought at the hazard of men's 

 lives from all parts of Peleponnesus. 

 There were even divers who swarm 

 from the coast to the island, opposite 

 to the harbor, and drew after them 

 goats'-skins filled with pounded linseed 

 and poppies mixed with hone}'." 



Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of 

 the Roman Empire," mentions a cir- 

 cumstance which tends to show that in 

 the seventh century honey formed an 

 important item in the commissariat 



