THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



43 



vancement in the way of bee fixtures 

 that it is only a simple act of justice to 

 give all the credit possible to those en- 

 terprising and progressive beekeepers 

 who have spent their time and money 

 in trying to invent something that might 

 prove of value to the beekeeping pub- 

 lic and make bee-culture more profita- 

 ble and successful to all engaged in this 

 most interesting branch of industry. 



Patents on bee fixtures. 



No one has ever advanced any good 

 reason why those who have spent much 

 of their time in making improvements 

 in bee furniture should not have their 

 labors rewarded by a patent claim. 

 Merely saying "I do not believe in pa- 

 tents" amounts to nothing so far as an 

 argument against patents is concerned. 

 When any one can show that a person 

 has no right to control the product of 

 his brain and labor, then it may be 

 worth while to argue the question. 



Some claim that patented articles are 

 not needed in the apiary. Well, we can 

 get along without them. Let us begin 

 to cast them out and see how well it 

 works. 



As the Langstroth movable-comb 

 hive was the first patented hive, let that 

 go first. Then comes the bellows- 

 smokers, foundation mills and presses, 

 etc. Where are we now? Got back 

 to the old, box-hive system with sur- 

 plus honey-boxes that hold ten pounds, 

 and so on. Now we will make fire wood 

 of drone-and-queen traps and swarm-hiv- 

 ers. We will climb into high trees and 

 continue to run the risk of breaking 

 our necks or see the loss of bees when 

 a swarm issues ; and stand the loss of 

 a thousand other things not worth men- 

 tioning here. Well, who cares to slide 

 back from the condition of beekeeping 

 of the present day to what beekeeping 

 was thirty-five years ago? The old 

 fogy, of course, and I might include all 

 those who do not read the bee-papers, 

 or when they do read them throw them 

 down anei say "there is nothing new in 

 them." 



Did the reader ever entertain the 



idea that in thirty years from this time 

 there is likely to be as great an im- 

 provement in beekeeping as there has 

 been in the past thirty years ? Let the 

 younger beekeepers mark the predic- 

 tion. It will surely be verified. 



[ To he continued.] 



Correspondence. 



Races of Bees. 



W. p. Henderson. 



The Italian bee, since its introduc- 

 tion into the United States, is fre- 

 quently called the yellow race to dis- 

 tinguish it from our black or brown 

 variety. 



Of the yellow race, as you are a- 

 ware, we have several varieties im- 

 ported since the Italians, viz. : Cypri- 

 an, Syrian or Holy Land and Egyptian, 

 each having its peculiar nuirkings, 

 which to a practised eye are easily 

 distinguished from the others. They 

 are not yellow all over the body as 

 are some butterflies, but only partly 

 colored ; the first three rings of the ab- 

 domen next the thorax being yellow : 

 a deep yellow in the Italians, and a 

 pale or orange yellow in the Syrians, 

 the bodies of the Italians covered 

 with yellow, and those of the Syrians 

 with white hairs — the last three rings 

 being dark in both varieties and cov- 

 ered with yellow and white hairs re- 

 spectively. The white hairs at the in- 

 tersection of each segment in the 

 Syrians are so thick as to have the 

 appearance of a white band. 



The characteristics of each are as 

 different as their markings. 



Dzierzon, who first introduced the 

 Italian bee into Germany, in his "Ra- 

 tional Beekeeping," says of the work- 

 ers of that variety ; "the first two 

 rings, or rather two and a half are of 

 an orange color, looking like a j^el- 

 low band." 



Queens, whose worker progen}' show 

 only two or two and a half yellow 



