20 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



standing, according to my experience, not at 

 all pure, for the very reason that pure Italian 

 queens are not like hybrids sjjlendid, nor like 

 hybrids yelloio, but brown, with a black dot or 

 two upon the body. 



Now, if either Mr. Quinby, or Mrs. Tupper, 

 or Mr. Grimm, or Mr. Flanders, or Mr. any- 

 body else knows of no better and more reliable 

 test of purity than what they advance by paper 

 cuts or yellow bedabbled wood cuts, in your 

 Journal or otherwise, I would here as publicly 

 as they advertise, ja-t most respectfully, suggest 

 that ntither and none of them have any pure 

 Italian queens, no matter from what source 

 they may have obtained them, and no matter 

 whether their workers have, like Mr. Quinby's 

 one yellow band, or like Mr. Langstroth's iJiree 

 yellow rings. And now, I shall proceed to state 

 what, in my humble opinion, constitutes the 

 only true and exclusively reliable test of purity 

 in Italian queens, to wit : Impeccability of tem- 

 per in their worker progeny, in addition to the 

 distinctive tliree yellow bands by which they are 

 known in Italy and Switzerland. Tut ! Tut ! 

 Gentlemen, I have no queens for sale, nor would 

 I sell a pure queen for less than twenty or thirty 

 dollars, if I had a tested one to spare. I have 

 raised sixteen flying ones and none impure ; 

 nor have I any Italian bees that will sting, or 

 need sugar water or smoke, or bee charm, to 

 keep them quiet. When I open the hives, those 

 that are between the frames and honey-board 

 will range themselves, " rank and file," with 

 their heads even with the top bar of the frames, 

 and there look at me as if to say : How do j'ou 

 do, sir ? None will leave the comb without 

 shaking, and hardly then, and in the comb-ical 

 tenacity, I discover another comparative and 

 tolerably sure test of purity. The one-banded 

 Italian bees (?) that by the slightest twitch of 

 a nerve, drop from the comb like so many ker- 

 nals of hybridized corn, are not any nioie pure 

 than those kicking, long-eared, tufty-tailed, dis- 

 syllabic ponies (?) are pure horses — both are 

 " an abomination unto the Lord " — an abuse of 

 nature and a curse in a quiet homestead. I 

 have repeatedly, with one naked hand, brushed 

 my bees from the alighting-board into the other, 

 and thrown them, by permission of visitors to 

 my apiary, into their naked faces, or my own, 

 without a single sting. I have come across 

 them in my pant's pockets, in my trowserloons, 

 and in my bed, without a single sting. I have 

 spit among them, dropped the burning embers 

 from my cigar among them, and dropped the 

 bees themselves alive upon my tungue without 

 a single sting. I actually sat down, in a pair 

 of linen pants, upon the frames, by mistaking 

 the open for a closed hive, during conversation 

 with a friend, and thus broke down the whole 

 fabric without one single sting. With my bees 

 the original report of their inability to siing is 

 strikingly verified ; hence I must conclude that 

 my bees are the pure Italian bees, yet their 

 mothers are neither splendid, nor yelloic, nor 

 yet black, but dark brown, with a very diminu- 

 tive black dot or two upon their posteriors, yet 

 withal much smaller ihaio. genuine hybrids queens 

 and very handsome. 



Now, gentlemen, I have queens from twoi 

 different sources; the first from Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth & Sou, and the others from a Swiss 

 cousin who imported them by my request (not 

 expressly) from his own yard, where he assures 

 me they were raised without especial care or 

 attention. Both Langstroth's and the other 

 queens have so far invariably produced mothers 

 and workers so nearly alike in color, shape, and 

 disposition, that a good judge might readily 

 mistake one for the other. Of Mr. Langstroth's 

 queen I have just raised the third generation as 

 to mother from mother, and all, without one 

 single exception, have turned out pure. Of the 

 Swiss, I have only the first generation tested, 

 and trust their progeny may prove as pure and 

 give me as much satisfaction as their progeni- 

 tors. 



Raise more drones, gentlemen, raise fewer 

 queens, test them with a view to impeccability 

 of temper, and distinctive coloring exclusively, 

 and when you sell, charge bigger prices, and 

 you will give bigger satisfaction. 



I am, gentlemen, respectfully and disinterest- 

 edly, yours, 



Prop. F. Varro, A. M. 



Canton, Penna., June 15, 1867. 



[For the American Bee Journal ] 



I fully concur with M. S., of New Salem, 

 Ohio, in the remark concerning smoke. I have 

 fully proved the smoke of wood to be quite suf- 

 ficient for all purposes. But a simpler plan of 

 using it than that given by M. S., is to split j^our 

 rotten wood into pieces of from four to six inches 

 long and say about an inch in thickness ; 

 though size or shape is of no great consequence 

 in practice. Then light one end, hold it by the 

 other, and blow the smoke among the bees. 

 All the smoke pipes in the world sink into ins'g- 

 nificence compared with it. Try it and I am 

 sure you will use nothing else. But when rot- 

 ten wood is not convenient, a few chips put in 

 a common tin pie jpau and a coal laid on them, 

 will answer. J. H. Thojias. 



BilOOKLIN, C. W. 



Liberian Honey Bee. 



In a barrel of molasses brought over by the 

 American Colonization Society's ship Golcon- 

 da, on her last voyage, were a great number of 

 honey bees. Being struck by their bright col- 

 ors, 1 took several specimens home, and after 

 cleaning them, their markings were very 

 striking. On the back part of the thorax there 

 is a yellow crescent, the rest of the thorax 

 being very black. The first three rings of the 

 abdomen are yellow, like those of the Italians. 

 The othes rings are black, with white borders, 

 so that the general effect is very beautiful. 



The bee is somewhat 'smaller than the black 

 and Italian varieties. 



d. m. worthikgton. 



Elkridge, Md., June 6, 1867. 



