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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



tance of not more tliau Ih miles. I found there | black race at Zising. A stage of four hours 

 about oue hundred colonies, mostly in Dzierzon j brought us to Splugen, where I was told there 

 mov^ible com!) hives, though there -were among are no bees, the climate being too cold and 

 them a few colonies in common straw hives— rough for them. After another stage of four 

 these having been boucrht by Mr. Dathe from hours we reached the summit of the road across 

 some of his neighbors. Tiiis, he said, became ne- | the Alps at this pass, and saw a peak elevated 



cessary, as he had sold nearly all his old stocks 

 last spring. So long as we were in the vicinity 

 of Italian stocks, avc were very little annoyed by 

 the bees; but when we approached tiie black 

 bees at tlie heath apiary, I was repeatedly stung, 

 though I was equipped with a bee-cap, and I 

 then removed to a respectful distance. Mr. 

 Dathe said that he uses a bee-cap when work- 

 ing among his bees, and this was especially ne- 

 cessary Avhen his black bees were at work on 

 tiie blooming heather, as they were then pecu- 

 liarly ill-tempered. Only too soon did I be- 

 come convinced of the correctness of this re- 

 mark. We went to visit another heath apiary 

 only a mile further off, and while we were yet 

 about ten rods distant, the bees attacked us. 

 We nevertheless advanced to count the hives 

 and inspect their interior arrangement. There 

 were 174 stocks placed in a square, lacing tiie 

 cardinal points, set in two tiers witli the hives 

 not more tiian si.\' inches apart. Tiie whole 

 was inclosed with boards, and the hives were 

 of straw. Their size was about 1,000 cubic 

 inches, and their diameter at the base about 

 twelve inches. They seemed for tiie most part 

 well tilled, and the bees were hanging out in 

 lai'ge clusters. Mr. Dathe remarked that the 

 pasturage on the heat lis this year was particu- 

 larly plentiful. When I compare the deport- 

 ment of these bees with that of my own, among 

 which I can pass and repass daily without bee- 

 cap or other protection, unattached and unan- 

 noyed if I simply let them alone, I am no lon- 

 ger surprised that Dzierzon and other distin- 

 guished European apiarians declare that the 

 Italian is mueli more docile than the German 

 or common black bee. I3ut I have had in my 

 own a|)iary some black bees as docile as the 

 Italians. I was, indeed, stung by bees of either 

 race, but not more proportionally than the Rev. 

 Mr. Langstroth was when I visited him two 

 years ago, and we opened a large number of 

 hives together. But to seat myself on the 

 frames of a stocked hive of Italians, I should 

 only venture to do after being jirotected in the 

 rear by an ample application of Prof. Flanders' 

 celebrated bee-charm/ 



After a long and agreeable interview with 

 Mr. Dathe, 1 ileparted fully satisfied that lie is 

 one of the best practical apiarians. His little 

 treatise on Italianizing common stocks, sur- 

 passes in brevity, thoroughness, and compre- 

 hensiveness, every Avork of the kind I have 

 ever read. I have obtained his permission to 

 publish a translation of the pamphlet, but 

 Avhethcr it will be done, is among the uncertain- 

 ties of the future. 



From here I went to Bavaria to visit my 

 parents, and thence to Bellinzona, Canton 

 Tessin, the present residence of Professor iMona, 

 where I arrived on the evening of the 11th of 

 September. I may remark here that Avhilo 

 crossing the St. Bernard, I made constant in- 

 quiry about bees, and found the last of the 



only about 800 feet higher, covered with per- 

 petual snow. Though the conductor told us 

 that this was oue of the warmest days he had 

 ever known in crossing, I found it cold enough 

 to make an overcoat comfoitable. Vegetation 

 was sparse at the foot of the mountain and 

 along the road-sides; and I am well convinced 

 that no swarm of bees ever voluntarily passed 

 across this mountain chain. After a brief de- 

 tention on the highest point, we began to de- 

 scend, and in five hours reached Bellinzona, 

 situated about thi'ee miles fi'om Lago Maggiore. 

 This morning Prof. 3Iona called on me at 

 the hotel, to conduct me to his ap ary, and in 

 five minutes I had the gratificatiou lo see the 

 Italian bees in their native home. Professor 

 Moua's assistant, Mr. Uhle, a German from 

 Hanover, immediately opened several populous 

 hives, and showed me a beautiful 3'ello\v queen, 

 and also a darker one with only some narrow 

 yellow bands, but whose workers were as high- 

 ly colored and as fully marked as those of the 

 brighter queen. On my remarking that the 

 darker queen would be pronounced impure in 

 Germany, Prof. Mona and Mr. Uhle laughed 

 and said" the yellow queens were the exception, 

 the darker ones having the nurmal hue; and 

 assured me that their customers in Austria pre- 

 ferred and ordered the darker queens, alleg- 

 ing that they are hardier and moi e prolific. In 

 Germany, however, the brighter queeusare pre- 

 ferred, though he was liimself of the impression 

 that these are really not so hardy or long-lived 

 as the darker. When I told Prof. Mona that 

 some American bee-keepeis contend that the 

 genuine Italian queens are of a brownish color 

 with the point of the abdomen bkck; and that 

 others maintain that all tlie daughters must be du- 

 plicates ot their mothers; he advised me to in- 

 vite them to a personal examination of the Ital- 

 ian bees in their native land, the Canton Tessin 

 and the adjoining Italian districts, and he was 

 persuaded they would candidly admit their er- 

 ror. When I observed that some German apia- 

 rians alleged that the Italian bees were not al- 

 together pure, even in their native land, but 

 th:it there too black bees were occasionally 

 found, he ofl'ered to carry me around among the 

 neighboring farmers in a circuit of several 

 leagues, and promised to give me a dozen queens 

 if I succeeded in finding a single living black 

 bee in all their stocks. I accepted the offer, 

 rather from curiositj' than from any expecta- 

 tion of success. Between nine o'clock in the 

 morning and ten in the evening we visited a 

 number of apiaries and examined the bees, with- 

 out detecting the least variation in color or 

 finding a single black bee. We found, indeed, 

 a few apparently superannuated Avorkers which 

 seemed at first view to have only two yellow 

 bauds, but on closer inspection it was evident 

 that the third had merely changed to a dark 

 brown hue. In reply to a remark that my own 

 Italian bees Avere much brighter-colored, with 



