THE AMERICAN BER JOURNAL. 



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the thircl yellow band of greater breadth, he 

 said tlio cireuinstaucc was simply tiie cllcct of 

 food and climate; that liis bcc-s also, when 

 carried up the Alps during t jo summer, assumed 

 a brighter color. I then told him t.hat tlie 

 workers produced by a queen obtained from 

 the Rev. Mr. Laugstioth, were not near sohantl- 

 some as those from ([Ueens I subsequently reared 

 from lier brood; and that, I ascribed tlieir bright- 

 er color to the tine honey of the linden trees on 

 which tlicy subsisted almost exclusively. He 

 exjjresscd hiseutire concurrence in that view of 

 the matter. 



I again visited Prof. ]\Iona on the lOlh of 

 September; saw how he prepared his ((ueen 

 nuclei for transportation; and examined the 

 arrangement of tlie hives in which he sent off 

 entire colonies. I must conless that I could 

 not conceive of any mode better adapted to the 

 purpose than that which he employs. I had 

 the curiosity to inquire how many (queens he 

 sent olf in the course of the j'ear. lie replied 

 that this year the number would exceed two 

 thousand. I was permitted to examine; his ac- 

 count-book and found that he bad tilled nearly 

 two hundred orders, prior to tlie lirst of April 

 The queens forwartled went to the several 

 transalpine Cantons of Switzerland, to all the 

 German States, to Hungary, France, and Eng- 

 land. The orders are annually increasing in 

 number. He showed me several letters just re- 

 ceived, one of which ordered fourteen queens; 

 another contained this remark; "IMy Italian 

 stocks are very heavy, and all my common 

 stocks, save two very populous ones, are light. 

 Senil me six more queens." 



In the afternoon we visited the apiary of a 

 Catholic pries^ about a league from Beliinzona. 

 We were kindly received, and when Professor 

 Mona presented me as an American bee-keeper 

 who desired to see his bees, be brought out a 

 bottle of the tinest wine I ever tasted to treat 

 us. Learning in the course of conversation that 

 I had about ^ix hundred hives, he said that he 

 had about two hundred, nearly all of which 

 were distributed among the farmers of the neigh- 

 borhood, who attended to them for half the 

 profits. Here, too, I noticed at one of his hives 

 several si^emiugly very old bees which wire 

 nearly black, but on close examination I could 

 di tinctly tiace the faint remains of the origi- 

 nally yellow bands, which had now assumed a 

 dark brown hue. The j'oung bees had, with- 

 out an exception, the three j'cllow bands. After 

 this we visited another apiary, being the 

 twelfth. I had already, on the first day, in- 

 quired of ^Ir. Uhle whether be was not occa- 

 sion dly stung by the Italian bees. He replied 

 that this frequently happened, when he was 

 opening queenless stocks, or colonies hav- 

 ing only (pieen cells or an unimpregnated 

 queen. He then requested me to notice and 

 count the stings he might receive, as they af- 

 fected him so little that he paid no attention to 

 them, though never using a bee-cap. I must 

 say that the Itali.m bees here seemed to me to 

 be remarkably docile, though the heather and 

 buckwheat Avcre in full bloom — more docile in- 

 deed than mj^ own in AVisconsin; and in the 

 course of these two days, I was stung by them 



only once, though continually passing and re- 

 passing the IVonts of iheir hives, and frequently 

 taking up i'landluls of bees. 



Prof. Mona lias piincipally movable comb- 

 hives in his apiaries, but among the faimers 

 every variety of ordinary hives are met with, 

 both of straw and wood. Tiie hives commonly 

 used here seemed to me to be ver^^ small, in coni- 

 par'son with uiy own, containing onl}' from 

 1,200 to 1,800 cubic inches; but tlie most of them 

 were very heavy. Bee pasturage here is of long 

 continuance, though not abundant at any one 

 period. 



The systen\ of (iueen-raising adoj)tcd by Prof. 

 ]Mona, app' ars to me to be cthcacious indeed, 

 but very slow. At the risk of being considered 

 a boaster, I would say that if I had naught else 

 to attend to I would rear as many queens in 

 two months, as Prof. Mona and his assistant do 

 in the entire summer. 



Having now seen the b<'es of the Pev. Mr. 

 Langstroth, at Oxlbrd, Ohio, of Mr Richard 

 Colvin, in Baltimore, Md., of Mr. G. Dathe, at 

 E3'strup, in Hanover, and those of Prof. Mona, 

 and of the farmers in his neighliorhood, and 

 Carefully compared the queens, I think 1 may 

 claim to be qualified to form an opinion iesi)ect- 

 iug Italian bees and queens. It struck me ijolh 

 last year and during the pist summer that i)re- 

 cisely those of my colonies which IkuI paiticu- 

 larly bright yellow workers, were on the average 

 less productive in swarms and lioney, than 

 tlio.se with workers darker colored; ami swarms 

 from these yellow colonies, moreover, issued 

 later than those from darker colonies and 

 hybrid stocks. And I incline to coincide in 

 opinion wiih Mr. Dathe, who, in the jiamphlet 

 already reterred to, remarks that "veiy yel- 

 low queens are m(>ve d. licate than those of a 

 browner hue." p7of. Mona is of tin; same opin- 

 ion. It seems to me, theretbre, that those bee- 

 keepers who desire to introduce the Italian race 

 in their apiaries, not for the beauty of the bees, 

 but for their greater productiveness, woidd do 

 well to give i)reference to the daiker hued, 

 which are most esteemeil in their native land, 

 ^though duly ap[)recia*.ing beaui}', I should stdl 

 greatly i)refer a colon}' of pale yellow or dark 

 colored bees that yieldeel me twenty pounds 

 more of surplus honey, to a much luuulsomer 

 but less proiiuciive 3'ellow one. On tlie whole, 

 I conceive we should more elliciently jiromoie 

 bee-culture, if instead of makaig it an ol)jcct to 

 rear beauiiiul yellow bees, we aimed at pio|ia- 

 gating from and niuUi])lying the more indusiri- 

 ous ami most productive. Por dairy purposes 

 we CL-rlainly prefer raising calves from suiierior 

 milch cows than from inferior milkers; and 

 should not the same principle be ai)i)iicable, 

 with like advantage, in bee-culture? Would it 

 not be practicable to improve the race of bees, 

 whether black or yellow, bj' juilicious selection 

 in breeding"::' More than Ibriy years ago, Ram- 

 dolir, adisimguishcd German apiarian, oLiserved 

 that coloni( s were frequently met with, which, 

 with their progeny, greatly excelled others in 

 indu.^try and piodiicL.veness; and he advised 

 that such colonies sliould be preserved and bred 

 from. 



In conclusion, I would state that Prof. Mona 



