138 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Italian bees? If so, " why not be frauk about 

 it, and say so?" 



Mr. Laugstrotli says they work freely on red 

 clover. Other dealers repeat the assertion; but 

 most of them reside in localities where there is 

 no red clover raised, and obtain their informa- 

 tion from parties residing at a distance. Mr. 

 Quiuby, in his circular, further says: "The 

 testimony that thej^ do so is very strong. Mr. 

 Stevenson, of Albany county, N. Y., assures 

 me that a colony of his — the only one he had 

 in 1864— filled the surplus honey boxes with a 

 good quality of clover honey in August, while 

 liis black bees in the same yard collected only 

 from bnckioheat.'''' 



If disinterested Italian beekeeping readers of 

 the Bee Jouenal will please give, through its 

 pages, the result of their observations and ex- 

 perience on this point, either for or against, 

 they will oblige A Beekeeper. 



P. S. When the above is answered, I may 

 propose a few more questions relating to Italian 

 bees, on points where superiority is claimed 

 and the claim disputed — suchas their being less 

 disposed to rob; also their very amiable, kind, 

 quiet, peaceable, mild, tractable, docile, com- 

 pliant, human breath-loving disposition, &c. 

 A. B. K. OR Victim. 



[For the Americsiii Bee Journal.] 



The Italian Bee Question. 



Mr. Editor:— That "a little learning is a 

 dangerous tiling," was never better exemplified 

 than on the subject of bees. A man with a dozen 

 hives, and a few months' experience, assumes 

 to understand everything that can happen, or 

 ever will happen; knows the effect of a wet sea- 

 son, a dry one, a cold season, a warm one, a 

 plenteous yield of honey, a season of scarcity; 

 can tell what effect these conditions will have on 

 wintering bees, the moth worm, foul brood, and 

 other things, and thinks himself master of apia- 

 rian science; and the less he really knows, the 

 more he presumes. And when he has read the 

 production of some one equally ignorant with 

 liimself, he is not content till he has thrust the 

 obnoxious quackery into the faces of all. The 

 result is, there can be no science whatever es- 

 tabhshed. What one attempts to build up, an- 

 other is interested to pull down. No one has 

 yet a reputation for accuracy in all things, that 

 will warrant us in repeating his experiments 

 without watching the result. Every one that 

 knows anything on this subject, must experiment 

 for himself. But I protest against any further 

 teaching of this sort. No fact should be ad- 

 mitted as established for one moment, without a 

 long series of experimental observations by men 

 of ability who ca7i see things as they are, without 

 prejudice, report without misrepresentation, and 

 can deal jtistly with his fellow man without the 

 compulsion of the law. 



Ever since the first introduction of the Italians, 

 there has been a raging controversy as to purity. 

 Nothing too absurd to offer as a test, evei-y one 

 of which, when unsupported by some other test, 

 can be shown to possess no reliance whatever. 



If the teaching of the ignorant, dishonest and in- 

 experienced were excluded, we might have more 

 profitable matter. I say the ignorant, because 

 he talks of that of which he knows nothing; the 

 dishonest, because he slanders and misrepresents 

 for his own or friend's benefit; the inexperienced, 

 because he is too iKisty in his conclusions to be 

 reliable, — as has appeared in the Journal for 

 the last six months. 



Does not Professor Varro destroy much confi- 

 dence, in any science he may presume to teach, 

 by his^misrepresentation in the Bee Journal? 

 It gives the wliole breadth and depth of his ob- 

 servation, and betrays the shallow foundation 

 upon which his science in this matter is based. 

 He has procured queens "from two different 

 sources" and raised "sixteen flying ones," and 

 sets himself upas JM(?^e of purity; while another, 

 who has procured queens from near a dozen 

 sources, and has raised thousands, he does not 

 allow to be reliable. Also, he sets up a standard 

 varying materially from Mr. Langstroth. 



On page 19 — Bee Journal — he makes a gar- 

 bled extract from my circular, endeavoring to 

 show that I have no Italian bees with more than 

 one yellow band. What was his motive? If it 

 was/«M" and honest, why did he not give the 

 whole of what I did say — at least this much : 

 " We have no test of purity that is wholly satis- 

 factory," and I do not remember of ever pre- 

 sttming to give one. On the contrary, I gave 

 what I believe all would agree to be a test of im- 

 purity. 



Prof. V. says: " To my certain knowledge the 

 best apiarians always speak of three yelloic rings, 

 and so does Mr. Langstroth." As Mr. Lang- 

 stroth is added as if not included in the "best 

 apiarians," I am interested to know who they 

 are. When a man talks about certain knoicledge, 

 we have a Q'ight to suppose it means somethmg 

 more than bombastic pretension. Wlien he has 

 informed us who the best are, I hope he will in- 

 form us tchat constitutes 6fs< apiarians? Whether 

 aptitude for jumping at conclusions, without a 

 single reason beyond the say-so of some one else 

 equally ignorant? Whether morality is embraced 

 in the word best — ability to report truthfully — 

 no pretension of hnoioledge when only guessed 

 at? Whether ability to observe correctly, wait- 

 ing patiently the developments of nature before 

 deciding? AVhcther the ability to manage suc- 

 cessfully, for the third of a century, the largest 

 apiaries in the whole country, is included? 



Mr. Worthington, page 48, havmg a copy to 

 improve upon, has exceeded the Professor just a 

 little. In speaking of that article, he says : "It 

 is certainly the fairest and most satisfactory 

 which has been given by anj^ American bee- 

 keeper in your paper. There must be a great 

 deal of harm done the bee interest of the country 

 by the immense number of impure queens sent 

 out yearly by men who ought to know better 

 than to go into the business before they had 

 made themselves perfectly famihar with the 

 markings of the Italian bee as settled by the best 

 European apiarians." "It is surprising to see 

 how boldly the gentleman who considers one 

 band all-sufficient, sets forth in his circular, as 

 tests of purity, the very marks and temper, 

 which any one who has read volume first of the 



