THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



81 



land, Oregon, who has apiaries in 

 that place and southern Washing- 

 ton Territory. He is one of a few 

 pioneers in that region of tlie in- 

 dustr_Y conducted as it should be. 

 And 1 hope to hear good reports 

 from him and his contemporaries 

 from time to time. Mr. Wilkin 

 has tried various races up there. 

 He has imported the Mt. Lebanon 

 Syrians from Benton, and he ad- 

 vocates this race as better in his 

 experience than any other, al- 

 thougii last season he found that 

 the first to work in the sections 

 were the progeny of a Carniolan 

 queen mated vvitli a S3'rian drone. 

 The season of 1884-85 was what 

 is known as a dry year. The win- 

 ter rains were insufficient to sup- 

 port permanent growth, and wild 

 flowers either perished or went pre- 

 raaturel}^ to seed. The honey How 

 was scarce, and bees starved in 

 immense numbers. My own suf- 

 fered as severely as any. That 

 season I had made a start with the 

 Cyprians. A two-frame nucleus 

 obtained the last week of March, 

 1885, and given two extra frames 

 of brood, had increased so much 

 by the lOlh of May that I had to 

 divide them to prevent swarming. 

 The two colonies thus produced 

 stored hone}' sufficient to keep 

 them in plentj'' till the succeeding 

 spring, while my black and Ital- 

 ians hybrids began starving in the 

 fall. I had taken them on trial ; 

 and hence I did not Cyprianize my 

 apiar}'^ save to a limited extent be- 

 fore testing the bees, which with 

 such a dry season brought it too 

 late until the following spring. 

 Last spring, I infused the Cyprian 

 blood throughout ni}- stocks, hav- 

 ing many grades of course among 

 the purely mated. And, while, in 

 as rich a season as was the one 

 last past, any bees will do well 

 and the difference between races is 

 not so clearly shown, still I am 

 fully pleased ; and I am much in- 



clined to indorse the opinion of 

 B. F. Carroll of Texas, who writes 

 me tliat after trying the Cj'prians 

 for several years, he has resolved 

 to discard all others ; and that he 

 wants nothing but pure C\'prian 

 blood in his aipary. 



For the temper of Cyprians I 

 have not much to sa}' in apology : 

 and I seldom expect to handle gen- 

 tle bees. One who has only a few 

 colonies near his residence, natu- 

 rally wants them gentle ; and it is a 

 source of true pride and pleasure 

 to have Albinos, or Italians that he 

 can look through without veil or 

 smoker. But I have yet to see an • 

 extracting apiary of such propor- 

 tions as to render rapid handling 

 necessary, to get around with one 

 extracting in time to begin another 

 in which the bees are not confirmed 

 misanthroi)ists, in which they will 

 not dig up the tomahawk, marshal 

 their warriors and meet man at the 

 outermost border of the apiary. 

 I never saw pure Italians compos- 

 ing entirely a large apiar3^ I don't 

 know how they would behave. 



But, in my opinion, the operator 

 of many hives should get used to 

 handling vicious bees ; and then 

 the character of Cyprians and Sy- 

 rians will not trouble him. But to 

 do them justice, I will s,v^y that 

 Cyprians may at times be handled 

 witli comparative ease. At others 

 it takes little provocation to set 

 them on the war-path. I have 

 never seen the C^'prian or Sj'rian 

 bees that could not be handled all 

 right if the operator possessed 

 patience and fortitude. They and 

 their black crosses are no worse in 

 disposition than Italians hybridized 

 with blacks. They are simply 

 more determined and pertinacious. 

 I propose to retain the Cyprians, 

 and I hope to improve them next 

 season by importing from Benton's 

 best grade stock which this season 

 I failed to do. 



In the line of appliances, bee- 



