128 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Dec., 



ever looked upon. Quite a number were late 

 importations from sunny Italy, imported di- 

 rect by himself. 



After remaining several days with friend Nes- 

 bit, he took us over into Bourbon county, to see 

 the apiary of Dr. J. J. Adair, near Shawhan Sta- 

 tion, oii the Lexington and Covington railroad. 

 We found the Doctor a very sociable man, in- 

 deed, and full of bee talk. He has an apiary of 

 about one hundred and seventy-five colonies ; 

 and here we found the greatest variety of hives 

 we ever saw collected together in one apiary. 

 We soon found that the Doctor's attention was 

 too much engaged with his farm and fine stock 

 to give his bees the necessary attention. He was 

 about the first man in Kentucky that bought an 

 Italian queen. After being there a short time, 

 we found ourselves out of order from over-eat- 

 ing, and had to call on the Doctor for a narcotic, 

 which he administered, greatly to our relief ; but 

 we found we should be unable to return with 

 friend Nesbit, so bidding him farewell, we re- 

 mained with Dr. A. over niglit, and next morn- 

 ing took the train for Lexington, and thence to 

 Eminence, Henry county, to attend the fair 

 commencing there on the 22d of August. 



There we met Dr. C. Bright, and Dr. L. E. 

 Brown, both of whom are well posted beekeepers. 

 Dr. Bright takes a great interest in apiculture, 

 his mind being entirely ensirossed with physic 

 and bees. He has a splendid apiary of pure 

 Italians, his stock being principally derived from 

 Mr. Langstroth and j\Ir. Burbank. He informed 

 us that it is impossible for him to supply the 

 demand for Italian colonies. Dr. Brown has 

 shorthorn cattle, Berkshire hogs. Southdown 

 and Cotswold sheep, as well as Italian bees on 

 the brain, and if he does not let some of them 

 lose their short horns or their yellow bands, it 

 will be curious to us. He says his bees are doing 

 well, and told us that from one colony of Italians, 

 which he bought last spring was a year, he now 

 has twenty-eight colonies, and hundreds of 

 pounds of surplus honey. We say, go it, Doc- 

 tor. 



After spending several days looking at the fine 

 stock of which Henry county can boast, we took 

 the omnibus for Shelbyville, where the fair com- 

 menced on the 28th. There we met many and 

 dear friends, for it was in this (Shelby) county 

 that we were born and raised. It was here that 

 we first took lessons in beeculture, in 18.")3. It 

 was in that year that we hung (not our harps 

 upon the willows, but) sticks in our box hive, 

 for the bees to build to. This was several years 

 before we ever saw or heard of a movable comb 

 Live. We found that some of our old acquaintan- 

 ces and friends were beekeepers, and several of 

 them on a largQ scale. Among them, we found 

 Mr. Shelby Vannetta, Mr. Isaac Payne, and Mr. 

 Jos. Allen. In lact, there lias been a general wak- 

 ing up thei-e, and you will find but few with their 

 bees in the old box hives. Mr. S. Glass and Capt. 

 Stuart are two of the largest apiculturists in that 

 county. Their colonies are numbered by the hun- 

 dred. After spending a very pleasant week, in- 

 deed, and talking bee and bee hive to our satis- 

 faction, we hastened on to Franklin, Simi)Son 

 county, the fair commencing there Sei^tember 



5th. Franklin is a beautiful town of three 

 thousand inhabitants, on the Louisville and 

 Nashville railroad, IS") miles south of Louisville, 

 and 50 miles north of Nashville. Here we found 

 some live beekeepers. Among them, Mr. T. 

 Proctor, Mr. John Brevard, Mr. J. N. Steele, 

 and many others, too numerous to mention. 

 And whom, besides, do you think we should 

 meet here, but Dr. T. B. Hamlin, of Edgefield 

 Junction, Tennessee. The Doctor had his hive 

 on exhibition — the Langstroth. Remember, the 

 Doctor owns the State of Tennessee in that hive, 

 and Simpson county being a border county, we 

 of course met numbers of Tennessee beekeepers 

 at this fair. The Doctor and ourself talked bee 

 and bee hive for a whole day, and when the com- 

 mittee on bee hives came around, you ought to 

 have seen us in our shirt sleeves, spreading our- 

 selves. But the Doctor could not l)e prevailed 

 on to stay more than one day. We will here 

 state that we examined the apiaries of the gentle- 

 men before mentioned, and found all in fair con- 

 dition, considering the early frost and the dry 

 weather. We partook freeh' of the hospitalities 

 of our hosts, Messrs. Proctor, Brevard, and 

 Steele ; you may say what you will, about good 

 things, but Kentucky would lieat them all. Our 

 appetizer is all right yet. Among the Tennessee 

 beekeepers whom we met, was a Mr. McDonaM, 

 from Sumner county. His whole soul is in this 

 great work. After spending a week here, we 

 went back to Louisville, to the fair commencing 

 on the 12th of Seittember. Here we met with 

 many who are interested in bee-culture, some of 

 them on a large scale. Although it was a rainy, 

 bad week, we talked bee well and freely, and 

 think were well paid. Here we met an old 

 acquaintance from Indianapolis, Mr. Wilkerscm, 

 with the Wilkersou bee hive, an invention of his 

 own, lately patented. We could not prevail on 

 him to stay more than one day. 



From Louisville we went down the Nashville 

 road again, stopping at Bowling Green, in War- 

 ren county. This is a flourishing town, of four 

 thousand inhabitants. Here we talked bee early 

 and late, for we found but few whom we could 

 call apiarians. Mr. S. S. Potter, and Mr. A. 

 Simmons, are the largest beekeepers in this 

 county, and are very much interested in bee- 

 culture. We are much indebted to them for 

 courtesies shown to us. As we now had one 

 week between the Bowling Green fair and the 

 Nashville, we spent most of the time at Frank- 

 lin, Kentucky, intervifwing the beekeepers of 

 that section as to the locality being a good one to 

 establish a large apiary, and f'orthe manufacturing 

 of bee hives. We were fully impressed that 

 Franklin is a good location for both purposes, 

 and are now of the ojunion, that we will locate 

 there. Should we do so, we will notify the bee- 

 keeping public, and still hope to have our old 

 customers, as well as new ones, call on us for 

 both hives and fine stocks, as well as pure queens 

 from imported ones. 



After spending sevei-al days at Franklin, we 

 hastened on to Edgefield Junction, Tennessee, the 

 home of Dr. T. B. Hamlin, the bee-king of the 

 South, and President of the Apiarian Society. 

 The Doctor, indeed, remembered us, for we had 



