1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



than those of the southern part of the peninsula. 

 Besides, Sartori, who was born in the Tyrol, 

 says that he does not understand why Uhle, who 

 raises queens for sale, has established himself in 

 the Tyrol, where the bees are as black and as 

 cross as hybrids, 



It is therefore not to be wondered at, if one of 

 our best breeders, M. calls Uhle an impos- 

 tor, in private-. Another American breeder, 

 whom I know to be hard to satisfy, lias ordered 

 queens from Chevalley ; he will certainly not 

 like them. 



I am now wondering why Mona wrote in an 

 article in Le Journal des Ferines, that all the 

 bees of the Italian peninsula were pure Italian, 

 when he ought to have known that there were 

 such enormous differences in their color and 

 character. 



Aug st 19. 



The Italian climate is very agreeable ; the 

 nights are cool, though not cold enough to be 

 chilly. The heat, during the day, does not ex- 

 ceed 26° or 28° centigrades (78' to S2°). We had 

 a big storm that lasted two hours. 



I pass my time in preparing honey and comb 

 in the frames, and receiving visitors. I was vis- 

 ited yesterday by the wife of the keeper of the 

 royal palace. She had been urged by her hus- 

 band to come and see me. This lady, who is 

 quite young and good looking, and speaks 

 French very fluently, offered me a queen of her 

 own raising. I accepted, and shall go after this 

 queen the day before my departure. Here, it is 

 impossible to understand the language of the 

 working classes, who speak neither French nor 

 Italian, but Milanese. Almost all well bred 

 people speak French. 



The Viscount of Sdiceto did me the honor of 

 inserting in the five Milan newspapers that the 

 celebrated American bee-keeper, Ch. D., had ar- 

 rived, etc., etc. 



Milan is a nice city, an artistic city, a city of 

 princes — a: id of paupers. The rag stands by the 

 side of the silk handkerchief. How much I do 

 prefer the American customs. Here, they call 

 the noblemen by the title of "Excellence," and 

 they kiss their hands. It is pitiful to see how 

 the workmen lower themselves before wealth. 



Everything is at a high price, except that 

 which ought to be the dearest, "work." The 

 salary of workingmen is between 2 v 'c and 60c. 

 per day. Cn. Dadant. 



[For the American Bee Journal ] 



Letter from Gnaddenhutten, Ohio. 



Mu. Editor : — The harvest is past, and I have 

 a little time to attend, if not to bees, at least to 

 the editor of the Journal. Bee-keeping is almost 

 a complete failure with us this summer, although 

 we had plenty of white clover, regular showers 

 of rain, and everything seemed favorable for the 

 production of honey ; but notwithstanding all 

 these, we got neither swarms nor honey ; but then 

 we depend mostly on box honey, and as the bees 



did not work in the boxes, we did not feel in- 

 clined to rob them of the stores in the hive, as 

 we think they need it themselves in order to win- 

 ter well. As we have very few basswood trees, 

 or other honey-yielding flowers in this neighbor- 

 hood, there is no chance for bees to gather 

 honey after the white clover is past, and buck- 

 wheat is not to be depended on as a source of 

 honey, and so we attribute our failure to the 

 season. But when I received the August num- 

 ber of the Bee Journal, and saw Novice, (who 

 lives only some sixty miles from me J report in 

 his letter nine and a half barrels of thick honey 

 gathered this summer previous to the blooming 

 of the basswood, with perhaps ho better sources 

 for honey than we have, it furnished food for re- 

 flection, and showed plainly the difference be- 

 tween the bee-keeper who understands the busi- 

 ness and follows it, and the man who allows his 

 bet s to keep themselves ; and almost persuaded 

 me to become a beekeeper myself. Although I 

 have been keeifing quite a number of bees for 

 many years, yet I have never been a bee-keeper 

 in the full acceptation of the term ; for my time 

 was taken up too much with other business to 

 pay enough of attention to the bee busines to 

 make it successful. Samuel LuETnv. 



Oradenhutten, Ohio, August 8, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cloth Honey Board. 



In answer to the inquiry from Owen & Ladd, 

 I will say what I know of the cloth honey boards 

 alter further trial. I find that mine have fulled 

 up somewhat, so that those which were just 

 large enough to cover the frames are now rather 

 small. Last year the bees covered every part 

 that they could get at with propolis, without at- 

 tempting to gnaw the cloth ; but I find them a 

 little inclined to pick at it this spring, if any 

 part of it is exposed which was not previously 

 covered with propolis. Perhaps the fulling from 

 being in the cellar last winter, has loosened up 

 the fibre in a way that gives them a chance to 

 pick at it. There is some trouble about putting 

 it on. The bees are all over the frames, and if care 

 is not taken some of them will not get out of the 

 way. These are disadvantages. 



Now, as to the advantages. Formerly, I always 

 kept a cold chisel to pry off the honey board, and 

 then I had hard work sometimes, as the bees glue 

 down the board all around the outside and build 

 comb between the tops of the frames and the 

 board. The jarring of the hive as the honey 

 board came up witli a jerk, aggravated the bees ; 

 but now they scarcely notice the peeling up of the 

 cloth. This filling up of the air space with comb 

 was a chronic nuisance, for if you cleared it all off 

 they immediately filled it up again, wasting 

 enough wax to nearly fill a comb. I strongly advise 

 every one who has a frame hive, to try at least 

 one honey cloth, if it be but to take a single 

 thickness of cloth, and then put on the board 

 over it. If I ever get my hives filled up again so 

 as to need new ones, I think I shall have the sides 

 come just as high as the tops of the frames, then 



