222 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



understand why Uhle, who raises queens for sale, 

 lias established himself in the Tyrol, tvhere the bees 

 are as black and as cross as hybrids," 



"lam now wondering why Mona wrote in an 

 article in Le Journal de Fermes, that all the bees of 

 the Italian Peninsula were pure Italian, ivhen he 

 ought to have known there was such enormous differ- 

 ences in their color and character." 



What is an Italian bee ? Can any one tell us ? If 

 you ask what constitutes a distinct breed of cows, 

 hogs, or even poultry, you can find all the points 

 peculiar to each laid down. As well say all the 

 hogs of Chester county are pure Chester hogs, or 

 all the cattle of Durham are pure short horns, and 

 buy them and breed from them, as to say that all 

 bees from Italy are pure Italian, and import them 

 with a view to improvement. Mr. Dadant found no 

 bees that would please him, except the bright yellow 

 bees around Milan. Mr. Grimm, on the other 

 hand, found the best bees, to his fancy, in the 

 Tyrol, where Sartori says the bees "are as black 

 and as cross as hybrids." Mr. Alley, in Massa- 

 chusetts, prefers a light yellow; friend Benedict, 

 of Ohio, wants a leather color; one wants queens 

 with dots on their backs, another wants them a 

 clear yellow. Grimm thinks a bee that has not 

 spirit enough to sting pretty fiercely, has not spirit 

 enough to excel in industry. Dadant hunted up the 

 submissive, docile kind. 



In view of the evidence I have presented, can 

 any one decide that there is a distinct type or race 

 of the honey bee meant when we speak of Italians ? 

 Have the bees of Italy any fixed characteristics? 

 Do they not vary in temperament as well as color? 

 1 'o they not vary in their propensities for swarm- 

 ing? And, most important of all, do they not vary 

 in productiveness? Can we even separate them 

 into varieties? Are the bees of the Tyrol so uni- 

 form in characteristics, that we would be justified 

 in calling them Tyrolese? Are the bees of Milan 

 all alike ? Are the dark colored bees of Piedmont 

 distinct from the orange-banded bees of Lombardy ? 



The limited area in which we find all these varia- 

 tions would prevent the establishment of any dis- 

 tinct variety, and that being the case we must 

 conclude that if there be black blood on the 

 frontiers, as Sartori says ; if the bees are black and 

 cross in the Tyrol and Bellinzona and Piedmont, 

 the bees of no part of the peninsula could be kept 

 distinct, for decamping swarms and the wanderings 

 of drones and queens would soon mix from one end 

 of the country to the other. 



I am satisfied that there are no benefits to be de- 

 rived from any further importations of bees from 

 Italy. The first importation of Parsons were the 

 best that I have had. although I have had bees 

 from nearly every importation that has been made ; 

 and had no others ever been imported, and we had 

 kept them pure, and improved them by proper se- 

 lection and breeding only the best, the bee-keepers 

 of the United States would now be in possession of 

 a valuable variety of bees ; instead of which, I 

 doubt whether there is an apiary of fifty colonies in 

 the country, that does not show their purity by 

 duplicating the bees of every part of Italy. 



Milan is not exceeding fifty miles from Turin, 

 where Mr. D. tells us the bees are blacker and 

 crosser. The Tyrol is no further off, nor is 



Bellinzona, where Sartori tells Mr. D. there is black 

 blood mixed with the Italians. Lombardy, in which 

 Milan is located, is on the frontier, in the north of 

 Italy, and is surrounded by Piedmont, the Canton 

 Tessin in Switzerland, in which is Bellinzona, and 

 the Tyrol in Austria, where we are told these black 

 bees are. A look at the map will show that it 

 would be impossible to prevent for 2,000 years the 

 intermixing of all the bees of Italy. 



Italy has an area of 100,500 square miles, or 

 about 9,000 square miles less than the two states of 

 Illinois and Wisconsin, and if you will take a map 

 of those two states and add to them that part of 

 Michigan that lies between Lake Michigan and 

 Lake Superior, you have a pretty good map of 

 Italy, with about 20,000 square miles more of ter- 

 ritory, located between the same parallels of lati- 

 tude. To complete the map, you have only to call 

 Lake Superior the Alps, Lake Michigan and Indi- 

 ana the Gulf of Venice, and the Ohio and Missis- 

 sippi rivers the Mediterranean Sea. Now locate 

 Milan in the northern part of Marathon County, 

 Bellinzona due north on the lake. Turin fifty miles 

 west, the Tyrol fifty or sixty miles north-east, 

 Naples down about Alton and we have the map 

 complete, and can form some idea of the possibility 

 of keeping two races of bees from mingling for 

 2,000 years, particularly if left to themselves, with- 

 out any care being taken to prevent it. 



Now don't understand me as wishing to injure 

 the reputation of the imported bees. I am only 

 trying to answer the question at the head of this 

 paper, and I think I have shown that no further 

 good can be accomplished by continuing the indis- 

 criminate importation of them. Let us improve 

 what we have, and by a judicious selection and 

 breeding, establish varieties or breeds that will 

 better answer our purpose. Here is a wide field 

 open to us, and it is the only direction in which I 

 think we can look for improvement. , 



We have, in different parts of the country, bees 

 exhibiting as variant characteristics as do the bees 

 in Italy. The grey, the yellow, and the brown bees 

 of the south, with the large and small black bees 

 that are common to the whole country, have had no 

 attention paid to them. Many of them are as 

 gentle as any Italians. Have any experiments been 

 made to test their value? If so, I have not heard 

 of it. 



As this article is already of sufficient length, I 

 will, with your permission, continue it next month, 

 and make some suggestions on the subject of im- 

 proving the bees, with a view to establishing distinct 

 breeds. D. L. Adair. 



Hawesville, Ky. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A New Contributor. 



Dear Journal: — Will you admit another con- 

 tributor to your columns? For several months I 

 have thought I would write and let my fellow bee- 

 keepers know that there are some interested in bee 

 culture and the American Bee Journal in the 

 northwest corner of Ohio. I have a small apiary, 

 and am using the Langstroth hive exclusively. 

 Have tried several others, but am satisfied that the 

 Langstroth is the best for frequent manipulation. 



