1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



139 



seek its equilibrium in temperature, as he says, 

 radidtefi away from tlie cluster, aud thereby gains 

 a h>\ver temperature ; and as other air in the hive 

 takes its place, and is rarefied in turn to the given 

 temperature, it also radiates away in its efforts 

 to comply with Nature's demands for an equilib- 

 rium, and the rarefied air in ascending passes 

 away from the cluster. This is without hi ndrance 

 too much the routine in the shallow form of hive ; 

 but not so in the taller form, because the heated 

 air, in obedience to the natural law, i^asses up- 

 ward ; and because the inner walls of the hive 

 being closer together, asid the top not allowing 

 the heat to escape, it is more comj^actly pent up, 

 so that when the radiations take place, they j^ass 

 not to so great a distance laterally, and the bees 

 can thus retain a given temperature in a larger 

 space than if the equalization by radiation in the 

 shallow hive were not permitted so far from the 

 cluster that the natural law of heated air to as- 

 cend, cannot govern it. 



Mr. Smith gives his experience in favor of the 

 shallow form of hive, alongside of the Thomas 

 liive. His statements are no doubt correct ; but 

 his experience is different from many, very many, 

 others. 



Tlie second communication in tlie same num- 

 ber of the journal, to which this is a reply, agrees 

 with the experience and preferences of thousands. 

 The article referred to is that written by Mr. Cal- 

 vin Rogers, of West Newbury, i\Iass. 



We aie not particularly defending the Thomas 

 hive. We believe that Mr. Smith's first objec- 

 tion from his description of the frames and combs 

 being so long and heavy that they break down, 

 is g' lod. I do not know the peri>endicular length 

 of the combs and frames in the Thomas hive, but 

 I use frames nineteen inches perpendicularlength. 

 My combs are eighteen inches long and twelve 

 inches wide, and I have no trouble about their 

 bicaking down ; though there is a reason for their 

 not breaking down in the warmest weather. 



J. W. Seay. 



Monroe, loica, Nov. 10, 1870. 



[For the .\mericau Bee Journal.] 



Letter from Texas. — Italian Bees Wanted ! 



IMr. Pkinter : — I hear you print a bee paper, 

 and I want you to send me one to look at, to see 

 if I like it. They tell me you always have much 

 nice readings in it about that queer little crittur 

 that has a sweet tooth in its month and a sliarj) 

 sticker in its tail, as Anne Strother's father told 

 the old bee-hunter down at Powett's Tanyard 

 last summer. I have been keeping bees here 

 three years in the old fashioned way, that was 

 thought very good away down east forty years 

 ago and longer, where I was born and raised. 

 But somehow I can't get along with them here, 

 as old uncle Brewster used to do in Hockanum 

 when I was a boy. Why, he used to have lots 

 of hives, and honey by the tubful every fall, 

 when he took up his skeps with the brimstone 

 rags. But here we often get nothing at all now. 

 W^hether the miller moths that are so plentiful 

 here cat it all up, or the troublesome busy aiits 



carry it all off, I don't know, and with all my 

 watching could never find out. I sometimes 

 think the bees get bewildered among the many 

 strange flowers we have here, and cannot tell 

 where to look for the sweet ; and it were no 

 wonder, such odd-shaped things they are. Maybe 

 if we had other sorts of flowers, ap])le and 

 cherry blossoms and such like, and hollyhocks 

 and asters, such as they was used to of old, or 

 had other bees better suited to the flowers here, 

 we might do first-rate in this climate where the 

 busy fellows could work almost the year round 

 without interruption. Well, cousin Upson was 

 to see us when he came out prosijcctin', and he 

 told us some wonderful stories about a new kind 

 of hives they have to home, in which the bees 

 build combs as straight as a ruler on sticks, and 

 of the nice little whirligig twirlabouts with 

 which the honey can be shaken out of the combs 

 right into dishes, all ready for the breakfast 

 table. I half believed his yarns when he 

 promised to send me one of these shakers next 

 spring ; but Mehitable, my wife, says there was 

 a queer sort of a smirk on his face, and he gloared 

 so slily with his eyes while he was a telling and 

 we was a listenin', that she's sure he was only 

 trying 'to bamboozle us by his talk. I'm not so 

 sure about that. Then he told us, too, about 

 a new sort of imported bees, with striped backs 

 and harmless queen stings that never hurts no- 

 body, aud can be handled, like well-riddled rye, 

 without gloves, in the hottest weather. Wife 

 doubted again, but I think there's a good deal 

 of truth in the story ; for when I was in Austin 

 to buy a plow for neighbor Crume and a new 

 collar for my horse, I hear some talk about such 

 queer bees in the bar-room of the tavern. The 

 chap that was a telling about them had a patent 

 hive to sell, too. It wasn't one of them with the 

 straight comb sticks that cousin Upson spoke 

 about, but the man called it the Moth Worm 

 Banisher. He said it was so fixed that when a 

 moth touched it at night a scratcher strikes a 

 lucifer match, and straightway the sudden flash 

 and glare of light frightens all the moths within 

 fifty feet, and away they go, harum-scarum, with 

 a grand flutter and floui'isb, seeking to hide in 

 outer darkness. That I think is a good inven- 

 tion, for tliese moths are troublesome and hard 

 to catch, and the best way is to banish them 

 right off. But about them new imported bees 

 the man said he could not see any great good that 

 came of them after all the fuss made about them, 

 except that they made their honey from red 

 clover tops instead of white, and hunted up all 

 sorts of out-of-the-way flowers in by-places and 

 roadsides, which the old kind of plain bees never 

 thought worth looking at. Besides, he'said, that 

 while farmers could oifly make hay while the 

 sun shines, these new comers would make 

 honey, shine or no shine. This seemed to be 

 saying something more for them than uncle 

 Upson knew ; and as everybody in the room 

 appeared to believe what the hive seller said, 

 because he had no interest in the matter, I think 

 there is a good deal in it, and wish I had some. 

 Mr Printer, can't you put me in the way of get- 

 ting a swarm ? 1 would like to have them soon. 

 Can't they be sent by telegrajfli, so as to come 



