624 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



alive is one that I think needs correct- 

 ing. 



That Mr. Mahan was the first to breed 

 Italian queens in this country possibly 

 may be true, but Mr. R. might find it 

 very difficult to prove it. On that point 

 Mr. Langstroth has also something to 

 say, as follows : 



"In the latter part of 1859 we re- 

 ceived nine living Italian queens. Dur- 

 ing that fall and winter we reared 'two 

 or three young queens.' The following 

 spring we found that all our imported 

 queens had perished." Mr. Colvin is 

 a witness to the same statement of " two 

 or three queens" having been reared in 

 the fall of 1859 from said importation, 

 made by himself, "Wagner and Lang- 

 stroth. See his essay on Italian bees in 

 the Agricultural Report for 1863. The 

 citations credited to Mr. Langstroth, in 

 the foregoing. • may be found on page 

 82, American Bee Journal for 1881. 



To conclude : I have seen it stated 

 somewhere in print by Mr. Robinson, 

 that the Parson's importation of Italian 

 bees cost the United States government 

 the sum of about $1,800, and that it 

 got nothing in return. I think that, in 

 substance, is about what Mr. R. has 

 stated. If my statement be not correct 

 it is open for correction. But, if correct, 

 permit me to say in reply, that it never 

 cost the Agricultural Department not 

 even one-tenth of that sum of money for 

 what it may have done in the direction 

 of importing Italian bees via S. B. Par- 

 sons. I also happen to know some facts 

 about that matter, which sooner or later 

 may be made public. But let us first 

 hear from Mr. Robinson. 



St. Charles, Ills. 



Bee-KeeplBS for Farmers CoimnenJel. 



Written f(yr the American Bee Journal 

 BY DAVID HILL. 



On page 154 appeared a letter from 

 Mr. T. C. Kelly, of Slippery Rock, Pa., 

 iu which he asks the question, "Shall 

 the farmer keep bees?" and his em- 

 phatic reply in the negative being some- 

 what at variance with my experience, I 

 take the liberty of replying briefly. 



One might infer from Mr. K.'s letter 

 that he is in favor of making the pro- 

 duction of honey a specialty, but after 

 reading the reports from different parts 

 of the county for the last few years, it 

 would seem to be — except perhaps in 

 the most favored localities — a rather 

 precarious business. I fail to see why a 



farmer cannot spare a little time occa- 

 sionally to look after his bees as well as 

 a man engaged in any other occupation. 



I have always been a farmer, and for 

 the last 45 years, or since I was a boy 

 of 13, I have kept bees nearly all of the 

 time. About 25 years ago I saw an ad- 

 vertisement of "Quinby's Mysteries of 

 Bee-Keeping." I procured a copy, and 

 no romance which I had ever read, had 

 so much of real fascination for me as 

 did the contents of that book. Soon 

 after this, I subscribed for a bee-paper, 

 published, I think, in Ohio, by a man by 

 the name of King, and during the year 

 that I read that paper, I learned of the 

 existence of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, then published in Washington by 

 Mr. Wagner. I obtained a copy, and 

 found it so far in advance of the one 

 I was taking, that at the end of the year 

 I dropped the one and subscribed for 

 the other. That I think was in 1871, 

 since which time, with the exception of 

 about a year or two, I have had the Bee 

 Journal continuously until now. 



I have thus spoken of my familiarity 

 with the " Old Reliable" as a sort of 

 explanation for whatever success I have 

 had in the production of honey. Of 

 course I do not advocate the idea that 

 the farmer, or any one else, should un- 

 dertake the production of honey without 

 thoroughly posting himself in the busi- 

 ness, and I would advise him then to 

 keep but a few colonies until he has re- 

 duced his knowledge to practice. 



Many of the farmers in this vicinity 

 are shrewd business men, who are quick 

 to see, and ready to adopt any new idea 

 which is an improvement ov.er the old 

 way, and while comparatively few have 

 any desire to spend any time with the 

 bees, many of those who do are adopting 

 the new methods, and are meeting with 

 a fair amount of success. 



Then, again, the farmer owns most of 

 the land on which grow the flowers that 

 secrete the honey. What more appro- 

 priate than that he should keep these 

 busy workers to gather up the products 

 of his own soil ? But perhaps some will 

 say with Mr. Kelly, that the farmer 

 has so much to do that he doesn't have 

 time to take care of bees. This is doubt- 

 less true of the indolentor unmethodical 

 farmer, and I would not advise any of 

 this class to go into the business ; but to 

 the energetic man, who takes time by 

 the forelock, who sees that each class 

 of work is done in its season, if he lives 

 in a locality similar to this, where there 

 is plenty of white clover, basswood, and 

 buckwheat, I would say try the business 

 carefully with a colony or two at first 



