THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[July, 



"We cannot understand whether the corres- 

 pondent of the Parisian journal wishes to attack 

 M. Dadant's speculation, or whether he wishes 

 to qualify the race of bees that exist in Italy, 

 and especially in Lombardy. In the second 

 hypothesis his assertion would be erroneous. In 

 Milan, and in High and Lower Lombardy, 

 in the districts of Central and Lower Italy, the 

 bees have golden stripes ; they are large, gentle, 

 active, and, in a word, possess all the characters 

 of Italian race. They are by no mf>ans inferior, 

 if not superior, to the bees living in the Alps, 

 and in the Canton of Tessin, as it is easy to 

 ascertain by visiting the apiaries scattered in 

 the different districts of Italy. 



"As a proof of our assertion, suffice it to say, 

 that the renowned Prof Mona, of Belliuzona, 

 who is well known for his business in the sale 

 of Italian queens, comes to Lombardy, and even 

 as far as the neighborhood of Milan, to buy 

 queens ! Would he come so far if our bees 

 •were not very beautiful and pure? 



"We say this, not for our subscribers, who 

 know well enough, the race of bees of our 

 country, but for the foreigners, who could be 

 deceived by false or selfish assertions. 



"As to the queens purchased last year by M. 

 Ch. Dadant, we can assure that they were all of 

 the jjure and beautiful Italian race ; and we are 

 convinced that they will reproduce in America 

 the Italian bee as pure as can be desired." (Aj)- 

 icoltore, April 1873, p. 98.) 



I have narrated in the A. B. J. how I procured 

 the queens. But I am unable to understand why 

 the queens of peasants, taken from after-swarms, 

 are less good than those sold by queen dealers, 

 as Prof. Chevalley, in his letters, pretend they 

 are. 



Before starting for my voyage I had resolved 

 to go directly to Milan. But on my arrival at 

 Paris, I received a letter, saying that, on account 

 of the scarcity of honey, it would be difficult to 

 find a great quantity of queens to lay; the sec- 

 ond swarms dying by hundreds. In presence 

 of that difficulty I wrote to M. Lafranchi, at 

 Bellinzona, who advertised in L'Apinilleur, 

 queens at a very low price; directing him to 

 send his answer to Milan. After reading my 

 letter I thought that it would be better to go 

 myself to Bellinzona, so as to see the man and 

 his bees. 



On my arrival at Bellinzona I inquired for 

 Lafranchi; but the man was Cheval'ey* who 

 had already sent his answer to Milan. He 

 boasted of having received a great many ord(:rs 

 from the UnHed States. He was ready to sell 

 me 100 or 150 queens at his advertised price. It 

 was agreed between us that I should send him 

 an order from Milan, if I decided to do so. But 

 after seeing the bees in Milan, I resolved not to 

 buy queens from the apiaries of the Alps. 



*Lastyear it was Lafranchi who advertised queens 

 in "L'Apiculteur ;" this year it is Chevalley. 



At Milan I found a letter from Messrs. Gray 

 & Winder, who had sent Chevalley $72 in gold 

 five months before, and who had received 

 neither receipt nor queens, (although Chevalley 

 had received the money from the banker,) and 

 who asked me to see him, or to write to him, in 

 order to bring with me the queens ordered. I 

 wrote twice to Chevalley before leaving Milan, 

 but I received no answer. 



I sent to Mr. Clarke the letter I received 

 from Chevalley in Milan. He will see that, if 

 Chevalley was unable to send the queens ordered 

 and paid for months before by the American 

 Kee Keepers, he was ready to sell 100 or 150 

 queens lor cash. Perhajjs, if I had ordered 

 queens, giving him a part or all of the money 

 before receiving them, I would have been sold, 

 as the Bee Keepers, who have poured their 

 money in his bottomless pockets. This lack of 

 plain dealing on the part of Chevalley, shows 

 whether his assertions are worthy of confidence. 



Cii. Dadant. 



Note by Ed. A. B. J.— The letter of M. 

 Chevalley, referred to by Mr. Dadant as en- 

 closed to us, expresses a readiness, under date 

 of July 31, 1872, to fill an order for 100 or 150 

 queens. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Jottings- 



Mr. Editor and Fellow Bee-keepers : — The expe- 

 rience of the last few years has been sufficiently 

 dis strous to the small apiaries, scattered hither 

 and thither, among the farmers of this vicinity. 

 But while it may be admitted that to success- 

 fully winter an apiary is one of the most 

 precarious operations with which we have any- 

 thing to do, still we need not wonder at much 

 of the loss. 



One man, for instance, thinks that the best 

 place for his bees is on their summer stands, and 

 he therefore leaves them unprotected through 

 the rigor of almost an arctic winter, and the 

 result takes off all the profits ! 



Another has learned better than that, and 

 therefore he moves his bees in the fall, and 

 places them in a sheltered, sunny nook, closes 

 up the entrances, and leaves them till late in 

 the spring ; and when he finally concludes to 

 give his prisoners their liberty, wonders that so 

 few leave the hive, and that those few only 

 come out to die ! 



And still another commences operations in 

 the spring, with a snug little apiary, just right 

 for the exercise of his skill in apiculture. But 

 he i^ractices a "masterly inactivity" till about 

 the month of August, and then "astonishes the 

 natives" by announcing that his bees have not 

 swarmed, but that he has divided them, and 

 thus doubled the number of his stocks. He 

 takes good care of them through the winter, 



