58 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Sept. 



terrible pest — Phora incrassata — that preys 

 upon the pupa in the sealed cells, and is by 

 many considered the principal cause of foul- 

 brood, has not visited us yet. The bee louse 

 {Braula Cceci), that lives parasitically on the 

 body of the bee in Europe, causing great an- 

 noyance and destruction, has not been imported. 

 The Trichodes Apiarius, which devours the 

 young bees in the cells, has not yet been de- 

 tected in this country. The Meloe, the Sitaris, 

 and Stylops, parasitic insects that live on and in 

 the bodies of the bees, the first of which also 

 preys on the larvce in the cells, are still, so far 

 as known, strangers to our apiaries. While we 

 have the wax moths, Galleria Ceremia, already 

 naturalized from Europe, to our sorrow; the 

 equally destructive wax moth, Achroia alvearia, 

 has not been brought over, nor has the intestinal 

 worms, Gordius subbifurcus, and mermis albi- 

 cans. 



These are, perhaps, but a moiety of the pests 

 that we are in danger of from importations of 

 bees, and with the experience we have with im- 

 ported insects generally, the introduction of 

 any one of them would likely be of more injury 

 to us than all the advantages we would seciu'e 

 by importing free of cost every bee in Italy. 



The Editor of the American Entomologist, 

 Mr. C. V. Riley, in the number of that journal 

 for February, 1870, says: 



" On a careful and close examination, it will 

 be found that almost all otir icorst insect foes 

 have been imported from the other side of the 

 Atlantic," and in confirmation of the statement 

 he enumerates the Hessian fly, of which Prof 

 Lockwood says in the Popular Science monthly 

 of September last, " That all the combined 

 whirlwinds and destructive storms that have 

 ever swept over portions of our land have not 

 robbed the national wealth so much as this 

 almost invisible, tiny creature, that dances in 

 the sunbeam," the wheat midges, the bee-moth, 

 the codling-moth, that is such a formidable pest 

 to the apple and pear, burrowing into the cone 

 of the fruit and causing it to fall off; the cab- 

 bage tinea, the red currant bores, the oyster 

 shell bark-louse, the grain plant-louse, the cab- 

 bage-plant louse, the cheese maggot, the meal 

 worm, the grain weevil, the house-fly, the cock- 

 roach, the croton bug, and the different carpet, 

 clothes and fur-moths. 



He enumerates, as more recently imported, 

 the asparagus beetle, that has become naturalized 

 in New York and New Jersey. The rape but- 

 terfly, or cabbage caterpillar, a green caterjjillar 

 that eats the cabbage heads, almost honey- 

 combing them. It was imported to Canada 

 first, and entered the New England States, and 

 in 1869 was in Northern New York, since 

 which it has spread as far as Kentucky, and is 

 fast belting the land with a scourge. 



It is as bad with plants as with insects, for 

 nearly all of our most pernicious weeds have 

 been imported among us from the Old World, 



as, for instance, dog-fennel, Canada thistle, com- 

 mon thistle, burdock, plantains, mullein, toad 

 flax, bind weed, Jamestown weed, lamb's-quar- 

 ter, smartweed, fox-tail grass, buttercup, cow- 

 cockle, and the notorious cheat or chess. 



Mr. Riley estimates that each State loses, 

 annually, from fifty to sixty millions dollars from 

 those insects alone, or$3,000,000,000islostto the 

 whole country every year. He shows further, 

 that insects which, in Europe, are either nearly 

 harmless on account of fewness in number, 

 when introduced here, multiply at a prodigious 

 rate, and acquire herculean powers of doing 

 harm. 



Upon this ground alone I am firmly convinced 

 that unless the bees imj^orted are preferable in 

 some respects to those already brought here, 

 that we are blind to the experience of the past 

 if we do not jjrofit by our misfortunes in this 

 respect, and while contending with the plagues 

 that already threatened the destruction of the 

 culture of the bee, keep a watchful eye on every 

 probable source of greater evil. 



The wonderful productions of the Pacific 

 States, in fruits and vegetables, is largely due 

 to the fact that they are as yet free from the 

 many insects and fungi that dwarf and destroy 

 our crops here, and had a little care been used 

 when the honey bee was introduced, then they 

 might have been free from the ravages of the 

 bee-moth. But I think I have said enough on 

 this subject. 



In your journal for June, my young friend, 

 Mr. C. H. Dadant, undertakes to review my 

 communication in your May number. I am 

 sorry that he misunderstands my position so 

 much as to construe anything I have said as an 

 attempt to detract from the conceded merits of 

 the Italian bee. When I say conceded, I mean, 

 the opinion of disinterested persons, who are 

 not blinded by the novelty, nor jjrejudiced by 

 pecuniary interest in the sale of them. But he 

 seems, although agreeing with me in my sug- 

 gestions as to improvements, to be desirous of 

 making it a personal matter, and takes occasion 

 to speak slightingly of my hive, and closes with 

 some irresponsible gossip about my being inter- 

 ested in s^a?'i!i?i(/ ^Ae^rez/ &ee, as he italicizes it. 

 All I wish to say in answer to this unkindness, 

 is, that so far as my hive is concerned I have 

 uniformly avoided any allusion to it in my com- 

 munications to the A. B. Journal, except when 

 first spoken of by others ; nor will I now depart 

 from my convictions of the self-respect that I 

 think every bee-keeper should have, and de- 

 scend to the tricks of the drummer and char- 

 latan, as so many have done. If my liive has 

 merits they can be published legitimately. As 

 to the Grey bee, I will only say that I have no 

 bees for sale, nor do I ever expect to raise the 

 Grey bee, nor any other for sale ; but I am in 

 hopes that few ot your readers have formed so 

 low an opinion of me as young Mr. D. has. 

 What I have written on the subject of improved 



