l(i(l 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



tion was continued for many years there- 

 niter in conuecliou with his profession as a 

 dentist. In 18(il his health, which had failed 

 early in life, became quite poor, and he gave 

 up the practice of dentistry and repaired to 

 the sea-coast at Newport, R. I. At the close 

 of the war Dr. Hamlin returned to Tennessee 

 and devoted his whole attention to bee cul- 

 ture and the nursery business. The exten- 

 sive business of the " Cumberland Nurseries" 

 which he established in connection with 

 3Ir. B. B. Barnum — a practical nurseryman, 

 was conducted mainly by the latter, while 

 he devoted his attention almost wholly to 

 the apiary. He was the first to introduce 

 the Langstroth movable comb hive and the 

 improved methods of bee culture in the 

 South, and to engage in the importation 

 and rearing of Italian bees, which he did 

 extensively, and aided in their introduction 

 throughout the United States. He assisted 

 greatly in establishing the "Tennessee Api- 

 arian Society " of which he was President, 

 and also, the "National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation," being Vice President of the latter 

 at the time of his death. His interest and 

 enterprise in the promulgation of apiarian 

 knowledge, especially in the South are 

 worthy the highest encomiums. His own 

 success in increasing his bees from a few 

 colonies to over three huudi-ed and contin- 

 ually getting large returns from them, 

 furnishes a practical proof of the reliability 

 of his teachings. His little work on bee 

 culture has wrought a great change in the 

 manner of keeping bees in many localities 

 here. 



Dr. Hamlin's marked energy of character, 

 his perseverance, his lofty aspirations after 

 perfection and his kindness and afiection as 

 a husband, a father, and a friend are well 

 worthy of imitation. An upright, zealous 

 member of the Church, a prominent leader 

 in the Masonic fraternity, held in high ap- 

 preciation by the members of his profession, 

 and an enthusiastic master af apiculture, he 

 is mourned by a large circle of friends and 

 relatives, who alone are comforted by the 

 knowledge that he so lived that 



" When the suininons came to join 



The innumerable caravan that moves 



To the mysterious realms, vi'here each shall take 



His chamber in the silent halls of death. 



He went, not like the young slave, at night, 



Scourgefl to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed 



By an unfaltering trust in God, he approached his 



grave 

 i-.ike one that draws the drapery of his couch 

 About liini. and lies down to pleasant dreams." 



Fr..\NK Benton. 

 Edgefield Junction, Tenn. 



The bees do not deposit in the cells all 

 the pollen they gather. Many of the pel- 

 lets are taken from the gatherers as thej' 

 return with laden tliighs, and are consumed, 

 to qualify the worlcers for secreting wax or 

 preparing food for tlie older larva*. 



Sundry Questions and Answers. 



CONDUCTED BY CH. DAD ANT. 



QUESTION. 



As you are in charge of the questions in tlie 

 American Bee Jouknai., I would ask you 

 to answer tlie following through tlie Journal 

 I would like to import queens myself. To 

 whom shall I send ? Are the queens sent 

 through the mails or as freight ? and at what 

 cost ? What proportion usually reaches this 

 country in safety ? You could give much 

 information to many readers on these ])0ints. 



Hartford, N. Y. J. H. Mahtix. 



For the last seven years I liave been trying 

 to find an Italian bee-keeper able to send 

 queens so packed as to reach this country 

 alive. Since my return from Italy, I have 

 received three invoices ; one containing '?>() 

 queens : 38 were dead — only two were alive. 

 What was the matter ? The Italian breeder 

 had failed to comply with the simplest pre- 

 cautions that I had indicated. 



In a subseciuent invoice all the queens were 

 dead, for the same reasons. 



It is impossible to imagine lifiw queer are 

 the ideas which can germinate in tlie minds 

 of the Italian bee breeders. In an invoice of 

 1-1 queens, I found five that were put up in 

 queen cages, very pretty queen cages indeed, 

 with two or three workers, and all dead of 

 course. In that invoice one (pieen alone was 

 alive, after 2o days journey : it cost me more 

 than f 50 in gold. 



In his second invoice the same man tried a 

 second time his queen cages, in spite of my 

 warning, and refused to replace the (pieens 

 that died in them, and feared that it was im- 

 possible to send queens here alive. 



Another l)ee-keeper sent me 1(5 queens, and 

 put under tlie package, without my cogni- 

 zance, three bottles of wine for sample. My 

 correspondaiit at Havre informed me that 

 they were seized by the French custom-house 

 ofiicers, while I was liere going every day to 

 the express ottice, and writing everywhere to 

 know why my bees were so long to arrive at 

 Hamilton. I wrote to the sender to replace 

 thein, but he made his second invoice so un- 

 willingly and so carelessly tliat very few 

 (lueens arrived here alive. 



1 could narrate many more of these costly 

 experiments made by the Italian breeders, at 

 niy expense. 



In my long experience I have received but 

 two or three invoices whicli could give a 

 beneficial result. Combs broken or loose in 

 the boxes ; too many or too few bees ; too 

 mucli or too little honey ; sponges witii sugar- 

 ed water ; unsealed honey ; sealed brood 

 instead of honey ; rougli handling ; boxes 

 phuuui on their sides or in the vicinity of nox- 

 ious matters in the steamers ; too long delay 



