52 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



those who have been to Italy and Lom- 

 bardy decide if black bees are fouud there 

 now, even if they have been " imported 

 therefrom outside Italy!" Not having 

 been there, we are not competent to talk 

 on that point. AVe have names and let- 

 ters from those who have received queens 

 from Mr. Dadant direct, that can be given 

 to any inquirer who wish, either privately 

 or in the Journal, asserting that queens 

 direct from Mr. Dadant, said by him to 

 be imported, produced black bees and 

 hybrid ones. To our minds these letters 

 prove nothing until we know the circum- 

 stances under which they were introduced, 

 «&c. Our readers may think differently. 

 Now that Mr. Dadant has "said his say," 

 we cry "enough," unless Mr. Bingham or 

 Mr. King wish to be heard. While our 

 columns are open for both sides on any 

 subject of interest to bee-keepers, we have 

 no room for prolonged controversy. 



T. 



Progress in Bee Culture. 



We clip the following item from the 

 Vinton, Iowa, Eagle. 



Mr. William Hunt, an extensive farm- 

 er in this county, living three miles west 

 of Center Point, has lately given special 

 attention to bee culture. Mr. Hunt se- 

 cured the services of A. W. Colburn, a 

 practical apiarist, who has recently trans- 

 ferred about a hundred hives of the ordi- 

 nary black bees from the old gum logs to 

 Langstroth's improved two-story hives, 

 in each of which are placed' from sixteen 

 to twenty-four frames. About half a 

 ton of honey has already been secured, 

 without the distraction of a single hive. 

 A friend called at Mr. H.'s the other day, 

 and witnessed the process of extracting 

 the honey. With one of Murphy's im- 

 proved extractors, the honey was removed 

 from several sets of frames in a few mo- 

 ment's time, without injury to the combs, 

 which were replaced in the hives. The 

 hives have been averaging twenty pounds 

 of honey daily. The large forest of bass- 

 wood trees near by, gives the bees a fine 

 chance to make a good report. If bee 

 owners want to make the business pay, 

 they had better take a look at JVIr. Col- 

 burn's operations at Mr. Hunt's. 



Mr. Hunt is very enthusiastic over the 

 management of his bees. He calculates 

 to clear over a thousand dollars on his 

 bees this year, although the recent trans- 



fer from one set of hives to another, did 

 not enable them to make as good returns 

 as they would have made had they been 

 ready to go to work on the improved plan 

 early this spring. 



Co-Relation of Bees and Flowers. 



The bees, Mr. Darwin says, have solved 

 a difficult problem. They liave made 

 their cells of a proper shape to hold the 

 greatest possible amount of honey with 

 the least possible consumption of precious 

 wax in their construction. No human 

 workman is skillful enough to do what a 

 crowd of bees can do, working in a dark 

 hive — make cells of wax, of the true 

 form. 



The number of bumble bees in the 

 country will depend upon the number of 

 cats. How can that be ? Because the 

 number of bees is dependent upon the 

 number of field mice, which eat the bees. 

 Hence the more cats, the fewer mice, the 

 more bees. 



If the whole genus of bumble bees be- 

 came extinct, or very rai-e, the heart's 

 ease and red clover would become rare or 

 w^ould disappear. How is that? Be- 

 cause bees promote the growth of those 

 flowers. The visits of bees are necessary 

 to the fertilization of some kinds of 

 clover, and almost indispensable to the 

 fertilization of the heart's ease. 



In a word — no bees, no seed ; no seed, 

 no increase of the flowers. The more 

 visits from the bees, the more seed from 

 the flower, the more flower from the 

 seeds. 



Nearly all our orchidaceous plants ab- 

 solutely require the visits of insects to 

 remove tlieir pollen masses, and thus to 

 fertilize them. 



Twenty heads of unprotected Dutch 

 clover yielded 2,900 seeds. The same 

 number protected from bees, produced 

 not one seed; one hundred heads of un- 

 protected clover yielded 27,000, and the 

 same number protected from bees, not a 

 seed. 



Obituary. — R. C. Otis, who is well 

 known to the bee-keeping ifraternity, died 

 at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, August 31st, 

 1874, in the 61st year of his age. 



M. M. Bai.dridge. 



St. Charles, Ills., Jan. U, 1875. 



John K. McAllister & Co., are our duly 

 autliorized agents for the Amkhican Bke 

 Journal, at Koom 27, Tribune Huililing, 

 Chicago, witli whom any liushu'ss may be 

 transacted with oxir apiu-oval.aud be prompt- 

 ly recognized by tlie manager of this- 

 paper. 



