506 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15. 



groove in the top-bar. with the sharp edges of 

 the tin up, having tlie wii'e pass out fi'om tlie 

 end of the bar through a hook formed by bend- 

 ing the point of a small wire nail which pi'o- 

 jects througli the top-bar at this place, and 

 which is afterward clinclied down into the 

 wood. Now bring the wire down between tlie 

 ends of the bottom and end bars at Q, and fas- 

 ten it to tiie nail there, whicli has not yet been 

 driven quite in. Drive this nail in, break off 

 the surplus end of wire, and you have a frame 

 that can not possibly get out of true anywhere. 

 Mt. Vernon, la.. May 30. Oliver Foster. 



[The foot-note to which you refer (page 7.58, 

 October, 1888), was dictated by A. I. R., and he 

 had in mind ordinary thin top-bars. liut this 

 was some six months befoi'e the discussion rela- 

 tive to thick top-bars came up; and I scarcely 

 see yet how you could get the idea from the 

 reference above that a top-bar K inch square 

 would prevent burr-combs. At any rate, a few 

 months after, it was shown conclusively that 

 extra ivklth was necessary.— Oh no, friend Fos- 

 ter, I did not interpret your remark as an un- 

 kind reflection. I kne\\' you too well to mind 

 any thing of that kind: only I felt that if we 

 had given you a wrong impression (on account 

 of which you went to considerable expense), we 

 ought to be warned so as not to make the same 

 mistake again. Now about that tin bar. As 

 you put it in covered with \\ax, it might not be 

 objectionable; and perhaps we do not disagree 

 at all, even including the tin bar. We never 

 covered our tin bars with wax; but with our 

 thick bars it is not necessary to use it: and with 

 the Keeney method of wiring it is impo.ssible 

 for the bottom-bar to sag at all if the wires 

 hold. S(3 you see we are both aiming at the 

 same object, but in a different way. Your 

 method of wiring is very neat; and personally 

 I should like it very much better than our old 

 perpendicular plan. There are fe\\er hoh's 

 through which to thread the wires, and the 

 whole operation is much less trouble.] E. R. 



HYBRIDS IN CALIFOKNIA. 



A CALIFORXIAN TELLS WHY NEW BEE-PAPERS 

 DIE. 



In May 1st Gleanings, Dr. Miller, in Stray 

 Straws, says no new bee-paper had started that 

 week; but he gives no account of how many 

 had passed away. The fact is, they must pass 

 away or the market would be glutted. I think 

 I can throw some light on their downfall, that 

 has never been even suspected. No soonei- does 

 a new bee-paper get well upon its legs — able to 

 stand alone — than the infatuated and mis- 

 guided editor writes to me and solicits a contri- 

 bution. Everybody knows that I am good- 

 natured — even to a fault. Then I put on my 

 harness and give him one of my best— a real 

 hardy, deep-rooted one that I have saved up 

 for the Fourth of July, or some other festive 

 occasion. Then the papei' takes the spring 

 dwindling. It dwindles on and on, until it 

 dwindles into nothing. All my herculean efforts 

 to save it are of no avail, t may thow into it 

 enough intellect to save a dying dictionary — 

 one that has outlived its day — but it all avails 

 nothing. The more and the faster I write for 

 it, the faster it fades away. Can Dr. M. or 

 "any other man" explain this? I am really 

 getting out of heart. 



HYBRID BEE.S IN CALIFORNIA. 



Away back in the 70's the Italian bee was in- 

 troduced into San Diego County. At that time 



thei'e was no othei' bee known here than the 

 black. To the bee-keepei' of that day it was 

 the bee and the only bee in the world." Why! 

 it would have made his head swim to hear 

 you talk of Italians. Cypi'ians. Syrians, albinos, 

 Carniolans, etc. He would have thought you 

 were going crazy, or that you had been there 

 all the time. But a change came o'er the spir- 

 it of their dream, and the Italian burst upon 

 their enraptured vision like the first rays of the 

 morning sun. Fabulous prices wei'e paid for 

 queens too — twenty, thirty, forty, and as high 

 as fifty dollars. But, what of that? These 

 Italians could jerk out and pile up the honey 

 every year. Their honey-sucker was h mg— was 

 like a rubber tube, only more so, and they could 

 stretch it out to any length needed, to get the 

 honey from (til the flowers I Nearly all the 

 long, deep, bell -shaped flowers grow along the 

 water-courses, and many of them bloom nearly 

 all the year round. The blacks could not reach 

 the nectar. But the Italian, with his long rub- 

 ber tube, could just muzzle all the honey in 

 creation. Thei-e was money in it — loads of it. 

 Why not? Couldn't the Italian gather honey 

 all the year round? Wouldn't the whole year 

 be one unvaried honey season? These stories, 

 and many others more ridiculous still, were the 

 tales that were sent out among the bee-keepers 

 of that day, and they lost nothing on tlu'ir 

 joui'uey. The further they traveled, the wild- 

 er they became. Was it any wonder they paid 

 fabulous prices for queens? At that time little 

 was known by the average bee-keeper in regai'd 

 to Italianizing an apiary. To bring the pre- 

 cious lady home and turn her into a queenless 

 colony was about all they knew. They wei-e 

 under the hallucination that they were produc- 

 ing honey, but they were really raising drones. 

 Their hives were half full of drone comb, many 

 of them more tlian half full. What would one 

 Italian queen do, put in among five hundred 

 such hives, and that without care, and without 

 any attempt to control the hybrid drones? The 

 few pure Italian drones s/ic produced were like 

 lost sheep in the wilderness. But she did some- 

 thing still; for the consequence was. in the end, 

 the whole country was hybridized. All the 

 wild bees in the mountains are hybrids. In 

 fact, it is hard to find any black bees, or any 

 pui"e Italians, for tliat matter, in San Diego 

 County. These bees extend far up into the 

 north: but bee-keepers there have now many 

 pure Italian yards. It is held. I believe, by 

 most bee-keepers east, that the hybrid (except 

 the first generation) is a very successful failuie 

 as a first-class honey-gatherei'. This may be 

 true there; but the hybrids on this coast are a 

 very extensive and remarkable exception to the 

 rule. You fellows in the East talk of your four 

 and five banded Italians — talk of them and 

 blow about them as if hmids were any thing to 

 be proud of. Why! bands are just the every- 

 day clothes of our hybrid bees. They wear 

 three, four, and five bands, just as they can 

 snatch them up. as they are hatched out. The 

 fellow that has five bands is not proud at all — 

 not too proud to associate with the pooi' ci'ea- 

 ture that has only three. He would even asso- 

 ciate with an Italian, if the Italian had the 

 good fortune to belong to his own home. But 

 he recognizes the fact that his comrade in ai'ms 

 was in such a hurry to gather honey that he 

 did not take time to put on all his clothes! He 

 knows, too, that it is not b(tnds that gather 

 honey, as some be(^-keepers would have you be- 

 lieve. He knows that it is grit, vim, diligence, 

 and perseverance. 



Now. the fii'st generation of these bees, so far 

 as I can learn from many bee-keepers of that 

 day, was no better and no worse as honey- 

 gatherers than the ten thousandth generation 



