842 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



as. in the former, five empty combs can easily 

 be removed; in the latter there is generally 

 more or less honey scattered in every comb, as, 

 owing to circumstances difficult to control, our 

 feeding was very late. I had one or two bricks 

 for every feeder, and placed them above the 

 feeder and in an upper half-story snugly cover- 

 ed over. This helped to keep all warm, and 

 they were changed morning and night. 



I should like to see every one bring his favor- 

 ite feeder to the convention at Altany: then I 

 should like to see a variety of bee-keepers' sup- 

 plies. As I am away off here in Canada, per- 

 haps I may be permitted to say this without 

 grinding an ax. I look for such a turnout of 

 bee-keepers that I hope to be there. 



Brantford, Ont. R. F. Holtermann. 



[I am not certain whether your plan is new 

 or not; but that is of little consequence. There 

 may be times when the strong colonies might 

 be used for storing and ripening honey to ad- 

 vantage. Our plan is to unite and then feed, 

 and we have always had good results, as you 

 may know. 



I do not know whether it is wise or not for 

 supply-dealers to exhibit their wares at the 

 North American. While I think none of us 

 would abuse the pi'ivilege. there might be a few 

 bee-keepers who think we come to convention 

 just to advertise our goods. I know this is not 

 true in our case. We never carry samples of 

 our goods with us, except occasionally to ex- 

 hibit some novelty. The chief end of bee-con- 

 ventions is to get acquainted and compare 

 notes.] E. R. 



ITALIANS IN ITALY NOT THREE-BANDED. 



SOME PRETTY STRONG ASSERTIONS. 



Mr. Root:— In traveling through Ireland, 

 Scotland, England, Belgium, Germany, and 

 Austria, I have seen none but the old straw 

 bee-hive and a few like our old '• gums." Here 

 in Italv they have also straw hives, but wooden 

 boxes are the rule. Leaving Lake Como yes- 

 terday I was fortunate in reaching this place 

 while an exposition was going on. There is a 

 splendid exhibit of peaches, pears, apples, 

 plums, apricots, nectarines, grapes, etc. Some 

 lemons are eight inches long and four in diame- 

 ter. The poultry display was fairly good, our 

 "Rocks" and Wyandottes being on the list. 

 What drew my attention the most was the bee 

 department, which was very poor considering 

 the advancements that have been made. The 

 only improvement upon forty years ago con- 

 sists in a few bad samples of brood foundation 

 and queen-cages— simple wire boxes— no ex- 

 tractors, no sections, no dovetailed frames, no 

 section-holders, no queen-excluders, no intro- 

 ducing-cages, no wax-extractors, and no sur- 

 plus arrangements other than the square boxes 

 with side glasses, such as were put over our old 

 box hives. The two largest exhibitoi-s were a 

 retired Catholic priest, and a most agreeable 

 gentleman, whose card I inclose, and of whom 

 I shall write later. The hives that these men 

 had were filled with bees— Italian and Egyp- 

 tian. 



There is an impression in the States that the 

 Italian bee is yellow, or has two or more yellow 

 bands. Now% I do not pretend to be over-bright, 

 but I am a close observer when my attention 

 and interests draw me to a thing; and I assert 

 most emphatically that the belief has no foun- 

 dation in fact whatever. I have seen Italy 

 from end to end. In the beautiful flowers in 

 these most beautiful gardens; on the luscious 

 grapes in the market and stands, at work on 



the buckwheat, of which there is a great deal 

 here, it is everywhere the same old friend, the 

 brown bee. At this exposition the yellow- 

 banded bee ought to be seen, if indigenous. As 

 a mattei' of fact, among the thirty or forty colo- 

 nies there is not a bee that can show moi-e than 

 one band. I looked at all the tly-holes for even 

 a "sport "that could show two bands, but in 

 vain. It stands to reason, too, that Italy, not 

 being an island, could not have kept up, all 

 these hundreds of years, a race of bees uncon- 

 taminated by its neighbors. Of course, there 

 may be here, as with us, some man who has 

 got these three or more bands by selection; but 

 the native bee has no such marking, nor have I 

 found a single bee-man of the twenty or thirty 

 talked with who knows even of their existence. 



All the boxes here are poorly constructed, and 

 the frames heavy and badly put together. The 

 boxes hold 14 frames suspended on wooden rab- 

 bets, the frames being 12 inches long and 8 deep, 

 and are nailed together. The honey in Italy is 

 amber-colored, and not to be compared to our 

 clover and linden clear grades. The " idleweis " 

 white honey is a delusion unless the Swiss and 

 Italian-x\lpine people catch some before the 

 buckwheat blooms, which is both an early and 

 late crop here, and meets the eye in every di- 

 rection. We all know what color it imparts. 

 Honey is more commonly used here than 

 with us. On every lireakfast table is found the 

 dish of liquid honey. At Carlsbad, Hamburg, 

 and Baden-Baden, when people are put upon a 

 health diet, there is nothing on the breakfast 

 table but a small cup of coffee, one roll (no but- 

 ter), and a little dish of clear honey. 



I should have about 1000 lbs. of comb honey 

 (sections) if our Maryland crop has been good, 

 and am anxious to get home and see what my 

 little workcnvs have done. 



Arthur T. Goldsborough. 



Palanza, Lake Maggiore. Italy, Sept. 12. 



[Friend G., we are glad indeed to get a report 

 direct from Italy; but we are very much sur- 

 prised to have you intimate that the honey- 

 bees of Italy are not yellow-banded. You cer- 

 tainly must be stating the matter very strongly 

 or else you have not been very thorough -in your 

 investigations. D. A. Jones, you will remem- 

 ber, visited Italy expressly to see about the 

 Italian bees. Besides this, an old .schoolmate of 

 mi^ie, a most careful and eouscientioiis man. 

 went over to Italy on purpose to inv(>stigate 

 this veiy matter you mention. He brought 

 home a large number of queens from different 

 locations. He said he found a good many bees 

 that would be pronounced common blacks by 

 some people, but that these bees, when filled 

 with honey, and placed on a window, showed 

 distinctly "the yellow bands. They were, how- 

 ever, in some cases, so dark as to be of a rather 

 leather color more than golden yellow. The 

 importations that we are receiving constantly 

 from Italy must certainly give us some sort of 

 idea of the bees to be found there.] A. I. R. 



RAMBLE NO. 46. 



WITH THE ARTISTS OF CLEA^ELAND. 



Our journey westward from Jamestown was 

 uneventful, except for the little surprises we 

 were constantly meeting. We of the far East 

 hear of smoky Pittsburg and its iron industry, 

 but we seldom hear of the smaller iron-manu- 

 facturing towns. So it was a surprise to us to 

 see nearly every village of importance all 

 through Northeast Ohio, clear up to and in- 

 cluding Cleveland, a busy community fashion- 

 ing iron into useful articles. Cleveland is 



