348 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



various virtues in the honey, and sell it upon 

 the merit of food or medicine. I am, there- 

 fore, inclined to speak a good word for the 

 pepper-tree, and advocate the planting of it, 

 for a noble and beautiful tree is a thing of joy 

 every time we look at it. 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



[If I am correct, the eucalyptus was first in- 

 troduced into California, where firewood is so 

 high-priced and scarce, with the view of using 

 it for fuel. It is of tremendously rapid 

 growth, and I saw little patches that might be 

 called a dense forest that was all grown in 

 about six years. In fact, trees were pointed 

 out to me, 70 feet high, that grew in seven 

 years, or ten feet every year on the average. 

 The tree has been introduced to some extent 

 in Bermuda, and also in Florida; but nowhere 

 else does it make the astonishing growth that 

 it does in California. Our artist has succeed- 

 ed in giving a most lifelike picture of its 

 graceful foliage, blossoms, and berries; and 

 somebody, I do not know who, has been so 

 careless as to set that vase on top of a brand- 

 new ABC book. Never mind; if the water 

 does not get slopped over, it probably will do 

 no harm. — A. I. R.] 



THE ONTARIO COUNTY CONVENTION. 



Apis Dorsata ; Glimpses of the History of the 

 Honey-bee and Bee-keeping, etc. 



BY FR. GREINER. 



When Mr. F. Benton gave his account of 

 his exploits in foreign lauds when in pursuit 

 of different races of bees, the supervisor's 

 rooms of the Canandaigua court-house were 

 crowded, and, though he spoke quite at length, 

 he held his audience spellbound from begin- 

 ning to end. The professor seemed to be at 

 home in every thing pertaining to bee-keeping 

 in Germany, Austria, Italy, Syria — in fact, I 

 don't know where not. He seemed to be 

 acquainted with all the leading lights in those 

 lands. In Carniola he had remained four 

 years and had bred the Carniolan bee. 



YEI<I.OW CARNIOI.ANS AND THEIR ORIGIN. 



I remember we had quite an animated con- 

 troversy some years ago in regard to what the 

 Carniolan bee should look like. Mr. H. Alley 

 asserted that it was originally a yellow bee, 

 and he advertised his golden Carniolans at 

 the time very largely. Breeders from Carniola 

 assured me then that, in a Carniolan swarm, 

 perhaps one in fifty bees might show a trace 

 of yellow on first band. 



Mr. Benton has traveled all over Carniola, 

 and his explanation of the yellow admixture 

 appears quite reasonable. He says, from 

 south of Carniola, where yellow (Italian) bees 

 predominate, the peasants have for ages past 

 been in the habit of moving their bees north- 

 ward at certain seasons of the year into the 

 richer pasture-fields of Carniola. From the 

 north part of the province the peasants there 

 have come southward with their gray bees, 

 and so the yellow bees have come in contact 

 with the grays. Very often the peasants 



would sell out, and, neither buyers nor sellers 

 being very particular as to the color of the 

 bees, they became more and more mixed. As 

 a natural consequence, the further south one 

 goes in Carniola the more of the } ellow blood 

 the bees show. In North Carniola the bees 

 are a pure gray. 



Mr. Benton selected for his breeding-stock 

 among the bees offered for sale by the peasants 

 such as were most typical, and at the close of 

 the four years he remained in Carniola he 

 had what he claimed, the finest lot of Carnio- 

 lan bees anywhere. Now, although Mr. B. 

 tested all sorts of bees after that, it is surely a 

 feather in the cap of the Carniolan bees that 

 his present stock consists entirely of such. I 

 want to mention further that -it is possible to 

 breed out their swarming propensity. Mr. B. 

 has succeeded in this to such an extent that 

 he can notice but little difference between his 

 Carniolans and other races in this respect; and 

 as to their business qtialifications, he thinks 

 they are second to none. 



Speaking of the best business bee reminds 

 me of what Mr. Weygandt, of Flacht, Ger- 

 many, says on this point: "Have we not 

 made a mistake in importing a southern race 

 of bees, a bee naturally not so well adapted to 

 our climate ? It seems to me it is going a step 

 in the wrong direction. Should we not rather 

 go to the North, where bees have to endure 

 greater hardships, where conditions are less 

 favorable? The bees in Norway, for instance, 

 must of necessity be a hardier race. By them 

 we may infuse stronger blood into our own 

 race of bees." 



I want to ask, is this not a point worth con- 

 si lerirg ? I should like to see such a bee from 

 a northern clime imported. I should like to 

 try them. 



CYPRIAN AND SYRIAN BEES. 



To retvirn to my subject : After having been 

 engaged in the queen business for four years 

 in Carniola Mr. Benton started for Cyprus. 

 He found the bees there very uniform, as one 

 might expect on a small island. They were 

 very yellow, and slightly smaller. The high 

 winds nearly always prevailing had caused the 

 bees to develop there great strength of muscle, 

 fitting them well for long flights; and, further, 

 there are a great many hornets in Cyprus, 

 which often attack the bees — yes, sometimes 

 exterminating whole apiaries. In order that 

 they may be better able to defend themselves, 

 the bees have gotten into a habit of chistering 

 around the entrance of their hives, and pounc- 

 ing upon attacking wasps as soon as any come 

 near. By such constant irritation by the 

 wasps, the bees in time had become very 

 cross, and so, indeed, they were found. Still. 

 Mr. B. handled them as easily as blacks, and 

 even preferred them. He .says he occasionally 

 opened a hive without smoke, and was led to 

 believe that a more prolonged test of the 

 Cyprians in America would have resulted in a 

 gentle bee. 



Mr. Benton also visited Syria. The Syrian 

 bee resembles more nearly the Cyprian than 

 does the Palestine; but neither one is as man- 

 ageable as even the Cyprian. The Palestine 

 bee nearer approaches the Egyptian, which 



