Pbbeuaev, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



111 



HOW THEY CAME TO US 



A Book 'With Historical oAssocia- 



tions That Throws Some Light on 



the Introduction of Italians 



By E. F. Phillips 



QUITE recent- 

 ly, in look- 

 ing for an- 

 other book in the 

 beekeeping libra- 

 ry of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, I 

 picked up a little 

 book written by 

 H. C. Hermann which immediately aroused 

 interest. The book in itself is scarcely 

 worthy of passing notice, but any one famil- 

 iar with the history of tlie introduction of 

 Italian bees in 3860 by Mr. S. B. Parsons 

 will recall that he purchased these bees from 

 Herr Hermann. These bees were shipped 

 thru the port of Havre and reached here in 

 April or May. The date is usually given as 

 May, but some recent information indicates 

 that it was really earlier. 



The book in question was published by 

 Leonh. Hitz at Chur, Switzerland, in 1859, 

 and the copy at hand contains the book 

 plate of the U. S. Patent Office Library. 

 On the title page is an embossed mark 

 " Patent Office Library." It was trans- 

 ferred to the Library of Congress and 

 contains a rubber-stamp mark, " By trans- 

 fer from Patent Office Library, April, 

 1914." It was then transferred to the 

 Library of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture apparently on January 12, 1915. 

 It has been in the library at Drummond 

 for over a year, but it never before came 

 to notice. Probably there are some more 

 treasures here which have not been unearth- 

 ed. 



One cannot but wonder whether the pres- 

 ence of this little book of 56 pages in the 

 Patent Office is responsible for the fact 

 that Mr. Parsons was sent to Herr Herman 

 for the bees. II: must be remembered that 

 at that time there was no Department of 

 Agfieulture, but what work was done in 

 agricultural research and exploration was 

 supervised by the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, an officer in the Patent Office. The 

 title page is enough to stimulate any one to 

 want the bees described. The author re- 

 serves the right of translation* ; but pre- 

 sumably after 57 years there can be no 

 f'bjection to a translation of the title page: 

 " The Italian Aliien-bee, or the Gold Mine 

 of Agricultui'e ; a short and practical trea- 

 tise, in order to introduce genuine, fertile 

 Italian queens, for changing in a few 

 months many hundred German bee colo- 

 nies into Italians." 



Furthermore, at the close of the book 



* The book was translated in 1860 into English 

 and published by Geo. Neighbour & Sons, London, 

 and also into French. In the same year there ap- 

 peared a book in Italian with a similar title, per- 

 haps the same book. 



is a price list in 



which the author 



says : " I offer to 



worthy b e e - 



friends at the fol- 



lowing prices, 



payable in cash: 



A young yellow 



fertilized queen : 



From March 15 to April 30 with 500 bees, 



20 francs; with 1000 bees, 22 francs; with 



5000 bees, 35 francs, etc." 



He reduced the price later in the season, 

 and also cliarges 2 francs less for " queens 

 which are less beautiful, young as well as 

 old." There are also prices quoted for 

 Italian drones " To July 30, 2 fr. per hun- 

 dred; August 1 to October 30, 3 fr. per 

 hundred." What was the price on July 31? 

 The point of chief interest is that this 

 first importation came, not from Italy but 

 from Switzerland. Ivichard Colvin, who 

 was one of the first to import Italian 

 queens (in 1858-9, with Langstroth,) says 

 in an article in the report of the Commis- 

 sioner of AgTiculture for 1863: " Parsons 

 «** received an importation of them from 

 the northern part of Italy * * *." Colvin 

 also received Italian queens from Dzierzon 

 in June. 1800, his earlier imported queens 

 having all died. From this it may be 

 concluded that it was commonly believed 

 that the Parsons importation was from 

 Itaty. Ifowever, Mr, Parsons reported to 

 ■ he Agricultural Division of the Patent 

 Office on January 3, 1860, the purchase of 

 ten colonies from Herman of Tamins. 

 Herr Herman lived in Tamins, Canton of 

 Graubunden, in eastein Switzerland, which 

 is located at the .iunction of the Vorder 

 Hhcin and the Hinter Eliein. The Rhine 

 River then floAvs northeast and north to 

 Lake Constance. Chur, where the book 

 was published, is just below Tamins in the 

 valley of the Rhine. From Tamins to the 

 nearest point in Lombardy, Italy, is less 

 than 25 miles in a direct line; but the 

 Rhaetian Alps intervene, over which bees 

 would have difficulty in passing. It is only 

 about 20 miles down the river to Lichten- 

 stein, Austria: but unless bees flew over 

 the water they would encounter some high 

 mountains in flying toward Austrian 

 territory. 



The book itself is curious, and full of 

 good and bad beekeeping. It is evidently 

 intended to induce beekeepers to buy 

 queens of the author, an indirect method 

 of advertising of which American bee- 

 literature is not free. Tlie author thinks 

 that his bees are the true race while those 

 of Italy are not. Tlie Alps are, he thinks, 

 the place of origin of this race, for "it 



