1881 



GLEANII^.GS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



223 



hatched, ttiwhle off so readily as to annoy the operator 

 by crawling up his clothes, or exposing themselves to be 

 trodden upon." 



11. When the hive is oldened, the Italian queen and 

 workers are disposed to remain quiet, and ivhcn the 

 frames are lifted out, the tcorkers spread themselces 

 over the combs. For this reason, as also from their 

 bright colors, Italian queens are readilj' found, 

 while the blaclcs, both queens and workers, often 

 fairly race olf the combs, and that greatly increases 

 the diflSculty of many important operations. 



12. Under adverse circumstances, the Macl:s arc far 

 more easily discouraged than the Italians. I soon 

 learned this to my cost, when I was obliged to use 

 black bees in making nuclei for rearing Italian 

 queens. If any thing occurred to dishearten them, 

 often without any apparent reason, their nuclei 

 would swarm out and decamp with their queens— a 

 thing which, with proper care, seldom happened 



, When 1 was able to make all of them of Italian only. 



' , 13. TIte Italians will, in some seasons, from the 

 second crop of red clover, hiiild new combs and store 

 them ivith honey, ivhcnlilaek stoc}(S,inthc sameapiary, 

 are losinij weiyht.** 



14. Italians suffer little, compared with the blacks, 

 from the ravages of the hec moth. After Italianizing 

 my apiary, it was often difficult to find a single worm 

 in a large number of stocks, while, if a black stock 

 was brought to me, I could count, with almost abso- 

 lute certainty, on finding a number. The much 

 greater number of holes in the comb of the blacks 

 than in that of the Italians shows plainly how much 

 more the former suffer from the larvaj of the moth. 

 When the blacks become hopelessly queenless, they 

 seldom offer any opposition to the moth, while the 

 verj- opposite is the case with the Italians. Before 

 their introduction into our apiaries, the moth was 

 the great bugbear of our bee-keepers— as witness 

 the multitudes of patent moth-proof (!) hives. 



15. Italians are far less lihely than the blacks, to roh 

 or he rohhed. Those who have kept only Italians, 

 can form but a faint idea of the incessant vif^ilance 

 required, during the whole working season, to pre- 

 vent robbing among black bees. Even when forage 

 is abundant, much o-reater caution is necessary in 

 manipulating with black than with Italian bees. 

 When I had only a few black stocks and a large niim- 

 ber of Italian, nearly every bee that attempted to 

 rob when the hives were opened during a good yield 

 of honey, was a black bee, and drone combs set out 

 in the open air to be emptied of honey by the bees, 

 would be almost exclusively visited by them. Black 

 bees, when vigorously attacked, unless very strong, 

 are apt to lose heart and give up the contest under 

 circumstances in which, even if their honey is stolen 

 from them, the Italians will persist in fighting and 

 killing, until often only a handful are left. 



16. Tlir Italians, by their superior energy and great- 

 er length of proboscis, ivill, on an average of seasons, 

 gather inuch larger stores of honey than the blacks. 



When honey superabounds, the blacks do well 

 enough; but when it is scarce, and can be got only 

 by luiusual energy, then the superiority of the Ital- 

 ians is very manifest. 



•^Until I i-oad Mr. Benton's intevpsting statements in Kind's 

 Kee-keepei"s Magazine for April, us to the superiority uf t\n- 

 ('J))ricns, I feared tliat if , like the blacks, they could f>c easily 

 sliaken off from their combs, thev might reseuible them also lii 

 their falling propensity. 



*'In unusually guod honey rears, the blosjsoms of thefirst crop 

 of red clover are so surcharged in the sweets, and bees can ob 

 tain It so easily, that they pay little attention to \yhite clover. 



In expressing the opinion, that the Cyprians unite 

 the best qualities of the blacks and Italians, I do not 

 speak from any personal experience with them, but 

 rely largely on the testimony of exports, both in 

 Europe and America. M. Cori and CountKrakouski, 

 after having, for over twenty years, sought out the 

 best varieties, and who seem to have tested more 

 kinds than any other apiarians, have at last settled 

 down upon the Cyprians as greatly superior to any 

 yet tried (See British lice Jo?<j-)iaJ, Vol. 8, p. 10), while 

 oiu- own Frank Benton, after rmequalcd facilities 

 for arriving at the truth, belie\es the Cyprians to be 

 a pure race, and a much better one than the Italian. 

 If I had an apiary of Italian bees, I should Cyprian- 

 izo them with no more expectation of regretting it 

 than I had when I discarded the blacks. 



Oxford, Ohio, April 21, 1S81. L. L. Langstroth. 



I am happy to add. that my experience 

 corroborates ahiiost, if not quite, every point 

 friend L. has made ; and inasmuch as this 

 paper is the most exhaustive article we have 

 ever had on the comparative differences of 

 the two races of bees, giving minutely the 

 queer points and peculiarities of each, I feel 

 like, for one, tendering our old teacher a 

 vote of thanks. All in favor of such an ex- 

 pression say — ay! 



OE HONEY PLANTS TO BE NAMED. 



HONEY FROM SKUNK CABBAGE, AS A MEDICINE. 



fN March Gleanings, Mr. W. E. Me Willi asks If 

 you know an y thing about skimk cabbage (Sym- 

 ' plocarpus foctida.) If j'ou will refer to the U. S. 

 Dispensatory you will find a full historj- of it, and 

 that it is a doctor's roof, used as an anti-spasmodic 

 and expectorant, and why is not the honey made 

 from it a good cough syrup? E. R. Douglass. 



Martinsburg, Mo., March 30, 1881. 



WILLOW, ORNAMENT.U.. 



I send you by to-day's mail some cuttings that 

 beat anything for pollen for bees I ever saw. If you 

 will plant or stick them in some damp ground they 

 will grow just like willow cuttings. Please give 

 name. Spring is one mouth behind time. 



Smithsburg, Md., Apr. 18, 1881. D. A. Pike. 



"Why, friend P., they certainly are willow, 

 I should say, but they are more beautiful, 

 with their great-sized blossoms and varie- 

 gated colors (plumage, it seems to me, it 

 ought to be called), than any thing I have 

 ever before seen or heard of, in the shape of 

 a Avillow. We will plant a part of them, and 

 send the rest to Prof. Beal. 



I FEEL that I shall do you a kindness in recom- 

 mending, especially among our 5-cent books, two 

 particular ones. They are "Sheer Off," and " Silver 

 Keys," both written by A. L. O. E. Althovigh both 

 are stories, the Christian precepts are most excel- 

 lent and helpful, and my wife and I both broke forth 

 in exclamations of surprise while reading them, to 

 find that any writer couZd come into our own Uvea 

 with so much helpful counsel. 



