THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



A BEE TOUR. 



By ARTH0K Todd. 



There has lately been published 

 a book entitled "The Bee-Keeper's 

 Handy Book, or Twenty-two years' 

 experience in Queen-rearing," by 

 Mr. Henry Alley, of Wenham, 

 Mass., a few miles north of Bos- 

 ton. I had heard much of this 

 gentleman and his method, but 

 was anxious if possible (in addi- 

 tion to adding his experience in 

 the shape of the book to our li- 

 brary) to inspect personally some 

 of his queen-rearing hives, get a 

 couple of them, and test his meth- 

 ods after the arrival of the queen 

 bees we are expecting from Italy. 



Mr. Alley received me very kind- 

 ly but regretted the impossibility 

 of showing me anything, as owing 

 to the very late season, and con- 

 tinued cold weather, he had been 

 obliged to delay his rearing opera- 

 tions, and told me he should be 

 forced, in consequence of the weath- 

 er, to disappoint many customers. 

 I was cordially invited to spend a 

 day with him later on when he 

 would give me a full insight into 

 his methods. He kindly drove me 

 from his place to Salem, Mass., 

 where he introduced me to his 

 friend, Mr. Silas M. Locke, an en- 

 thusiastic apiculturist, whom I 

 found busy correcting the first proof 

 sheets of a new Bee Journal en- 

 titled "The American Apicultur- 

 ist," the very first copy of which 

 he presented to me. Mr. Locke 

 was formerly engaged with Mr. 

 Jones of Canada in queen-rear- 



ing, and was the first to breed 

 and handle Holy Land and Cyprian 

 queen bees from the queens of 

 those breeds brought over by Mr. 

 Jones at great expense. He 

 showed me — preserved in alcohol — 

 some specimens of Holy Lands, 

 Cypi'ians, and their crossings. 



Mr. Locke and Mr. Alley went 

 into a long discussion with me in 

 reference to the various points of 

 excellence of the different races, 

 their points of distinction exter- 

 nally, etc., etc. 



I was shown the beautiful gold- 

 en shield that all pure Cyprians 

 have between the wings on the 

 thorax, a distinctive feature well 

 worth remembering. 



The Holy Land bees have like 

 the Cyprians the golden shield be- 

 tween the wings on the thorax, and 

 a mark like a black half moon with 

 a covering of hair lighter in color, 

 but thicker than upon either Cyp- 

 rians or Italians. 



Mr. Locke is making experi- 

 ments now upon crosses of the va- 

 rious races, and he looks for the 

 very best results from a cross be- 

 tween the young queens of our best 

 American Italians and Holy Land 

 drones, with perhaps a mixture of 

 German blood. 



I must refer my hearers to the 

 admirable descriptions of the va- 

 rious races, and remarks thereon 

 by Mr. Locke, which are contained 

 in Mr. Alley's book, a copy of 

 which I obtained, and is now add- 

 ed to our library ; a copy of the 

 new Journal is also subscribed for 

 and is already in circulation. 



I left Mr. Alley and Mr. Locke 



