598 



AMERICAN BEE JOURJNAi-. 



Where the combs are not attached to 

 the sides and bottoms of the sections, 

 as many of them are liable, owing to the 

 sections being only partly filled, it is 

 best to turn slowly, until a part of the 

 honey has gone out, when they should 

 be reversed in the extractor, the other 

 side gotten out clean, when they are 

 reversed again, and the honey from the 

 first side thrown out clean. This saves 

 injuring the combs that are only slightly 

 attached to the sections, and where from 

 10 to 16 sections can be placed in one 

 holder, this extra reversing takes but 

 little extra time. If these slightly at- 

 tached sections are sorted out, there 

 need be but a few frames full of them to 

 turn in this way. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



The First Importation of Ital- 

 ian Bees, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DB. JESSE OREN. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to give some 

 historic imformation. I brought the 

 first Italian queen west of the Alleghany 

 Mountains in July, 1860. Now, Mr. 

 Newman, in his essay on the "Progress 

 of the Past 50 Years," read at the Keo- 

 kuk, Iowa, meeting of the North Ameri- 

 can Bee-Keepers' Association, gave Mr. 

 Parsons as the first importer of the Ital- 

 ian queen. I called his attention at the 

 time to the error, and the President, Mr. 

 Taylor, requested a correction. 



After returning home, I feared that 

 possibly I had made a statement lacking 

 in courtesy to Mr. Newman, whom I 

 always held in high esteem. I therefore 

 wrote an apology to him. I herewith 

 send you a part of two letters from Mr. 

 Mahan to me, that will corroborate 

 what I have said and claim ; also a docu- 

 ment showing the competitive ire which 

 grew up between Messrs. Mahan and 

 Parsons about the purity of Mahan's 

 bees. 



The connection of the Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth with the Parson bees gave 

 them a notoriety wide spread at the 

 time. I was acquainted with Mr. Lang- 

 stroth while living on Turner's Lane, in 

 Philadelphia, in 1850-52, and at the 

 very time he made his discovery. All 

 this, of course, amounts to nothing so 

 far as I am in question. 



I am in my 70th year, and am soon to 

 pass away. I am still entertained in 

 the bee-yard. I have been in the busi- 

 ness since 1858. I am now running 

 two bee-yards— one here in Iowa, of 200 



colonies, and one in Daytona, Fla., just 

 north of Mosquito Inlet. It may be in- 

 teresting to know that my colony on the 

 scales swarmed on March 13th, and 

 then up to March 24th, gathered 38 

 pounds of hooey from orange bloom ; 

 from May 4th to June 4th, from saw 

 palmetto it gathered 62 pounds; and 

 from July 17th to Aug. 28th, from 

 cabbage palmetto, 49 pounds. It was 

 all comb honey. 

 La Porte City, Iowa, Sept. 28, 1893. 



[We referred the foregoing letter by 

 Dr. Oren, to Friend Newman, the former 

 editor of the Bee Journal, who adds 

 the following paragraphs: — Ed.] 



My reply to the foregoing is very sim- 

 ple. I well knew that there was a con- 

 troversy concerning priority in import- 

 ing Italian bees, and carefully avoided 

 taking sides, in my essay read before the 

 North American Bee-Association at Keo- 

 kuk, Iowa, in the fall of 1890. 



After mentioning the fact that, in 

 1856, Mr. Wagner attempted to import 

 bees from Italy, but failed to get them 

 to our shores alive, I added : 



"In 1859, Messrs. S. B. Parsons, of New 

 York, and P. J. Mahan, of Pennsylvania, 

 were the first to land Italian bees in North 

 America." 



I coupled these names together, and 

 said that they were the first to succeed 

 in bringing these bees to our shores — 

 giving both of these gentlemen the credit 

 of priority, but did not attempt to decide 

 which of the two was the first to land 

 them. I have never been able to decide 

 that question in my own mind. [See 

 page 3, column 2, of the Official Conven- 

 tion Report for 1890.] 



I can now remember nothing of the 

 matter, and have to depend entirely 

 upon the " Report of the Proceedings," 

 as published. Memory fails me to recall 

 what Dr. Oren may have remarked at 

 the time, but I think it must have been 

 "courteous," for, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, I have always found him to be 

 kind and gentlemanly. Apology, there- 

 fore, if made, must have been consid- 

 ered unnecessary, and it, too, has been 

 entirely forgotten. 



As no Italian queens were imported 

 until 1859, Dr. Oren must have been 

 one of the early purchasers in order to 

 have the distinguished honor of having 

 " brought the first Italian queen west of 

 the Alleghany Mountains." A motto 

 which I highly prize is, "Honor to whom 

 honor is due." Thomas G. Newman, 



Chicago, Ills., Oct. 27, 1893. 



