AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



15 



robber, causing often the most trying 

 difficulties in the management of an 

 apiary. Nor could I tell whether, when 

 an attempt should be made by other bees 

 to rob it, how brave a defense it would 

 make. We all know that the black bee 

 is by nature such a coward that often, 

 when attacked by great forces of its 

 own, or other races (like the dog that 

 drops its tail in the fight, and is soon a 

 beaten dog, or the cock that runs, after 

 a few exchanges of blows), it will give 

 up the battle and suffer itself to be rob- 

 bed of every thing ; or even, like the 

 black race, join forces with the robbers, 

 and rob their own hive. If I had only a 

 single warm day which I could spend in 

 observations, I could easily, in ways 

 which I have not time to suggest, decide 

 these points. 



Now, as to the conclusion of the whole 

 matter : I would not advise any one to 

 attempt at once to supplant the good 

 races of bees which are in his apiary, 

 with this race ; nor would I so condemn 

 it as to say that nearly every enterpris- 

 ing bee-keeper ought not at least give it 

 a fair trial. In a single season, if the 

 season is a favorable one for honey, I 

 believe all the disputed points will be 

 settled, and no one would- rejoice more 

 than myself if it should prove, like the 

 Morgan horse, the progeny of an im- 

 proved and improving race of bees. 



My readers will be*'" in mind that 

 these observations were nicde upon only 

 a single colony — that this colony might 

 not have been entirely pure, and that I 

 had not any blacks with which to com- 

 pare it. 



Dayton, O. 



Ms Among Iowa Bee-Keepers. 



THOS. JOHNSON. 



On May 16, upon examining my bees 

 after about three weeks' absence, and 

 finding them in good condition, I con- 

 tinued my visits among Iowa bee-keep- 

 ers, but saw none of any prominence 

 until I reached Audubon. I there saw 

 Mr. S. Webster, who has an apiary of 

 about 75 colonies. He was somewhat 

 discouraged, but I believe the discour- 

 agement was mostly on account of some- 

 thing else besides bees. 



I next saw Mr. E. S. Taggart, of Lar- 

 land (not of Coon Rapids, as my article 

 has it on page 510 of the Bee Journal 

 for April 14, 1892). After spending a 

 short time with Mr. T., I took the train 

 for Manning, where I was delayed until 



3 a.m., in one of the worst storms I ever 

 witnessed. I then took the train for 

 Coon Rapids— what the railroad men 

 call the "flyer," but I called it the 

 " leaker," for the rain poured in at the 

 roof in torrents. 



After arranging my affairs, I went to 

 Manilla, by way of Manning, where I 

 waited 21 hours for a train. There 

 being no prospects of getting on the 

 right track, I started for Council Bluffs, 

 arriving there at 10 a.m. I boarded 

 the Northwestern train, which took me 

 in a northerly direction, up the old Mis- 

 souri river, at the station called "Honey 

 Creek," where I saw an apiary of about 

 50 colonies of bees. By the way, it 

 looked more like a stump-yard than 

 what it really was. For the want of the 

 old Virginia gum, the owner nailed 

 rough boards together for hives, and I 

 think if he gets any surplus it will be on 

 the old brimstone-pit style. 



At 1 p.m. I arrived at Missouri Valley, 

 Harrison county, where I met D. M. 

 Harris, of the Missouri Valley Times — a 

 daily and weekly paper. He said that 

 he used to handle bees some twenty 

 years ago, and I had no right to dispute 

 him, for I knew of him in Guthrie 

 county to run an ox-team, and also as a 

 member of Congress and Probate Judge. 

 His son and I ate hard-tack together at 

 Porkers' Cross Roads, Tenn. ; that is 

 the State where our honey-prophet lives 

 — Mr. Sam Wilson. Mr. Jas. Harris 

 was in an Iowa regiment duiing the 

 civil war, and I was in an Ohio regiment. 



Here I learned that there was little 

 honey in 1891, my informant being Mr. 

 J. W. Fouts, an experienced bee-keeper. 



At 9 a.m. on Friday, I took the train 

 for Logan, the county seat of Harrison 

 county, where I visited the apiary of 

 J. H. M. Edwards. Last fall he had 42 

 colonies, and now has 14 left. Mr. J. 

 D. Frick had 20 colonies last fall, and 

 lost 16. It was May 20 when I visited . 

 there, and while I walked % of a mile, 

 the snow fell in torrents, and at Mr. 

 Edwards' residence the mercury was 

 36.4° above freezing. I would like to 

 say more on the loss of bees at this 

 place, but time would not admit of it. 



I left at 7 p.m. to visit Dunlap, where 

 I saw Mr. E. J. Cronkleton, who had 45 

 colonies of bees last fall, and now has 

 only 28 left. 



I next went to Dow City, where I met 

 Mr. Wiggins, who had 46 colonies last 

 fall, and now has only 8 colonies left. 

 He has been in the bee-business about 

 three years. 



At 7 p.m. on Saturday I arrived at 

 Denison, where I met several prominent, 



