232 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



November, 



CAUCASIANS. 



The last issue of Gleanings says 

 "The American Bee-Keeper for Octo- 

 ber is inclined to regard the Caucasi- 

 ans 'as the most worthless race of 

 bees that has ever been offer. \1 to 

 the American public, and it would 

 advise caution on tlie part of those 

 who think of investing in them. Editor 

 Hill may be right. Dr. D. E. Lyon, on 

 the other hand, who has a colony of 

 these bees, is very enthusia.stic over 

 them. He says he can jerk tlie hive 

 open in cool weather, without smoke, 

 and the bees will not resent it. He 

 regards them as a valuable acquisition. 

 The one or two colonies we have seen 

 vseem to he quite gentle; but rhe bees 

 were too young at the time of my ex- 

 amination to form anything like an ac- 

 curate opinion of their temper. How- 

 ever. Gleanings believes they are 

 worth te>sting. and looks with' much 

 favor on the effort of tbe general gov- 

 ernment to obtain tnem fron' the Cau- 

 casus, and import them into the United 

 States. One serious objection to them I 

 see i'S that those we have look so much 

 like black bees (much more than the 

 Carniolans) that it would be almost 

 impossible to determine by their mark- 

 ings whether they were pure or not, 

 especially if raised in a vicinity where 

 black drones were present." 



The American Bee-Keeper has on 

 several occasions expressed a belief 

 that the Caucasians were probably the 

 gentlest race of bees knoA^ni. though 

 the editor has demonstrated by more 

 recent experience that at least some 

 Punic*^ are quite as gentle as the 

 Caucasians witb which he has had 

 experience. It appears from the fore- 

 going (luotation that gentlenas« is the 

 only virtue claimed either by Bro. 

 Root or Dr. Lyon, and we think few 

 apiarists would care to invest much 

 cash in "gentleness" bereft of other 

 merits. Those who keep bees usually 

 do ^so with another object than comfort 

 in view; and we have .some slight 

 Itasis for a belief that freedom from 

 stings and innumerable queen celhs are 

 about the only protluct aAvaiting the 

 bee-keeper who banks exclusively on 

 the Caucasian. 



The characteristic gentleness of the 

 Caucasian has been explained bv their 

 e(iually characteristic lack of "energy 

 —they are too lazy to sting. 



ANOTHER POSTAL CARD FROM 

 "PAT." 

 ^lany of our readers, we know, will 

 be pleased to have fresh tidings from 

 the indomitable "Pat."" who a few 

 .A-ears ago went to Cuba with the evi- 

 dent intention of saving all the nectar 

 secretion of the island not taken care 

 of by his predecessons there. Occasion- 

 ally Pat gets hold of a postal card, 

 and favors The Bee-Keeper with a 

 brief account of his "doings; and the 

 last, under date of Sept. 18, bears the 

 bad news that last season he lost about 

 seven hundred colonies, "most part 

 of which died from hungry and dis- 

 eases," he writes. He has four hun- 

 dred colonies left with which to be- 

 gin the coming season. It is sincerely 

 to be ho])ed that no more of his force 

 may succumb to either "hungry" or 

 di.sease. 



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LOOKING BACKWARD. 

 The Subject of Queen-rearing as 

 Appeared to Mr. Davis Twenty 

 Years Ago. 

 In this i^sue of The Bee-Keeper will 

 be found the sixth of the series of 

 articlas. "Sixty Years Among thei 'f 

 Bees."' by :\Ir. W. J. Davis, which' 

 brings the subject down to the "min- 

 ute."" 



Believing that those readers who 

 have foilowetl Mr. Davis" lettersf?' 

 would be interested in some of his "" 

 earlier Avritings, we present herewith 

 an essay written by Mr. Davis some 

 tAventy-three years ago and read be- 

 fore the NortJi-Eastern Bee-Keepers' 

 Association at Utica, N. Y., Januaiy 

 25. 1882. It is a masterly discourse 

 and is characteristic of the produc- 

 tions of this eminently able veteran: 

 Mi-. Pre-sident and :\Iembers of the 

 North-Easteni Bee-Keepers' Associ- 

 ation: 

 I have not egotism enough to sup- 

 pose that I can instruct members of 

 so intelligent a body of apiarists of 

 the old Empire State, in any depart- 

 ment of our fascinating pursuit, es- 

 pecially the one assigned me (by your 

 affable secretaiy) which lies at the 

 foundation of successful bee culture, 

 and any effort to do so would be but 

 reflecting back a glimmer of the light 

 received from that ])ioneer of practi- 

 cal and scientific bee-culture, Mr. 

 Quinby, of your State. Your large 



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