19(>5. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



243 



thorn-selves most prolific. In conse- 

 quence I now have ;^2 booming colo- 

 nies of absolutely pure Caucasian 

 bees to begin with in the spring. 



Our honey flow comes late in the 

 season and it was with interest that 



watched the niml)le little Russian 

 worlvcrs come and go. The imported 

 stock tilled its hive about equal to 

 any in the yard. Tlie other -stock were 

 more or less mixed therefore could 

 not fairly estimate their work. 



These bees are exceedingly gentle — • 

 so gentle that they can be actually 

 imposed upon without resentment. 

 Little or no smoke is I'equired in their 



I sent some queens away and have 

 ssince received encouraging letters from 

 one of which I will make extracts, 

 with the kind permission of the 

 writer. 



Prof. Louis H. Scholl, Agricultural 

 College, Texas, writes: "The queen 

 came in tine condition and was intro- 

 duced at once. It did not take long 

 for her Ma.lesty to take to house- 

 keeping and she has pronounced her- 

 self a good layer. I am well pleased 

 with her and hope she will prove a 

 "nice young lady" next spring so that 

 we may be enabled to rear a number 

 of daughter-s from her." 



['vK, ', c~cz,fiJ 





THE CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS. RUSSIA. 

 Facsimile of Postal Card from Prof. Benton to the Editor of The Bee-keeper. 



manipulation; the breath often only 

 being needed to drive them back. 



They are quite nervouci under ma- 

 nipulatioai but do not run off the 

 combs nor pile in knots as do the 

 blacks. The queen-s are dark, often 



liev. I). E. Lyon, Matawan, N. J., 

 is entliusiastic over his Caucasians 

 and has a tine article in "Counti-y 

 Life in America." 



Tliere are several such letters as 

 the above and 1 feel that we may 



varying however, and seem a little safely set the race down ais prolific 

 shy. The workers are much smaller as well as gentle. 



than Italian; they are striped with 

 narrow brownish hairs and have a 

 brovv'nish cast somewhat like the 

 Carniolans. The drones are as black 

 as your -shoe and have veiy strong 

 wing power; their abdomen is not 

 so l)iunt as the Carniolan or Italian 

 drone. 



All extra prolitic races are apt to 

 be swarmers but on tliis point I am 

 unable to speak from actual experi- 

 ence with Caucasians — the Carniolans 

 aie .L:reat swarmers but ithey still 

 have a long list of admirers after all. 

 It has been -said that if we run the 

 swarming races for extracting and 



