•rHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



533 



plained above. 3. In some cases they 

 are nearly as good honey-gatherers ; 

 some say equally so. Their irascible 

 disposition makes them a perfect 

 terror to the majority.— J. E.Pond,Jr. 



1. Part of the workers are marked 

 like pure Italians, part like pure 

 blacks. After the first cross, one and 

 two-banded bees appear. 2. In the 

 cross the workers will not all have 

 three yellow bands as in the pure 

 stock. 3. For producing honey I 

 think I would as soon have a first or 

 second cross as pure stock.— C. C. 



MlLLEK. 



1. In a straight cross between Ital- 

 ians and black bees, a few of the 

 workers may look like pure Italians, 

 and a good many just like black bees ; 

 while the greater number will show 

 intermediate markings. 2. Yes, be- 

 yond question. It may be difficult to 

 always detect a mere taint or trace of 

 black blood in Italians. 3. As honey- 

 gatherers the flrst cross between Ital- 

 ians and blacks compare favorably 

 with the best bees of any race. But 

 subsequent crosses make inferior bees; 

 at least such has been my experience. 

 — G. W. Demaree. 



1. That depends. Sometimes the 

 workers are nearly all two and three- 

 banded. Again, they vary from three 

 bands to no bands at all. 2. No, sir, 

 I have had hybrid colonies that con- 

 tained all three-banded bees, and no 

 one could tell them from some best 

 pure Italians, did they not know from 

 whence the mother came. 3. They 

 are the best bees I know anything 

 about when rightly crossed.— James 

 IIeddon. 



1. Very irregular marking, some 

 being all black, others with one yel- 

 low mark, others with two and three 

 marks. 2. Yes, in a full colony. 3. 

 In many cases the hybrids are the 

 best honey-gatherers. Some prefer 

 them to pure blood. As a general 

 thing they are very much crosser.— 

 H. D. Cutting. 



The term hybrid has been limited, 

 as it should be, to crosses between the 

 German or black bees and the yellow 

 races, like the Italians, Syrians and 

 Cyprians. Crosses between the latter 

 races cannot be properly termed hy- 

 brids, since very little change in the 

 worker bees of such crosses is appar- 

 ent.. Hybrids have from one to three- 

 banded workers, but often all are 

 marked with only one or only two 

 bands. 3. My experience is that hy- 

 brids are inferior as workers to crosses 

 between the yellow races. If there is 

 any " bug juice " to be collected, they 

 are always the first and the last to 

 dabble in it, while the vellow races 

 gather little or none.— G." L. Tinker. 



The TTestern World Guide and Hand- 

 Book of Useful Information, contains the 

 greatest amount of useful information ever 

 put together in such a cheap form. The 

 printing, paper, and binding are excellent, 

 and the book is well worth a dollar. To any 

 one sending us two new subscribers besides 

 his own, with 83,00, for one year, we will 

 present a copy of this valuable book. 



Explanatory.— The llgures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; 0+ east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; V3 northwest: 

 •^southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



ror the American Bee JonmaL 



The Honey Season in Iowa. 



KEV. O. CLUTE. 



The spring of 18S6 opened early, 

 but not too early. When it came, it 

 came to stay. There was little of 

 cold, windy weather to deplete the 

 hives. Yet there were some losses 

 among bees after they were taken 

 from the cellar. The bright, warm, 

 weather made all bees very active. 

 The strong colonies, not finding 

 enough honey in the fields to employ 

 their energies, pitched upon the 

 weaker ones, and robbed them out. 

 I hear of considerable losses from this 

 robbing-out. But bees in the main 

 wintered well in cellars, and, but for 

 the robbing-out, got through the 

 spring well. 



The ground was well-covered with 

 snow all winter. It came in good 

 season in December, and staid by us. 

 The fields were scarcely bare at all. 

 Hence the bee-keepers' best friend, 

 the nectar-flowing white clover, was 

 well wrapped up in a warm snow 

 blanket during the fierce attacks of 

 cold in January and February, when 

 the mercury several times marked 35'^ 

 below zero. The clover came through 

 all right. As soon as the snow was 

 gone it began creeping everywhere. 

 Helped on by the genial sun and the 

 early and abundant rains it soon 

 covered almost every footof land that 

 is not under the plow. The meadows 

 and pastures were one wide, beautiful 

 stretch of white flowers. Every road- 

 side had its belt of emerald green. 

 To all the streams it gave a verdant 

 fringe. Over the knolls and hills it 

 spread its soft carpet, more delicate 

 beneath the feet than any luxurious 

 fabric from the famous looms. The 

 warm weather brought on early 

 bloom, and soon all of this part of 

 Iowa was densely covered with those 

 delicate white balls whence the faith- 

 ful bees bring such wealth of amber 

 honey to the waiting hives. The 

 profusion of bloom was a joy to me. 



Better weather for honey-gather- 

 ing was never known. Happily we 

 did not then know that the bright, 

 warm, still days were the beginning 

 of one of the most bitter drouths that 

 the Great West has ever been afflicted 

 with. Day after day the sun rose in 



a cloudless sky, and gave to our 

 fertile soil abundant warmth. All 

 day long for weeks and weeks the 

 winds were still. No bee, however 

 ladeii with its burden of honey, was 

 dashed to earth, never again to take 

 wing, by murderous gusts. The 

 measureless amount of honey-bearing 

 bloom, the long procession of days of 

 peaceful calm, the tropical sun glow- 

 ing in a cloudless sky made a time, 

 which from the bee-keepers' point of 

 view, could not be surpassed. 



The linden in this part of Iowa is 

 found along all the streams. It did 

 not seem to feel the touch of the 

 drouth, though by the time it bloomed, 

 the drouth was upon us in all its 

 fierceness. Probably the roots of the 

 linden go to some depth, and those 

 depths were not then dry. Both 

 clover and linden yielded honey of 

 remarkable thickness and weight. It 

 is about a pound per gallon heavier 

 than in ordinary years. I looked 

 daily to see the clover dry up, but it 

 held out wonderfully. I expected 

 hardly any flow from linden, but it 

 did yield well. 



I supposed that the dry weather 

 would surely stop all honey-flow as 

 soon as linden failed, but, strange to 

 say, the honey kept abundant for 

 some time after every flower on the 

 linden was dry. As to where this late 

 honey came from I am not sure, but 

 I think it was from red clover. The 

 red clover fields had a dense growth, 

 which came early to maturity, and 

 was cured for hay. This hay was cut 

 when the drouth had begun to get 

 down to business. The glowing sun 

 beat down upon the clover stubbles, 

 and everything but the deep-rooted 

 clover yielded to its withering touch. 

 The meadows have no after-growth 

 at all, except the clover. The roots 

 of this go down so deep that it was 

 able to get some moisture, and to 

 send up struggling tufts of growth 

 that are but the ghosts of what red 

 clover ought to be, on our soil of 

 luxuriant fatness ; and these feeble 

 tufts hastened forward to a somewhat 

 abundant bloom. But the heads were 

 small. In order to get the honey from 

 these short corolla-tubes it was not 

 necessary to wait until we can breed 

 the " bee of the future," whose tongue 

 shall have the two or three hundredths 

 of an inch added to its length, of 

 which Prof. Cook so ably writes. The 

 tongues of our active Italians could 

 reach the honey in this second growth 

 of red clover. So even when white 

 clover and linden were gone the bees 

 found for some time enough nectar 

 to add a little each day to their lus- 

 cious stores. 



From these sources, and possibly 

 from others that have escaped my 

 eye, our bees have done well. A 

 neighbor of mine reports 127 pounds 

 of clear, white, extracted honey per 

 colony. Another reports the very 

 large yield of 3,200 pounds from 12 

 colonies— extracted honey, of course. 

 Those running for comb honey have 

 also done well. In this neighbor- 

 hood, therefore, we have no reason 

 to complain. Probably in those parts 

 of Iowa, and of other States, where 

 the white clover is not yet abundant, 



