70 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The house is one of those old ramb- 

 ling adobe and stone structures so 

 cliaracteiistic of Cyprus. Its walls 

 are two feet thick, floors of stone, and 

 roofs of beaten clay six oreightinclies 

 thick, and supported by great arches 

 of massive masonry. Some idea of 

 its size may be gained from the follow- 

 ing facts: The front court is GO by 

 300 feet, and is nearly inclosed on 

 three sides by parts of tlie house, 

 which contains 14 rooms. The front 

 porch is 12 feet wide and 6.5 feet long. 

 A hall at the right leads through the 

 house .50 feet to the back court, which 

 is about 30 feet by something over 60, 

 and is inclosed by the house on two 

 sides. 



When our little " prize queen," 

 who tirst "piped" Sept. -5th, 1881, 

 can trot from room to room, it will be 

 a task to hunt her uj) in this old man- 

 sion — our home in Cyprus. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Pure Bees— A Short Review. 



G. W. DEMAHEE. 



The several articles over my signa- 

 ture, which have appeared in print 

 from time to time, discussing the 

 question of purity of the Italian race 

 of bees, were penned for no other pur- 

 pose than to call attention to what 

 careful experiment has demonstrateci 

 to my entire satisfaction to be true, 

 viz: that tlie Italian is not a pure 

 blood race of bees. In discussing this 

 and other subjects, I have thought it 

 the square tiling to give the name of 

 the writer wliose views I thought pro- 

 per to controvert. I do not think it 

 the fair thing to quote tlie language of 

 a writer and proceed to wallop liim 

 soundly, without saying " I mean 

 you V" and thus give him a fair 

 chance to " arise and explain " if he 

 chooses to do .so. Viewed from this 

 standpoint, my articles have not been 

 so very controversial, and certainly 

 have not taken the form of a " favor- 

 ite plea," as Mr. Dadant says they 

 have. 



If I mistake not the reader will be 

 able to discriminate between the main 

 issue and the side issues that have 

 been raised as the discussion pro- 

 gressed. In my paper read before the 

 National Convention at Cincinnati, I 

 took the ground that the imported 

 Italian is not a pare blood race of 

 bees. And in my attempt to prove 

 the proposition I cited the fact that 

 there are two so-called strains of the 

 Italians, which fact makes it impossi- 

 ble that the race as a whole can be 

 pure. 



In due time ]\Ir. Dadant and Mr. A. 

 I. Root confronted me with the "three 

 band test." If the reader will take 

 the pains to .scan the pages of the 

 back volumes of tlie bee pajiers, and 

 examine the standard works on bee- 

 culture, he will see that tlie three 

 band test and its twin brother— Hux- 

 ley's doctrine of the " survival of the 

 fittest," has been the rallying point 

 of the venders of ([ueens and bees. It 

 would now seem that I have demol- 

 ished the citadel of strength, by show- 

 ing that the tliree bands do actually 



exist however obscurely, on the body 

 of the hybrid or American cross, as 

 well as on the liybrid imported from 

 Italy. 



In discussing this subject I have 

 said that the progeny of some queens 

 imported from Italy do not show the 

 three bands. Of course I meant that 

 the bands were not visible to common 

 observation. If you are willing to 

 accept of tlie fact that the Italian race 

 is a cross between a yellow and one or 

 more black races of bees, you will 

 have no trouble to understand why 

 that if you breed out the black blood 

 by selection, the yellow will gain the 

 ascendency as you progress, and the 

 bands will become distinct and well 

 delined. While on the other hand if 

 you breed out the yellow blood, or let 

 your stock run down by a preponder- 

 ance of black blood, the bands will 

 grow fainter and fainter, till artificial 

 means must be resorted to if you 

 would know they exist at all. 



If I understand Mr. Doolittle 

 (whose opinion I value highly) he cor- 

 roborates tliese statements. Mr. Da- 

 dant's experience with liis iirst Italian 

 queen as related by him on page 22, 

 Bee Journal, Jan. 11, "gives him 

 away " without lien or incumberance. 

 According to liisstatemeiit,that tinely 

 bred queen from Dr. Dzierzon con- 

 tained sufficient yellow blood in her 

 make-up to transmit the yellow bands 

 to the progeny of her daughters mated 

 with black drones. The statement 

 further shows that these bees after 

 being hybridized in this country con- 

 tained more yellow blood than the 

 three imported queens whose progeny 

 were " darker even than the ill-mated 

 queens." 



Mr. Dadant now gives up the three 

 band test and falls back on " good 

 behavior," as a reliable test. I would 

 gladly spare him this last " ditch " if 

 the facts and sound philosphy would 

 suffer me to do so. But I have had 

 colonies of hybrids— a cross between 

 a selected yellow queen but a black 

 drone, that behaved precisely like the 

 well bred Italians. While other colo- 

 nies of a like cross would behave just 

 like the black bees. This is no un- 

 common thing. It is precisely in ac- 

 cordance with the laws of transmis- 

 sion of traits from the parent to the 

 offspring. 



One single exception will destroy 

 Mr. Dadant's new rule for test of 

 purity. There is really no reliable 

 test of purity, simply because the 

 Italian is not a pure race. It is very 

 kind in Mr. Ileddon to come to the 

 rescue of Mr. Dadant. His letters 

 are always interesting, but he fails to 

 help Mr. Dadant out of trouble. He 

 does not touch the main question. 

 He only gives liis opinion, which 

 though valuable is not conclusive. 

 Others differ from Mr. Ileddon's 

 opinion. 



In a late article Mr. Ileddon inti- 

 mates pretty strongly that the opinion 

 of those who make "large reports" 

 is more valuable than tliat of those 

 who make small, or no reports at all. 

 It seems to me that Mr. Ileddon failed 

 to look all around the subject before 

 he wrote that. A good location 

 abounding with bee forage is essen- 



tially necessary to a big report. If Mr. 

 Ileddon will set down one of liis apia- 

 ries in the best portions of the blue 

 grass region of Kentucky, where corn, 

 hemp, wheat, oats and tobacco, cover 

 the fields as far as the eye can see, and 

 where the red clover grows too luxur- 

 ious for the " bill " of any bee, and 

 white clover struggles for existence 

 at the side of the prince of grasses 

 (Kentucky blue grass), and where the 

 basswood has disappeared long ago, 

 and eternal war is made on " woods " 

 every where, he would begin to con- 

 clude at the end of one or two seasons' 

 experience that his opinion is not very 

 weighty judged by the rule he has' 

 laid down. In just such a closely cul- 

 tivated country I have demonstrated 

 that bees can be made to pay. The 

 truth is, in a good location such as 

 may be found in many parts of Ken- 

 tucky, and such as Mr. Ileddon is 

 blessed with, any kind of bees will give 

 good results without a very high or- 

 der of skill on the part of the apiarist. 

 Christiansburg, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping for Ministers. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Ever since the appearance of Rev. 

 O. Clute's re))ort for 1881, in the 

 AMEUICA.N Bee Journal of Dec. 7, 

 I have wanted to write a few lines on 

 the above topic. It is a good showing, 

 worthy the author of " The Blessed 

 Bees." By the way, I hope that book 

 paid. It richly deserved to be a tiiian- 

 cial success, wlietlier it was or no. 

 Every bee-keeper should read it. A 

 romance at present, it bids fair, at no 

 distant day to be a reality. Mr. Clute 

 has gone far toward the realization of 

 his own ideal, and I metapliorically 

 pat his broad back, and congratulate 

 him. 



But— bee-keeping for ministers — 

 that's my theme. One of the ablest 

 of their class wlio ever lived, eked 

 out an insufficient support by tent- 

 making, and I don't see why modern 

 ministers should ndt try their hands 

 at bee-keeping. 



The inadequate salaries of the great 

 majority of ministers, is a great evil 

 in many ways. Their helplessness 

 and inaptitude in supplementing their 

 scanty incomes, is a worse evil, be- 

 cause, ill too many cases, their con- 

 scious dependence makes them timid, 

 and fearful of the results of any de- 

 parture from the beaten track of so- 

 called orthodoxy. To be voted hereti- 

 cal, means beggary. " 'Tis pity, but 

 pity 'tis, 'tis true." Whether a min- 

 ister gets a liberal or meagre salary, 

 he should be free as air to declare 

 whatever he conscientiously believes 

 to be truth. Alas I poverty " makes 

 cowards of us all " — or not to be too 

 uncharitable — some of us. To be 

 possessed of some resource, on which 

 to fall back, would give ministers 

 back-bone, and a sense of manly in- 

 dependence. 



If bees persecuted all ministers as 

 they do me, it might be questionable 

 kindness for me to advise tlieir going 

 into apiculture. But there is some- 



