166 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



"To the Law anil to the Testimony." 



G. W. DEMAKBE. 



When I was penning those remarks 

 concerning Mr. Ileddon's private let- 

 ter to Mr. Dadant, wliich tlie latter 

 gentleman published as a part of his 

 reply to my article, I did not have the 

 remotest idea that I was getting into 

 a controversy with Mr. Heddon, tlie 

 old war horse with his " dread bolted 

 thunder." 13y taking a glance at 

 page 105 of the present vohiine of the 

 Bee Journal the reader will not 

 fail to see the whole thing in a nut 

 shell. Mr. Dadant, after crediting me 

 with language that I never used, viz : 

 That " the Cyprian race is gentle and 

 peaceable," politely andgracefully re- 

 tires. Mr. Heddon then rushes into 

 the Held of battle, brandishing his 

 " little pen," which is doubtlesi"more 

 powerful than the sword." 



Really, I thought tliat I spoke very 

 mildly and gently concerning Mr. H.'s 

 opinion, but it would seem that he is 

 unwilling to reason. I only intended 

 to say that he did not help Mr. Dadant 

 so far as the main issue between us 

 was concerned, i. e., the question of 

 purity of blood of tlie Italian race. I 

 have as much respect for Mr. Dadant 

 as Mr. Heddon has. That he has been 

 before tlie public as an importer and 

 dealer in bees, etc., for ntjarly a score 

 of years without any complaints con- 

 cerning his manner of treating liis 

 customers is a better endorsement 

 than any amount of " word praise " 

 that Mr. H. or myself could give. 

 The only wonder is that a man of his 

 experience should be slow to learn 

 that tlie imported Italian is a hybrid. 

 It is not so surprising, however, that 

 a person holding such views as those 

 propagated of late by Mr. Heddon, 

 should be found in darkness. 



It is well to warn Mr. Heddon that 

 hundreds of intelligent bee-keepers all 

 over this great country will move tor- 

 ward in their careful experimenting 

 with, and breeding up the races of 

 bees to the highest point of excellence, 

 regardless of his oiijiosition. It will 

 be concluded, I think, that bee-keep- 

 ers, by their careful exiieriinenting 

 with, and breeding the Italian from 

 selected specimens, have removed the 

 scales from the eyes of the "bee as is 

 a bee " sort of bee-keepers, of whom 

 Mr. H. is chief, and caused them to 

 see that the imported bees are hybrid 

 in character, and therefore capable of 

 being bred up to most any type to 

 suit the fancy of the apiarist. These 

 " pure blood " scientists, however, are 

 not the men to jog along behind, the 

 light having once flashed upon their 

 pathway, they will soon be in the 

 lead, shouting " I told you so." Mr. 

 Heddon has already paved the way 

 by intimating that lie was aware long 

 ago that his long dark Italians were 



spiced with a " dash of black blood." 

 Mr. H. should not talk so, having 

 undertaken to help Mr. Dadant, who 

 was grieved because I said that his 

 dark imported bees were hybrids, 

 (and he really thought that I had 

 added that they were "ferocious," 

 but I did not use that terrible ex- 

 pression, except in a playful way) and 

 he obtained those " dark " bees from 

 a certain dealer who obtained them 

 from Mr. Dadant. Now for him to 

 say that those "long, leather colored 

 bees " have a " dash of black blood," 

 is hard on his client. 



Mr. Heddon brings forward two 

 witnesses to prove that the " golden 

 Italians of the period " have no work- 

 ing qualities. These witnesses are 

 unknown to the bee-keeping frater- 

 nity, who must be the jury in this 

 case. Such testimony as heoft'ers in 

 proof of his proposition would be re- 

 jected in any cross road police court. 

 That somebody told him that some- 

 body told him that " Aunt Hanna had 

 said," why, the lawyers would stop 

 you before you could say all of that, 

 no matter how lively you might speak. 



Of course it would be asking con- 

 siderable of me to say just why the 

 golden Italians of the two unknown 

 witnesses failed to gather surplus 

 stores right where hybrids were stor- 

 ing a "perfectly enormous '"yield of 

 surplus. I was not there to examine 

 for the causes which may have been 

 present. Having no diagnosis from 

 which to reason, I can only surmise, 

 in view of the fact that the yellow 

 bees, belonging to other people can 

 work, and do work efficiently, tliat 

 there was something wrong with 

 those bees; perhaps the bungling bee- 

 keepers may have " tinkered "" with 

 them just at the right time to destroy 

 their usefulness for the season. It 

 does not take much of a blunder to do 

 this sometimes, as most of us have 

 learned by experience. 



Mr. Heddon has failed to make a 

 prima facie case, upon the evidence of 

 those two unknown witnesses, even 

 though we should admit the validity 

 of the testimony endorsed by so good 

 a bee-keeper as Mr. Heddon. But as 

 he demands it I will introduce a few 

 " live" witnesses for his special bene- 

 lit and edilication. 



All admit that Mr. G. M. Doolittle 

 makes large reports from year to 

 year. He gets his large yields of 

 honey by breeding from queens whose 

 progeny show the 3 bands while stand- 

 ing on the combs. Mr. O. O. Pop[ile- 

 ton, of Iowa, reported at the National 

 Convention, at Lexington, Ky., that 

 he had obtained 14,725 lbs of .surplus 

 from lOS colonies during the past sea- 

 son. This being agood yield, I asked 

 him publicly what strain of Ijees he 

 worked to get it, his answer was 

 "Light Italians." It will be admitted 

 that Mr. D. A. .lones liandles some 

 honey every season. He keeps none 

 but yellow bees. Mr. Heddon called 

 out Mr. W. J. Davis as a witness in 

 favor of dark bees, and that gentle- 

 man testified in favor of the yellow 

 bees. These witnesses need no vouch- 

 ing for, and they could be multiplied 

 to any reasonable extent if necessary. 

 I am now willing to submit the case 



upon the evidence without further de- 

 lay. 



Until Mr. Heddon brings forward 

 some proof that bees can gather a 

 large yield of honey in a location 

 where nature has provided but little 

 nector, or to show thitt bees can gather 

 honey where there is none to be 

 gathered, 1 can rest easy by repeating 

 the self evident fact that a good loca- 

 tion is essential to a large yield of sur- 

 plus. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Cows and Bees. 



J. H. MARTIN. 



For the benefit of Mr. Reynolds and 

 any others interested, I will give my 

 experience in conducting a dairy in 

 connection with an apiary. 



I find that the cows and the bees 

 are the best of friends, and I fail to 

 observe that nutriment is taken from 

 our clovers; on the contrary, the bees 

 perpetuate tlie clover for the cows. I 

 have heretofore heard farmers com- 

 plain that bees must take much nutri- 

 ment from pasture lands. Now let us 

 see if the charge is well founded. 



Our pasture lauds are first seeded 

 to red clover, and other grasses, and, 

 after a year or more, white clover and 

 various wildgrasses come in spontane- 

 ously. 



The first season, red clover com- 

 pletely covers the ground, and the 

 field is red with bloom. If we now 

 turn our cows into this splendid feed, 

 we find that the blossoms, although 

 abundant and rich with honey, are 

 discarded for the luxuriant and rich 

 foliage, and the blossoms are trampled 

 ruthlessly under foot. The superior 

 richness of clover, then, comes from 

 its foliage. This is still more evident 

 from the fact that in all dairy regions, 

 white clover conies in very abund- 

 antly, while with the pasturage of 

 sheep, the vs^hite clover is nearly all 

 killed out, from the fact that sheep 

 feed upon the blossoms and prevent 

 the maturing of seed, while the cow 

 feeds only upon the foliage, allowing 

 our dairy lauds to become white with 

 the tiny blossoms and conseipient pro- 

 duction of seed. The lioney being in 

 the blossom I fail to see liow it will 

 affect the nourishment of cattle when 

 they do not eat it. 



The effect of the blossom upon 

 mutton, I think would be very slight, 

 if at all appreciable, for our best mut- 

 ton is raised upon pastures with a 

 variety of grasses and a rich soil. 



I would further state a well known 

 fact, that our richest milk is obtained 

 in the fall months. At this time the 

 dairyman turns his cows upon his 

 meadows covered with a thick growth 

 of aftermath. In this there is seldom 

 found white clover. It is constituted 

 of various grasses of a tame and wild 

 nature, having no blossoms and no 

 honey. Still it has a suiierior rich- 

 ness. 



The foregoing is the result of my 

 observations in this locality. I find 

 here a beautiful law of nature, a 

 natural aid of two greatly different 



