232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. • 



article where I show the extravagance 

 of some of the items in your balance 

 sheet., " 500 cages, $50 ;" "lamp nur- 

 sery and oil, ST." If the figures in 

 these two items were recUiced to a 

 reasonable amount, the laugh would 

 be upon the other side of your face. 



Again you say: "It may do for a 

 man of leisure, or boys that have 

 notliing else to do, but jireposterous 

 for a man of experience, with a family 

 to maintain and children to educate." 

 Under which of these heads, Mr. S., 

 do you class yourself? I have a wife 

 and three cliildren to maintain ; this I 

 do, principally, by rearing " dollar " 

 .queens; is not one such fact as this 

 wortli more than column after column 

 of theory and argument V 



Corrections : ^Vords left out, and 

 improper punctuation, make nonsense 

 of the fore part of the second para- 

 grai)h, in my article on prigeiy3;it 

 should read as follows: " You speak 

 of breeders making a specialty of 

 tested queens, and availing them- 

 selves nf the untested feature to work 

 off worthless trash. What is there to 

 hinder a breeder from working off 

 W(n'thless trash in filling orders for 

 tested queens, provided, that the 

 'worthless trash' produces bees with 

 the requisite number of ' stripes V " 



In my illustrations of buying "dol- 

 lar," " warranted," and " tested " 

 queens, (see third paragraph, same 

 article and page) tlie "warranted" 

 queens were not mentioned ; I pre- 

 sume that it was a compositor's mis 

 take. By the way, Mr. Editor, you 

 did not say whicli lot of queens you 

 thought wt)uld be the best. 



Rogersvjlle, Mich. 



[Our correspondent very concisely 

 and fairly sums up the whole gist of 

 this controversy with us in liis seventh 

 paragraph above, as follows : 



Again I agree with yoii. Mr. Editor. 

 when you say : " The bee-keei)ers of 

 America want the ■ best bee,' and to 

 this end all bees sho\il<l be tested be- 

 fore leaving the hands of the breeder;" 

 but I do not agree with you in think- 

 ing that all, or even a majority, of the 

 so-called " tested " queens are tested 

 for their " best business qualities." 



The third paragraph frankly ad- 

 mits his quotation was only in antici- 

 pation of what we might say, and, of 

 course, the argument, we suppose is 

 lost until we are prepared to make 

 the assertions which they may cover. 



He admires our ingenuous manner 

 of using the " right word in the right 

 place," and again agrees witli us, as 

 is evident upon reading his fourth 

 paragraph. 



The interrogatory in the first para- 

 graph was not answered, sinjply be- 

 cause a difference in opinion or judg- 

 ment of different breeders, would in- 

 duce one to be more lavish where 

 another would be more economical, 

 and vice versa ; as, one miglit pay liigh 

 prices for good stock to rear from, 



while another might suppose cheap 

 queens good enough to rear cheap 

 queens from. We have liad no expe- 

 rience in rearing cheap queens for the 

 market, but the evidence of expe- 

 rienced breeders is cumulative that 

 they could not make it remunerative. 



The second paragraph scarcely re- 

 quires notice, notwithstanding its 

 length. He admits that we did not 

 stick for stripes ; we in turn admit it 

 is possible for queen-breeders to be 

 deceptive, and all must admit it savors 

 much of free advertising for cheap 

 queen dealers. 



His fifth paragraph is summed up 

 in the last three lines, and we answer, 

 "no." 



And while there is no difference of 

 opinion between us on the general is- 

 sue, as quoted, we can scarcely ap- 

 preciate the necessity for continuing 

 tliese lengthy discussions, where the 

 last word will be gained only by an 

 ingenious "play upon words." 



With the future we leave the deter- 

 mination of the verdict as to " dollar " 

 queens, as we have no wish to prolong 

 these wordy discussions. In general 

 they become mere individual contests, 

 productive of no good, and detracting 

 from the general interest of the Bee 

 JouRNAi^. Wliile we gladly welcome 

 all corresi>ondence whicli has a ten- 

 dency to develop scientific bee-keep- 

 ing or inculcate i)rogressive ideas, we 

 cannot but deplore the tendency to 

 weary the reader with personal expla- 

 nations or illogical arguments.— Ed.] 



Tor the American Bee Journal. 



Holv Laud or Syrian Bees. 



E. A. THOMAS. 



As tliere are many bee-keepers who 

 are anxious to hear how the work of 

 testing tlie Holy Land or Syrian bees 

 progresses. I will give the result of 

 my experience willi them. I have 

 given these bees a pretty careful 

 study during the past season, and 1 

 tind them i)ossessed of so many re- 

 markable qualities that I shall con- 

 tinue tlie work of testing them, be- 

 lieving tliat they will one day be 

 proveii a valuable race. 



1 will speak first of the disposition 

 of these bees. Some attribute them 

 with having a very ferocious disposi- 

 tion, wliile others speak of them as 

 being equally as mild as the Italians. 

 I wish to add my testimony on the 

 side of the latter, having always found 

 them easy to handle; indeed, with 

 proper care, I can manipulate my 

 Syrian bees at jileasure'. I do not 

 doubt but that many have been trou- 

 bled with what they call pure Syrian 

 bees, but 1 am iiiclined to believe 

 that they liave a little Cyprian blood 

 in them. I think I have as pure 



Syrian bees as can be found in the 

 country, and after giving them a long 

 and thorough trial, 1 find that the two 

 races, although resembling each other 

 in many points, are entirely different 

 as regards their disposition. Although 

 I am not discussing the merits of 

 the Cyprians, I will say here that 1 

 have not found them as desirable a 

 race as I expected, chiefly on account 

 of the difficulty in handling them ; * 

 but I wish to experiment further be- 

 fore I come to any definite decision in 

 regard to them. 



My Syrian bees, although not near 

 as docile as my Italians, may be • 

 handled with impunity, and I never 

 take any unusual pains' in manipulat- 

 ing them ; and I do not believe" that 

 pure Syrian bees will give any one 

 any trouble in this respect. I am 

 aware tliat this testimony conflicts 

 with that of many who have tried 

 them, but it is my honest, unpreju- 

 diced opinion, formed after a long 

 and thorough test of the bees in ques- 

 tion. 



The Syrian bees are inclined to 

 build but little drone comb. This will 

 not enhance their value in the eyes 

 of the most of us, but to those who do 

 not use comb foundation it might 

 prove a valuable quality ; and founda- 

 tion has not come into universal use 

 yet, by any means, and many only use 

 it for starters. 



Another* remarkable point about 

 these bees is, that they seem to be 

 impervious to the attacks of robbers, 

 defending their liome with a vigor 

 and energy that is truly surprising. 

 Last season after the honey flow had 

 ceased, and the robbers were on the 

 alert for mischief, I opened a Syrian 

 colony and kept it open until the rob- 

 bers swarmed around so thieve that 

 they almost liid the hive from view, 

 and tlien closed it and left them to 

 fight tlie invaders alone, determined 

 to see if it was possible for tliem to 

 get robbed. Great was my surprise — 

 for 1 certainly expected to be obliged 

 to interfere in ordertosave the colony 

 —to see the bees clearing out the hive 

 of robbers, nothing daunted at the 

 invading host ; such fighting I never 

 saw on an alighting board of a hive, 

 and it was not long before they had 

 driven the last robber away and were 

 basking in the sun as quietly as be- 

 fore they were disturbed. 1 opened 

 Syrian colonies after that at all times 

 of day without fear of the robbers, 

 and 1 have never yet had a colony 

 robbed out, although working on them 

 sometimes until I was driven away. 

 It is liandy to have such bees when 

 one is in a hurry and cannot wait for 

 robbers to cool down, 



iVnother remarkable quality about 

 these bees is, that they are very 

 judicious about going out in unsuit- 

 able weather. This must recommend 

 them to those who are troubled with 

 spring dwindling, and who have not 

 the time or patience to ju-event it. 

 (See Bee Journal for March 9. LssL 

 page 75). We might infer from this 

 characteristic that the Syrian bees 

 were lacking in auil)ilioii, in which 

 case this point would be against theiii 

 ratber than in their favor. I gave 

 some attention to this point last sea- 



