THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



295 



plants ; in some districts the main 

 stay, white clover, quite often disap- 

 points us. 



2. Piolilicuess. This is a very de- 

 sirable trait, and cannot be over- 

 looked. But then, we have in this re- 

 spect good and poor (jueens in all the 

 different races, and it .seems to depend 

 more on the colony having plenty of 

 young bees to rear a lirst class queen, 

 than on the particular race ; besides 

 that, we are able to increase the 

 prolificness of a queen artificially. 

 But will it be desirable or advantage- 

 ous to do so 'i It is a well known fact, 

 that the prolificness ot any organic 

 body is in an inverse ratio to its life's 

 duration. Any increase (natural or 

 artificial) of prolificness in an indi- 

 vidual or species is equivalent to a 

 shortening of its life. This rule, if 

 properly nuule use of, will hold good 

 if inversed. that is, if by some means 

 or natural tendency the average life 

 of a species of animals is shortened, 

 its prolificness will be increased. As 

 to the prolificness of a queen there is 

 another very important factor to be 

 considered, vi'hich, as far as I can see, 

 cannot so readily be governed, viz : 

 The amount of semen entering the 

 seminal sack of the queen, and the 

 sooner wilb a. fertile queen that store 

 of life-giving cells is exhausted the 

 sooner a (jueen v.'ill be v.'orthless, 

 though otherwise she may be in the 

 prime of life. Hence it appears that 

 there is a limit to prolificness. 



3. Amiability. The Germans, in 

 all their different shades, can be 

 mastered by smoke ; liybrids are 

 rather irascible, and more so than the 

 pure German bee ; but the Italians 

 may be handled without smoke, most 

 of the time, with a little care ; they be- 

 come used to certain disturbances so 

 that they will not take offense, when 

 other bees do. Three years ago last 

 summer, I saw a colony of Italians in 

 New York, on Chatham street, near 

 the postottiee, about \}4. feet elevated, 

 but close to tlie sidewalk, being kept 

 by a retail dealer of candy and ice 

 cream. Crowds of people passing to 

 and fro, not further than two feet 

 from the hive, but the bees have never 

 been known to sting. 



4. Industry. This is a very desir- 

 able character of our bees. For if 

 bees had all other commendable points 

 and lacked in this one, we would de- 

 rive not much benefit from them. It 

 is generally admitted that the Italians 

 are superior to the Germans in this 

 respect, though some are not yet ready 

 to concede it. 



But suppose we had a bee as in- 

 dustrious as we would like to have 

 them, it will not avail anything if 

 there is nothing to be had in garden, 

 field and forest. This leads me to 

 dwell with particular emphasis on the 

 necessary industry of the bee-keeper. 

 Let him provide pasture for his bees 

 if nature has not, and liis honey pots 

 and sections will be filled correspond- 

 ingly. Let him scatter nectar secret- 

 ing honey plant seeds, blooming at 

 different times, and an entire failure 

 of a honey crop will be a thing of the 

 past, at least so far as plants are con- 

 cerned. And we have all reason to 

 believe that, if plenty of forage is 



supplied, the Italians will avail them- 

 selves of every opportunity to obtain 

 the nectar. Look at the report of L. 

 C. Root, in No. 49, vol. xvil of the 

 Bee Journal, what his best Italians 

 did ; the nectar was evidently there, 

 and they got it, too. Do we want or 

 can we expect anything better V Over 

 20 lbs. in one day ; nearly a quarter of 

 a ton up to Aug 27, from one colony. 



It is claimed that the Cyprians ex- 

 cel the Italians, especially with refer- 

 ence to length of tongue, prolificness 

 and industry ; butarefei'ocious — much 

 more so tlian the worst hybrids. Of 

 course, the advocates of tliat strain 

 concede this last character rather re- 

 luctantly, for reasons too apparent to 

 be stated here. Personally, I have 

 had no experience with them, nor do 

 I wish to have any ; the experience of 

 persons not prejudiced or interested 

 in any particular strain, is sufficient 

 as far as I am concerned. It is not 

 necessary for a man to go to Africa 

 to find out that there are tigers and 

 lions, and that they are rather danger- 

 ous animals ; still, if a person takes 

 delight in fighting tigers, lions or bees 

 for their skins or honey, nobody can 

 liave any objection, if he goes where 

 they are : but to breed and rear them 

 in a civilized community where they 

 endanger the life of people .'ind do- 

 mestic animisls, is not desirable, and 

 bee-keeping of that sort" will before 

 long be regarded a nuisance. That 

 their temper is ungovernable when 

 aroused, we liave abundant proof 

 from well known bee-keepers in this 

 country as well as in Germany ; in 

 fact, in Germany their ungovernable 

 temper is regarded as proof conclusive 

 tliat the colony is a pure Cyprian. 

 How the Michigan State Convention 

 could, in the face of these facts, dis- 

 approve of the sentiment expressed 

 in Mr. Marsli's paper, urging caution, 

 I cannot understand. 



This article is not intended to dis- 

 courage further improvement in our 

 bees, nor to belittle the meritorious 

 elforts toward improvements by im- 

 portation of foreign races such as 

 Cyprians or Syrians; but I would dis- 

 courage an indiscriminate cross be- 

 tween German, Italian, Cyprian and 

 Syrian, and also warn against the 

 disproportionate development of cer- 

 tain parts of the bee's body to the de- 

 terioration of others. 



Youngstown, O. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Mrs. Cotton's Transactions. 



A. P. FLETCHER. 



In the JouKJSTAL of Jan. 18, 1 saw my 

 account of Mrs. Lizzie Cotton's fi-auds, 

 etc. I remained in the northern part; 

 of the State all winter, and did not 

 have the reading of the Journal 

 until I returned a few days ago. In 

 regard to Mr. R. E. Holmes' offer to 

 pay S5 to you or any one who will 

 furnish proof of Mrs. Cotton's swind- 

 ling, I would like to know what he 

 means. Have not you, and has he not 

 ample proof from many sources, that 

 she practices swindling right along? 

 To-day I heard Mr. Nathaniel C. Nor- 



ton, of this place, a practical bee- 

 keeper of the first class, read two 

 quite lengthy articles from the New 

 York I'libun'c, written by Prof. Cook, 

 that reflected very strongly and di- 

 rectly upon Mrs. Cotton. Mrs. C. has 

 advertised in that paper tlie same as 

 slie has in many other papers. The 

 hite Franklin Butler, editor of the 

 Windsor Jo.inml, once told me that 

 Mrs. Cotton s^nt her advertisement to 

 him for publication for tiu'ee months, 

 but sending no p;iy, he became suspi- 

 cious, after inserting it a few weeks, 

 tliat she was a friud and took it out 

 and sent licr liis bill, which she did 

 not answer. What kind of proof does 

 Mr. Holmes require — what more can 

 he have tlum he ah-eady has V I sent 

 to Mrs. C. for a bee hive, but before I 

 sent the j-noney (§4), I wrote her, ask- 

 ing the shape and size of her hives, 

 and what kind of lumber they were 

 made of, to which she reiilied that her 

 " hive was 2 feet square, 1 foot deep, 

 with thirty glass boxes top and bot- 

 tom, and made of pine lumber planed 

 on both sides." I sent the §4, and re- 

 ceived what I called a model of her 

 so-called "sample controllable bee 

 hive." It was "a very roughly made 

 basswood thing, only 6 inches deep, 

 and GxlO ineiies inside. What is that 

 but fraud V Mr,. Holmes need not 

 t-ike my word for it, hundreds of 

 others have received the same, no 

 douljt. I can cite several. If Mr. 

 Holmes means to do as he says, he 

 cannot do ajiything less than to hand 

 over So to somebody. He says : " I 

 will give S5 for proof of money sent to 

 her, and received, without returns 

 being made."' No doubt Mr. A. I. 

 Root can furnish ample proof that he 

 sent SI for lier book, and received ac- 

 knowledgement, but; never the book 

 nor the money back. Is such the " re- 

 turns " Mr. Holmes means? I re- 

 ceived " returns " for my $4, in the 

 shape of the " model " above referred 

 to. The lady in Berkshire received 

 '•returns" for her S20, in the shape 

 of a hive with a small swarm of bees 

 — only a handful — on only .5 frames, 

 when the equivalent could have been 

 bought of her near neighbors for ^4 

 the price. I think that Mr. Holmes 

 ought not to uphold Mrs. Cotton in her 

 fraudulent transactions in the face 

 and eyes of so many of her defrauded 

 customers all over the land. Mr. 

 Holmes says he does not think you 

 have any right to say what you do 

 about her, unless you are ready to 

 prove "several instances" of what 

 you claim. For conscience sake, how 

 many more instances does he ask you 

 to prove, in addition to the many al- 

 ready proven, before lie is ready to 

 come down with his $5 'i Mr. Holmes 

 is verv much like the,gentleman from 

 Connecticut, whom I met at Mr. A. I. 

 Root's, who i)retended to •' know all 

 about Mrs. Cotton," but on asking 

 iiim a few questions, I found he had 

 never seen her, or been at her place. 

 He said she did not send me that lit- 

 tle bee hive to swindle me, but she did 

 it because slie did not know any bet- 

 ter ; that she was as ignorant as a 

 " horse-block," etc., and that the 

 "old man" had been through bank- 

 ruptcy and didn't amount to any- 



