394 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



he says about the same thing, only he 

 there specifies three as tiie number 

 purchased, and I presume the indefi- 

 nite number mentioned in Ids late ar- 

 ticle are the same ones spoken of in 

 the Manual. I know of an instance 

 where a bee-keeper lost more money, 

 had more variation, and fjot many 

 more poor queens on hand, by pur- 

 chasing a very high-priced selected 

 tested queen, than the Professor did 

 by his purchase of three untested 

 ones, and I would like to suggest to 

 him, that the circumstance I mention 

 is just as good proof on which to found 

 an argument against high-priced tes- 

 ted queens, as his trial of only tliree 

 untested ones is good proof of the 

 right of his argument against that 

 class of queens. There are so many 

 exceptions to general rules affecting 

 bees, that we have long ago learned 

 that a few experiments proves very 

 little, especially on so broad a subject 

 as the qualities of different kinds of 

 queens. No one can give an intelli- 

 gent opinion of their value, unless on 

 theoretical grounds, without liaving 

 used a score or so of them, better yet, 

 if their experience covers the use of 

 ■several scores. 



A common argument against dollar 

 queens is to cite tlie example of Ham- 

 mond, Bates, Booth, and others in 

 the breeding of live stock. This is 

 right if one only draws the correct 

 •conclusions. How much of the stock 

 bred by these men has ever been pur- 

 chased by the common farmer V How 

 many of tiiose $2,000 animals, recently 

 sold in Chicago, went to otliers than 

 fine stock breeders V I venture to 

 answer, not one. What would we 

 think of the wisdom of a common 

 dairyman owning a score or so of 

 •cows, investing from $2,000 to $.5,000 

 in the purchase of a single animal to 

 improve his herd, when he could pur- 

 chase an animal practically as good 

 for one-tentli tlie money. J^et our 

 Cooks, Jones, and Roots go to work 

 and produce as superior a strain of 

 bees as Bates and Booth did of cattle, 

 and my word for it, every dollar 

 queen-breeder, and nearly every large 

 bee-keeper, will obtain one or more 

 of the improved queens, without re- 

 gard to price ; but the wildest theorist 

 would not expect ordinary bee-keep- 

 ers to purchase them by the dozens 

 each year, as some of us do of untested 

 queens. Instead of being a hindrance, 

 I think the selling of dollar queens 

 bred from such stock would do far 

 more toward the universal improve- 

 ment of bees over our entire country, 

 than anytliing else that can be done. 



The common mistake of those who 

 oppose tlie "dollar queen traffic " is, 

 they think there is more value in a 

 decided improvement of the bees 

 owned by a few bee-keepers, than 

 they do of a lesser rate of improve- 

 ment of all the bees in the country. 

 Take a pencil and figure up the rela- 

 tive values of a ten per cent, improve- 

 ment of all the bees in the country, 

 and a fifty per cent, improvement of 

 the bees owned by a score or a hun- 

 dred of our leading bee-keepers, and 

 what is the result ? Of course, the 

 buying or selling of dollar queens pre- 

 vents no one from improving his own 



stock all his circumstances will allow 

 him to do, but sends the direct de- 

 scendants of our best stock broadcast 

 &mong the mass of bee-keepers, who 

 are forced to realize every dollar they 

 can from their bees to supply imme- 

 diate wants. 



I have bought and used nearly 1.50 

 untested queens during the past few 

 years, and had intended in this to have 

 told how I use them, and some of my 

 experience in buying them ; but have 

 already strung this out too long, so 

 will defer that to some future time, if 

 this discussion continues. 



I do not want any one to think I in- 

 tend this as a reply especially to Prof. 

 Cook's article. I speak of that as I 

 have, because it seems to go riglit to 

 the gist of the matter, in the plainest 

 and most direct manner of anything I 

 have seen. Neither do I wish anyone 

 to think I am opposed to breeding the 

 very best queens we can get. I simply 

 wish to oppose the strong effort be- 

 ing made to pull down a system of 

 selling queens which has been of 

 large benefit to me in my business, 

 and I presume to others also. 



Williamstown, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Texas Letter— Italian Bees Wanted. 



MILES HADAWAT. 



Mr. Printer : — I hear you print a 

 bee paper, and I want you to send me 

 one to look at, to see if I like it. They 

 tell me you always have much nice 

 readings in it about that queer little 

 crittur that has a sweet tooth in its 

 mouth and a sharp sticker in its tail, 

 as Anne Strother's father told the old 

 bee-hunter down at Powett's Tanyard 

 last summer. I have been keeping 

 bees here three years in tlie old fash- 

 ioned way, that was thought very 

 good away down east forty years ago 

 and longer, where I was born and 

 raised. But someliow I can't get along 

 with them liere, as old uncle Brews- 

 ter used to do in Hockanum when I 

 was a boy. Wliy he used to have lots 

 of hives, and honey by the tubful 

 every fall, when he took up his skeps 

 with the brimstone rags. But here 

 we often get nothing at all now. 

 Whether the miller moths that are so 

 plentiful liere eat it all up, or tlie 

 troublesome busy ants carry it all off, 

 I don't know, and with all my watch- 

 ing could never find out. I some- 

 times think the bees get bewildered 

 among the many strange flowers we 

 have here, and cannot tell where to 

 look for the sweet ; and it were no 

 wonder, sucli odd-shaped things they 

 are. Maybe if we had other sorts of 

 flowers, apple and cherry blossoms 

 and such like, and hollyhocks and 

 asters, such as they was used to of 

 old,orliad other bees better suited 

 to the flowers here, we might do first 

 rate in this climate where the busy 

 fellows could work almost the year 

 round without interruption. Well, 

 cousin Upson was to see ns when he 

 come out prospectin', and he told us 

 some wonderful stories about a new 

 kind of hives they have to home, in 

 which the bees build combs as straight 



as a ruler on sticks, and the nice little 

 whirligig twirlabouts with which the 

 honey can be shaken out of the combs 

 right into dishes, all ready for the 

 breakfast table. I half believed his 

 yarns when he promised to send me 

 one of these shakers next spring ; but 

 Mehitable, my wife, says there was a 

 queer sort of a smirk on his face, and 

 he gloared so slily with his eyes while 

 he was a telling and we was a listenin', 

 that she's sure he was only trying to 

 bamboozle us by his talk. I'm not so 

 sure about that. Then he told us, 

 too, about a new sort of imported 

 bees, with striped backs and harmless 

 queen stings that never hurts nobody, 

 and can be handled, like well-riddlea 

 rye, witliout gloves, in the hottest 

 weather. Wife doubted again, but I 

 tliink there's a good deal of truth in 

 the story ; for when I was in Austin 

 to buy a plow for neighbor Crume 

 and a new collar for my horse, I hear 

 some talk about sucti queer bees in 

 the bar-room of the tavern. The 

 chap that was a telling about them 

 had a patent hive to sell, too. It 

 wasn't one of them with the straight 

 comb sticks that cousin Upson spoke 

 about, but the man called it the 

 Moth Worm Banisher. He said it 

 was so fixed that when a moth touched 

 it at night a scratcher strikes a lucifer 

 match, and straightway the sudden 

 flash and glare of light frightens all 

 the moths within fifty feet, and away 

 they go, harum-scarum, with a grand 

 flutter and flourish, seeking to hide in 

 outer darkness. That I think is a 

 good invention, for these moths are 

 troublesome and hard to catch, and 

 tlie best way is to banish them right 

 off. But about them new imported 

 bees the man said he could not see 

 any great good that came of them 

 after all the fuss made about them, 

 except that they made their honey 

 from red clover tops instead of white, 

 and hunted up all sorts of out-of-the- 

 wav flowers in by-places and road- 

 sides, which the old kind of plain 

 bees never thouglit worth looking at. 

 Besides, he said, that while farmers 

 could only make hay while the sun 

 shines, these new comers would make 

 honey, shine or no shine. This seemed 

 to lie saying something more for 

 tliem than uncle Upson knew ; and as 

 everybody in the room appeared to 

 believe what the hive seller said, be- 

 cause he had no interest in the matter, 

 I think there is a good deal in it, and 

 wish I had some. Mr. Printer, can't 

 you put me in the way of getting a 

 swarm ? I would like "to have them 

 soon. Cant they be sent by telegraph, 

 so as to come before Christmas ? 

 Swarming time begins here soon after 

 New Year, when the drones have got 

 over their holiday frolics. How much 

 will they cost, though ? If they are 

 very dear I could not afford the ex- 

 pense till after the next cotton crop is 

 made. They say a queen sells for 

 five and six dollars ! Just think of 

 that I A little insect about an inch 

 long selling at the price of a yearling 

 colt ! If the workers sell in propor- 

 tion, won't they come high, as cousin 

 Zeke reckons it outV Or if you put 

 them down at even a picayune apiece, 

 and there are thirty thousand in a 



