THE AMERICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



In a recent letter he says : " My 

 apiary has given me much work for 

 the last two years, although I have 

 but few colonies, the terrible disease 

 of foul brood reigning all over the 

 coimtry — each sprnig, for two years 

 past, my apiary has been attacked. 

 This spring I only had IS colonies, but 

 of these 7 were attacked. I am now 

 up again to 28 colonies ; apparently 

 the disease is cured. I believe I have 

 solved the question of curing foul 

 brood, but the great difficulty consists 

 in preserving tlie apiary in the future 

 where one finds himself in the midst 

 of an infected region." 



Mr. Layens is deeply interested in 

 the botanical questions affecting bee 

 keeping, and asks me for the names 

 of the plants, and the date of flower- 

 ing, that yield the greatest amount of 

 honey in the various sections of this 

 vast republic. Any brother bee keep- 

 er that can favor me with such a list 

 especially noting the botanical fea- 

 tures of his locality, ■will have my best 

 thanks, and be carefully mailed to 

 Mi. Layens. 



Some of his botanical remarks in 

 recent letters to me may be interest- 

 ing and I will quote : "I see by your 

 letter to the Bulletin de la Somme that 

 the Americans gather prodigious 

 quantities of honey, and that these 

 large yields are due to the united in- 

 fluence of climate, flora, and soil, 

 (still new) of the United States, and 

 that it would be impossible to us here 

 in France to obtain such splendid re- 

 sults. In America much is written 

 about the linden or basswood tree as 

 being veiy mellifluous. Alas I close 

 to my apiary are .500 linden trees, and 

 never once in 7 years have my colonies 

 increased in weight at the time of 

 their flowering. Again, there are cer- 

 tain plants that yield honey well in 

 certain kinds of groimd, and none at 

 all in others. I had some 19 acres 

 planted with buckwheat all aromid 

 me, and the bees hardly touched a 

 plant — yet in Brittany it is accounted 

 a good honey plant. One of my rela- 

 tives, a first rate botanist, having ob- 

 served in Xorway some plants ac- 

 counted very mellifluous, brought 

 some seeds to our domain, and planted 

 them. Not one of my bees gets honey 

 therefrom. If I only liad lists of the 

 honey-bearing plants in the various 

 sections of the counti-y I could very 

 quickly make a comparison with the 

 honey-bearing plants I know. It 

 would be very interesting to see what 

 are the plants giving so much honey 

 in your country, and" to compare the 

 honey-bearing" power of certain of 

 those plants which doubtless are found 

 here in France." 



Thanks to tlie unselfish exertions of 

 such men as these I speak of. The 

 bar frame hive is making headway in 

 France, and now comb foundation is 

 purchased, not as it was from me 5 

 years ago as a curiosity, but as a 

 necessary adjunct to modern bee 

 keeping. 



Well do I remember filling orders 

 for foundation by the half pound per 

 maih and tlie amazement of myself 

 and family to get an order from a very 

 venturesome Frenchman for 30 ttjs. I 

 never saw that man, but in long let- 



ters I minutelv taught him how to fix 

 foundation in liis frames, and how to 

 use it successfully. To-day he has a 

 Root 12-inch machine, and is doing the 

 largest trade in the article. There is 

 one other machine in France, a Dun- 

 ham, I think, but I have no particu- 

 lars of sales. 



If time permits, I will offer some 

 further remarks on bee keeping in 

 France in a future niunber of the 

 Bee Journal. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Winter Eepository For Bees. 



A. C. BALCH. 



If I could choose my place. I should 

 choose one where a natural spring of 

 water flowed from the ground, from a 

 side hill, and then dig into the hill 

 and make the cellar over it, allowing 

 it to run out of the cellar constantly, 

 all open in the cellar. 



The next best place would be, a cel- 

 lar large enough to have a good cis- 

 tern of water in it. Both tending to 

 keep the air moist. I have every 

 reason to believe that there are more 

 bees killed by having them kept too 

 dry than of having them too damp. 



For facts. I, one fall, built a bee 

 bouse with a cellar under it, in which 

 to keep my bees through the winter. 

 I got it completed in November, and 

 put 60 or 70 colonies in it in less than 

 10 days from the time tlie house was 

 built. The cellar was made of stone 

 below the ground, and brick above, 

 laid in lime mortar, so damp that I 

 was afraid I should lose them all. I 

 gave them no ventilation outside, but 

 a small wooden one up through the 

 floor to the room above, througli that 

 into a space under the roof, and then 

 stopped. After a few days I looked 

 in ; the cellar was about 10 by 16 ft. 

 insidCj and the hives were put in on 

 two sides and back end ; three hives 

 high. 



Now for the condition. The cellar 

 walls, the joists and floor over head 

 all hung with water in drops ; in fact 

 some of it had dropped off on to the 

 hives and ground. I closed the doors, 

 one opening outside and one inside, 

 lit a lamp and examined them. They 

 were so quiet that at first I thought 

 they were all dead, but the cold air let 

 in by opening the doors, and the light, 

 soon animated them and they began 

 to show themselves at the entrance as 

 lively as I could wish. I was satis- 

 fied that they were all right, put out 

 the light, closed them up. and left 

 them until the next April, when I 

 took them out on a good, sunshiny 

 day, in the presence of Mr. Heddon, 

 and to his great surprise all were 

 right and strong, as he had lost all of 

 his that winter. 



My hives had no ventilation, except 

 the entrance contacted to % of one 

 inch by 4 inches ; top closed tight, 

 and sealed by the bees as tight as 

 wood and propolis could make it. 



Some of the outside combs were 

 moldy and moist ; all of the combs 

 were more or less moldy at the bot- 

 toms ; but there were very few dead 



bees ; the live ones were bright and 

 lively, not a queen missing and the 

 air was soon full of bees, but diarrhoea 

 and brood were both lacking. 



Mr. Cornell thinks they would have 

 died if left anv longer. Perhaps they 

 would, but they had been in from 

 November to April and showed no- 

 signs of disease, and could he have 

 seen them fly that day he would not 

 have called them very sick. 



The 1.50 I lost since, I left out doors 

 without any protection. 



I well remember the conversation 

 Mr. Heddon and I had that day. He 

 took out the frames of the first hive I 

 took out, while I was getting the 

 second ; he held up a frame and said : 

 •' Mr. Balch your comb is all moldy. 

 I looked at it and said that it did not 

 matter, as the bees would clean them 

 all up in short order : but, he said, 

 they are all damp and moldy. Well, 

 I said, yours are all drv and the bees 

 dead. He has acknowledged since in 

 one of our conventions that I had the 

 best of that argument. The first and 

 only time I have ever heard him do 

 so, " to myself or anv other person. 

 How is that Mr. H. ? " Is it true ? 



Kalamazoo. Mich., Dec. 17, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Italian and German Bees. 



W. Z. HUTCHLSSON. 



On page 6.5.5 of the Journal for 

 1883 Mr. Demaree gives 13 points in 

 favor of the Italians, and 4 in favor 

 of the Germans, and then attempts to 

 explain away the good points of the 

 German, but neglects to do as much 

 for the Italians. The most of the 

 points given by him in favor of the 

 Italians he would probably have 

 found as difficult to explain away as 

 he did those in favor of the Germans ; 

 while, with a few of them, he might 

 have succeeded even better. 



He says: "The Italians adhere 

 with more tenacity to, and spread 

 more evenly over the combs when 

 manipulating them." 



This spreading evenly over the 

 combs, and remaining quiet while be- 

 ing handled, is an advantage, but the 

 tenacity with which they cling to the 

 combs is a cU-^advantage. 



"The Italians build their comba 

 more compact and squarely in the 

 brood nest." If true, this would be 

 no advantage in these days of comb 

 foundation. 



" Italians adhere better to location 

 when moved a short distance." If 

 true, this might be an advantage to 

 the queen breeder, but to the practical 

 honey produces is scarcely worth 

 counting. 



" The Italians are constitutionally a 

 stronger race." Important if true." 



Mr. Demaree admits that " the 

 peddling Uttle black imps ' pile on ' an 

 excess of wax in the process of cap- 

 ping, and thereby impart to their 

 combs a dead, chalky appearance de- 

 cidedly inferior, in his judgment, to 

 the deUcate cream-tinted combs so 

 deftly finished by the Italians." 

 Whether the "dead chalky white- 

 ness," as Mr. Demaree is pleased to 



