134 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Electro-Italian Bees.— In this 

 age of progress, bee-keepers are con- 

 tinually on the qui vieve for anything 

 that promises to increase their profits, 

 or add to their stores of delicious nectar. 

 The busy little bee may toil from early 

 morn to dewy eve, but still the cry is for 

 more. Bee-periodicals have of late 

 contained glowing accounts of a new 

 variety, called the Punic bee, from the 

 wilds of Africa, concerning which 

 marvelous stories are told. Compared 

 with the Funics, the older varieties are 

 not "in it," but even the latter is about 

 to be surpassed. According to the 

 Advertiser, of Madison, Ga., Mr. K. H. 

 Campbell, of that city, is the gentleman 

 who is possessed of a laudable ambi- 

 tion to improve on that wonderful bee. 

 The article reads like a story from the 

 Arabian Nights, and concludes thus : 



Seeing that the principal claim made 

 for the latest discovered variety, the 

 African Punic, is the great amount of 

 work it does during a day, he proposes 

 to cap the climax by producing a variety 

 that will work, not only all day, but all 

 night as well. But to work at ni^ht he 

 saw that the bee must have light. 

 Therefore, he proposes to cross the 

 Italian bee with the lightning bug, and 

 in this way get the working qualities of 

 the former combined with the luminosity 

 of the latter, and at the same time 

 utilize a large amount of light that has 

 heretofore been going to waste. He will 

 call this new variety the Electro-Italian 

 bee. 



When the new variety of bees is placed 

 upon the market, and the story of their 

 wonderful achievements is heralded 

 abroad, the champions of the Punic bees 

 will have to join the procession, or they 

 will miss all the music. 



In this connection, we publish the 

 following letter concerning the aiMgin of 

 the wonderful Punic bee, which, if true, 

 holds out a hope for the ultimate success 

 of Mr. Campbell's scheme: 



When I read the article by Veritas, 

 page 766, June 11,1 had a good laugh. 

 I have been looking out for him, but as 

 yet he has not arrived. I should imagine 

 he is like the boy who could not keep 

 si ill for laughing, and caused everyone 



else to laugh. There are some littls 

 points, however, in his article, on which 

 I hope he will not be offended at my 

 correcting him ; for instance, in the 

 second paragraph, he says : " The 

 Punic bee originated during the second 

 Punic war, and was a cross between the 

 African pissmire and the Roman mos- 

 quito." Shades of Darwin ! Here is a 

 fellow who has traced the pedigree of a 

 honey-bee from an ant and mosquito, 

 and even knows the exact date when 

 this cross took place. 



I hope he will tell us all about its 

 history, for we may then understand 

 how the honey-bee orignated in different 

 parts of the world, some being black, 

 some yellow, some brown, and so on, but 

 all with a tendency to interbreed. If 

 he can make this clear, then we have 

 only to see if ants and mosquitos are 

 common to understand the matter, and 

 note whether they are red, black, brown 

 or yellow, to account for the various 

 bees'. 



However, to the point : If he will send 

 his name to John Hewitt, Sheffield, 

 England, I will send him two Punic 

 queens, which I value at $25 each. If 

 he considers, after trying them, that 

 they are not worth this amount, or that 

 the discription given of them on page 

 701, May 28, is not a fair one — i. e., 

 exaggerated — then he need not pay any- 

 thing. I am willing also to treat every 

 other respectable person on the same 

 terms. — A Hallamshire Bee-Keeper. 



Alfalfa in ^Wisconsin.— The 



alfalfa at the Experiment Station was 

 cut last Friday, for the second time this 

 season, says the Wisconsin Farmer of 

 last week, and then adds : 



The yield obtained, when the alfalfa 

 was cut a few weeks ago, indicated an 

 amount of 15,000 pounds of green 

 alfalfa to the acre, not of cured hay as 

 we intimated at the time. Prof. Henry 

 says that the second crop, now cut, will 

 amount to three-fourths of the first, or, 

 at a rough estimate, about 11,000 

 pounds. 



Here is truly a great yield. Twenty- 

 six thousand pounds of green fodder to 

 the acre will certainly produce a very 

 large amount of hay. To this must be 

 added also, a third crop, which will, no 

 doubt, be cut in due season, and which 

 may fairly be credited with producing 

 at least 8,000 pounds of green matter. 



Now, let us figure what this acre of 

 alfalfa will have given u^ at the end of 



