AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



467 



trust will be sufficient excuse for a con- 

 tinuation of the discussion. 



If the Carniolans are better than the 

 bees we have had before, we want them. 

 If they are inferior, let us discard them. 

 But whatever they are, let them stand 

 or fall on their own merits, and when 

 we are testing them, let us be sure they 

 are Carniolans, and not something else. 



Mr. Alley claims, on page 330, that 

 "•TTie Carniolan race of hees arc the 

 original yellow bees,"" and in the article 

 containing this statement, and else- 

 where, he argues that the Carniolan race 

 has a natural tendency to become yellow. 



If this were true, as has before been 

 pointed out, they would long ago have 

 become a yellow race in their native 

 land ; whereas, Mr. Alley himself testi- 

 fies that the progeny of imported queens 

 showed no yellow whatever. The varia- 

 tion does not begin, as he admits, until 

 we come to the progeny of queens 

 reared in his own apiary. 



The explanation of this is furnished 

 by Mr. Alley himself, when he tells us 

 that these queens were mated in an 

 apiary but little over a mile away from 

 a large apiary of Italians. Now, it is 

 agreed by most authorities that ■ the 

 meeting between queen and drone may 

 take place at some distance — a mile or 

 more — from the hives. If they flew only 

 a mile away, apiaries would need to be 

 at least two miles apart to keep them 

 distinct. I have evidence which I con- 

 sider conclusive that different races will 

 intermix if kept four miles apart. More 

 than this, I believe — and this belief is 

 shared by many — that a queen is more 

 liable to be mated with a drone from an 

 apiary a mile away than from the one in 

 which she was reared. 



At a time when* all ray bees were 

 Italians, and no other bees were within 

 a mile — except possibly a few in the 

 woods — and even at that distance there 

 were not over one-tenth as many as I 

 had, a large proportion of my queens 

 were mated with black drones. When I 

 establish an apiary in a new place, 

 although my Italian bees far outnumber 

 all bees within several miles, experience 

 shows me that nearly half the queens 

 reared there will produce hybrids. 



On the other hand, the common bees 

 have become so mixed with the Italians, 

 that in this part of the State it is diffi- 

 cult to find a colony of pure black bees. 



To sum the matter up, the "golden 

 Carniolans " have been produced by 

 crossing Carniolans with Italians, then 

 breeding for yellow bees. 



They may be very good bees. Probably 

 they are, as the greater share of their 



ancestry (the Italian side) are known to 

 be, while the remaining share certainly 

 has some good points. But to cross 

 Carniolans with Italians, and then breed 

 out as much of the Carniolan blood as 

 possible, is hardly the way to produce 

 "typical Carniolans." Let those who 

 wish to test the "wonderful Punic bees" 

 get them before the striped variety 

 makes its appearance. It is all very well 

 to test new varieties of bees, but let us 

 call things by their right names. 

 Dayton, Ills. 



[The editorial comment, on page 100, 

 expressed no opinion on the controversy. 

 It quoted Mr. Alley's language on page 

 330 only to show that he had already 

 answered the question again propounded 

 by Mr. Andrews. This was done to save 

 space for a reply, and not to endorse 

 any view presented by either party. Our 

 own views do not materially differ from 

 those of Mr. Green. — Ed.] 



Bee-KeesiDE in Alabaiiia. 



JOHN M. EYAN. 



My crop of honey, to date, will amount 

 to about 1,337 pounds from 22 colonies. 

 Two other colonies have stored no sur- 

 plus, so far, but from one of them I 

 expect to get about 30 or 35 pounds by 

 the last of October, when aster bloom 

 ceases. Two colonies stored 85 pounds. 



There were but 4 swarms cast in my 

 apiary this season, 3 of which I hived, 

 but the fourth one issued during my 

 absence, and clustered so high that my 

 wife and son could not reach them, and 

 before my return they took flight. 



In 1888 I secured 568^ pounds of 

 honey from 19 colonies, and the honey- 

 dew was more plentiful that year than it 

 has been this year. My crop that year 

 was cut short by the queens laying in 

 the sections, and I have had some trouble 

 from the same source this year, and had 

 it not iTeen for that my crop would 

 probably have been larger by about 150 

 pounds. 



I regret very much not having some 

 sourwood honey to send to the State Fair, 

 which commences on Oct. 20, at Birm- 

 ingham. 



The lindens began to bloom about 

 June 21, and continued in bloom until 

 July 15. 



The poplar bloom which began on 

 April 27, yielded nectar profusely in the 



