AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



753 



morphine have been resorted to, but the 

 remedy lately discovered and tested 

 — Antikaraina — proves itself more than 

 the equal of the other sedatives, produc- 

 ing alone the desired happy effects, with- 

 out interfering with the action of the 

 heart, as the others are liable to do, and 

 in some cases seriously effect that organ. 

 Richford, N. Y. 



Importation of Bees. 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



There has been a marked disposition 

 on the part of a number of apicultural 

 writers to oppose all importation of bees. 

 There certainly can be no good reasons 

 given for such unprogressive ideas. 



It may be well enough to say that 

 there is no further use of importing the 

 Italian and Carniolan races that have 

 been improved and made better by hav- 

 ing been carefully bred from selected 

 specimens under the superior skill and 

 patience of American apiarists until our 

 selected American bees are superior to 

 any bees in Italy. A little good sense 

 and judgement is as useful, along this 

 line, as in any other department of busi- 

 ness. The man who would not en- 

 gage in importing Italian queens and 

 breeding from them because he imag- 

 ined that imported stock was no im- 

 provement, would be thought badly 

 behind the times. 



But progressive apiarists will continue 

 to import new races of bees and give 

 them a fair trial, as long as there are 

 new races brought to light in the darkest 

 corners of the earth. 



When Italian bees were first imported 

 to this country it was an experiment 

 pure and simple, and they were de- 

 nounced as "humbugs " by many people 

 without knowing anything practically 

 concerning them. The first of these 

 bees I ever saw were about fourth-class 

 hybrids and cost $25 per colony. I then 

 and there set down Italian bees as an 

 unmitigated "humbug." Butafterthat 

 I met with the race in its best estate, 

 and I changed my mind toward them 

 sufficiently to give $10 for a queen and 

 a handful of bees, which I built up into 

 a strong colony, and thence commenced 

 my career as a modern bee-keeper. 



At that time, and for years afterward, 

 the Italian was believed to be a pure 

 race of bees, and at the start I shared in 

 this common belief. But, being a close 

 observer of all matters pertaining to 

 bees, I soon discovered that, when breed- 



ing from imported queens, I could find 

 none that did not " sport" in a way that 

 convinced me that the Italian bee was a 

 hybrid, and I was the first American 

 writer who disclosed the fact to the pub- 

 lic, as a review of the old files of the 

 American Bee Journal will show. 



I was opposed in my views by many 

 at the time, and supported by none. But 

 it was noticeable that the "three-band 

 test" followed rapidly on the heels of 

 my announcement. Now no reputable 

 writer would venture to speak of the 

 Italian as pure race of bees. 



In those days I owned one imported 

 mo£7ier that " sported " in her offspring 

 — worker, drone and royal progeny — in 

 a fashion that opened up a new field of 

 study to me. I discovered specimens 

 among the worker progeny that were 

 pure yelloiv bees, ' minus any stripes, 

 bands or dark veins, and other speci- 

 mens as black as night, with broad, 

 short abdomen — the very picture of what 

 I have since seen in the new "^Punic " 

 race. I inferred from those out-crop- 

 ping specimens that the Italian was a 

 cross, of long standing, between a pure 

 "yellow" and a pure "black" race of bees, 

 and my convictions were published in the 

 American Bee Journal. 



Some smart persons tried to make fun 

 at my expense at the time, but now the 

 pure "black" race of bees in the new 

 Punic (Apis niger) has been brought to 

 light "black as jet," and are actually 

 now on trial in hundreds of apiaries in 

 this country. 



I have never lost faith in the forth- 

 coming "pure yellow bees." They are 

 going to be discovered, and the man who 

 first procures them will need no machin- 

 ery to "boom" them. The pure yellow 

 bee will be taken without the asking. 



There are more chances in favor of 

 importing new races of bees than most 

 people are aware of. Before the yellow 

 races of bees were brought into Ken- 

 tucky, no person had ever seen a honey- 

 bee working on the red-clover. Its 

 luxurious growth in the blue-grass belt 

 put the blossoms beyond the reach of the 

 native black bees. The Italians, how- 

 ever, visited the blossoms of the first as 

 well as the second crop of bloom every 

 season. 



The Italians also work on the iron- 

 weed bloom, which is never visited by 

 the native black bees. There are possi- 

 bilities connected with the newly-intro- 

 duced Punic bees that cannot be known 

 until these bees are tested. 



Why may not these " little bees " find 

 their way into flowers loaded with nectar 

 that are inaccessible to the larger races? 



