OR, MANUAI< OF THE APIARY. 307 



The Italians certainly possess the following points of 

 superiority : 



First. They possess longer tongues, and so can gather 

 from flowers which are useless to the black bee. This point 

 has already been sufficiently considered. How much value 

 hangs upon this structural peculiarity I am unable to state. I 

 have frequently seen Italians working on red clover. I never 

 saw a black bee thus employed. It is easy to see that this 

 might be, at certain times and certain seasons, a very material 

 aid. How much of the superior storing qualities of the Italians 

 is due to this lengthened ligula, I am unable to say. Mr. J. 

 H. Martin has a very ingenious tongue measurer by which the 

 length of the tongues of bees in the several hives can be 

 quickly and accurately compared. I have made a very simple 

 and convenient instrument to accomplish the same end ; two 

 rectangular pieces, one of glass and the other of wire gauze, . 

 are so set in a frame that the glass inclines to the gauze. At 

 one end they touch ; at the other they are separated three- 

 fourths of an inch. Honey is spread on the glass and all set 

 in the hive. The bees can only sip the honey through the 

 gauze. The bees that clean the farthest from the end where 

 it touches the gauze have the longest tongues. This gives 

 only relative lengths, while Mr. Martin's register tells the 

 absolute length. 



Second. They are more active, and, with the same oppor- 

 tunities, will collect a good deal more honey. This is a matter 

 of observation, which I have tested over and over again. Yet 

 I will give the figures of another : Mr. Doolittle secured from 

 two colonies 309 pounds and 301 pounds, respectively, of comb 

 honey, during the one season. These surprising figures, the 

 best he could give, were from his best Italian colonies. 

 Similar testimony comes from Klein and Dzierzon over the 

 sea, and from hosts of our own apiarists. 



Third. They work earlier and later. This is not only true 

 of the day, but of the season. On cool days in spring I have 

 seen the dandelions swarming with Italians, while not a black 

 bee was to be seen. On May 7, 1877, I walked less than half a 

 mile, and counted sixty-eight bees gathering from dandelions, 

 yet only two were black bees. This might be considered an 



