BEES, BEE-HIVESj AND BEE CULTUEE. 99 



Continent a great number of Ligurian queens ; these were sent to 

 all parts of the kingdom. We regret to say that but few were 

 successfully united to English stocks. It requires a considerable 

 amount of apiarian skill to accomplish the union, so that we find 

 by experience it is best to send out complete Ligurian stocks. This 

 is particularly desirable now that the packing of whole hives is so 

 easily accomplished by us with the aid of bars and frames. We 

 have sent a great number of stocks to all parts by rail. 



Mr. Woodbury, owing to his knowledge and skill in bee- 

 keeping, was eminently successful in propagating the Ligurian 

 bees first imported into this country ; and we would recommend all 

 who may be interested in the subject, to peruse the interesting 

 articles written by him in the Journal of Horticulture. He has 

 shown great patience and energy by his labours in the rearing of 

 queens and the multiplication of stocks, for which he merits all 

 praise. On the other hand, Mr. Woodbury has to thank the 

 Ligurian bees for the development of his own skill, for although 

 prior to this he was a valued correspondent to the before named 

 Journal, his commencement of scientific bee-keeping must be dated 

 from the time of their introduction. 



We now add to the other testimonies already cited, that of Mr. 

 Woodbury as to the superior qualities of the Ligurian bees. The 

 following is extracted from a paper contributed by him to the Bath 

 and West of England Agricultural Journal : — ''From my strongest 

 Ligurian stock I took eight artificial swarms in the spring, besides 

 depriving it of numerous brood-combs. Finding in June that the 

 bees were collecting honey so fast that the queen could not find an 

 empty cell in which to lay an egg, I was reluctantly compelled to 

 put on a super. When this had been filled with '68 lbs. of the 

 finest honeycomb,* I removed it, and as the stock-hive (a very 

 large one) could not contain the multitude of bees which issued 

 from it, I formed them into another very large artificial swarm. 

 The foregoing facts speak for themselves ; but as information on 

 this point has been very generally asked, I have no hesitation in 

 saying that I believe the Ligurian honey-bee infinitely superior in 

 every respect to the only species that we have hitherto been 

 acquainted with." 



* This super was exhibited at our stand in the International Exhibition 

 of 1862. 



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