180 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



CHAPTER XI. 

 ITALIANS AND ITALIANIZING. 



The history and description of Italians (see Frontis-plate) 

 Lave already been considered (p. 41), so it only remains to 

 discuss the subject in a practical light. 



The superiority of the Italians seems at present a mooted 

 question. A few among the able -apiarists in our country 

 take the ground that a thorough balancing of qualities will 

 make as favorable a showing for the German, as for the Ital- 

 ian bees. I think, too, that the late Baron of Berlepsch held 

 to the same view. 



I think I am capable of acting as judge on this subject. 

 I have never sold a half-dozen queens in my life, and so have 

 not been unconsciously influenced by self-interest. In fact, 

 I have never had, if I except two years, any direct interest 

 in bees at all, and all my work and experiments had only the 

 promotion and spread of truth as the ultimatum. 



Again, I have kept both blacks and Italians side by side, 

 and carefully observed and noted results during eight years 

 of my experience. I have carefully collected data as to in- 

 crease of brood, rapidity of storing, early and late habits in 

 the day and season, kinds of flowers visited, amiability, etc., 

 and I believe that to say that they are not superior to black 

 bees, is like saying that a Duchess among short-horns is in no 

 •wise superior to the lean, bony kine of Texas ; or that our 

 Essex and Berkshire swine are no whit better than the cadav- 

 erous lank breeds, with infinite noses, that, happily, are now 

 so rare among us. The Italians are/hr superior to the Ger- 

 man bees in many respects, and more — though I am acquainted 

 ■with all the works on apiculture printed in our language, and 

 have an extensive acquaintance with the leading apiarists of 

 our country from Maine to California, yet I know of scarcely 

 a baker's dozen that have had opportunity to form a correct 



