THE ITALIAN BEE. 287 
“ Being stationed in Italy, during part of the Napoleonic wars, 
he noticed that the bees, in the Lombardo-Venitian district of 
Valtelin, and on the borders of Lake Como, differed in color from 
the common kind, and seemed to be more industrious. At the 
close of the war, he retired from the army, and returned to his 
ancestral castle, on the Rhetian Alps, in Switzerland; and to 
occupy his leisure, had recourse to bee-culture, which had been 
his favorite hobby in earlier years. While studying the natural 
history, habits, and instincts of these insects, he remembered 
what he had observed in Italy, and resolved to procure a colony ~ 
from that country. Accordingly, he sent two men thither, who 
purchased one, and carried it over the mountains, to his resi- 
dence, in September, 1843. 
‘“* His observations and inferences impelled Dzierzon—who had 
previously ascertained that the cells of the Italian and common 
bees were of the same size—to make an effort to procure the 
Italian bee; and, by the aid of the Austrian Agricultural Society 
at Vienna,* he succeeded in obtaining, late in February, 1853, 
a colony from Mira, near Venice.”—S. WaGNER. 
558. An attempt was made in 1856, by Mr. Wagner, to 
import them into America; but, unfortunately, the colonies 
perished on the voyage. ‘The first living Italian bees landed 
on this continent were imported in the Fall of 1859 by Mr. 
Wagner and Mr. Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, from 
Dzierzon’s Apiary. Mr. P. G. Mahan, of Philadelphia, 
brought over at the same time a few colonies. In the Spring 
of 1860, Mr. S. B. Parsons, of Flushing, L. I., imported a 
number of colonies from Italy. Mr. William G. Rose, of 
New York, in 1861, imported also from Italy. Mr. Colvin 
made a number of importations from Dzierzon’s Apiary ; and 
*Some of the Governments of Europe have long ago taken great interest in 
disseminating among their people a knowledge of Dzierzon’s system of Bee- 
Culture. Prussia furnishes monthly a number of persons from different parts 
of the Kingdom with the means of acquiring a practical knowledge of this 
system; while the Bavarian Government has prescribed instruction in Dzier- 
zon’s theory and practice of bee-culture, as a part of the regular course of 
studies in its teachers’ Seminaries. We are glad to see that the United States 
is beginning to recognize the importance of bee-culture, and that an Apiarian 
department has been inaugurated under thecontrol of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment at Washington. 
