442 THE ITALIAN BEE. 



Bienenzeitung his observations oq the Italian bees, with some 

 suggestions as to the manner in which they might be em- 

 ployed to determine some of the points in dispute. His 

 communication did not, at the time attract the attention it 

 deserved, though it led Dzierzon to inquire whether the cells 

 and combs built by the Italian bees differed in any respect 

 from those constructed by the common kind. Baldenstein 

 replied that there was no perceptible difference ; that he had 

 frequently interchanged the combs, and never noticed that it 

 caused any difficulty in either case, the cells of both being 

 apparently of the same diameter and depth. 



The controversy concerning the above-mentioned points 

 continued to be waged with unabated ardor, and the ablest 

 Apiarians of Germany engaged in it pro or con, without ar- 

 riving at any satisfactory results ; at least, not any in which 

 all felt willing to concur. In this state of affairs, Baldenstein 

 sent another communication to the Bienenzeitung, (No. 11, 

 1851,) in which he adverts to his previous article, and ex- 

 presses the opinion that no mode of determining those im- 

 portant questions, could be so practicable and reliable as the 

 employment of the Italian bee for that purpose. He then 

 states that for seven years he had possessed one colony, 

 and only one, of the genuine Italian stock, which had with 

 great difficulty, or rather by a fortunate chance, been pre- 

 served pure among a large number of bastard and common 

 colonies. In all that time, he had not, despite of every pre- 

 caution he could use, succeeded in keeping his young Italian 

 queens from mesalliance with common drones, and conse- 

 quently producing a bastard progeny. 



His Italian colony retained, till May, 1847, the old queen 

 which had been imported from Italy. She was then at least 

 four years old, and had never failed to produce genuine Ital- 

 ian brood. In May, 1847, the colony began to show signs 



