ttiK ITAI.tAN BKH. 287 



" Ceing stiitionod In Itaiy, during part of the Napoleonic wars, 

 he noticed that the bees, in the Ijombardo-Vcnitian district of 

 Valtolin, and on the borders of Lake Coino, differed in color from 

 tbe common liind, and sromcd to be more industrious. At the 

 close of the w.ai;, be retired «froni the army, and returned to his 

 ancestral castle, on the Rlia'tian Alps, in Switzerland ; and to 

 occupy his leisure, bad recourse to Iicc-culture, which bad been 

 his favorite bobby in eai-lier years. While studying the natural 

 liistory, habits, and instincts of these insects, he remembered 

 what be 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 tbe mountains, to bis resi- 

 dence, in September, 18-1,'?. 



■• His observations and inferences impelled Dzierzon — who had 

 previously ascertained that the cells of the Italian and common 

 bees were of tbe same size — to make an effort to procure tbe 

 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 hare long ago taken great interest iu 

 disseminating among their people a knowledge of Dzierzon's system of Bee- 

 Culture. Pnassia furnishes monthly a number of persons from diJTerent parts 

 of the Kingdom with the means of acquiring a practical knowledge of this 

 system; while the Bavarian Government has prescribed instruction iu Dzier- 

 zon's theory and practice of bee-cultnre, as a part of the regular course ol 

 studies in its teachers' Seminaries. Wu are glad to see that the United States 

 is beginning to recognize the importance of bee-cultnre, and that an Apiarian 

 department has been inaugurated under the control of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment at Washington . 



