84 SUCCESSFUL BEE-KEEPING. 
Italian to the common black bee. They deserve all the 
good things that European bee-keepers had said of them, 
save one. They are not more peaceable, but more zras- 
cible than the black | ee, and their sting is more poison- 
ous. Mr. Langstroth gave it as his experience, and 
that of some of his friends, that the Italian bees, instead 
of being more peaceable than our common kind, are 
more irascible (except in the season of honey gather- 
ing), and are more difficult to quiet when once excited. 
The Italian who brought all Mr. Parsons’ bees, said that 
our bees were far more peaceable than the black bees of 
Germany. A German writer who furnished a valuable 
article on bee-keeping, for the Patent Office Report of 
1860, says that our bees are much more easily handled 
than those of Germany. This accounts for the belief 
in Germany, that the Italian bees are more peaceable 
than the black species. The remarks of Prot. Kirtland 
seemed to sum up all that other gentlemen had said of 
the Italian bee. The professor prefaced his remarks by 
saying that he had no “ax to grind,” and no bees to sell, 
and would not have until his experiments had been 
completed, which would be three or more years. After 
discussing the good qualities of the Italian bee, he said 
that it was as much superior to the black bee as Short- 
horn cows and Chester hogs are to the “scrubs” of the 
country ; and that the Italian bee is:—1. Stronger, 
more active, and resists lake winds and chills better 
than the common bee. 2. It works more hours every 
day. 3. It collects more stores. 4. It works on some 
flowers which the black bee cannot operate on. 5. It 
breeds more freely. 6. It is more irritable, and its. 
sting more painful. 7. It is more beautiful. 8. It, in 
short, compares with the common bee as the Short-horn 
