Races of Bees 
199 
seven living queens 1 from Dzierzon and reared two or three 
queens that fall, but the imported queens all died the follow¬ 
ing winter. On the same steamer that brought these queens, 
Mahan (Philadelphia), who had made a trip to Europe 
for these bees, brought over “one or more” queens (of 
doubtful purity). In June 1860, Wagner and Colvin 
received another consignment. In the meantime, S. B. 
Parsons (Flushing, L. I., New York) was commissioned by 
the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office to procure 
ten colonies, which he purchased from Herman of Tamins 
(reported by him January 3, 1860) and shipped from Havre, 
reaching the United States in May. In the annual report 
of the Division of Agriculture submitted January 29, 1861, 
the Superintendent reports that the effort was unsuccessful 
“owing to inattention to the instructions given by the agent 
of the Office.” C. J. Robinson later asserted that he and 
Mahan had solicited an order from the Commissioner of the 
Patent Office in 1859 authorizing Mahan to proceed to Italy 
and procure bees. This request was refused but it was 
claimed that this instigated the movement to have Parsons 
(an agent of the Division then in Italy) get the bees. Robin¬ 
son states that Parsons bought ten for the Government and 
ten for himself (this second purchase is denied by the friends 
of Parsons) and that he reported that all the bees consigned 
to the Government died. At any rate, Parsons in 1860 
placed at least some of his stock in the hands of Cary, 
Langstroth, Quinby and others and the sale of Italian queens 
began in 1861. Riley, then Chief of the Division of En¬ 
tomology, in 1892 claimed for the Government the credit 
of the first importation direct from Italy. Rose (New 
York) received colonies in 1861 and Colvin continued ship¬ 
ments from the Dzierzon apiary in 1863-64. Various 
other early shipments were made, and now many queens 
are received annually. In the early days of the enthusiasm 
1 A cage dated May 1859 in Dzierzon’s handwriting was found by C. H. 
Lake after he purchased the Colvin apiary (Beekeeper’s Instructor III, 
No. 12, 1881). 
