372 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
ing and the reariDg of queens from worker eggs. He knew also 
‘•that a queen who never saw a drone can lay eggs,” though he 
did not seem to have observed that such eggs always produce 
drones. The fact of fertilisation by drone agency was unknown 
in those days, and hence our author is vastly bewildered when he 
feels called upon to indicate the nature of these. He confesses he 
is unable to say what drones really are produced for. He fre¬ 
quently witnessed virgin queens take their flight, but had no idea 
of the purpose in view. He argued that as he had undoubtedly 
bred queens in hives where there were no drones, and had never¬ 
theless known these queens to become fertile mothers, drones 
were not really essential. This is perhaps the only serious defi¬ 
ciency in Bonner’s knowledge of bees, and can be excused when 
all else is so clear and practical. 
The Wovher Bee .—In all essential particulars his account of 
worker bees is correct, and his knowledge of their instincts was in 
great measure the secret of his success in handling them. 
Handling Bees .—No better idea can be given of the precocious 
management of our author than the following extract. What 
more can we do still ?—“ I could put twenty hives into one if 
necessary ; I can cause my bees to rear as many queens as I please ; 
I can rob my bees of part of their honey at any time ; I could 
carry one hundred bee hives to London or Russia; I could rear 
five thousand bee hives in a few years if desired by any gentleman 
of property ; I could travel through the streets of Edinburgh with 
three swarms of bees about me, unhurt; I can take a swarm out 
of any hive at any time ; I can take ten thousand bees from ten 
different hives and unite them into one hive ; and I can reinforce 
a weak hive with bees from any number of other hives, and from 
being the worst make it the best hive in the county. I can unite 
the bees of forty hives into thirty, twenty, or ten hives, and next 
summer divide those ten hives again into forty swarms ; if I have 
a weak hive suffering from robbers I can strengthen it with more 
bees, and make them fit to rob any hive in the neighbourhood ; if 
I have a hive of bees perishing with poverty or famine I can 
make it the richest hive in the place ; I can take a common bee 
egg and cause the bees to raise it to be either a queen or a common 
bee as I please ; I can make my bees rest upon myself or any 
person near me without offering us the smallest injury, and I can 
make them fall upon us with the fury of as many dragons, so that 
we would be glad to fly with as much precipitation as a few 
rioters would do before a regiment of dragoons.”— William 
Raitt, Blairgowrie, 
(To be continued.) 
THE INTERNATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' CONGRESS 
AND EXHIBITION OF BEES AND THEIR PRODUCTS 
AT MILAN. 
(Continued from page 200.) 
Dr. DtrniNi spoke on the subject of hives with moveable and im¬ 
moveable crownboards, and came to the conclusion that bees are quite 
as comfortable in the former as in the latter, in proof of which he 
referred to the American, English, and Swiss bee-keepers, who use 
chiefly hives with moveable crownboard. In Italy, he said, the 
majority of hives were certainly made after the model of Baron von 
Berlepsch ; still Dubini hives with immoveable crownboard were also 
very much used. 
Count Barbo reminded the meeting that the German bee-keepers 
had almost entirely discontinued using hives with moveable crown¬ 
board, because they found that these hives did not retain the heat so 
well as hives with fixed crownboard, and that breeding in them did 
not progress so rapidly. 
Dr. Bianchetti recommended a hive of his own construction with 
moveable floorboard and crownboard. 
Several speakers expressed themselves against hives with moveable 
crownboard, chiefly because they were of opinion that the chilling of 
the brood, especially in spring, might easily cause foul brood. 
Mr. Marengi of Bergamo introduced the question, “ Is it possible 
that combs which have been subjected to the fumes of brimstone may 
originate foul brood ? ” He related it had been observed in different 
apiaries that combs which had been exposed to the fumes of brim¬ 
stone, and were afterwards given to healthy colonies, had, later in 
the season, contained cells infected with foul brood, while the brood 
in other combs not subjected to fumigation by brimstone which were 
inserted at the same time had remained in a healthy state. Mr. Loca- 
telli, pharmaceutical chemist, did not think that exposure of the combs 
to the fumes of sulphur would cause foul brood, sulphurous acid being 
a disinfectant. He stated that he was in the habit of subjecting all his 
combs to the fumes of sulphur, and had never found it do any harm. 
Before the meeting separated a committee was appointed to draw 
up a report as to the best means of improving the management of bees 
in Italy, and of gradually putting an end to the objectionable practice 
of killing bees by brimstone. The next Italian congress is to be held 
at Bologna in 1884. 
The exhibition of live bees, hives, bee furniture, and the products 
of bees offered much that was interesting; the large quantities and 
pretty arrangement of the honey and wax exhibited were especially 
remarked upon. The Italians, however, do not seem to be acquainted 
with the way in which various shapes and figures are produced by bees 
in Germany, and which are often quite artistic ; in any case, I did not 
see any exhibits of this kind at Milan. A collection of honey, arranged 
according to colour, which, of course, depends on the kind of flowers 
the bees have been visiting, interested me very much, and a comparison 
of the tastes of the different kinds of honey was not less interesting. 
The bottling and packing had been done most carefully, so that the 
honey presented a very inviting appearance. 
Hive bees were represented at the exhibition by about thirty colonies, 
some of remarkably fine colour, with large population. Of Egyptian 
bees there were also a few stocks exhibited, and I was particularly 
struck with a colony which Mr. Fiorini of Monselice had brought with 
him from Cyprus, and which was shown in the original hive, a Cyprian 
clay cylinder about 12 inches in diameter by 8 feet long. 
The famous apiarian establishments of Professor Sartori of Milan, 
and Pietro Pilati of Bologna, had some splendid colonies and hand¬ 
some hives at the show. Mr. Pietro Pilati’s hives were pretty, with 
moveable and partly with immoveable crownboard, but all were so 
arranged as to suit the Italian climate ; it would be quite impossible 
to winter bees in them in Germany. The hives used in Italy vary a 
little in size from the German standard fixed at Cologne, the Italian 
frames being 25£ cm. (a little over 10 inches) wide and 20 cm. (7| inches) 
high ; double frames 40 cm. (15f inches) high are also made use of in 
that part of the hive where breeding takes place. 
Honey-extractors were exhibited of various shapes. Among the 
bee furniture I did not observe anything that attracted my particular 
notice except a contrivance for melting down the combs, and to this 
I desire to draw attention, especially as it was highly recommended 
to me by several Italian authorities, amongst them Count Barbo and 
Dr. Dubini, who had tried it with success. The apparatus, which was 
exhibited by Mr. Leandri of San Gio in Groce, consists of a wooden 
box lined with zinc, the bottom of which forms an inclined plane, and 
is closed by a glass window. The combs are put into this box and 
exposed to the sun, the heat rays of which cause the wax to melt, 
a vessel being placed underneath to receive it. To judge from the 
specimens that were shown me the separation of the wax from the 
residue was perfect; the only point, however, I am doubtful about is 
whether the same results can be obtained where the sun’s heat is not 
so powerful as in Italy. I intend to make a trial next summer, and 
shall have much pleasure in communicating the result at the next 
meeting of German and Austrian bee-keepers. 
I cannot conclude without referring to the large and valuable col¬ 
lection of works on bees exhibited by Mr. von Keller, author of the 
“ Bibliographia Universale di Apicultura,” for which he was awarded 
a prize at the Erfurt Exhibition. The collection consisted of works 
in almost every language, and even contained Japanese and Chinese 
books on bee-keeping, with illustrations. I believe there is not another 
collection of works on bees of the same completeness in existence. It 
shows us what can be done when neither time, trouble, nor money is 
spared in obtaining one’s object. Whether among the many hundred 
volumes all the languages were fully represented I was unable to 
ascertain. I was much pleased, however, to observe that the valuable 
works of our great German bee-masters both ancient and modern were 
almost all in Mr. Keller’s collection. 
The Congress, as well as the exhibition of bees and their produce 
at Milan, fully proved how eager the Italian bee-keepers have been to 
appreciate the new theory of bee-keeping enunciated by Dr. Dzierzon, 
and we can only wish that their efforts, and especially those of their 
central association under the worthy and intelligent leadership of 
Count Gaetano Barbo, may meet with further success.—Dr. Fried¬ 
rich Kdhl (translated from the “Bienenzeitung," No. 6, by Mr. Alfred 
Neighbour). 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Louis Van Houtte, Ghent, Belgium .—Catalogue of Stove and Green¬ 
house Plants. 
De Smet Freres, Ledeberg-lez-Gand, Belgium. — Supplement to 
General Catalogue. 
William Potten Sissinghurst, Staplehurst, Kent .—Catalogue of 
Bedding Plants. 
J. C. Padman, Boston Spa, Yorkshire .—List of Bedding Plants. 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor” 
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members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
