JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 21, 1883. 
murdered in the fumes of the foul brimstone pit. I said it was 
cruel and wrong, and that there ought to be some other way; and 
if their stores must be procured in that piratical way, although 
honey to me was a tempting luxury, I preferred, for one, to 
forego the pleasure of such luxury. 
How did anyone learn these wonderful things, I said, unless 
by patient and careful watching ? and if others have discovered 
these wonderful things why not i, by patient observation, penetrate 
the mysterious precincts of these wonderful little insect people? 
And I did watch with all the energy awakening curiosity could 
arouse, and I listened often with my ear close to the hive to 
their mysterious bee talk ; but their secrets remained untold, 
and their every movement remained a dark unsolved enigma. 
But a new era came, light dawned. There came the moveable 
frame and the new bee, the yellow bee, with its wonderful reputa¬ 
tion for penetrating the depths of the rich red Clover ; and what 
then ? Then came a knowledge of the mysterious things within 
the hive, improvements and progress in bee-culture, old super¬ 
stitions vanished, new and startling truths were brought out, until 
that mysterious hive of twenty years ago is to-day a thing of prac¬ 
tical fact, within the comprehension of the veriest novice. Italian 
queens were introduced iuto our colonies of black bees, and in an 
incredible short time the whole colony was changed from black 
to yellow bees, discovering the startling fact to even old bee¬ 
keepers of the brief, almost ephemeral, existence of the honey 
bee during summer. 
So readily was this change made, and so apparent the benefits 
gained thereby, that Italian queens were rapidly imported, queen- 
breeders sprung up over the land everywhere, and the queen has 
become a common article of trade in the market of bee-keepers' 
supplies, and the superiority of the yellow race of bees over the 
black became almost universally acknowledged. But a mountain 
of difficulty arose in the pathway of queen-vendors, especially 
importers. A standard of purity was necessary to preserve the 
reputation of the imported stock, and to distinguish it from the 
plebeian race ; but in attempting to establish this it became appa¬ 
rent that even the imported stock would not stand any single test, 
so various were their markings and characteristics. Suspicions 
were awakened among unprejudiced bee-keepers that the race of 
bees from which we were receiving importations were not a pure 
race, and this suspicion has been strengthened into fact by the 
knowledge that black bees are found in Italy. As a result of 
these variations different strains of bees began to be brought to 
notice, each possessing particular valuable qualities as set forth 
by their particular champions, and many a sharp contest has been 
carried on in the bee papers by the advocates of some particular 
stripe, or tint, or tinge in his favourite strain, and now we have 
almost as many strains of bees as there are breeders. 
Who that has read the bee literature has not a vivid recollection 
of the sharp criticisms upon the dark queen sent out by Messrs. 
Dodant—even unkind reflections upon their integrity ? They have 
outlived it all, and float successfully now above suspicion. 
Some breeders take pride in publishing what they no longer 
hesitate themselves in believing—that they are breeding a cross 
of the black and yellow race, and no longer consider yellow 
bands a test of excellence or a guarantee of purity, and that 
although beauty and amiability may be desired, they are too often 
obtained unwisely at a sacrifice of more sterling qualities. 
The reports of large yields of honey coming from colonies not 
possessing the requisite number of yellow bands to entitle them to 
a certificate of royalty has become too frequent to be accidental, 
and the wise apiarist will hesitate long before superseding the 
queens of such colonies with those having the regulation 
markings. 
We are, without doubt, largely indebted to the introduction of 
the yellow race of bees into this country for the knowledge and 
improvements in modern bee-culture. 
But while Mr. A, and B, and C have made a paying business 
rearing queens, and have made a hobby of yellow bands and 
golden tints, we, as practical bee-keepers, are looking to a 
different source for our revenue, and are only anxious how we 
may obtain large yields of honey. Beauty and pleasure are 
secondary considerations. Honey gathered by the black or 
hybrid bees brings as much money in the market as that obtained 
by the most beautiful golden Italians—and in fact it is claimed 
that honeycomb made by the black bees is whiter and more 
delicate in appearance than that made by the yellow race. 
But what shall we say of the new races more recently intro¬ 
duced into this country by Mr. D. A. Jones of Canada at such 
great expense both in time and money ? The Cyprians and the 
Holy Land bees, what can we say of them except that they are an 
experiment, and, like all experiments in bee-culture, should be 
tried with much caution ? There is an old maxim, “ Let well 
525 
enough alone ; ” not altogether a noble one, yet for all that suc¬ 
cessful for the moderately ambitious, and perhaps a very safe one 
for the average bee-keeper. We can but admire the enthusiasm 
of Mr. Jones, which has prompted him to such untiring energy 
and to make such sacri flee of time and money in his search for 
some superior race of bees by which he might benefit mankind. 
And Mr. Frank Benton, too, his assistant, has done much to com¬ 
mand our esteem and admiration. 
But all great enterprises of this character are measured by their 
ultimate success or failure. The reports that have already been 
received from his importations seem to promise but little or any 
improvement upon the yellow races of bees already so universally 
diffused over this country, of which I prefer to consider them 
only a strain, and, indeed, the Cyprians have already gained a 
reputation of being very unamiable in disposition, and often 
becoming angry without provocation. 
By what name, then, shall we know the coming bee ? We 
might adopt the phrase used by Mr. Heddon and applied, not to 
bees, but to bee-keepers, “ Get there success,” as it is very com¬ 
prehensive of the qualities we think essential, but we prefer that 
other more beautiful and more significant name already heralded 
forth among progressive bee-keepers, Apis Americana. 
C. E. Newman asked if Cyprians or Holy Land bees had proven 
more profitable than the Italians. 
Mr. Boardman said he thought the Italians were the most 
profitable. 
S. F. Newman said he had tried both Cyprians and Italians, 
and in his experience the Italians had proved to be fully equal 
to the Cyprians as honey-gatherers, and were not as irritable. At 
times it was almost impossible to handle the Cyprians unless 
they were chloroformed. 
Mr. Bartow said he preferred hybrids to Italians; they pro¬ 
tected their stores better than other bees. 
Mr. Bartow asked whether Holy Land bees were more likely 
to be pure than the Italians. 
Mr. Boardman said he thought the Holy Lands as likely not 
to be pure as the Italians. 
The President.—We are ignorant as to the fact whether the 
Cyprians are indigenous to the island of Cyprus, or whether they 
were Italians modified to a certain extent by climate and other 
causes. The important question to be decided is, Which race of 
bees will give us the largest amount of honey, and thereby fill 
our pockets with money ? He wanted no pure bees, but preferred 
hybrids. 
Mr. Whitney asked Boardman which produced the best workers, 
an Italian queen mated with a black drone, or a black queen 
with an Italian drone ? 
Mr. Boardman did not know which would produce the best 
results. The facts are that Italian queens generally mate with 
black drones. 
Mr. White.—An Italian queen mating with a black drone pro¬ 
duces better workers than the reverse. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Barr & Son, 12, King Street, Covent Garden, London.— List of 
Pyrethrums and other Flowers. 
Osman & Co., 14, Windsor Street, Bishopsgate, London, E.— Whole¬ 
sale List of Horticultural Sundries. 
Ernest Riemschneider, 42, Hamburgh Street, Altona-Hamburgh.— 
Price List of Lily of the Valley and Bulbs. 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “ The Editor ” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
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. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Poultry and Bee subjects, and 
should never send more than two or three questions at once. All 
articles intended for insertion should be written on one side of 
the paper only. We cannot reply to questions through the post., 
and we do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Fasciated Asparagus (W. Vick, Ipswich ).—We have seen many similar 
examples of monstrous heads, but not often so large as those shown in the 
