Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-03-02
ITALIAN BEES.

The Country Gentleman contains a letter
dated Paris, Jan. II, 1860, from S. B. Parsons,
of Flushing, Ny. to W.D. Bishop, Com of Pa
tnts, ,on the subject of Italian Bees, the arrival
of many swarms of which in this country we
saw mentioned a few days ago From the
letter we take the following
Since | last communicated with the De-
partment, | have had additional intercourse
with European agriculturalists, and am in
creasingly impressed with the great value of
this species. 1t was not introduced into
Northern Europe until 1858, and its intro
ductiOn is every year more appreciated as
new era in bee culture. Its introduction into
the United States may no less constitute a
new era, and the Patent Office will deserve
the gratitude of the country for It's efforts to
obtain it. This will be better understood
when the profits Of bee culture shall be so
generally appreciated that every farmer will
have his hundred hives, the inmates of which
will gather up the multitude OF sweets which
now are lost, and yield to their owner, ac-
cording TO his care, from three u ten thou
sand pounds Of honey, or according to Lang
stroths lowest estimate, five hundred dollars
per annum profit. 1t cannot he doubted that
Italian bees will entirely take the place of
our common species, for the reasons first,
that they will endure the cold better; %
that they swarm twice as often; Sd, that
their queens are abundantly more prolific
4th, that the working bees begin to forage
earlier and are more Industrious 5th, that
they are less apt to sting, and may be easily
tanned by kind treatment 9th, that the
queen may be so educated as to lay her eggs
in any hive in which she is placed, while the
bees of such hive, deprived of their own
queen, will readily receive her 7th, that its
proboscIs is longer, and it can reach the
depths Of flowers which are entirely beyond
the efforts of the common bee. The impor-
tance of this last superiority cannot be too
highly appreciated Sth that young queen
once impregnated, will continue fertile dur
ing her life-from four to seven years. This
quality will insure pure blood, till the whole
country is filled with them; fifth, that they
are far more brave and active than the com
mon bee, will fight with great ferceness, and
more efectually keep the moth out of the
hive
They can easily be distinguished by a
broad yellow band around the abdomen,
| feel assured of their susceptibility to en-
tire d0mestication, for | went in among them
Wi thout any protection, unless cigar could
be considered such My companion uncov-
cred the hives and took out the bees. which
swarmed around me in great umbers, but
did no harm, except one, whom | treated
rather roughly when he alighted on nv fin
ger.
1t is the custom of the Italians TO take
them up on the highest Alps, and l there
fore feel certain Of their great hardness.
| believe that this bee will soon prevail in
the United States, and drive all Others out of
culture. This will result from conviction
everywhere Of the large profits TO be derived
from its propagation and its labor To i'm
port a hive Of full size from Europe will cost
from twenty to twenty-five dollars.
1t may be, therefore, safely assumed that.
for a couple Of years to come, the demand
tar these bees viii be very great, at ten
dollars for a queen imDre0no "a IL "Hl
,,rodn4~ .I.i.o thousand workers and at least
fifty queens in one season. For, perhaps,
three years more, their value will be five
dollars, and less, until the country is fully
stocked with them.
A. soon as the demand fails, the possessor
of them is thrown back upon their labor for
his profit Their labor Will be more pro-
ductive than that Of the common bee, and
Langstroth gives the produce of the latter
from thirty to a hundred pounds Of honey
each hive, besides the wax. His lowest
estimate is five dollars profit per hive.
\ German writer says that from one Itali-
an queen he obtained more than one hundred
and thirty fertile young queens, but | state
fifty as safer number. The great value of
this breed is the safety and ease with which
they can be handled and divided up. When
it is recollected that each hive will make
fifty others in the first year, and, consequent
lv, twenty-five hundred others the second
year, and then, when the demand fails, each
colony or hive will produce honey to the
value of five dollars, it will be readily con-
ceded that its money power will speedily
settle the question of its general introduc
ton.
1t must not be forgotten, however, that
success in this, as in all high breeding, re
quIres care and attention, and for want of
this some may be disappointed in their re
suits The facts have stated are asserted
by the best agriculturists in Europe and may
be considered reliable
SINGULAR CASE OF SoMNAMBULIsM The