The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-03-02
italian Rers

Inc IaleSt agricultural Juror consists IN ire
great demand which has recently sprung up
for Italian bees, and the brilliant hopes en-
tertained from their superior powers in the
manufacture of honey. We are well salts
fed, from the careful investigation bestowed
upon this subject by friend who has long
devoted great attention to bee culture, that
this claim of superiority for the Italian
bees is well founded; and that, therefore,
the present anxiety to obtain them is wise
and commendable. Among edible luxuries
pure honey is one of the most acceptable,
and if large supply of it could be secured,
almost every table would occasionally be
graced by it. The difficulty has been that
our ordinary American bees do not regular
ly produce a sufficient quantity of honey to
make it the interest of farmers to take care
of them. But, from the authentic descrip-
tons given of the superior qualities of the
Italian bees, there is good reason to suppose
that their general introduction into the
United States will add Immediately to the
quantity of honey produced. ..s.,f I'd
The Albany Country Gentleman of the
23d instant contains a letter from S. b.
PAssaSs, dated Paris, January 10th, to W.
d. BIsHoP, Commissioner of Patents, which
gives an instructive account of the result of
his mission as an agent, acting under the
instructions of the Patent Office, to obtain
hives of Italian bees for that institution
He has purchased q number of hives for the
Government, which were shipped from
Genoa on the 28th of December last, and
has also purchased one hundred additional
hives for himself, which win be shipped
during the present month.
According to the lowest estimate of LANG
sTRoTH, one hundred hives of bees should
yield their owner, annually, five hundred
dollars profit. The advantages of the
Italian bees over our common species are
stated by Mr.. Parsons to be as follows:
+" First, that they will endure the cold bet
ter; second, that they swarm twice as often;
third, their queens are abundantly more
prolific; fourth, that the working bees
begin to forage earlier and are more indus
trious; fifth, that they are less apt to sting,
and may be easily tanned by kind treatment;
sixth, 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 a hive, de-
prive of their own queen, will readily re-
ceive her; seventh, that its proboscis is
longer, audit can reach the depths of flowers
which are entirely beyond the efforts of the
common bee. The importance of this last
superiority cannot be too highly appreciated.
Eight, that young queen once impregnat-
ed, will continue fertile during her life
from four TO seven years. This quality will
insure pure BROOD till the whole country
is filled with them. Ninth, that they are
far more brave and active than the common
bee, will fight with great ferceness, and
more effectually keep the moth out of the
hive"
These bees are taken by the Italians up to
the highest Alps, and their great hardness
is therefore considered beyond doubt. The
cost of importing full hive from Europe is
from twenty to twenty-five dollars, but as
one queen impregnated will produce thirty
thousand workers, and at least fifty queens
IN one season, the country can soon be fully
stocked with them. Mr. Parsons claims
that the Italian bees can be handled and
divided up with great safety, and that if
properly managed, from each hive fifty new
ones can be obtained the first year, and con-
sequentiy twenty-five hundred the second
year. These calculations appear somewhat
extravagant, but we are satisfied, from the
information we have received from perfectly
and well-informed sources, that
the Italian bees are we'll worthy of the at
tention of our farmers, and all who possess
proper facilities for bee culture hiladeL-
phia Press.