The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1905-11-24

ture. In 1902 Frank Benton, the ex.
pert apiarist in charge Of the govern.
mental hives at Washington, D. c.,
brought a number of mated Caucasian
queens to this country. After the man.
ner of queen bees, upon their arrival
here they proceeded to lay eggs by the
thousand. In a short time the govern.
ment had a number of queens and
thousands upon thousands of the gen.
tie honey gatherers, They were studied
most carefully. 1t was found that al
most nothing that a human being
could do would persuade them to at.
tack him. Their hives could be shaken.
One could rub them off the comb with
the unprotected palm Of the hand.
They were not disturbed in the least.
The only times they showed any irri-
tation were on cool mornings when the
hives were severely Jared or when
they had been robbed by other bees.
With the exception of the testy Cy-
prian bees, they were found to be the
equal of any bee in tie gathering Of
horcy, it is believed that they will
| reyolutionize the honey business. A
number Of queens have been distrib.
uted, but the only imported queen bee
of the race in the apiary Of the de-
partment died a short time ago, and,
as it is impossible to secure any more
at present from the Caucasus, where
Mr.. Benton has gone, owing to the up
rising there, no more can be distribut-
ed this year.
1t will take a long time to eradicate
from the American mind the fear of a
bee. Long proximity to the singing
varieties has deeply impressed upon
the American the wisdom Of giving
the busy, buzzing bees a wide berth.
The first bees brought to this country
were the common brown, or German
ones. They came over in one of the
tubby vessels Of the seventeenth CEN
fury. For two centuries they held
their own, and were distributed from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. In COM
p~arison with the other races now
known, they have nothing to recon-.
mend them. For all this bee was a
spiteful creature, it poorly defended
its supplies of honey against other
bees. 1t was lazy in the matter of
gathering honey, anyway. Just as soon
as the supply of nectar began to de-
crease and a little energy was required
in order TO find 1t the bee gave up the
effort. 1t did not multiply rapidly, so
the hives at the beginning of the har.
vest were likely to be as shorthanded
as the Kansas wheat farms. There.
fore, when in 1860 the comparatively
gentle, prolific and industrious Ital'
ian bees were imported the beekeep,
ing world became much excited. Fab
ulous prices we're paid for the queens
Then a score of years later came the
Cyprian bees, from Cyprus. These bees
were hustlers in the matter of gather
ing honey. One colony has a record OF
1000 pounds in one season. But they
were veritable devils. Nothing would
subdue them. Smoke only irritated
them, Occasionally they went on,
hunting for trouble. The story is TOLD
of one swarm of these bees which
drove an entire family into the cellar
and stung every living animal intht
neighborhood, including horses, cows
pigs and chickens, These were fol
lowed by the large gray bees from tht
Alpine provinces of Carniola, Austria
These bees we're gentle and also goot
gatherers of honey. Last of all have
come the Caucasian bees, which ont
can handle practically with no more
danger than il they we're so man,
flies. :