other. He considered it almost impracti- | either the pure or half blood working bee. cable for the two kinds to be successfully The queens should be kept pure, and by kept in the same neighborhood. He bore this system, with proper care, the season testimony to the superior quality of the can be closed with queens that will only Italian bee in caring for itself, and in win- produce Italian drones. The second seatering especially. The Italian bee is worse son, with care can be closed with all Italian tempered than the common bee, and its bees. His Italian bees did not rob other sting is more poisonous. They are very hives when blossoms were plentiful, but thievish, but will only steal from weak hives worked industriously and carefully. They of the common bee. At the same time they have a more acute sense of smell than othare more industrious than common bees. ers, and can therefore probably find secretions of honey in substances that other bees do not discover. His observations do not go to show that Italian bees can oppress and conquer ordinary hives of black bees.

Mr. Langstroth said he saw the first Italian bees in the apiary of Mr. Parsons in Flushing, two years ago. His experience agrees with that of Germans and others in regard to the bee, except on one point. It has been stated that the Italian bee does not sting. It is possible that in the very height of the gathering season, when they are very eager in gathering honey, they may not be so ferocious. But as a general rule, the Italian bee is more irascible, more easily provoked to anger, and less easy to be soothed, than the black bee. Their aim is sure, and the sting exceedingly painful.These facts all raisers of Italian bees will find out for themselves, if they have not done so already.

Mr. Sturtevant said his experience was against hybridization. He had compared the drones from a pure Italian queen with those from an Italian queen impregnated by a common drone, and the latter were so defective that he killed them all, and also killed the queen.

Mr. Langstroth said the facts were undoubtedly as Mr. Sturtevant stated, but he did not think they warranted the conclusion. Pure Italian queens frequently produce defective drones, even where no common bees could possibly be in the neighborhood. At the same time the experience of Mr. Sturtevant teaches the lesson that we should be careful in selecting drones.

Mr. Sturtevant mentioned the fact that the more you handle Italian bees the more savage they become.

The Germans have given the Italian bee the character of being stingless. He accounted for this opinion by the fact that the German black bee is exceedingly savage and poisonous, whilst the American black bee is very peaceable. The Italian bee is more peaceable than the German black bee, Prof. Kirtland described his experience and it has therefore got the character in in Italianizing bees, and stated it to be a Europe of being comparatively stingless, labor of no ordinary amount. He prefaced which does not hold good when compared his remarks by saying that he had no axe with the American bee. He believed in to grind, and should have no Italian bees to the superior strength and honey-making sell until he had got through with his expower of the Italian bee. In relation to periments, which would not be for two or the comparative length of the proboscis of three years at least. He stated the result the Italian and black bees, investigations as of his experience, so far, to be that the Italyet, have found no difference between them, ian bee is stronger, more active, and better at least in a dead state. The power, by the able to endure the Lake breezes; it works Italian bee, of gaining more honey, he at- longer than the common bee, and in consetributed not to the greater length of the pro-quence lays up larger stores; it is enabled boscis, but to their superior strength, vigor, activity and endurance. Whilst he was not prepared to state that it has been demonstrated to a positive certainty that the Italian bees are better in every respect than the common bee for the bee keeper, yet that is his opinion.

With regard to the successful breeding of Italian bees, he recommended bee keepers to get a pure Italian queen, and raise pure queens from her. Then fertilize with either Italian or common drones, for it has been proved that the honey will be as good with

to work in certain flowers which the black bee will not; it breeds more freely; it is far more irritable, and will not bear handling, the sting being comparable to nothing but that of a hornet: it is a more beautiful bee than the common variety. In conclusion he thought that no one would make a fortune out of the Italian bee, but that it bears the same relation to the ordinary bee that a Durham Short horn does to the old native cattle. It is merely an improved variety.

Mr. Ely said that his Italian bees had

been at work in a clover field, during the first crop, at a distance of a mile from the hive.

Prof. Kirtland cautioned bee raisers against the probable ill effects of "breeding in and in" from the same stock. Such inbreeding deteriorates man and animals, and there is no reason why bees should be an exception to the general rule.

[Concluded in next No.]

The Orchard.

An Essay on Orchards.

BY DR. JOHN A. KENNICOTT, OF ILL.

INTRODUCTORY.

Old men are proverbially garrulous, and yet one who shall read well and heed well what I propose writing, may here chance to find-if not exactly "in a nutshell "-as much reliable matter, in regard to Orcharding in Illinois, as was ever bound up in a bundle of the size.

I have had more than half a century's experience in orcharding, over twenty-five years of it in Illinois, and have a right to my egotism, and aphorisms, and "rulings," in the "laws" of horticultural "practice and precedent," often, unfortunately, no more fixed or immutable that the opinions of a TREAT or a TANEY.

out much clay, or lime, in the surface, and filled with water, eight months of the year, may cost from $15 to $50, per acre, to thoroughly underdrain it and trench-plow it, so as to bring up clay and lime, from the hard pan, or ordinary subsoil, twelve to twenty inches below. And, without such preparation, you cannot, reasonably, expect an orchard, of mixed fruits, to do its best.

The cost of culture, and gathering the crop, will seldom exceed that of corn and potatoes the smaller, and more largely paying fruits excepted. And, averaged against our ordinary field crops, fruit WILL PAY, at least double profits, wherever the markets are handy, and good. And, failures are not more frequent, where SOIL and SORTS are right, than with the wheat crop in Illinois. I state this from actual observation, in the last fifteen or twenty yearsbut excepting the first, or sod crop, of wheat, from my estimate. The old bugbear, of overproduction, is all nonsense. I have hauled many a load of wheat to Chicago, and sold it, for, from 50 to 75 cts. per bushel; and half of you have often realized less. But who, among you, has realized less, from a crop of good merchantable fruit-improved fruit-the best sort for your market?not a lot of "seedlings," which are often worse than "stump-tail" wheat, in any well supplied market. Fruit sells much better now, than it did twenty years ago, all through the west, and four times as well, east, as it did forty or fifty years ago: and every thinkThe cost of trees and plants, and their ing and experienced fruit dealer, of twenty liability of failure to live-and the question years standing-and there are some such, whether we shall live to eat the fruit from who have got rich in the business-will join them are among the silly and sad bugbears me in the assertion, that the demand for of a former age, unworthy of this decade, fruit has been increasing faster than the supand especially unworthy of the farmers of ply; all they complain of is, that too many Illinois. At the best, the cost of trees, for dealers are going into it, and that, even in an acre of peach and apple orchard, will Chicago, a monopoly of the trade is no longnot reach $10-at the worst, $15-any-er practicable. It is true, that, with perishwhere in Illinois. And just multiply these able sorts, a market may be glutted for a figures by 2 and 3, respectively, and you few days, but not often, and never for long. have about the extremes of cost of nursery stock for an acre of Pears, Plums, Cherries, Grapes-and all the "small fruits," etc.-anywhere in the State.

THE COST OF ORCHARDS.

Where nature has not fitted it to your hand, the cost of preparing the ground, for an orchard, is the most serious consideration. Good naturally underained wheat soil, is, almost always, a good orchard soil; and, to prepare this for planting, and planting it, need not cost more than an acre in wheat! While a deep black muck-perhaps first rate for corn and hay-but with

PRINCIPLES OF HORTICULTURE, ETC.

There are some fixed principles, or well known natural truths, that must be taken into consideration before planting fruit trees, &c. And, unfortunately, there are a few FACTS-not so well defined-that all should know, in order to insure success in fruit growing. Some one or more "species," and often many "varieties," of our edible fruits, may be grown, on every available acre of ground, from the equator to near the polar circle. But there are few, if any, that will

grow everywhere-even within much nar- | chard ground, and it is best to underdrain rower limits. Then again, there is, com- it. If you cannot do it, then do the next paratively, very little ground naturally well best thing. By successive back-furrows, adapted to the production of most species throw your ground into spaced ridges, with and varieties suited to climate. In the first deep dead-furrows down the slopes, and opcase, SOIL, naturally unfit, may be made to en ditches for efficient outlets. An exceedsuit, but SPECIES can not, as a rule, be ingly wastful and slovenly process, but one adapted to CLIMATE, greatly at variance that may save your orchard, for all that. with their origin. And "acclimation" of And if you will not plant forest trees and individuals is an impossibility! hedges, for protection to orchards, then plant your orchard trees thick, and they will protect each other. What is often considered "a good corn soil"-or our rich, black, prairie loam-over retentive clayis utterly unfit, for most orchard fruits, in its natural condition, and position--the books to the contrary notwithstanding. But underdrain this, and TRENCH-PLOW it-deep enough to bring up plenty of clay, and perhaps lime-and alter its capacity for retaining moisture in a dry time, and modify its dark COLOR, by admixture-and you may make of it, a fruit soil-almost equal to the natural wheat soil.

Now, right here, is one of our ignored FACTS, that has long been a stumbling block to the progress of out-door horticulture. We know, that through seeds, from successive and gradually removed seedlings, species have been partially acclimated--throughout a very considerable range-as in the peach. But the native individual, never!

SOIL AND CLIMATE.

The first great principle in the preparation of soil for fruit growing, is THOROUGH DRAINAGE- UNDERDRAINAGE. The second, depth, strength-or specific fertilityand capacity for holding just moisture enough. and NO MORE! All these latter conditions are oftenest found in a good WHEAT SOIL. Land that will produce half a dozen good crops of winter wheat, with suitable rotation, is a pretty sure orchard soil, if reasonably drained. Land naturally well underdrained, is that with a subsoil of sand, gravel, or seamy and shelving rock; and is not always-though often-the best fruit soil.

Underdrainage may be made, with the "mole" draining machine, in plastic claywhere the descent is moderate-with loose stones, boards, or brush, where the declivi

ty is greater and with tile, everywhere that drainage is practicable. I have tried all; and am satisfied that the last is best, as a general rule; and the first, least expensive, and, where feasible, tolerably satisfac

tory.

I intimated that CLIMATE-and of course adaption, in regard to some particular varieties of fruit-might be modified, by thorough drainage. It is said, that from 10 deg. to 15 deg. of heat have been gained by it. I know, that from one, to three weeks of TIME; Is gained by it; and there is no doubt as to the other fact, of temperature. And the gain-from snow and rain-and the saving in fertility, and in rendering inert elements available, is of immense consequence besides. The amelioration, in local climate by dense plantations of forest trees, and hedges, is now pretty well understood; and I refer to it, only, as a settled principle. But enough, on this. You MUST DRAIN or

Cold water is the great enemy the ordinary orchardist has to contend with; an insufficiency of alumina, or clay, is often fatal; lime is no less necessary to most fruits; the phosphates, potash, soda, etc., are essential, and not always easily supplied; vegetable matter cannot be dispensed with; but it is almost always sufficiently abundant, and can be added, at little cost, when needed. But in nine out of every

ten cases, I will come back to cold water,

soil is concerned and point you to drainas the cause of general failure-so far as age, and the trench plow, for prevention

and cure.

A good fruit soil should contain at least 8-100 per cent. of alumina, or the base of clay. A little less will do, and much more renders the soil too tenacious, for easy culture. This latter fault may be mended, by the free use or coarse stable manure, and decomposed peat-after underdrainage, and the free admission of AIR, where cold water once stagnated. Air is a wonderful ameliorator of stiff clays: and there is nothing like underdrainage, and fall plowing to give your clay soil oxygen.

Always prepare orchard ground in autumn, except in loose sand, perhaps, whether you plant then or not. There is less time for it, in spring; and frost is a great pulverizer of good clay. As a rule, your orchard soil should be well worked, to a depth of at least 12 inches-and better 18-if its character will admit of it.