THE GREAT BEE-KEEPER.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 50, 1 May 1863, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE GREAT BEE-KEEPER.

Crossin? the river Oder from west to east, near the city of Brieg, in Upper Silesia, we are at once in the land of the " Wasser Polaken," a Polish tribe under the dominion of Prussia. We must, however, wander about ten mileover a sandy plain, and through gloomy pine groves, ere we reach the Polish village Carlsmarkt (Karlovieze). This little village, with its small Catholic tparsonage, has been for about ten years the attraction of travellers from all parts of -Europe, nay even from America, for here those improvements in bee-keeping began, which has raised this branch of agriculture to the height which it has never reached before.

, The garden of t.i.e parsonage is well stocked with hundreds of bee-hives of various forms, many of them of original designs, and the air is filled with thousands of humming bees. Among them, in a plain dressing gown, a little velvet cap on his head, walks a simple, active man, as quietly as if they were someof the blossoms that the morning breeze blows from the trees. The bees sit on his neck, back, breast, and hands, even in the wide sleeves of his gown, yet this does not 'disturb him. in the least. Here and there he takes them offgently and lets them fly, smiling quietly when some visitor takes fright from the bees, Or shrieks when a bee stints him. He himself is seldom stung, and if it ever happens, he cares as little as if it were the bite of a mosquito. His look is steadily fixed on the hives and their inmates, who swarm around them. 3f his visitors ask him questions, his answers are rather short, — one must know.' how to ask him interesting questions to induce bim to enter into a conversation. \He who wishes to [earn something about the management of the bees must learn to see and observe for himself. This is the habit of the bee-master, whose countenance is so good natured and simple, and yet not wanting in spirit, and who shows a certain reserve, or rather bashfulness, except when he forgets himself in his enthusiasm for the subject.

This man is Dzierzon, the pastor of the village. Be is of Polish extraction, as his name shows, and knows the bees as if 'he were one of them, and has learned how to educate them. They must do what he will ; if he want honey, they must make honey; if he want wax, they must make wax ; if he want more bees, they must breed. This power he has attained by thoroughly learning the nature of the bee. According to their nature, 'he takes advantage of their instinct and faculties, avoiding everything which they dislike, protects them from their enemies, nurses them in their diseases, and renders, so to speak, their lives comfortable. And the consequence of this is they are able and willing to work for him. in the way he chooses, to the utmost of their power, like the people of a kind hearted manufacturer — who cares for them like a father. One must have seen Bzierzon's continual care and watchfulness over his little pets to gain an idea of the Bee-father comme il faut. He forgets nothing that must be done or changed at the hives, to protect them from rain or the burning sun, &c, and every bee which he sees exhausted, is taken up by him and carried to his home. Qu cold mornings he goes about with a box, gathering up the benumbed bees from the ground., and warms them by keeping the box on his body. His activity is thus not small, since he possesses Other apiaries besides that at Carlsmarkt, and, cares for all -of them with equal tenderness. And he takes in hand also hammer and saw, auger and pincers, and repairs his hives as well as any artisan.

More than any other, Dzierzon possesses two qualities — judgment and power of observation. By them he has penetrated iato the very mysterious l£e of the bee,* deeper than any mortal before him. Nay, so minute have been his investigations, that scarcely any essential characteristics have remained undetected. He astonished the natural philosophers at his first appearance before the public with his discoveries, showing that the queen-bee is impregnated Ij>ut once in, her life, and that; she is the- only egg-laying bee in the hive. The more these two discoyeries were doubted at first, the greater j was Dzierzon's glory when he proved the

incbritestible truth of the same, by that tribe ofbees from Upper Italy, which is of a yellowish color, and which Virgil made famous by song. " Dzierzon introduced these bees into- Germany in 1853, and the yellow queens* from Italy produced, crossed, with black German drones, again and again yellow bees, while the yellow queen bee born in Germany, according to the black drones with whom they lived, produced black Or blackish bees.

' Further trials founded upon this difference of color gave full proof of the truth of Dzierzon's statement, so that it is no longer doubted, and Dzierzon stands before us as the greatest theoretical and practical bee- Cultivator in the world. Before Dzierzon, the whole 1 economy of bee-keeping, a few eases excepted, consisted in depriving the bees of as much honey as possible, which was naively styled •* robbing. 1 ' No one had formed an exact idea of their nature and disposition. Superstition thought it only necessary to tell the bees when their master was dead, lest they should die themselves. The little creatures were left in those places in which they had been found in their wild state, i.e., hollow trees.

All this Dzierzon has thoroughly improved. He teaches the breeding and rearing of bees according to a regular plan. According to his method, one may be independent of the whims of the bees, can make use of their services at the right time and in the right way, can breed bees enough in a few years to fill hundreds of hives, and again arbitrarily lessen their multiplying, and gain the more wax and honey, at pleasure. — American Agriculturist.