THE APIAKY. 437 



and whenever I had occasion to introduce queen cells I did so from black stock. 

 Tlie result is that nearly all our increase for last year is black bees. 



My father, a close observer, a practical and successful bee-keeper, Avitli many 

 experiments, and with a keen eye to the interests of his apiary, has had similar 

 experience, and has arrived at the same conclusions. 



There are those to whom I think Italians might be recommended. To begin- 

 ners, who are unaccustomed to handling bees, to persons of nervous temijera- 

 ment, to those who are by nature timid, and to gentlemen and ladies who keep 

 bees for pleasure rather than profit, I would recommend pure Italians, the purer 

 the better, for I find the lighter the color the more docile the bee. But to all 

 who mean business, and wish to produce the largest possible amount of salable 

 honey, I would recommend black bees, the queens to be bred from the most 

 prolific mothers, the breeder having always in mind the great law of natural 

 selection, and following the example of our universal mother — nature — permit- 

 ting only "the survival of the fittest." 



Finally, I do not present these views to raise needless controversy, but rather 

 that the truth may be more fully brought out. The facts that I have set forth 

 have impressed themselves upon my mind, and I believe them to be worthy the 

 attention of all honey-producing bee-keepers. And to the end that we may get 

 at the truth of this matter, I am anxious to cooperate with all apiculturists 

 who are laboring for the highest triumph of apicultural science. 



W, L. Porter. 



Korthville, Micliigan. 



[Following this was a very lively discussion. No one present fully concurred 

 with the writer of the paper. 



The president said while Mr. Porter's premises were correct, his conclusions 

 might not be so. While black bees are the best to go into boxes, that is not a 

 conclusive ai'gument in their favor, for honey in boxes is not al"ivays as desira- 

 ble as honey in small frames. Again, the Italian bees may dwindle more rap- 

 idly in the spring, owing to their more active habits — equalities really in their 

 favor. But the apiarist should jn-event early spring flights and thus remove the 

 difiiculty. 



An exchange justly remarks : Mr. Dzierzon, the man who stands highest 

 among the great bee-masters of Europe, says, after twenty-five years' experience 

 with Italian bees, that in Germany their importation has greatly increased the 

 returns from the culture of bees, and that he finds them more beautiful, more 

 gentle, more watchful, more prolific, and possessed of greater diligence than 

 the common bees. Again, at a recent bee-keepers' convention held at Breslau, — 

 one of those great and enthusiastic meetings for which the Germans are so cel- 

 ebrated, — the conclusion was reached that in poor seasons the Italian bees show 

 themselves superior to all other races. Besides the common and Italian bees, 

 the German bee-culturists have bred the Cyprians, the Dalmatians, the Sm}T- 

 nians, the Herzegovinians, the Egyptians, and the Carnolian, Krainer, and heath 

 bees. — Ed. Bee Journal.] 



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