ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



63 



England, to introduce new queens? Or 

 are they selecting from stuff they have 

 there? 



Is it not the survival of the fittest? 

 What has made the great race of 

 Italian bees? 



How is it with the French people, 

 with the Italians? They are Italians 

 because they have been bred there for 

 hundreds and hundreds of years and 

 the same class of people living there 

 are bred and must be closely related; 

 the Jews are the most closely related 

 people on earth. They can -stand more 

 strain when it comes to dollars and 

 cents than any people on earth. "^ 



We have a greater amount of weak- 

 lings in this "trountry than any other 

 country. We cannot stand what the 

 Italian laborer can nor what the Aus- 

 trian can. 



We must do the same thing, and if 

 the bee-keeper will step in and select 

 not for color alone but for vitality, for 

 honey gathering — that is what we are 

 trying to get — and, if he will select, 

 from his best, he cannot make a mis- 

 take, but if he selects frtfm his poorest 

 he is going to -run down rapidly; at 

 least, I think so. 



Mr. Dadant — I think Mr. Pyles has 

 given an argument against his conten- 

 tion, and I think the American race is 

 successful and growing fast because of 

 this mixture of nations. 



We rmist do a little selecting and a 

 little cross -breeding. 



It is a good thing to select from your 

 best but it is a good thing to from 

 time to time get some of the best of 

 somebody else. 



Americans are being bred from Scan- 

 dinavians, Italians, Greeks; a race mix- 

 ture. 



Mr. Pyles — Do the people in Italy do 

 it that way? 



Mr. Dadant — The race in Italy is a 

 race itself. 



Mr. Dadant — We want some inbreed- 

 ing, but we want the best. 



The American people are not up to 

 the standard because we have more 

 consumptives, more cancers. We are 

 more careless. 



President Baxter — I think, in sum- 

 ming this up, that any one who is fam- 

 iliar with Darwin's origin of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest will agree there 

 can be no improvement unless there is 

 inbreeding. But the inbreeding must be 



made according to scientific principles 

 and have some purpose. 



You cannot expect to inbreed queens 

 from indifferent colonies, weak or sub- 

 ject to European foul brood, or poor 

 honey gatherers, etc., and get anything 

 good out of it, but if you do inbreed 

 from colonies that are marvelously vig- 

 orous, good honey gatherers, docile and 

 all that, your product will be still bet- 

 ter; it is so with all animals except 

 the human race. 



You cannot expect to improve horses, 

 cattle, swine or anything else without 

 selection in breed; it is a scientific 

 fact with all scientists that inbreeding 

 where proper selection is made is the 

 only true secret of improvement. 



When it comes to bees, I don't see 

 how there can be inbreeding when you 

 take into account the different changes 

 there are in the apiary, in cross-selec- 

 tions, in mating; inbreeding in an api- 

 ary is practically impossible; it is not 

 as in other animals. 



Mr. Dadant — Not if you raise all your 

 best stock from one breeder. 



President Baxter — ^Well, that would 

 be all right; that would be inbreeding 

 and would be the proper way if you use 

 good stock, but not the average apiary. 



I raise my queens as others raise 

 theirs, for home use; the commercial 

 queen breeders could not raise enough. 



Doctor Phillips — They raise six or 

 seven thousand queens from one 

 mother iri a year. 



President Baxter — Some of the 

 breeders I have seen claim that they 

 do not. Didn't know there was any 

 place in the United States where they 

 did. 



Even then, I would prefer those 

 queens from proper stock to those that 

 were raised promiscuously. This in- 

 breeding is a bugaboo ; it all depends 

 on how it is conducted. .: 



President Baxter— The meeting will 

 stand adjourned until 7:30 p. m. 



7:30 p. m. meeting convened. 



President Baxter — Gentlemen, we 

 have come to order now and we have 

 no regular program for this evening. 

 As Mr. Stone has suggested, the first 

 thing that we might consider is wheth- 

 er we wash to have our picture taken 

 tomorrow to put in the report. What 

 is your pleasure % 



Mr. Stone — The artist suggested that 

 we could go to the Lincoln Library and 



