80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIIE. 



Feb. 



They divide their herds, and by change of food and 

 surrounding conditions, and different treatment, 

 constitutional changes arc produced, obviating the 

 necessity of adding blood of a different strain to 

 maintain constitutional vigor. Mingling the blood 

 of members of the same race, not of the same char- 

 acteristics, results in injury o"" the same kind, 

 though less in degree, as results from mingling the 

 blood of two races; viz., diversity in color, disposi- 

 tion, and form. In-and-in breeding docs not gener- 

 ate disease; it augments the good and bad qualities 

 inherent in a race, and those inheriting undersirablo 

 qualities, should be removed. In a state of nature, 

 such animals arc removed by natural selection, and 

 distinct races are formed by in-and-in breeding ex- 

 clusively; therefore it is not necessary to import 

 bees from a distant country to maintain constitu- 

 tional vigor. 



The utter impossibility of keeping a race of bees 

 pure, when bees of another race are in proximity, is 

 known to all apiarians. Many who have carefully 

 tested the Dzierzon Theory, observing the results 

 ■with unbiased minds, have been forced to conclude 

 that, however true it may be in theory, it is false in 

 practice. Acting upon this conclusion, and reason- 

 ing from analogy, let them adopt, as a guide, the 

 rules that govern the conscientious stock-breeder; 

 let them obtain queens of known purity, and pos- 

 sessed of all the desirable qualities common to the 

 race; let them continue to introduce blood of the 

 same strain, th« nearer akin the better, if raised un- 

 der dissimilar conditions of climate and surround- 

 ings; let them breed from their best stocks, in-and- 

 in, if possessed of superior excellence, and remove 

 such as are inferior, and they will not see their api- 

 aries hopelessly stocked with hybrids, nor deterior- 

 ating in quality, but improving from day to day, as 

 long as the sytem is continued. 



DISSEMINATION OF ERROR; THE DZIERZON THEORY. 



I have for years looked upon the dissemination 

 and inculcation of the "Dzierzon Theory," by the 

 bee journals, as approaching closely to criminality, 

 and as justifiable only upon the ground of constitu- 

 tional inadaptability to see the truth. When I 

 wrote touching the subject, that part of the article 

 would be suppressed or misunderstood. I drew the 

 conclusion, that people sometimes form their opin- 

 ions to agree with their moneyed interests, and that 

 they will defend them with more pertinacity than 

 any thing else. This does not hold true with stock- 

 breeders. They have, from time out of mind, incul- 

 cated the doctrine of inoculation and foetal circula- 

 tion ; and the great Darwin has collected a summary 

 of facts, to show their truth. Why should not the 

 apiarian be as familiar with these truths as others? 

 If the queen-breeder insists that the " Dzierzon The- 

 ory " holds true in practice, and the duped purchaser 

 knows by experience that it does not, but remains 

 silent on the subject, fearing that some one will be 

 offended if the truth is told, the credulous still con- 

 tinuing to mingle the blood of the different races 

 unwittingly, until the tainted blood is extensively 

 disseminated, the task of eradicating it will become 

 hopeless; and he who allows the error to prevail by 

 default, will be as guilty as he who is actuated by 

 mercenary motives. Jerome Wiltse. 



Falls City, Nebraska. 



A little more charity, friend W. The 

 Dzierzon Theory has stood so long and so 

 well, and has been so fully corroborated by 



the experience of many candid and careful 

 observers, I think we editors are justified in 

 feeling a little suspicious of one who runs 

 full tilt against it. Especially is this the 

 case since beginners so invariably say they 

 don't believe it because it is "against reason," 

 etc., only to take it all back wlien they get 

 a little older. Of course, friend ^V., we can 

 not put you Avith this class. AV' hen an old 

 and scarred (V) veteran says he don't believe 

 the Dzierzon Theory, he certainly ought to 

 be entitled to a hearing. I presume friend 

 Jones, on his islands, can pretty easily test 

 the matter beyond mistake. Friend -Tones, 

 will you please stand up and tell us what 

 you know from practical experience, about 

 drones from queens impurely mated? 



Here is a fact for you: We have a cat at 

 our house, that springs up and turns the 

 door-knobs with her paws. His mother has 

 always done the same thing, yet the kitten 

 was taken away before it was old enough to 

 learn any thing, and never commenced the 

 trick tintil well along in years. Does not 

 his memory extend back, as'it were, to events 

 in his mother's life, before he Avas born? 



DRONES ; COLOIE, ETC. 



SOME HINTS FROM FRIEND ALT.,EY IN REGARD TO 

 QUEEN-REARING. 



MI AT influence has I'ne drone upon the projj 



eny of youngqucens'.' ur.in other word3,does 

 the color of the male bee have any thing to 

 do with the worker or royal progeny? I judge, by 

 some remarks made by the editor in a late number 

 of Gleanings, that he would say no. Myexperience 

 with the Italians causes me to say yes. In selecting 

 the colony for drones to fertilize my^'oung queens, 

 I am careful to get one that has a queen that pro- 

 duces beautifully colored drones. While all queens 

 fertilized by well-marked drones do not produce all 

 handsome queens and worker bees, they should be 

 nevertheless selected with that purpose in view, 

 provided one desires to keep up his stock to its high- 

 est standard of purity, as this desirable quality can 

 not be maintained by helter-skelter breeding. 



I have never made it a practice to use the drones 

 from more than one hive at any one time. When I 

 do this, and use the eggs from only one particular 

 queen to raise queens from, then I know what I am 

 sending out for queens. 1 find, so far as I have ob- 

 served, that the peculiar characteristic of the male 

 generally shows itself in the offspring of all animal 

 life. I have had something to do with the raising of 

 swine, pigeons, and fowls. Last year I raised a fine 

 lot of pigs; the mother of them was as black as a 

 coal, and the father was solid white. Out of a litter 

 of eleven pigs, 9 were solid white, and 2 were black 

 and white. In pigeons, I find that tlie young fe- 

 males are marked like the male bird, and the young 

 males like the mother. My experience is, that if a 

 dark queen is fertilized by a yellow drone, her royal 

 progeny will be quite handsome, while the drones 

 from such a queen will bo quite dark. Hence the 

 importance of selecting handsome drones for queen- 

 rearing. Our young queen-raisers should bear this 

 in mind, and make a note of it. Friend Root made 

 this remark to a correspondent who inquired about 



