THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



187 



bee-keeping, that thej- seem to have 

 ahnost for.i^otten the possibilities of im- 

 proving the bees themselves. 



Recently, in looking over the index of 

 one of our bee iournals devoted to the 

 interests of bee-keepers, I found that 

 while some hundred of subjects were in- 

 dexed, all of them of interest I have no 

 doubt to bee-keepers, I found but one 

 item on "improvements;" and, on look- 

 ing that up, I found it was improvements 

 in /lizrs and not of bees. In looking 

 over Langstroth's work, I have failed to 

 find one item, even if we except changing 

 from one breed to another, in the index 

 of some fifteen hundred subjects indexed, 

 on the improvement of our stock of bees. 

 While the fruit grower has his improved 

 fruits, the florist his improved variety of 

 flowers, the sugar producer his improved 

 beets, the dairyman his improved cows, 

 the wool grower his improved sheep, how- 

 many bee-keepers have their yards 

 stocked with improved bees? Yet, I 

 doubt if anything connected with bee- 

 keeping is any more susceptible of im- 

 provement at the present time as the bees 

 themselves. 



By im])rovement I mean not simply 

 purity of breed, or color, or gentleness, 

 but rather the ability and disposition to 

 gather the largest possible amount of 

 honey, and store it in the whitest combs 

 free from dirt or propolis, or the largest 

 amount of well-ripened honey for the ex- 

 tractor, with the power to /ran sin it these 

 qualities with a good degree of certainty 

 to the next generation. 



.\ few bee-keepers have been working 

 along this line, and have been well re- 

 warded for their efforts; but the great 

 mass of bee-keepers, there is every reason 

 to believe, still depend upon natural 

 swarming for queens, with perhaps an 

 occasional queen purchased from some 

 queen breeder. Can this be because bees 

 are not as susceptible to improvement as 

 cabbage, or carrots, or sheep, or pigs? 

 There is reason to believe they are even 

 more so. Is it not rather because the at- 

 tention of bee-keepers has been taken up 



with hives, implements, methods of ma- 

 ni])ulation, or management, or discussions 

 of the different races or breeds of bees 

 supposed to be already nearly perfect? 

 Now, suppose, for a time, we leave the 

 improvement of hives and fixtures and 

 manipulations, and attend to the im- 

 provement of the bees. 



Here is a field as yet almost untouched; 

 save by the few brave pioneers who have 

 blazed the way, so to speak, and are 

 ready to welcome the crowd if we will 

 but follow their lead. Can we in any 

 other wa}^ make so great an advance as in 

 bringing the average of our bees up to 

 that of our best stocks? If half the 

 efforts that have been spent in producing a 

 non-swarming hive, had been spent in 

 producing a non-swarming breed of bees, 

 I believe we should now have been far in 

 advance of our present position. 



Another reason, perhaps, is the gen- 

 eral feeling that each individual queen, 

 or colony, of any given race or breed of 

 bees represents a certain definite charac- 

 ter; instead of being exceedingly varia- 

 ble. It is so with all breeds, to a greater 

 or less extent. A few years ago I bought 

 a heifer calf from one of the best Jersey 

 cows I have ever known, and yet, 

 although its sire was an animal of fine 

 pedigree, the heifer has grown to be a 

 very ordinary cow. 



In visiting a farmer not long ago, he 

 showed me his choice herd of dairy cows. 

 As we passed along he would talk in this 

 way: "This cow gave me last year 400 

 pounds of butter; this one 3S4 pounds; 

 this one 418, and this one 300 pounds 

 when two years old." I complimented 

 him on having so fine a herd, when he 

 replied: "Yes, they are quite satisfactory 

 now, but it has taken me quite a number 

 of years and a good deal of care to luring 

 them up; but it pays." He has the .same 

 breed to-day that he started with, but by 

 constantly breeding from the best he has, 

 I presume, nearly or quite doubled the 

 product from his dairy. Now, suppose 

 that, instead of trying to improve his 

 stock, such stock as he had, he had spent 



