144 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



am confronted with the fact that while 

 she can or might transmit, she can not 

 acquire. Those worker bees can go out, 

 and by straining and reaching, they may 

 even lengthen their tongues, but how can 

 they transmit that long tongue reach ? 

 Now, my horse is domesticated, and sub- 

 ject to my will, so that by great care and 

 kindness I can use my greater will in in- 

 ducing him to develop his inherited pow- 

 ers to their very utmost; but when 1 go 

 into my apiary, everything is different. I 

 find the bees are not domesticated, and 

 are not subject to my will. In fact, I 

 must work in accordance with tlieir will. 

 I can only use their natural instincts in 

 trying to improve them and then I meet 

 the difficulty above mentioned. 



But some one says, they transmit their 

 acquired powers, by the peculiar kind of 

 food they feed the young. But that is 

 what I don't know, and would like to 

 know. It is a known fact that the queen 

 can not go out and acquire skill in long 

 reach. The drone might transmit but he 

 can't acquire. He has no tools to work 

 with, yet we expect him to transmit pow- 

 ers that he is not able to acquire. 



Some have claimed that they have done 

 -something towards breeding out the 

 swarming instinct. I'm running for ex- 

 tracted honey, using a 1 0-frame hive, 

 and tiering up at 'he proper time. I have 

 had less than five per cent, of my bees 

 swarm, yet I know that those same bees, 

 m small, poorly ventilated hives, would 

 have done differently. So I take no credit 

 for breeding out the natural propensity of 

 the bees. 



After all I have read and studied, and 

 in the light of what experience I have had, 

 I am almost forced to the conclusion that 

 the honey bee is just the same as when 

 Samson took surplus from the carcass of 

 the lion. Yet, as I have said before, I do 

 not know, but I would like to know. 



Carpindera. Calif., Jan. 26. 1911. 



[1 did not feel competent to answer the 

 questions asked by Mr. DuPray, so I sent 

 his letter to Prof. E. F. Phillips, of the 

 Apiaiian Department at Washington, D. 

 C, who replies as follows.— Editor.] 



The interesting letter of Mr. DuPray 

 which calls forth this reply is very sug- 

 gestive, but his conception of breeding is 

 probably not the correct one. Before 

 taking up a discussion of the main points 

 in his letter, it may be well to discuss a 

 minor but important point which occurs 

 in the letter. He complains that colonies 

 which show up best in the early part of 

 the year do not always come up to ex- 

 pectations later in the season, but may do 

 well the next year. I do not know why 

 this occurs in California, but in the East 

 it frequently happens that colonies very 

 strong in the spring fill up their combs so 

 full of honey that the queen is cramped 

 for room. As a result this good breeding 

 queen is unable to make a proper show- 

 ing for herself when ths surplus is taken 

 off. The logical remedy for this condition 

 is to give some surplus room early, where 

 it is needed. This may not be the ex- 

 planation for the condition that Mr. Du- 

 Pray describes, but it is a point that is 

 probably not fully realized by many East- 

 ern bee keepers. 



Mr. Du Pray assumes that if he trains 

 horses for speed that these animals will, 

 therefore, transmit to their progeny their 

 acquired ability for exceptional speed. 

 This is probably not true. The ability to 

 transmit to the offspring characters 

 which are acquired during the life time of 

 the parents is a much discussed question 

 among investigators of these problems. 

 Whether this has ever occurred it would 

 be unwise to state, but it may be stated 

 most positively that if it does occur, it is 

 so seldom that most breeders never saw 

 such a case. The usually accepted be- 

 lief is that inherited characters are prop- 

 erties of the sex cells (eggs and sperma- 

 tozoa), and that unless these characters 

 are latent in the sex cells they are not 

 manifested in the offspring. It is further 

 held that the acquiring of a special char- 

 acter (e. g., speed) in one generation by 

 the body of the animal does not influence 

 the sex cells, and that therefore the ac- 

 quired character is not inherited. 



It is well known that horses are bred 

 for speed and that marvelous results have 



