476 



••ed honey from this plant, and carloads of it 

 ■are put on the market each season packed 

 mostly in 30-gallon barrels. This honey is 

 in every particular suitable for the pur- 

 pose, and the bulk-comb-honey producer of 

 the North could get in touch with the pro- 

 ducers of this honey, and contract with 

 them for so many barrels each season to 

 pack up their honey in. There is no ques- 

 tion about this honey being suitable for 

 the purpose, for I have been using it for a 

 number of years with perfect satisfaction. 

 Our honey from the cotton plant is quick 

 vo granulate if extracted, and will gxadual- 

 ly do so in the comb as cold weather comes 

 on; but if it is packed in tupelo honey it 

 will not. I have a jar of it wliich I have 

 had packed for several seasons, and it has 

 been in my refrigerator now for several 

 weeks, and' it shows no signs of granula- 

 tion, but remains clear and transparent. I 

 don't know whether the test is severe 

 enough; but I believe it will stand any cli- 

 mate almost indefinitely and not granulate. 

 No doubt beekeepers in other sections of 

 the United States produce a similar article 

 that would be equally satisfactory, which 

 could be obtained for the same purpose and 

 in the same manner. 

 Cordele, Ga. 



To be continued. 



MUTABILITY OF THE DOMESTICATED BEE 



Parthenogenesis Should Prove Helpful 



BY LEO ELLIS GATELEY 



I was asked recently if, during the past 

 half-century in which we have been import- 

 ing Italian bees, any thing has been gained 

 above the regular strain. Replying to that, 

 I beg to say that, in respect to the possibil- 

 ities of breeding, a great deal has been 

 gained. While the yellow bees of this coun- 

 try in general fall below the average com- 

 pared to the darker bee it is, without any 

 'doubt, the result of faulty breeding. The 

 original strain has for many years been 

 'kept in large apiaries devoted to honey 

 production, and bred accordingly. Extra- 

 yellow bees have been confined to less ex- 

 tensive apiaries devoted to queen-rearing, 

 and selection in breeding made for color 

 .alone. By taking this bee as it is, and im- 

 proving it along general lines, it would 

 •soon equal the strain from wliich it origi- 

 rated. The important fact, however, in re- 

 gard to the goldens is that it marks clearly 

 an epoch in bee improvement, and illus- 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



trates the mutableness of the species. In 

 condemning this strain for points upon 

 whicli it has not been bred, beekeepers ap- 

 l^arently fail to realize that, while the older 

 countries from which the bee was intro- 

 duced into America are still content to keep 

 the same old varieties of that period, we 

 have developed a new and distinct type. It 

 is a deplorable fact, that just how the de- 

 velopment of this American product was 

 begam and carried out is not on record, but 

 was doubtless accomplished through a long 

 course of selecting liighly colored muta- 

 tions for breeding stock. The modesty and 

 simplicity of American queen-breeders is 

 exemplified, also, by the fact that this 

 product of unrecorded thought and pains- 

 taking is a nameless quantity, satisfied to 

 apijear under such impressive titles as 

 "Golden," "Beauties," "Nutmeg," "Five- 

 banders," and "Golden-all-over." Never- 

 theless, the development of this distinctive 

 strain but emphasizes the mutability of 

 the Italian bee, of which there has never 

 existed reasonable grounds for doubt. 



In the opinion of some, the parthenoge- 

 netic development of drones will i^rove an 

 obstacle to i^rogress in breeding for im- 

 l)rovement. Parthenogenesis should be in- 

 calculably helpful in so much that relief is 

 here found from having to see that all 

 drone-producing queens are purely mated. 

 Were it not for parthenogenesis the task of 

 breeding would be indeed complicated ; for 

 if any of our young queens should prove 

 to be mismated it would work havoc with 

 our breeding operations. Let us be thank- 

 ful, then, that we have this invaluable aid, 

 found absent in the breeding of other live 

 stock. Though the mating of queens lias 

 many difficult points, one can, in the aver- 

 age locality, control the flight of drones to 

 an extent that, for all practical purposes, 

 there will be no haphazard mating. 



Unquestionably the one real bar to prog- 

 ress is in making intelligent selection of 

 breeding queens. The few who take ade- 

 quate interest in breeding bees fail to real- 

 ize the necessity of seeking improvement 

 along general lines; and colonies are so de- 

 ceptive at honey-storing that only by i>os- 

 sessing a clear understanding of how out- 

 side conditions affect the amount of surplus 

 gathered can one make judicious choice. 

 The colony storing the least yield may, un- 

 der oertain circumstances, be the one most 

 desirable when breeding for honey; and 

 that producing the enormous yield, if it is 

 not a black or hybrid one, may result in 

 any thing but a mutation in the sense ex- 

 pected. 



Ft. Smith, Ark. 



