1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



ter sections were picked out and sold ; the dark (almost black) 

 ones were given the bees the uext spring. The extracted was 

 sent to a commission firm and sold for the purposes above 

 suggested, at the low figure of 5 cents per pound. — Gleanings. 



The Laws of Breeding — Application to Bees. 



BY PBOr. A. J. COOK. 



There is no chapter In recent history more replete with 

 marvel, fascination, and real economic importance than that 

 devoted to the laws and practice of breeding. A single gen- 

 eration has seen the startling development of the Hamble- 

 touiau trotting-horse. What cau rival in interest the work of 

 the florist or plant-breeder as he originates those gems of the 

 floral world, or those wonders of the garden ? Who can eat 

 the delicious chop from the Shropshire or Southdown ; the ap- 

 petizing steak from the Hereford or short-horn ; or feast on 

 our luscious fruits, without grateful acknowledgment of the 

 blessings received at the hands of those who have applied the 

 laws of breeding to the arts of life ? 



It is difficult to name a man who has done more brilliant 

 service in the realm of scientific research than the late Charles 

 Darwin. His writings have stimulated research to a marvel- 

 ous extent ; have quickened thought in all lines of investiga- 

 tion ; have revolutionized ideas and theories in all the domains 

 of investigation. Yet Darwin was directed to his fascinating 

 and wonderful studies, by consideratiou of the breeding of 

 plants and animals. 



When Theodore Sdhwann, in 1839, discovered the nature 

 of the cell, that it was the basal structure alike of all animal 

 and vegetable tissue, he conferred an invaluable blessing on 

 the world. Not only haveall animals fundamentally the same 

 structure, but all plants have just the same that all animals 

 possess; and so the same laws of growth and development 

 maintain with the simplest plant, like the seaweed, and the 

 most complex shrub or tree, and also with the almost struct- 

 ureless protozoon, and the highest of animals — even to man 

 himself. With this truth in view, we may, with sufficient 

 caution, assume a truth regarding animal function or law 

 from knowing it true of the vegetable world ; likewise, and 

 more safely, can we deduce a law of highest animals, even of 

 man, from the fact that it always holds true of the lower, and 

 contrariwise, a law of function in the higher will be likewise 

 true of the lower. We hardly appreciate our indebtedness to 

 this knowledge of the similarity of structure and functions 

 between higher and lower animals. 



The wondrous strides in surgery come from knowledge 

 gained by work with lower animals. The beneficent work 

 being done by the student of microbes, owes its value to the 

 fact that all animals are similarly affected by the virus re- 

 sulting from microbe affection. The human death rate is 

 diminishing rapidly in all civilized countries, and the expect- 

 ancy of life is correspondingly increasing. This gracious 

 consummation is the result of the knowledge referred to above. 

 Man has studied the lower animals, and by experimentation 

 has arrived at conclusions that are of tremendous importance 

 in maintaining health and prolonged life. 



The method of reasoning referred to above, applies to the 

 matter of inheritance and variation among animals ; and con- 

 sequently to the laws of breeding. And it is well known that 

 the laws of breeding plants and animals are strikingly alike. 

 All animals and all plants tend ever to vary, probably as they 

 are differently impressed by a different environment. All in- 

 herit ancestral characteristics, or, we may say, that the 

 hereditary tendency is manifest in both plants and animals. 

 We should the more expect that insects and vertebrate ani- 

 mals would come under the same laws of inheritance. We are 

 safe, then, in concluding that any law of breeding that is 

 demonstrated in the vertebrate line of animal life, will hold as 

 true among the insect class. 



ESTABLISHED LAWS OF BREEDING. 



Every intelligent breeder now recognizes that all his ani- 

 mals are subject to the law of variation. No offspring is pre- 

 cisely like its parent. Marked varieties among plants are 

 known as sports, among animal as variations or varieties. 

 Skillful breeders like Bakewell, Bates, Booth, and the Collins 

 Brothers, are ever keenly on the watch for variations, and as 

 keenly active to preserve desirable variations, and to suppress 

 unfavorable ones. The most skillful breeder must be an 

 artist. He has his ideal of excellence, and is ever watchful 

 for all appearance of tendencies or variations towards his 

 ideal. He selects with severest exactitude, and thus is ever 

 building towards his idea of perfection. The ablest breeders, 

 then, must have good judgment to decide wisely as to what is 

 nearest perfection ; must have quick vision to recognize every 



departure towards his ideal type; must be resolute that un- 

 favorable results shall be excluded, and full of patience to 

 wait till he may reach the goal of his hopes. 



The astute breeder recognizes that a long lino of excellent 

 progenitors, bred to a type with no out-cross, is very sure to 

 result in progeny of equal or superior excellence. He knows 

 that the parents are practically equal in their influence to 

 control the offspring, if both parents have been well and care- 

 fully bred for a long series of years. He knows that if he 

 persists he will reaih excellence that will bless all the future, 

 and reward him for patient waiting. And so he labors on 

 with the enthusiasm and faith that cheers and lifts every true 

 artist. 



To recapitulate : The master breeder must have wisdom 

 to build, in imagination, a type of animal of highest excel- 

 lence ; a quick vision to note every variation towards his 

 ideal ; a fixity of purpose that will unhesitatingly exclude any 

 offspring that reaches away from his type ; patience to wait 

 for the slow process of variation and selection to modify, and 

 the sure law of heredity to freeze into fixity the qualities he 

 desires. 



From what we have said in the foregoing, it follows that 

 the laws established in breeding higher animals will prove 

 equally potent in forming new breeds or races of bees. The 

 skillful breeder in apiculture will wisely fix upon a high type 

 of excellence. His typical bee will be, first, a business bee; 

 the bee that will gather most, alike in good and poor seasons ; 

 the bee that will be too occupied with storing and breeding to 

 even think of swarming till it is forced upon it by heedless 

 management of the apiarist ; the bee that will be so intent 

 upon useful work, that it will not think to bristle up in anger 

 except under severe provocation ; the bee that will seek out 

 Nature's sweets with such assiduity that it will have little 

 cause to become a free-booter among its neighbors ; a bee that 

 will satisfy the lover of beauty, because "handsome is that 

 handsome does." 



The apiarian breeder will also know from his study of the 

 laws of breeding that both male and female give character- 

 istics, and are equally potent to transmit qualities if equally 

 well bred; and will also know that prepotency ever hangs 

 upon long, careful breeding. 



I think there is everything to encourage the breeder in 

 bee-keeping. I think that there has been very little real, 

 scientific breeding yet practiced. If I am right it is a new 

 field, and a wider, surer success awaits the earnest, conscien- 

 tious, capable artist in this line of work. 



As yet, few if any breeders of bees have formed as the re- 

 sult of long, hardy study, a type of perfection in the mind's 

 eye. With no correct ideal before them, they of course could 

 not, did not, work towards the highest excellence. Often — 

 may I not say generally — bright, high color was the one at- 

 traction, and the entire trend was towards such beauty (?). 

 Is not this the reason that our best bee-keepers prefer the less 

 highly-colored bees, to the very gay, showy ones? From the 

 laws as already explained, any such narrow, one-sided idea 

 would slight all better ideals or qualities, and tend directly 

 towards retrogression. 



Again, circumstance has made it hard for resolution and 

 patient persistence to maintain their ground, and work un- 

 ceasingly, unhesitatingly, courageously, irresistibly towards a 

 real ideal. The commercial spirit, demand of the market, 

 bread and butter, all stand in the way. The ideal breeder 

 must be one who will never listen to public demand, or trade 

 preference. He must be willing to wait, and go on unmindful 

 of what the public tiiink or the market desires. He must look 

 for his reward to the away-ofl future. A single generation 

 saw the trotting-horse developed to its marvelous feats of 

 speed. It has taken two or three generations to fashion our 

 best beeves. It will take as many to build up to as great per- 

 fection the honey-bee. The fortunate one must have the 

 qualifications already referred to, and, in addition, leisure, 

 means, enthusiasm. We need some philanthropic master, 

 some Cowan or Taylor, to go into this field. This would be 

 a grand work for some experiment station. If these institu- 

 tions could only be out of politics, and bo fortunate enough to 

 be supervised by a Board, wise to forecast results, and to see 

 that scores of years were required to develop a Rothamstead, 

 even though in the hands of a Sir John Lawes. 



Claremont, Calif. 



The McEvoy Foul Brood Treatment Is 



given in Dr. Howard's pamphlet on " F'oul Brood ; Its Natural 

 History and Rational Treatment." It is the latest publication 

 on the subject, and should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 

 Price, 25 cents ; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year 

 —both for $1.10. 



