THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



381 



Apart from any merits or demerits of the 

 Italian as compared with the black bee, the 

 importation has been of great benefit to ns 

 in faniiiiarizins thonsands with the habits 

 of bees through study and experiments that 

 otliervvise would not have been undertaken 

 and in stimulating many to seek improved 

 metiiods of culture. From tliis came our 

 bee papers which to-day have a large circu- 

 lation and are mucli quoted by the agricul- 

 tural press liere and abroad, and we are 

 now far in advance both in the practice and 

 science of apiculture of where we would 

 have been but for this importation; and 

 from this knowledge we are the better pre- 



Eared for experiments with other races of 

 ees, having verified many of the laws of 

 bee life which will occur to every practical 

 man without enumerating them. 



1 know from experience how little at- 

 tention is paid to a letter from an individual 

 to some foreign missionary or consul, and 

 woukl therefore propose, to command res- 

 pect and attention, that a committee on cor- 

 respondence be appointed by this conven- 

 tion to obtain all possible information 

 respecting bees that have not yet found a 

 home in this country. 



As to Apis Dorsata of Java, Borneo, Cey- 

 lon, etc., referred to in a late number of the 

 Journal. An attempt is being made by 

 an Italian bee-keeper— Guiseppe Florini, of 

 Menselici— to obtain it. I tinnk itdesirable 

 to get all the information we can about this 

 bee, and as soon as received, send to our 

 bee journals, and then if thought advisable 

 endeavor to raise a fund to send for it. 

 There are among us young men of skill and 

 education who no doubt would be pleased 

 to make the voyage, and at small compen- 

 sation. Owing to the difference in the sea- 

 sons this would be done during our winter, 

 and the bees arrive here early in the spring 

 giving a full season tor propagation and 

 distribution. 



Let each year be characterized by some 

 effort that will command respect from the 

 public for our Association. Let its efforts, 

 like its name, be National. Let us not rest 

 satisfied until we have a thorough know- 

 ledge of the geographical distribution of 

 honey bees, and by actual test know their 

 merits and adaptability to different sections 

 of our country. 



I have endeavored to obtain specimens of 

 Apis Dorsata, but without success. I pre- 

 sent for examination some specimens in 

 alcohol of bees from Mount Lebanon, which 

 have the general features of the Italian; 

 also a small bee from Java which I know 

 nothing about. They are all the results 

 from considerable correspondence with our 

 foreign missionaries. I hoped they would 

 show more interest, but they are hard to 

 move. 



A vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Fami- 

 ly for his address and the exertions he is 

 putting forth to get other races of bees im- 

 ported, and all were hopeful that much good 

 would result from sucli races by crossing, 

 and infusing new blood, etc. 



The following essay by Martin Metcalf 

 was then read on the 



Rearing of Italian Queens. 



The careful breeder of Italian queens 

 need not be told that there are many per- 

 plexing difficulties in the way of pure 

 lyreeding upon the theory of pure queens 



and pure progeny. That is, that if the 

 queens be pure, no matter what kind of 

 drone they may meet, the drone progeny 

 will be absolutely pure. To say nothing of 

 the fact that if this were so, it would con- 

 tradict the rule laid down in propagating 

 everything else. The experienced breeder 

 will admit, we think, that an error has 

 probobly crept into the accepted practice 

 right here, and our own conclusions are 

 firmly established, that the same principles 

 which are universally applied to the de- 

 velopment and perfection of a distinct type 

 of horses, cattle, swine, sheep, or any other 

 family of the animal kingdom, must be 

 adopted and rigidly adhered to, if we hope 

 to make any progress, or even maintain the 

 chai'acteristics we now possess. 



Thus much premised, what rules then 

 may be laid down as a general guide to be 

 followed in propagating Italian queens with 

 a view to maintain their purity, and if pos- 

 sible to improve upon and perfect them, if 

 indeed, perfection and a fixed type be at- 

 tainable. In answering this question it 

 may be pertinent to inquire as to the rules 

 demonstrated to be necessary, time out of 

 mind, in the breeding up of horses, cattle, 

 etc. 



Selecting those individuals of colors, 

 form, gait^ or general make up, which we 

 most desire, we mate them, and so con- 

 tinue, each succeeding generation selecting 

 the individuals bearing in themselves the 

 most striking and desired qualities, until 

 we find that nature becomes gradually more 

 and more fixed in a distinct type or family, 

 with only here and there an individual 

 showing the plebean origin of all regal 

 blood. 



The Italian bees are no exception to this 

 rule, and are not absolutely pure and of a 

 distinct and fixed type, even in their native 

 habitat, seem sufficiently proven by the ad- 

 mitted fact that no imported queen has yet 

 been seen whose royal progeny has been 

 constant in color, form, or other character- 

 istics of the parent. 



"Hypothetical, and running after moon- 

 shine," as interested importers and non- 

 progressive bigotry and egotism may term 

 it, we have for ourselves fairly demonstra- 

 ted, that, in the race of Italian bees perfec- 

 tion has not yet been reached, and it we 

 hope to attain it, or even maintain the im- 

 ported sta)idard, of the three yellow bands 

 of workers, we must forever abandon the 

 bogus drone theory of the books, and re- 

 adopt the more sensible system, ruling in 

 everything else under the sun, viz., that 

 "like produces like," or the good old ortho- 

 dox doctrine of "every seed after its kind." 



"Progress backwards" seems to be the 

 motto of some, and even one of the most ex- 

 tensive importers of Italian bees writes 

 that the "color of the drones he will not 

 warrant at all, so much depending upon cir- 

 cumstances," and that "an occasional black 

 bee emerging from the brood combs is no 

 proof of the queens' impurity," etc. 



I will here answer, and— in Yankee style 

 of giving reply— would like to propound 

 the following query to my friends, viz.:— 

 Suppose that in the order of time your good 

 housewife should present you with a black 

 daughter, or "leather-colored" scion, for 

 royal hearth and heir to its estates, would 

 you not consider either horn of such an 

 imaginary dilemma a rattier curious "cir- 

 cumstance?" 



