152 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



standard of perfection it lias reached. 

 To better enable you to do this take 

 some number as a standard to be 

 desired but not attained, and then 

 the nearer they reach the number, 

 the nearer they are to your standard 

 and so only breed from those that are 

 the highest on your record or that 

 attain somewhere near it. E. A. 

 Thomas suggests the following clas- 

 sification : First, industry, second, 

 docility, third, hardiness, fourth, pro- 

 lificness, fifth, color. The first two 

 of these are all I would occupy my 

 time with, because for " hardiness," 

 the very fact of a colony existing as 

 a colony sufficiently long enough to 

 test their working qualities is proof 

 that they should not be condemned 

 on this score ; and then as for "pro- 

 lificness," if the queen is so prolific 

 that all the stores are consumed in 

 feeding young bees, then she will be 

 cond«emned under the head of " in- 

 dustry," for I am not particular about 

 a queen being very prolific so long as 

 I get plenty of surplus honey. As 

 for "color" I think it deserves only a 

 passing notice ; I would never breed 

 for color nor would I reject a colony 

 because of it. There are then two 

 qualities that we are to record, 

 namely, industry and docility ; the 

 latter is certainly very desirable, but 

 I would never sacrifice the former for 

 the sake of it. What I look for are 

 large returns in the shape of market- 

 able honey, and if I can have them 

 docile withal, then I rejoice in this 

 also. 



The number is made movable on 

 each hive, so that when any colony 

 swarms taking the old queen with 

 them, all you have to do is to remove 



the number to the hive you put them 

 in, and its record in your book re- 

 mains as it was, unless the queen 

 is disposed of in some way. To 

 have a permanent number on each 

 hive is practically useless, unless you 

 are willing to go to considerable 

 extra trouble. In keeping a record 

 of industry, it will be necessary to 

 make a note of the hive from which 

 a swarm issues, so as to take the pro- 

 ducts of both into consideration 

 when making your estimates at the 

 close of the honey season. With a 

 record such as I have described you 

 will be enabled to make correct 

 comparisons between young queens 

 from any colony that has been mated 

 with drones of other races. 

 Brussels, Ont. 



EDITORIAL. 



We are pleased to learn that the 

 beekeepers are at last awakening to 

 the fact that American apiculture 

 demands some protection of its in- 

 terests and welfare, through a more 

 thorough and systematic organiza- 

 tion of its forces. 



Ever since our journal was 

 started we have endeavored to keep 

 this matter prominent before the 

 minds of our readers, and all our ef- 

 forts at conventions, and in fact 

 everywhere, have been centred in 

 this one great and grand work. 



It has appeared somewhat strange 

 to us that our more aged contempo- 

 raries have carefully held their peace 

 on this subject until compelled by 

 the "Freeborn case" which is now 

 being so freely commented upon, to 



