189C. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



349 



bee that will satisfy the lover of beau- 

 ty, because " handsome is that hand- 

 some does." 



T)ie apiarist breeder will also know 

 from his study of the laws of breeding 

 that both male and female give char- 

 acteristics and are equally potent to 

 transmit (jualities if equally well bred, 

 and will also know that pre{)otency 

 ever hangs upon long, careful breed- 

 ing. 



I think there is everything to en- 

 courage 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, 

 conscientious, capable artist in this 

 line of work. 



As yet few if any breeders of bees 

 have formed as the result 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 ex- 

 cellence. Often — may I not say gen- 

 erally — bright, high color was the one 

 attraction, 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 per- 

 sistence to maintain their ground and 

 work unceasingly, unhesitatingly, 

 courageously, irresistably towards a 

 real ideal. The commercial spirit, de- 

 maud of the market, bread and butter, 

 all stand in the way. The ideal breed- 

 er 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 think 

 or the market desires. He must look 

 for his reward to the away-off 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 perfection the honey bee. The 

 fortunate one must have the qualifica- 

 tions already referred to, and in addi- 

 tiou, 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 

 be 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 Sir John 

 Lawes. 



Claremout, Calif, 



A BOOK FOR CHRISTMAS. 



The Christmas number of Demorests Mag- 

 azine presents a table of contents attractive- 

 ly suggestive of Christmas cheer, and a 

 glance through the pages shows a profusion 

 of pictures appropriate to the season and at- 

 tractive enough to please at any time. The 

 number opens with sketches of the Holy 

 Land, very appropriately called "The 

 Cradle of Christianity," written by Dr. 

 Thomas P. Hughes, who has long been a 

 student of tliat region, and writes from the 

 observer's point of view. New and beauti- 

 ful pictures are given, fully illustrating the 

 article and making it a tine feature for a 

 Christmas publication. 



Under the title "A Poet of Many Friends," 

 Edwin C. Martin gives a short sketch of 

 Eugene Field, in which he dwells particu- 

 larly upon Field's personal characteristics 

 and his warm friendship with men and 



