breeding either black or Italian bees, is 

 what will augment the value of our apia- 

 ries. 



" The tendancy of the dollar queen busi- 

 ness is to disseminate the inferior queens, 

 many of which will appear in every apiary. 

 These should be killed, not sold. Yet many 

 an apiarist will think even the poorest 

 queens worth a dollar. My friend Mrs. 

 Baker bought a dollar "albino" queen last 

 summer, which was not worth a cent. Yet 

 it cost only a dollar, and of course no satis- 

 faction could be secured, or even asked for. 

 I think it behooves apiarists to think of this 

 matter, and see if dollar queens are not very 

 dear. I have thrown away three dollars on 

 them, and have concluded to pay more and 

 buy cheaper in future. 



"I believe our breeders should be encour- 

 aged to give us the best ; to study the art of 

 breeding and never send out an inferior 

 queen. In this way we may hope to keep 

 up the character of our apiaries, and the 

 reputation of Italians. Else we are safer 

 under the old system, 'natural selection' 

 retained the best by the ' survival of the 

 fittest.' " 



My friend, Mr. A. I. Root, so well known 

 as an able apiarist, and one to whom our art 

 owes much that is valuable, in a very kind 

 notice of my book criticised the above in 

 the following words : "I feel that friend 

 Cook has made a bad mistake in regard to 

 dollar queens. It is probably from some 

 misconception. All honorable queen breed- 

 ers, and I hope and believe all who adver- 

 tise in our list are such, rear their queens 

 from imported stock and rear them in the 

 very best way they know how. The idea 

 that these queens are in any way inferior to 

 to the tested ones, or to the best that can be 

 bought, only that they are untested, is, 1 can 

 but feel, an unkind insinuation on the large 

 list of those who rear queens. With the 

 ample experience I have had in the matter, 

 I should say that dollar queens might well 

 be ranked with foundation as one of the 

 great blessings to the ABC class of bee- 

 keepers, of the present day. Everybody 

 now tests their own queens, and a great 

 amount of fault-finding and disatisfaction 

 is avoided. People do not long continue to 

 buy that which does not pay ; yet the dollar 

 queen business has rapidly increased year 

 after year, and now the traffic amounts to 

 thousands of dollar in a single week." 



I have no personal interest in this matter, 

 as I do not now, nor do I expect ever to 

 raise queens for the market. Yet 1 do feel 

 that the subject is one of great moment to 

 bee-keepers, and to the welfare of our art, 

 and I believe that our friend, as quoted 

 above, has misapprehended my position, and 

 so I ask your kind indulgence, while I state 

 more fully and clearly my views, on what I 

 believe to be a subject of great importance 

 to us all. 



Variation a law in nature. 



Darwin, in his great work, calls attention 

 to the indisputable truth, that variation is a 

 law inherent in all organisms ; every skill- 

 ful breeder of any of our domestic animals 

 recognizes this law. Go to the most famous 

 herd of short-horns in existence, and will 

 yc find perfect uniformity ? Avery & 



Murphy's celebrated Duke is a fine rich red; 

 their Young Duke yearling is a light roan. 

 In every breeding stable or yard the world 

 over this same truth is exemplified. As this 

 law applies to all organisms, vegetable no 

 less than animal, we should not expect to 

 find our bees an exception ; nor do we. 

 Why all the talk about a standard of excel- 

 lence for Italians, except that our breeders 

 know and recognize this principle of vari- 

 ation. Breeders of poultry state in so 

 many words, that even among the best 

 breed of fowls undersirable sports are con- 

 stantly appearing, and that careful selection 

 alone can maintain superiority in the poul- 

 try-yard. Bee-keepers note variation, and 

 think it denotes impurity. Breeders of 

 black bees with no Italians near, have ob- 

 served great variations in color and habits. 

 In fact, General Adair and others talk of a 

 gray bee as well as a black. Mr. Moon says 

 Italian queens vary from golden yellow to 

 black. Mr. E. Gallup spoke of these dark 

 queens and their less highly-colored work- 

 ers, and said they were the best. I have 

 had two very dark imported queens, yet 

 they were very excellent— I think them 

 nure, and that Italians are surely a fixed 

 race, but that perfect uniformity of color is 

 not a characteristic. 



Careful selection the secret of successful 

 breeding. 



Why is it that such names as Collins, 

 Booth, Bates, Blackwell, Felch and Burn- 

 ham, are household words among the 

 breeders of cattle, sheep and poultry ? 

 Only that they had the eyes of an artist, 

 and were quick to discern desirable or ob- 

 jectionable variations even though slight, 

 and as quick to grasp and retain the former 

 or strike down the latter. 



Our great breeders, will under no cir- 

 cumstances, breed from an inferior animal. 

 They have an ideal in their mind, and, 

 carefully select in their breeding that they 

 may attain the hoped-for perfection. In 

 their breeding they are constantly rejecting 

 animals as inferior. They have learned to 

 labor, and to wait. Now they might take 

 less pains, and sell cheap ; but dollar short- 

 horns, berkshires and merinos, would find 

 no market, nor any editor to encourage their 

 sale. 



But, as we have seen, the same law holds 

 true in the breeding of bees, and the fact 

 that we have less control from the very 

 nature of our bees, renders it all the more 

 essential, that the greatest care be taken in 

 our selection. We can only be perfectly 

 sure of our females, and thus it is imperative 

 that our queens should be the very best, even 

 though nine-tenths of our queens are 

 rejected, and even though costly imported 

 queens must go to the wall. 



Can bees be improved? 



Dzierzon says he "greatly improved his 

 Italians." Graven horst says of Dzierzon, 

 that by selection he greatly improved his 

 Italians and has secured bees that combine 

 all the desirable qualities. Kleine says : 

 " The Italian race properly managed does 

 not degenerate, but even admits of improve- 

 ment." Mr. Langstroth says : "We may 

 greatly improve our Italian bees by supplant- 



