THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



83 



Tims the now races of Win. Vogel 

 are tlic product of in-breetling. Of 

 course Vogel did not select the near- 

 est related drones for this purpose. 

 Tlie same fact was proved before by 

 Dr. Dzierzon, whoreceived the first 

 Italian colony in Germany, and 

 never bought anolher queen of tiiis 

 race. His strain of bees is the prog- 

 eny of a single ([ueen and is not ex- 

 celled b}'^ any imported stock ; and 

 in man^' respects iiis queens are 

 better, because he selected the best 

 queens to breed from for manyyears. 

 Others have done the same. 



Further, it is necessary for the 

 existence of bees in the wilderness, 

 that moderate in-breeding is not 

 fatal to the colony. We know that 

 some swarms go many miles and 

 start a new home, and here they are 

 obliged to in-breed for further exis- 

 tence. 



In fact it is impossible to get any 

 new strain of bees, without moder- 

 ate in-l)reeding. We remember the 

 plan spoken of by Dr. Tinker, page 

 2 of "Api," to send out virgin 

 queens to be mated in other apia- 

 ries. I suppose this plan would 

 work to the best advantage. But 

 now rises the question how to get 

 out of this one colony a new and 

 constant fixed strain? It is impos- 

 sible without some in-bieeding. 

 We should use it, of course, as little 

 as possible. 



I will only remark, that our best 

 races of other domestic animals are 

 bred by moderate in- breeding. 



Sehna, Texas. 



For the American Apiculturist, 



''HONE Y-MAKING." 

 G. G. Gkoff. 



so niuch complain, but when the 

 most absurd and untrue things are 

 introduced into books to be taught 

 the young it is too much for us to 

 remain (|uiet. We recently ob- 

 served in one of our best school 

 physiologies, written 1)3'^ an intelli- 

 gent medical man, the statement 

 twice repeated, that honey is an 

 animal food, that bees make honey. 

 "They take clover and transform it 

 into honey, somewhat as the cow 

 does into milk." A new book on 

 psychology just pul)lished, in the 

 chapter on "Instinct, "repeatedly af- 

 firms that bees "make honey," that 

 "they visit every open flower," that 

 "instinct is infallible" and many 

 similar statements, which clearly 

 show that the writer knows nothing 

 of which he writes, exee[)tas he has 

 learned it from text-books, and text- 

 book natural history is about as 

 good as none at all, or worse. We 

 were recently asked to endorse 

 such a book ; and, declining to do 

 so, were sent a long list of testi- 

 monials to examine. Not a single 

 one of them luas given by a scieutijic 

 man. There is yet room for im- 

 provement in scientific work in our 

 schools. 



Leivishurg, Pa. 



For the American Apictdturist. 



PRACTICAL HINTS. 



By Prof. A. J. Cook. 



Popular ignorance of natural 

 history is very common. However, 

 if people woukl only keep their ig- 

 norance to themselves we could not 



MOVABLE BOTTOM-BOARDS THE 



IDEAL HIVE SLATTED HONEY- 

 BOARDS THE TIEKING-UP METH- 

 OD CONTRACTING THE BROOD- 

 CHAMBER TWO NEW LINES OF 



INVESTIGATION. 



Dear Mr. Editor : You ask 

 me to send practical hints as to 

 apparatus or methods that have 

 met my commendation in actual 

 practice. 



