J16 



THE AMEBIC AN BEE-KEEPER 



November 



for the sake of continuing good qualities 

 without change; but the '■ fixed strain "' 

 idea may be worl^ed too hard when it 

 comes to the matter of improvement. 

 With a strain so fixed that there is no 

 possibility of variation, there is no possi- 

 bility of improvement. Continuation of 

 good traits comes from fixedness. Im- 

 provement of traits comes, not from fixed- 

 ness, but from variation. The trouble 

 with a cross is that its characteristics 

 are not fixed, but that does not argue 

 against the possibility of greater improve- 

 ment in the cross, and then it is the 

 province of careful breeding to make 

 that improvement fixed. I am an advo- 

 cate of pure stock; but if I had the 

 purest and best Italians on earth, and a 

 cross that would beat th(Mn in storing 

 by 50 per cent., I'd drop the purity and 

 try to fix that 50 per cent. Yes, but 

 I believe you will find that crosses 

 would have a very strong tendency to 

 sport back to the original stock, either 

 one of which would be poorer than the 

 mixture. 



BEARS IN THE APIARY. 



The bear is one of the bee ene- 



mies with which our Northern 

 friends do not have to contend ; yet 

 in certain localities of the South 

 bears are one of the greatest nui- 

 sances the bee-keeper has to contend 

 with. During the season of 1900, 

 Mr. O. O. Poppleton, of Florida, 

 was greatly pestered by them. As 

 a result of their persistent visits to 

 Mr. Poppleton 's apiaries several of 

 the prowlers are now carrying with 

 them more or less buckshot and 

 one member of the Bruin family 

 languishes behind the bars in a 

 Palm Beach museum, as Mr. Pop- 

 pleton succeeded in catching him 

 in a trap. Though Mr. Poppleton's 

 loss was not great, he suffered a 

 great deal of annoyance and lost a 

 lot of sleep while watching his bees 

 at night. 



Mr. W. O. Victor, of Texas, re- 

 ports a loss of fifty-two colonies by 

 bears. He advertised for sale a 



I 



