THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



11 



ner as to cause the survival of those 

 specimens which are best fitted to 

 accomplish our purposes. 



According to tlie law of heredity, 

 Italian bees will reproduce Italian 

 bees and German bees will reproduce 

 German bees, but, the reproduced 

 bees in either case will not be pre- 

 cisely like their parents, either in ap- 

 pearance or characteristics. The 

 law of variation prevents that. It is 

 by taking advantage of these varia- 

 tions that we are enabled to select 

 as parents for a coming queen spec- 

 imens that are superior to their par- 

 ents. Hybrids will, according to the 

 law of heredity, reproduce hybrids, 

 but the law of variation will be 

 greater among these crosses and this 

 enlarges our opportunity to take ad- 

 vantage in selecting. It will now be 

 plainly seen that to improve stock by 

 breeding, we only have to be wise 

 and careful in making our selections 

 to breed from. I find that with bees 

 the offspring follows the law of hered- 

 ity more perfectly after the drone ; 

 and the law of variation, more after 

 the queen, so that we may say the 

 drone is most apt to transmit its 

 characteristics to the offspring. As 

 many of your readers are aware, 

 nearly ten years ago I began breed- 

 ing toward a fixed strain of bees by 

 crossing the best strains of Germans 

 with the best strains of Italians. I 

 say best strains of these races, be- 

 cause with each race in its purity 

 there is an undisputed vast difference 

 in the qualities of different strains or 

 families. I am still using this strain 

 of bees, and like lawyer R. L. Tay- 

 lor, whose able article appeared on 

 the first page of your last issue, I 

 would not exchange them for any 

 other bees known to civilization. 



I obtained my best crosses from 

 Italian drones of the long leather- 

 colored strain, and German queens 

 from the large, brown or gray variety, 

 and by crossing and recrossing these 

 hybrids ever since, always selecting 

 my breeding queens and drones from 



colonies which possess most of desir- 

 able and leatt undesirable qualities, 

 I have bred up a well nigh fixed 

 strain of hybrid bees that are better 

 suited to my business than any others 

 of which I have any knowledge. 



Your query asks how to get rid of 

 irascibility in bees ; and I have most 

 perfectly accomplished that with 

 these hybrids, as scores will come 

 forward and testify, I will proceed 

 to tell how I did it. 



Those older than I in experience 

 with Italian bees told me I would 

 find them better natured than Ger- 

 mans but I must look out for crosses 

 of the races for they would be far 

 more irascible than either race in its 

 purity. Upon trial, I thought I veri- 

 fied the statement. It did seem strange 

 that a mixture of sugar and sawdust 

 could be sweeter than either one in 

 its purity, and so I began experi- 

 menting, observing and drawing de- 

 ductions. My conclusions are these : 

 good nature belongs with the dark ■ 

 races of bees. Belligerency is char- 

 acteristic of the yellow races. 

 The mistaken idea that Italians are 

 better natured than Germans comes 

 from the fact that the operator gets 

 less stings when handling them. 

 This comes about from the fact that 

 nine-tenths of the stings we receive 

 are from bees that take wing. Now, 

 although Italian bees are twice as 

 ferocious as Germans, not more than 

 one-sixth as many take wing while 

 being handled ; and as bees do not 

 sting while steadfast on the combs, 

 our chances for being stung would 

 not be one-half as great with Italian 

 bees. Let us take a yellow race that 

 flies around loose like Germans, hav- 

 ing the true irascibiUty of yellow 

 bees, — the Cyprians for instance. 



I need'nt tell you about these 

 bees. If their blood is not eradica- 

 ted from this country, we will have 

 more lawsuits than the Beekeepers' 

 Union can defend. 



I claim that when I cross the bel- 

 ligerent Italian with the peaceful 



