admit the* greater prolifieness of hybrid 

 queens. The past season he had one 

 which produced at least a bushel of bees, 

 and that colony had given fully 200 lbs. 

 of honey. What we want is the race 

 of bees which will bring the most money. 



Mr. Newman was certain Mr. John- 

 son and himself agreed upon the gen- 

 eral results to be attained. First, we 

 want the bee which will obtain the most 

 honey — and the most honey brings the 

 most money ; then the other traits as 

 he had enumerated them. 



Mr. Harrington. Ohio, has tried sev- 

 eral strains of bees : First, Italians ; 

 second, albinos ; third, a cross between 

 Italians and albinos. The claim that 

 the dark or leather-colored Italians 

 are the best honey-gatherers is all bosh. 

 He finds the larger Italians are the best 

 honey-gatherers, regardless of color. 

 He has a holy queen that is very prolific, 

 and her bee's gave the best yield of 

 honey he has received this season. This 

 queen was received late in the season, 

 placed in a small nucleus, and had built 

 up to the strongest colony he owned. 



O. O. Poppleton, Iowa. I have experi- 

 enced that the lighter bees are far ahead 

 in all the desirable qualities. I invari- 

 able get a good return from the yellow 

 bees, when perhaps the dark ones are 

 in a destitute condition. When the yel- 

 low bees have no surplus, it is useless to 

 look any further. 



Mr. Muth, Ohio, had removed nine 

 Egyptian queens in one day to give 

 place to yellow Italians. The Egyp- 

 tians were in a starving condition while 

 his light Italians were filling the sur- 

 plus boxes nicely ; besides, the Egyp- 

 tians were so cross that there was no 

 pleasure in working them. In fact, 

 they seemed almost intractable, even 

 with the plentiful application of smoke. 



Dr. J. F. H. Brown, Georgia, thinks 

 the idea prevalent with some apiarists, 

 that the dark Italians are the best 

 workers, is a mistaken one. He thinks 

 the amiable, light-colored bee just as 

 good a worker as the darker colored. 



Mr. Harrington, Ohio, inquired why 

 the grand-daughters of imported queens 

 are always lighter than those imported. 



Rev. Mr. Johnson. Kentucky, thought 

 it was undoubtedly owing to climatic 

 change; the same effects were true of 

 horses, cattle, and even the human 

 family in point of superiority. 



C. C. Coffinberry, Illinois, attributed 

 much of the superiority of the Ameri- 

 can-Italian bee to a loose practice pre- 

 vailing in the selection of queens for 

 shipment to this country. In filling an 

 order, most of the Italian queen-breed- 

 ers paid but little attention to the selec- 

 tion of the best ; with them it was 



enough to know that a queen was fertil- 

 ized and laying, to till the requirements 

 of an order, and he ventured the asser- 

 tion that not more than one queen in a 

 score was fit to breed queens for the 

 market. With the American queen- 

 breeder, who had any regard for repu- 

 tation, the best are always selected for 

 propagation, and the fact of the impor- 

 tation does not constitute it the best. 

 By a careful selection from the very 

 best of those imported, and a subse- 

 quent breeding with a special view al- 

 ways to perpetuate the best, we have 

 now reached a point far in advance of 

 the apiarists in Italy. 



S. D. Riegel, Ohio.— The last speaker 

 has expressed it exactly. Purchasers 

 wanting the best queens and bees al- 

 ways select from the American im- 

 proved stock, instead of the imported 

 or that bred directly from the imported. 



Dr. Brown, Georgia, acquiesced in the 

 above opinions. 



Mr. Harrington, Ohio, said he had 

 never seen an imported queen that did 

 not produce three-banded Italians, al- 

 though some were very dark. 



Mr. Coffinberry had seen several 

 which did not. 



A. G. Hill, Indiana, had seen at least 

 two imported queens that produced 

 hybrids. 



Mr. Newman has noticed bees in Italy 

 as black as any in this country. 



Mr. Jones said he had seen black bees 

 at several places in Italy, even in the 

 vicinity of Rome. He gave, as his 

 opinion, that the Italian bees were des- 

 cended from the bees of Holy land, or 

 those on the Island of Cyprus. 



The following communication was 

 read, as bearing upon the subject under 

 discussion : 



The Yellow Race of Bees. 



The advertisements andotlier writings <>f 

 the breeders and dealers in queens and 

 bees, as published in the bee papers, if 

 taken literally, would lead one to believe 

 that the name "Italian" is synonymous 

 with the yellow race of bees. To inquire 

 into the truth or falsity of this assumption 

 on the part of interested parties, is the pur- 

 pose of this short article. It is but repeat- 

 ing whatevery well-informed person knows, 

 when I say that with the honey bee, as with 

 the ants and some other insects, there is the 

 yellow or light-colored race, and the black 

 or dark-colored race ; and these races when 

 isolated ought to be, and are as distinct, one 

 from the other, as the yellow and black ants 

 are. But if they are so situated (being of 

 the same species) that the yellow queens 

 may meet the black drones, and vice versa, 

 the result will be "graded stock," or what 

 is commonly called in bee parlance hybridi- 

 zation. 



Now I assert without fear of successful 

 contradiction, that the yellow race of bees 



