AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



691 



ing county, and far behind his locality. 

 If all who read Oleanings will turn to 

 page 310 of April 15th, present volume, 

 and read Mr. Oliver Foster's account of 

 his visit to Mr. Staininger, who lives at 

 Tipton, they will see whether I missed 

 it or not. Tipton is the place I es- 

 pecially named, saying they would have 

 the best honey-flow from the northeast 

 through Jackson county, of anywhere in 

 the State. Mr. Staininger, from 170 

 colonies, spring count, secured 12,700 

 pounds of honey. Here is one para- 

 graph of what Mr. Foster says of his 

 honey : 



" This was in his large and very neat 

 and clean honey-room and shop, with a 

 large and well-equipped work bench in 

 one end, an extractor and other honey- 

 utensils in the other, a foot-power saw 

 at one side, and the whole middle of the 

 room occupied by a huge pyramid of 

 glassed cases of comb honey of snowy 

 whiteness. Several other piles of nice 

 fall honey stood at the sides ; through 

 the back window and screen door I could 

 see a neat apiary of about 230 colonies." 



Who can show a larger crop in the 

 whole State, or a better average from 

 that number of colonies? And it must 

 not be forgotten that it was the "off 

 year " for linden, that is, it never 

 bloomed in eastern Iowa to amount to 

 anything. He don't know what the edi- 

 tors of Oleanings based their opinions 

 on to make them think the honey-flow 

 of 1892 was better than the few years 

 previous. Their opinions were based on 

 the reports, all that could be got by the 

 aid of the Amekican Bee Journal and 

 Oleanings combined. What few reports 

 he could get, would not amount to any- 

 thing compared to these. 



Mr. Johnson warns me to be careful 

 or I will jump into a field where clover 

 and linden don't abound. It is the con- 

 dition that it takes to produce a crop of 

 honey that I claim to know about, and 

 of course I would not suppose linden 

 and clover honey could be got from any- 

 thing but linden and clover, but Mr. 

 Johnson's bees may be bred, up to such 

 a high pitch of intelligence that they 

 can get honey from prairie-grass. I 

 would think they could do that about as 

 soon as I would think they would steal 

 eggs, one colony from another. I guess 

 Mrs. Atchley will want to go up there 

 to take lessons of Mr. Johnson on queen- 

 rearing^nd also bring down to Texas 

 some of nis bees, that are acquainted 

 with such clever tricks ; but they might 

 not retain those qualities down here in 

 "Dixey Land." 



Cosby, Tenn. 



Are Hybrid and Black Bees 

 Worth Improving ? 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY JAS. A. GKEEN. 



I was greatly surprised to see, in the 

 answers to Query 867, how many there 

 were who said, in eflecb as well as in 

 words, "Let well enough alone." I 

 would have little fault to find with those 

 who take the drift of the inquiry to be 

 whether or not the bees have degener- 

 ated, or are likely to degenerate or " run 

 out," through close in-breeding. 



Although in-and-in often produces bad 

 effects with other animals, I do not 

 think it probable that bees under ordi- 

 nary circumstances will breed so closely 

 within a certain strain that deteriora- 

 tion will result. Nature has guarded 

 against this by providing that the malt- 

 ing of the queen and drone shall take 

 place in the air at a distance from the 

 hive. 



I think it is an entirely unwarranted 

 assumption that the bees in question 

 have re-queened themselves for years 

 from their own progeny. All of the 

 queens might have been reared by the 

 bees themselves, but the drones with 

 which they mated may have come from 

 several miles away. It is for this rea- 

 son that I would not apprehend any de- 

 generacy from in-and-in breeding. Still, 

 it is often the case with bees, as with 

 other animals, that an infusion of new 

 blood gives renewed vigor. This is es- 

 pecially the case when different varieties 

 are crossed. 



What I specially deplore in these an- 

 swers, is the advice to " let well enough 

 alone." Where would the world be if 

 men had been satisfied to work on this 

 principle? There is scarcely an animal 

 or plant that man makes use of for his 

 pleasure or profit that has not been 

 greatly improved by breeding or selec- 

 tion. Within the memory of the pres- 

 ent generation, careful selection, cross- 

 ing and breeding have greatly improved 

 our domestic animals, and added mill- 

 ions of dollars to our national wealth. 



The long, lean, slab-sided, razor- 

 backed hog of a few years ago was con- 

 sidered good enough by his owner, but 

 the modern hog is a far more valuable 

 and profitable animal. 



See how the cow has been improved 

 as a producer of milk and butter as well 

 as beef. 



Witness how the standard of horses 

 has been raised, both for speed and 

 draught animals. 



