166 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



November 



racks cleaned up and stored for winter. 

 My bees are all packed and in good 

 condition. Wishing you success, I 

 remain, Yours truly, 



John E. Haight. 

 Clyde, N. Y,, Oct. 11, 1894. 



PURE BLOOD, MIXED BLOOD AND 

 IN-BREEDING. 



In the management of an apiary, 

 the question of breeding is one of vital 

 importance, as much so as in the man- 

 agement of our domestic animals, poul- 

 try, etc. On this one point depends 

 to a great extent our success or failure; 

 and while the people are becoming 

 alive to the importance of this matter 

 in regard to their horses, cattle, hogs, 

 etc., the great majority of bee-keepers 

 seem to pay no attention to it so far 

 as it relates to the apiary, but allow 

 their bees to breed, hit or miss, go as 

 y©u please year after year, until the 

 evil effects are becoming so plainly 

 visible that a blind man ought to be 

 able to see them. 



Take the reports from all over the 

 country of new deseases breaking out 

 everywhere ; bees doing no good ; no 

 surplus gathered ; while the old time 

 bee-keeper will tell you he has no 

 luck with bees like he had years ago. 

 Now there is no luck about it ; but 

 there is a cause that produces these 

 things, what is it ? Inbreeding, 

 nothing more or less. 



But here comes the query, how is it 

 that bee-keepers thirty or forty years 



ago had none of these troubles under 

 precisely the same conditions ? Here 

 I think is the key to the whole matter. 

 At that time there were practically 

 no bees in this country but the black 

 bee, which was then in its purity and 

 being so was capable of inbreeding 

 while time should last, just like all 

 other pure-blooded creatures from the 

 elephant to the ant. 



What we mean by ■purity is a creature 

 just as it comes from ilie hand of the 

 Creator. In all such inbreeding is 

 Nature's plan. All such creatures 

 keep their purity and have since the 

 creation, and will to the end of time. 

 The different species of the same gen- 

 eric never mix while in a state of nat- 

 ure, only when domesticated and 

 governed by the hand of man are 

 crosses made and new breeds produced. 



Now this mixing of blood, no differ- 

 ence what grand results we may obtain 

 by it, is a violation of nature's law and 

 the penalty that of perpetual out- 

 breeding and crossing must be paid, 

 because the product of our cross is not 

 a creation of nature, but to a great 

 extent a creature of man's ingenuity, 

 and can never return with its mixed 

 blood to nature's way of breeding, but 

 must be perpetuated in much the same 

 artificial manner in which it was pro- 

 duced, for if allowed to inbreed with- 

 out limit, it rapidly degenerates until 

 it finally becomes extinct, while a 

 very limited amount of inbreeding 

 soon shows the evil effects of such a 

 course, such as sterility, blindness, loss 

 of size, health and vigor. 



Now as I have said before, thirty or 

 forty years ago we had nothing but 

 the black bee it its purity. Then 

 came the importation of foreign bees 



