THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



quality of persistence, where a genius 

 without it would fail. 



What would be the value of such an 

 item to a man lacking in persistency if he 

 would read and heed it ? This extract is 

 only a sample of what may be found in 

 Success. It is a nicely printed and illus- 

 trated journal of about the size of the La- 

 dies' Home Journal. The price is|i.ooa 

 year. I wish that all of my readers could 

 become subscribers to Success. I will 

 club it with the Review at 1 1 . 75 ; although, 

 in so doing, I am not making one cent of 

 profit. Success is published by the Suc- 

 cess Publishing Co., Cooper Union, New 

 York City. Single copy 10 cents. This is 

 not a paid advertisement. I am giving 

 this notice without the publishers know- 

 ing anything about it — doing it because I 

 think I shall do good by spreading this 

 journal. 



THE BEST BEES. 



Mr. Doolittle Explains Which are the Best 

 Kind of Bees for Certain Kinds of Work. 



In a recent article Mr. J. E. Crane gave 

 his experience and views regarding the 

 black and Italian varieties of bees; and, 

 in so doing he referred to the views of 

 Mr. Doolittle. Since the publication of 

 that article in the Review, Mr. Doolittle 

 has given his views more in detail in 

 Gleanings. Some one wrote and asked 

 him if he were breeding especially for 



honey-gathering purposes, w 



hich he 



would prefer — the golden Italians, dark 

 ones, or hybrids ? If he preferred hybrids, 

 how he would breed for the best results. 

 His reply is as follows: — 



Volumes have been written on this sub- 

 ject, and the matter is not fuUv .settled 

 in the minds of many at the present time. 

 Some of our very best bee-keepers tell me 

 that they do not know which is the best; 

 but from my standpoint a true solution 

 depends ui)on which we are producing— 

 comb or extracted honey. If I were pro- 

 ducing extracted honey altogether, I 

 think I would select the darker Italian, 

 or those produced from queens reared from 

 an imported mother, allowing these 

 queens to mate with whatever drones 



there were in and about the apiar}-, pay- 

 ing no attention as to whether these 

 drones were from Italian, hybrids, or 

 black stock. If I were working for comb 

 honey exclusively, then I would procure 

 a good queen of the golden variety, rear- 

 ing all queens from her, and allow them 

 to mate with any drones they might chance 

 to meet, the most of which, without 

 doubt, would be from an entirely different 

 "blood" from themselves, which would 

 give a direct cross. Such direct cross 

 always give the greatest vigor, and, as 

 the question is asked, I should not care 

 one cent whether my yellow queens ma- 

 ted with drones from black or hybrid stock, 

 as all my experience goes to prove that 

 thoroughbred golden Italian queens; ma- 

 ted to drones of either black or hj-brid 

 stock give bees equal to the very best for 

 comb-honey purjwses. But if I could 

 conveniently hinder the thing I should 

 prefer not to have these queens meet 

 drones from young queens reared from 

 imported mothers — not because they 

 would not give bees just as vigorous, and 

 of just as good honey-gathering qualities, 

 but for the reason that, as a rule, workers 

 having much imported " blood " in them 

 do not cap their honey nearl)^ so nice and 

 captivating to the eye as do those having 

 more of the golden, hybrid, or German 

 " blood " in them. 



To sum up I would say, first have your 

 queens mate with drones as distantly re- 

 lated to your queens as possible; second, 

 use queens as closely related to imported 

 Italian stock as possible, where working 

 for extracted honey, for there are no bees 

 in the world, in my opinion, that excel 

 tho.se one generation from imported stock, 

 for hone\'-gathering. Third, where white 

 capping of combs becomes one of the 

 great objects to work for, as is the case 

 when working for comb honey, then 

 choose the golden Italians, on account of 

 their (|ualities in that direction; while at 

 the same time they are in no way second 

 to Italians from imported stock, astotheir 

 honey-gathering qualities. 



SWEET CLOVER. 



Its Value as a Forage and Honey Plant. 



With the dry sea.sons that seem to have 

 formed the habit of coming quite frequent- 

 ly of late, it behooves farmers to turn 

 their attention to some forage plant that 

 can withstand the dry weather — one that 

 sends its roots down to such a depth as 



