THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



less sheep have been longer under domes- 

 tication than has any other animal, and 

 man has molded them, and fitted the 

 different breeds to meet his various wants, 

 quite as much as he has other races. 

 Mountain breeds are always different 

 from lowland breeds. Some have been 

 bred for their meat and wool; while 

 others almost wholly for their wool. We 

 find different breeds furnishing different 

 kinds of wool; .some so fine as to fit it for 

 the finest fabrics; some long and coarse 

 for combing or worsteds. 



The town in which I live has long been 

 the headquarters of the industry of breed- 

 ing American Merinos. Commencing 

 about sixty years ago, with the vSpani.sh 

 Merinos as a basis, with rams that would 

 shear from twelve to fourteen pounds of 

 wool, and ewes that would give a fleece of 

 six pounds, these sheep have been im- 

 l)roved until now the ewes (the best of 

 them) will give a fleece of twenty-five 

 jiounds and the rams from thirty to near- 

 ly forty pounds; while the weight of the 

 carcass has remained )icarly the same. 

 While the nose has been left clean, the 

 re.st of their head, neck, body and .legs 

 have been covered with wool to their very 

 hoofs; and not content with this, they 

 have folded the skin over their necks, 

 shoulders and sides, that more wool might 

 be added. As Lord Somerville has said 

 of English breeders, " It ivould seem as if 

 they had chalked out upon a wall, a form, 

 perfect in itself and then given it exist- 

 ence.'" 



The pedigrees of these sheep have been 

 kept with the greatest care. They have 

 been sent to South .Africa, South America 

 and Australia, tosa\' nothing of our West- 

 ern Slates. They have been sold for al- 

 most fabulous prices; thousands of dol- 

 lars having been p lid for a single sheep. 

 This is the result of less than sixty years 

 of thoughtful and skillful breeding. 



Who will furni.sh us with pedigree 

 queens of the highest type, whose queen 

 and worker offspring will come true, and 

 all like their queen mother for a few gen- 

 erations? Would ten, or twenty, or fifty. 



or one hundred dollars, be too nmch ? I 

 think jiot. 



The same general laws of heredity run 

 alike through all animal and plant life; 

 although changes appear to be more 

 abrupt in vegetable than in animal life. 

 It would seem as if the florists were veri- 

 table wizirds, from the bevviidering pro- 

 fusion of flowers which they bring out 

 each year. 



Let us look at the sugar beet; a very 

 prosaic root, yet one of national impor- 

 tance; and one that may mean more to us 

 bee-keepers than we think. Early in 

 this century, when beet sugar began to be 

 a source of wealth in France, the average 

 amount of crystallizable sugar to be ob- 

 tained from beets was six per cent. In 

 1896 a plant was started in this country, 

 and the average amount of best grade of 

 sugar obtained from beets was fourteen 

 per cent. , two and one-third times that 

 ol:)tained eighty years ago. Already, sin- 

 gle beets have been produced that have 

 given twenty-five per cent of pure sugar. 

 Unless our bees keep pace, what is like- 

 1}' to be the effect upon bee-keeping 

 when the sugar industry shall have been 

 develojjed in this country and the average 

 amount of sugar from beets raised, dur- 

 ing'the next centur}-, to twenty-five or thir- 

 ty per cent., and .sugar and flour sell at the 

 same price ? Or will sugar be the cheap- 

 er? Quite likely. How comes this great 

 change in the richness of the beet? I 

 answer that it comes ey the most careful 

 and painstaking care in breeding the 

 seed; which is a business by itself. 



Enough, perhaps, has already been 

 said, but I would like to give an illustra- 

 tion, coming under my own hand. Some 

 3'ears ago, while visiting at the house of a 

 friend, we had upon the table the tender- 

 est and sweetest corn I had ever eaten. 

 He gav'e me an ear of this variety, but I 

 found the kernels quite too small-to be 

 satisfactory; and, from year to year, I 

 selected the largest ones for seed; and, 

 slowly, it has changed until now it would 

 not be recognized as the same corn. 

 Should I be able to carry the improve- 



