THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 9 



importing- Italian queens for half a century, and so far as I can see 

 we still have nothing but Italian bees, and so far as I can see can- 

 not point to a single advantage gained, notwithstanding the claims 

 set up by some writers. I am not criticizing belief, which proves 

 nothing, but unsubstantiated claims. I want to know ; more for the 

 bee-keeping world than myself. 



Is any improvement in the bee to be looked for, even if we can 

 control the mating? 



Prof. 'MacDougal concludes his reply with : "Theoretically almost 

 anything biological is capable of alteration, but how such an idea 

 might work out practically with regards to the bees is a puzzling 

 question." 



Is the bee biologically the dandelion of the insect world, a per- 

 fect type? 



Any reply you may see fit to make to this letter will be thank- 

 fully received. Respectfully yours, 



A, F. BONNEY. 



September U, 1911. 

 Dr. A. F, Bonney, Buck Grove, Iowa. 

 My Dear Sir: — 



Replying to your interesting letter of the 11th inst., I would say 

 that my little experience with the honey bee leads me to believe 

 that there is no inherent reason why it should not be capable of 

 considerable modification through experimental breeding. I believe, 

 however, that much headway cannot be made until it is possible 

 accurately to control the mating of the queens and drones. Of 

 course, if there are great stretches of country in which bees are 

 lacking, it would be possible to obtain satisfactory results in the 

 open. Mr. Wilmon Newell, State Entomologist of Texas, who was 

 working with me here this summer, is much interested in honey 

 bees and is endeavoring to make attempts along this line, that is, 

 in crossing pure Italians with members of other races from hives 

 very much isolated, so as to preclude the influence of stray drones 

 of unknown origin. Of course, the honey bee is an extremely highly 

 specialized insect but not more so than many of the solitary bees, 

 and the vast number of species of the latter (probabh' some oOOO 

 in the United States alone!), often very closely related to one an- 

 other, shows that the group is still very plastic and probably un- 

 dergoing active species formation. This is my main reason for 

 believing that the honey bee is not a form which has reached the 

 end of its development but that it may have a future before it. It 

 is, of course, not impossible that someone may invent a method of 

 artificially impregnating the queens of honey bees. So many very 

 delicate operations have been performed on insects lately that we 



