408 THE BEE-KEEPERS* REVIEW 



as apt to have been a mutation long ages before the end of develop- 

 ment came. Subsequent changes might have been made by environ- 

 ments, thus establishing the few races of honey-bees we have. 



So many good men have scolded me for expressing doubts as 

 to the possibility of improving the bee that I am almost afraid to 

 write, but I will state that I am just as anxious to know how to do 

 it as anyone can well be, but up to the present time no one has 

 come to show me. Assertions there are in abundance, guesses un- 

 limited, sarcasm to spare, but the best I have yet had ofifered me 

 is that a queen offered will transmit her good qualities if mated to 

 equally good drones. That is, if I buy a fine queen and she is not 

 ruined in the mails, I must have a yard-full of bees equally as good 

 to get drones to mate to her. 



The average man working for honey cannot do this, surrounded 

 as he is by bees of all kinds, small yards from which drones fly 

 in clouds. 



When such men as Mr. Pryal, Beyer, York, James G. Smith, 

 T. L. Strong, and others, lean my way, I am encouraged to per- 

 severe in my search for a way to really and truly improve the 

 honey-bee. 



Mr. Strong, a queen breeder of Clarinda, Iowa, says: 



"I do not think queen breeders would be justified in guaran- 

 teeing the honey-gathering qualities of the queens sent out. We 

 can breed from the best honey-gathering strains, and that is about 

 all we can do." 



Mr. J. A. Simmons, a queen breeder of Sabinal, Texas, writes: 



"Replying to your letter of the 5th I will say, by long exper- 

 ience of queen selection, that a queen reared from prolific queen's 

 eggs that has a large force of bees that have proven their honey- 

 storing qualities, and this queen reared under favorable conditions, 

 will retain surplus storing propensities, also other good qualities 

 the mother may have had. From your letter I infer that you have 

 just started in the business, and would advise that you purchase 

 'Langstroth on the Honey Bee.' * * ""' 



I wonder how he found out I don't know anything. 



Almost every reply I have received from queen breeders is 

 tainted with commercialism, just as mine would probably be were 

 I a queen breeder. Almost every man who is working for honey 

 hesitates to say that the Italian bee stores more today than when 

 they first knew it, or that queen breeders are justified in claiming 

 that queens they send out will inherit the good traits of the mother, 

 insofar as surplus storing is concerned. Even Mr. R. F. Holterman 

 says : 



"1 have heard that breeders can give assurance or at least feel 

 themselves assured, that their queens would inherit excessive surplus 

 gathering characteristics. A man wrote me regarding a certain kind 



