1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



488 



possible strains of seed. When a field of this 

 cotton is ripening it is examined, and all the 

 most promising plants pulled and taken to one 

 side, and these again are gone over more in 

 detail, and a few of the best seltcted, which 

 are again examined, and the lint and seed of 

 each weighed, and the vigor of the plant, num- 

 ber of balls, etc., carefully noted down before 

 a final selection is made, when the seed of the 

 choicest plant is saved to plant in a plot by 

 itself for comparison with other strains, and 

 so on. Indeed, the system of breeding seed 

 is quite complicated. 



" In Germany, where the potato is used for 

 quite a variety of purposes, it is often valued 

 in proportion to the amount of starch it con- 

 tains, and is sometimes sold, not by the bushel, 

 but by the number of pounds of starch a given 

 quantity contains. I understand they have 

 improved varieties containing twice as much 

 starch as others, and I see no reason why 

 starch can not be increased in a potato as well 

 as sugar in a beet-root." 



" There goes a bee in at that hive, with a 

 load of pollen — the first I have seen this year," 

 said Deacon Strong. 



"That's so," said Fasset. " Got it off them 

 alders down on the brook. I guess that 

 means bis ; but say. Uncle Lisha, that talk of 

 yours is cur'us and pretty interesting ; but 

 why don't you tell more about improving ani- 

 mals and bees? " 



"Well," I replied, "the same laws run 

 through all plant and animal life nearly the 

 same, and just as great care has to be taken to 

 improve animals as plants. In Saxony, where 

 they have the finest- wooled sheep in the world, 

 the greatest possible care is taken in the se- 

 lection of breeding stock, even placing young 

 animals on a table every three or four months 

 during their development, and noting down 

 every thing that would help them decide the 

 best animals for improving their flocks. But 

 if you want an illustration nearer home, take 

 that of the Experiment Station of New York. 

 In 1874, or about that time, it established a 

 herd of cows for dairy experiments. It bought 

 just every-day-grade cows, such as the farmers 

 had to sell — grade Jerseys and Holsteins. In 

 1874 this herd averaged just 3000 lbs. of milk 

 per cow ; yet in 1898, or twenty-five years la- 

 ter, the products of milk had increased two 

 and a half times, or to 7575 lbs of milk per 

 cow. And this has been brought about, not 

 by buying choice cows, but by careful breed- 

 ing and selection, selecting the best heifers 

 from year to year, and disposing of the poor- 

 est. How many bee-keepers can make as 

 good a show ? The average run of bees is 

 doubtless as good for the production of honey 

 as the cows that the New York experiment 

 station started with were for dairy purposes. 

 That bees are quite as susceptible to improve- 

 ment as cows, I think no one who has given the 

 subject much thought can doubt. Indeed, in 

 the average yards of bees there is more differ- 

 ence between the best and the poorest colonies 

 than between the best and poorest cows in aver- 

 age dairies. I noticed in Bulletin No. 169, from 

 which I obtained the above facts, that their 

 cows are all hornless. They propose to get 



milk instead of horns, which are no more 

 useful in a dairy than propolis is in a yard of 

 bees." 



"But bees are different from cows, " said 

 my friend Fasset. " You see, in raising dairy 



"ARE HAVING A GOOD FI^Y." 



cows they can use such males as they want, 

 while with bees we have to tru.st to chance." 



"That is true ; but I believe the chances 

 favor the bees. You see we may never know 

 just the value of any sire for improving a herd 

 until he is tested, which may require several 



