1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



649 



rabbit are very varied, and it is so difficult to 

 rear that it has not been much bred in this 

 country. The Dutch rabbit is small, very 

 pretty, hardy, and prolific ; and, because of 

 their fine milking qualities, have been used 

 for nursing purposes by the breeders of Bel- 

 gians. The Himalayan is white, vpith soft 

 fur, and has ears, nose, feet, and tail almost 

 black. Thus they are exceedingly handsome. 

 As we should expect from their nativity, they 

 are hardy and quite prolific. They weigh 

 from five to seven pounds. The Egyptian rab- 

 bit would seem an enlarged Himalayan, so 

 close is the resemblance. It also has black 

 rings around its eyes, and is said to be very 

 superior for table use. The Japanese rabbit 

 resembles closely the Dutch. It is said to be 

 beautiful in its markings, and very hardy and 

 prolific. The Angora rabbit is remarkable for 

 its long, fine, fleecy wool, making it appear of 

 great size. The most valuable ones are the albi- 

 nos, having white hair and pinkeyes. In this 

 respect — red eyes — they are like the Himala- 

 yan. The Siberian rabbit is marked like the 

 Himalayan, but has the thick, glossy hair of 

 the Angora. The Polish rabbit is probably 

 only an albino, and so, as we should expect, 

 is not hardy, and makes neither a good breed- 

 er nor mother. The English rabbit is spotted 

 black and white. It is popular with the Eng- 

 lish fancier. The silver-gray rabbit is very 

 popular — indeed, perhaps the favorite with 

 the English fancier. The color is dark blue, 

 silvered with white hairs tipped with black. 

 The Patagouian rabbit is the Jumbo of the 

 family, often weighing fifteen pounds or up- 

 ward. It has been claimed as an offshoot of 

 the Belgian or Flemish. It is not as beautiful 

 as either of the last two mentioned . I shall 

 speak of only one more, the Flemish Giant, 

 which is probably only racially distinct from 

 our favorite, the Belgian. As we shall see, it 

 is likely that the Belgian rabbit and the Flem- 

 ish Giant are races developed from the old 

 Belgian rabbit, Lepus caniculus. The Flemish 

 Giant is now very distinct from the Belgian, 

 being much larger. The two varieties have 

 been much crossed. I presume that the Flem- 

 ish Giant ranks next to the Belgian in popu- 

 larity the world over. The color is dark t ^A 

 gray, while its ears are about six inches long, 

 and, like those of the Belgian, are carried 

 erect. Unlike the properly bred Belgian, it 

 possesses a large dew-lap. Like the Belgian, 

 it is very prolific. 



The Belgian hare — we have seen this should 

 be Belgian rabbit instead of Belgian hare, or, 

 as some call it, Belgian hare-rabbit, which is 

 really making a bad matter worse — is a well- 

 marked breed or race. A race or breed is a 

 variety of fome species which has been so 

 long bred in nature or by man that its charac- 

 teristics have become well fixed. The Italian 

 bee is a race formed, I think, in nature by 

 isolation ; the shorthorn cattle and Belgian 

 hares are races or breeds formed more quickly 

 by the intelligent selection of man. We now 

 know that all our species of animals were de- 

 veloped in nature by the slow process of natu- 

 ral selection. The process of this was well 

 worked out by Charles Darwin, and is now ac- 



cepted by all intelligent students of the sub- 

 ject. It is briefly this : All animals— the same 

 is true of plants — tend to vary. We all know 

 this. No two children of a family are exactly 

 alike, neither is either one exactly like either 

 parent. Darwin thought this tendency to vary 

 was inherent — a natural peculiarity implanted 

 in the very economy of the organism. He 

 says, over and over, " All organisms tend to 

 vary." Other scientists hold, and I think 

 with much reason, that all organisms tend to 

 be exactly like their parents, but are swayed 

 by environment, and thus the variation. The 

 impress must vary from the very time of con- 

 ception, and varying impressions produce the 

 resultant variations. If, now, any variation 

 in animal or plant — in the rabbit it might be 

 in longer legs, making it more fleet — is an ad- 

 vantage to the animal it will have a better 

 chance to survive, while its brothers will be 

 more apt to go to the wall. By this slow, nat- 

 ural selection all our species have been form- 

 ed. Before the differences were very marked, 

 yet were fixed, these varying forms would 

 have been races or breeds. The Italian bee is 

 an illustration of such a race. It is not so dif- 

 ferent from other bees as to be ranked a dis- 

 tinct species ; yet its peculiarities of color and 

 habit are very persistent. Man works with 

 more rapidity than nature, as he selects more 

 carefully and certainly, and weeds out more 

 surely and relentlessly. We see, then, that 

 man might make a species in a few years, 

 while it might take nature centuries to do the 

 same. A race, then, is an incipient species, 

 and races and species differ only in degree of 

 modification. 



The Belgian hare was, so far as I can deter- 

 mine, produced about a hundred years ago in 

 the country which has given it its name. As 

 we have seen, the species from which it was 

 derived was probably Lepus caniculus. By 

 careful selection, as we may believe, two well- 

 marked races, the large gray Flemish Giant 

 and the smaller rufus-red Belgian hare were 

 developed. About forty years ago the latter 

 of these two breeds was introduced into Eng- 

 land, where it at once became a marked favor- 

 ite. The English fanciers, true to their pat- 

 riotic instincts, took the English hare as a 

 model in color and form in their breeding of 

 this new race. With the English hare as the 

 ideal, they progressed very rapidly in develop- 

 ing a very superior rabbit ; and to-day, unless 

 we may except our own people in these last 

 few years, our brothers of the British Isles 

 lead the world. 



Claremont, Cal. 



Continued. 



THE HONEY-DEW QUESTION. 

 The Sources of the Good and Bad Honey'dew. 



BY A. J. COOK. 



I am more and more of the opinion that 

 honey-dew is almost if not quite the exclusive 

 product of plant-lice or scale insects. I had a 

 very interesting object-lesson in this direction 



