TM AMERICAN 



* * * 



Apiculturist. 



A. Journal Devoted to Practical Beekeeping. 



VOL. X. 



JULY, 1892. 



No. 



THE COMING BEE. 



An article on " The Desirability of 

 Producing a Larger Race of Bees, "which 

 was published in the Apiculturist for 

 March, suggested the possibility of se- 

 curing a cross between our common 

 races of bees and tiie recently discov- 

 ered "giant bees" of India, in such 

 a way as to produce a new race which 

 should combine the desirable points 

 of both parent races. 



The particular advantage hoped for 

 from such a cross would be to secure a 

 race whicli would be able to gather 

 honey from red clover and perhaps 

 from other flowers which now go to 

 waste, so far as the honey crop is con- 

 cerned, because the bees which we now 

 have are unable to rejich the honey. 



An experiment of the United States 

 Fish Commission, on the breeding of 

 fish suggests to me still another possi- 

 bility in the breeding of bees. Accord- 

 ing to 'a recently reported interview, 

 Mr. D. E. Crawford of the United States 

 Fish Commission stated : "We have 

 litde doubt now that before two more 

 years we shall have evolved what the 

 seaboard public has been clamoring 

 for for so many years — the boneless 

 shad. Of course I don't mean a shad 

 that is actually boneless but one that 

 will be to all intents and purposes as 

 boneless as the flounder of this country 

 or the sole of England. This will have 

 been accomplished by the cross- breed- 

 ing of the shad, the flounder and a pe- 

 culiar edible jelly-fish which is a staple 

 food among the seacoast natives of Japan 



Our experiments, 



while at first rather discouraging, now 

 leave but Httle doubt of turning out 

 successful. At first the crossing re- 

 sulted in the production of a lot of jel- 

 ly-fishes with an elaborate outfit of 

 bones, which was just what we did not 

 want, but time and study showed us our 

 mistakes, and now we have a few hun- 

 dred half grown shad with less than 

 18 per cent as many bones as the or- 

 dinary sort." 



A few years ago when the belief in 

 the unalterability of species both of an- 

 imals and plants, was generally accept- 

 ed, the attempt to alter the bony struc- 

 ture of the shad would have been re- 

 garded as a hopeless undertaking, but 

 now that so much has been accomplished, 

 no one can savwhat the limit of possi- 

 bihtv is. Prof. Goodale of Harvard Uni- 

 versity predicts the time when fruits of all 

 kinds will be produced without seeds. 

 There is ground for hoping that this result 

 may be attained in the fact that the ba- 

 nana regularly grows without seeds or 

 rather with only rudimentary seeds 

 which appear as dark specks in the fruit 

 and so do not interfere in the least 

 with our enjoyment of eating the fruit 

 and it these rudimentary seeds are 

 planted in the ground, they refuse to 

 germinate. Occasionally also an or- 

 ange is found without seeds and there 

 are many other facts which give good 

 reason to believe that before many years 

 we may enjoy the pleasure of eating 

 seedless fruits of several kinds. 



If we are to have boneless shad and 

 (101) 



