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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 21, 



completed combs ? And even should there be a slight saving 

 in time, would it be proportionate to the extra cost?" 



According to mine, and the experience of many other bee- 

 keepers here, I answer yes. I will give some illustrations of 

 the season of 1897. 



I divided some bees for a bee-keeper who would not use 

 much foundation because of the cost. I took one of the new 

 swarms, but when it came to putting on the surplus boxes 

 mine were the weakest, owing to the hive being new and of a 

 different shape from the others. The bees did not take to it 

 as readily, but I put in four drawn combs and five sheets of 

 foundation; in 16 days those nine Langstroth frames were 

 full, tilling a 10-frame hive, and weighing 72 pounds. I put 

 surplus boxes on the 11 remaining hives at the same time, 

 putting small starters on about half of the frames ; three of 

 them had no starters, and two had empty boxes and no frames, 

 and while nearly all those colonies were strong, some of them 

 did not gather 15 pounds in the 16 days, and the best one of 

 the lot did not produce 33 pounds in the same given time. 



I also sacrificed one of my own colonies in thus experi- 

 menting. I had 10 colonies in 10-frame Langstroth hives, 

 three stories ; those colonies were so strong that they past Id 

 and out of the hives 40 or 50 bees in a cluster. I took one of 

 the strongest of them and put small starters on half the 

 frames, with the rest of the frames empty. Ou the other 

 hives I put half drawn combs, and half with sheets of founda- 

 tion. In 10 days the best of those colonies produced 98 

 pounds of honey, and the others ranged from 50 to 75 pounds, 

 except the one with the starters and empty frames — it man- 

 aged to partly build out the combs, and produced 32 pounds. 



I might go on and give a hundred illustrations of this 

 kind, but it is not necessary. 



Mr. Deacon says the secretion of wax goes on, and by the 

 use of foundation the scales fall wastefully to the floor of the 

 hive. This is not my experience. In the use of foundation 

 the wax that the bees produce Is needed to draw out the 

 combs, and the more we use of It, and the more drawn combs 

 we have, the more honey we get, and the wax Is needed for 

 capping. Thus, while we use an abundance of foundation, 

 we always use it for profit. But when It comes to the use of 

 heavy brood foundation, five or six feet to the pound, I fully 

 agree with Mr. Deacon. This building-out or pulling-out pro- 

 cess never did give me any satisfaction. My experience has 

 been that instead of saving time In pulling out heavy founda- 

 tion the bees lost time thinning it down ; besides, this objec- 

 tionable feature, to have to pay 8 to 10 cents a surface foot 

 for it, makes It much moreexpensive than the thinner variety. 



I am aware that many bee-keepers think that heavy foun- 

 dation is all right; under those conditions I would say, let all 

 those buy it that want to, but for my part I don't want to. 



The following report, from a Salt Lake county bee-keeper, 

 speaks for itself. These results were obtained by proper 

 management, and by a liberal use of foundation and drawn 

 combs. I can vouch for this report, for I divided the bees, 

 and I saw the crop of honey put up in 60-pound cans : 



Salt Lake County, Nov. 19, 1897. 



Mr. Lovesy : — I send you a report of my honey crop from 

 16 colonies of bees, spring count, taken off as follows the 

 past season, extracted on the dates named : 



July 2, 96 pounds; July 13, 206 ; July 23, 31 3; July 

 31,432; Aug. 10, 513; Aug. 17, 510; Aug. 24, 630; 

 Aug. 31, 635 ; Sept. 7,550; Sept. 14, 537; Sept. 22, 690; 

 Oct. 12, 688. Total, 5,800 pounds. 



I have also taken off 100 frames from the top boxes con- 

 taining from one to three pounds of honey, that I will use in 

 the spring in building up. I also had an increase of 19 colo- 

 nies, making 35 in the fall. 



All of the above facts I'm willing to swear to if necessary. 



I thank Mr. Lovesy, our county bee-inspector, for his 

 timely advice and assistance in the management of my apiary, 

 and especially his method of increase by dividing pleased me 

 very much. To him I owe, perhaps, my success. 



William. 



This gentleman has personal reasons for not giving his full 

 name and address. One reason for this bee-keeper's success 

 was this : Through unwise counsel he packt his bees air-tight 

 the previous winter, and smothered more than half of them, 

 leaving an abundance of drawn combs, many of them partly 

 filled with honey. Those frames and foundation were one of 

 the main causes for the success obtained, because with them, 

 and by exercising caution and wisdom in dividing, in a few 

 days we had the new colonies working in the supers. This 

 materially helpt to produce the above results, as 3,000 bees 

 can work on a sheet of foundation as easily as 300 can work 

 on a bare top-bar. 



In regard to the article by " Sage Brush," after asking. 



" Is the use of comb foundation profitable when used in large 

 quantities?" and after giving an emphatic No, he fails to give 

 us one sentence in favor of his side, or the negative side of the 

 question, and altho living in the wonderful honey-producing 

 State of California, and in a locality, as he says, where the 

 bees gather honey more or less all the year, thus making it 

 possible to succeed better In experiments — yet, with all those 

 experiments, and after getting such an abundance of nice 

 worker-combs, he reports two good exlractings from them the 

 same season, while our Salt Lake bee-keeper got 12 extract- 

 Ings In '6)4 months. 



Still, " Sage Brush " must live in a good bee-country, 

 for he says that after the honey or extracting season was over, 

 he took all the frames except three from a number of colonies 

 and started them to building worker-combs till he had all the 

 combs he needed. But to adopt this method in some localities 

 after the honey season Is over, would be equivalent to killing 

 the bees, but if he lives in a locality where the bees gather 

 honey more or less all the year, why punish them by making 

 them build combs instead of gathering honey ? I think if 

 " Sage Brush " will use plenty of foundation next time, he will 

 have more profits and a better report. 



Salt Lake Co., Utah. 



Laws of Heredity — How Honey-Producers and 



Queen-Breeders Working Together May 



Profit by Thera. 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



In previous issues of the Review I have given a number of 

 illustrations showing the great changes in plant and animal 

 life brought about by the agency of man. It may be briefly 

 noted that such changes have been made as are most useful 

 to man, or have most pleased his fancy. Thus we see that 

 the blossoms of different varieties of cabbages or potatoes re- 

 main quite unchanged, as man has taken no special interest 

 In them ; while in plants cultivated for the beauty of their 

 flowers, we find the greatest changes made in these parts. 



There is really very little that is new in knowledge re- 

 garding the laws of heredity ; as in an ancient Chinese ency- 

 clopedia, the principles of selection are fully given. Explicit 

 rules are laid down by some of the Roman classical writers ; 

 and we find Jacob, nearly 4,000 years ago, breeding for color. 

 In early English history, laws were made prohibiting the ex- 

 portation of choice animals, and also for the destruction of 

 horses that were undesirable. 



The most eminent breeders do not favor the crossing of 

 different breeds, but rather that of taking that breed that 

 most nearly approaches their ideal, and then, by the most 

 careful selection, breed out defects and up to their standard. 

 To do this the greatest skill is required ; as the law of rever- 

 sion comes in which all Improved varieties tend to revert back 

 to their former type. Charles Darwin says : 



"What English breeders have actually effected is proved 

 by the enormous prices given for animals with a good pedi- 

 gree ; and these have been exported to almost every quarter 

 of the world. The improvement is by no means generally due 

 to crossing different breeds ; all the best breeders are strongly 

 opposed to this practice except sometimes among closely allied 

 sub-breeds. And when a cross has been made, the closest 

 selection is far more indispensable even than in ordinary 

 cases. If selection consisted merely in separating some very 

 distinct variety, and breeding from it, the principle would be 

 so obvious as hardly to be worth notice ; but its importance 

 consists in the great effect produced by the accumulation in 

 one direction, during successive generations, of differences 

 absolutely inappreciable by an uneducated eye — differences 

 which I for one have vainly attempted to appreciate. Not 

 one man in a thousand has accuracy of eye and .judgment suf- 

 ficient to become an eminent breeder. If gifted with these 

 qualities, and he studies his subject for years, and devotes his 

 lifetime to it with Indomitable perseverance, he will succeed ; 

 If he lacks any of these qualities he will assuredly fail. Few 

 would readily believe In the natural capacity and years of 

 practice requisite to become even a skillful pigeon-fancier." 



It may be objected that the breeder of bees cannot control 

 his male bees, consequently his work is largely one of chance; 

 and there is some ground for this objection, but, on the other 

 hand, the queen-breeder can rear several generations in a 

 single season, or rear and thoroughly test two or three gener- 

 ations, while the breeder of domestic animals can rear only 

 one ; which will largely compeosate for his inability to control 

 the mating of his queens. 



Before the advent of movable combs the breeding of bees, 

 or the improvement of bees, was attended with far greater 



