THE AMERIC.VN BEE JOURNAL. 



551 



from tlie heat of clay to the cooling 

 air of niglit, are quite as wearing as 

 continual worrying. There can be 

 nothing better, as a feed, than a com- 

 bination of pure sugar and lioney. 

 Tlie queen lias been introduced to a 

 queenless colony, as a recompense for 

 her imprisonment.— Ed. 1 



For the American Bee Journiil. 



The Yellow Races of Hees. 



J. p. 3I00KE. 



I send an article which I think has 

 never been published in the Bee 

 Journal, entitled " Tlie Principles 

 of Bee-Breeding," by Frederick Wil- 

 liam Vogel, of Schmanshafel, Brand- 

 enburg, Prussia, translated from the 

 German by the late Samuel Wagner, 

 as follows : 



If we carefully consider the topics 

 embraced in No. 1 of our programme, 

 we shall recognize, as the substance of 

 them, this query, "Is it possible to 

 produce an imiiroved breed of bees? 

 And if so, what are tlie principles of 

 breeding which we must adopt?" 



I do not deny that on tliis question 

 I shall speak with a certain degree of 

 complacency, for that which I have 

 to communicate is not derived from 

 the indulgence of an idle fancy, but is 

 based on observations made at the 

 hive— the only sure, living and pure 

 source of npistical science. 



In a discourse on the production of 

 an improved breed of bees, we have 

 to fix clearly in our minds tlie distinc- 

 tion between variety and race, for the 

 two ideas are not nnfrequently con- 

 founded, or used in a very arbitrary 

 sense. The idea of variety includes a 

 certain amount of constitutional prop- 

 erties. In bees there are, among 

 others, good or bad temperaments, 

 swarming propensity or the want of 

 it, disposition to build drone comb, 

 etc., etc. Allow me to include all 

 such constitutional properties under 

 the general term "characteristics." 

 Variety, accordingly, is based on the 

 characteristics. Corporeal markings, 

 size and color, do not come into con- 

 sideration in determining the idea of 

 "variety." If the bees of any par- 

 ticular district are distinguished by a 

 marked propensity for swarming, or 

 by any other special cliaracteristics 

 we are warranted in designating them 

 as a " variety." Thus, in my estima- 

 tion, the heath bees of Luneberg, 

 those of Lower Austria, etc., etc., are 

 simply new varieties of our well- 

 known black bee. The peculiar con- 

 stitutional properties which charac- 

 terize varieties are rooted in the psy- 

 chical or spiritual nature of the in- 

 sect, and are elicited by the kind or 

 quality of the pasturage ."by particular 

 modes of management, by diversity 

 of climate, or some other dominating 

 peculiarity of the district. Accord- 

 ingly, these constitutional properties 

 •disappear or are lost by lapse of time, 

 by removal to a different locality, and 

 thus subjecting the insect to other 

 climatic influences and other condi- 

 tions of management or pasturage. 



Hence, it is obvious for the produc- 

 tion of an improved breed, mere vari- 

 eties are of very subordinate account. 

 At the same time, however, I contend 

 that the production of an improved 

 breed of general value— that is, one 

 equally suited to all parts of an ex- 

 tensive country— is an impossibility. 

 On the other hand. I am clearly of 

 opinion that, for each particular dis- 

 trict, possessing marked peculiarity 

 of climate and pasturage, an improved 

 breed specially suited to those condi- 

 tions, may be produced. And in this 

 aspect, the existing varieties of the 

 honey bee are of high signilicance 

 and value. 



The meaning and extent of the idea 

 expressed by the term race have long 

 since been settled by science. The 

 term embraces a certain amount of 

 external corporeal markings, among 

 which are size and color. When the 

 bees of any extensive region, or even 

 of a limited district, are found to be 

 strikingly distinguished by their large 

 or small size, by the color and quality 

 of their pubescence, or of the tint of 

 their dorsal bands, from the common 

 type of the honey bee — assuming as 

 such, for the present, our common 

 black bee, we are warranted In desig- 

 nating them as a distinct variety or 

 race ; and that each variety or race 

 has its own distinguishing consti- 

 tutional characteristics is generally 

 known. 



I am not of opinion, however, that 

 in order to produce or improve breed, 

 recourse must necessarily be had to 

 the foreign races which have been in- 

 troduced among us, though it is often 

 alleged that we should, from the start, 

 have availed ourselves of them, and 

 have endeavored thus to originate an 

 improved breed. But had that course 

 been adopted we should hardly ever 

 have reached a satisfactory result. 

 The pure races would have disaji- 

 peared under our hands long before 

 we could have succeeded in substi- 

 tuting an improved breed for them. 

 It was much wiser to labor primarily 

 to secure an ample stock of pure races, 

 while at the same time the peculiar 

 characteristics of each were assidu- 

 ously studied. And now that both 

 these points have been attained, we 

 are placed in a position favoring and 

 furnishing means and facilities, for 

 the origination and production of an 

 improved breed. 



Permit me now to communicate the 

 results of a series of experiments all 

 of which bad for their object to ascer- 

 tain the principles which should guide 

 and govern us in the endeavor to ytro- 

 duce and establish an improved breed 

 of bees. The experiments instituted 

 were so numerous, that they might be 

 told by fifties or hundreds. 



1. Crossing the black bee with 

 THE Italian.— When the Italian bee 

 was introduced by Dzierzon, it was 

 supposed that the workers produced 

 by the Italian queen, fertilized by a 

 black drone, would show an inter- 

 mingling of the external markings of 

 the parents. But this was soon found 

 to be a mistake. In the second gen- 

 eration already, degeneration became 

 apparent— the liybrMs divided numer- 

 ically, one portion resembling the 



Italian, and the other the black bees. 

 For the purpose of experiment, I con- 

 tinued breeding in these two direc- 

 tions, and in the fourth or lifth gen- 

 eration reached again on the one 

 hand the pure Italian bee ; and on the 

 other in the fourth degree, the pure 

 black bee. The hybridism of the bee 

 was thus again resolved into its ataval 

 elements. The facts thus experi- 

 mentally ascertained are, however, of 

 very subordinate signilicance, elucid- 

 ating only the coloration of the hy- 

 brids. Of higher and much greater 

 practical value, on the other hand, is 

 the solution of the inquiry. " Do the 

 constitutional characteristics of the 

 two become commingled in the black- 

 Italian hybrids ? Or are those of the 

 one variety or race simply transmitted 

 to the other ?" It is well known that 

 very different answers have been 

 given to these questions. .Some breed- 

 ers state that the hybrids of the black 

 and Italian bees possess the constitu- 

 tional properties of the Italians; 

 while others allege the direct con- 

 trary. Some assert that the hybrids 

 are more irascible than the black 

 bees ; others again say they are less 

 so. Some declare that "they will store 

 more honey, while others say they 

 will store less, etc. The truth is, the 

 constitutional properties of the two 

 are of an exceedingly subtle nature, 

 which makes it extremely difficult to 

 base a reply on the results of a cross 

 between them. It is only by crossing 

 the black bee with the Egyptian that 

 we can obtain any clear light on the 

 point under consideration. 



2. Crossing the black bee and 

 THE Egyptian.- When the Egyptian 

 bee was consigned to me by the Ber- 

 lin Acclimatization Society," I was of 

 opinion that this bee was of little or 

 at most of only slight importance in 

 a scientilic point of view, for I sup- 

 posed then that whatever was to be 

 learned of the proposed mysteries of 

 the bee had already been revealed by 

 means of the Italians. Now, how- 

 ever, I feel assured that the future of 

 ai)istical theory pertains to the Egyp- 

 tian bee. 



Very soon some of the Egyptian 

 queens became fertilized by drones. 

 The workers produced by these queens 

 were not perceptibly larger than the 

 pure Egyptian workers, and in other 

 respects still resembled the Egyptian 

 type very much. The drones pro- 

 duced by these queens — since impreg- 

 nation exerts no direct influence on 

 them — were still pure Egyptian. I 

 now raised some young queens from 

 these impurely fertilized mothers, and 

 employed the Kohler process to secure 

 their fertilization by black drones. 

 According to the experience derived 

 from cro.ssing the black bee and the 

 Italian, the workers produced by such 

 queens should have been numerically 

 one-half lilack bees, and the other 

 half Egyptian. But when the hybrid 

 workers made their appearance, our 

 anticiijations were not realized. The 

 hybrids diverged in two directions in- 

 deed, but the parental markings 

 showed themselves mingled or melted 

 into each otiier, in a portion of the 

 progeny. A portion of the workers 

 resembled the Italian workers so per- 



