THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



were the losers by using so many, for 

 we could have obtained double the 

 amount in 2-i)ound sections. Newman 

 & Son, W. S. Benedici, and myself are 

 the only ones that have used the half- 

 pound sections to any extent, and we 

 would advise, from experience, to use 

 but few, to help make a variety. 

 When we get below one-pound pack- 

 ages, generally, we get below what is 

 practical or proli table to the producer. 

 Perry Centre, N. Y., Dec. 22, 18S3. 



For the American Uee Juumal. 



Who Are Our Best Breeders 1 



G. W. DEMABEE. 



The article of Mr. James Heddon, 

 on page 773, vol. 18, of the Weekly 

 Bee Journal, is calculated to excite 

 much inquiry into the numerous meth- 

 ods employed to collect, select and 

 breed up tlie honey bee to the highest 

 standard of excellency. 



It should not be forgotten, however, 

 that, like the most of us, Mr. H. has 

 adopted a theory of his own, and is 

 therefore, not likely to look favorably 

 upon the plans and methods of others, 

 whose views and plans differ materi- 

 ally from bis own. 



With my imperfect mental vision, I 

 can see, in these numerous plans, 

 views and methods going on all over 

 our land, the greatest possible promise 

 of success ; while, on the other hand, 

 if all should accept the views of Mr. 

 Heddon or Mr. Briggs, or any other 

 breeder, the consequences would be 

 that all would succeed or all would 

 fail together, and, in the latter case, 

 leaving nearly the whole lield unex- 

 plored, much valuable time would be 

 lost. 



Speaking for myself, I rejoice to see 

 the good work going forward, know- 

 ing this — that time, the greatest of all 

 arbiters, must pass the final j udgment. 



Mr. Heddon says : " If a popular 

 vote could now be taken as to who 

 our best queen breeders are," etc. 

 Perhaps I have as much faith in the 

 intelligence of our " popular voters " 

 as most people have, but I would not 

 give much for a decision obtained in 

 that way, simply because it is impos- 

 sible that the popular voters could 

 know, from their personal knowledge, 

 the qualifications of each breeder. 



Those persons who turn out hun- 

 dreds of queens by means of the 

 " lamp nursery " and weak nuclei, on 

 the same principle that the compost 

 heap sends forth swarms of flies, are 

 not " breeders," they are simply mul- 

 tipliers of bees. To be a breeder 

 worthy of the name he must be some- 

 thing of a physiologist, must know 

 something of the laws of cause and 

 effect. He should be well acquainted 

 with the methods employed and fol- 

 lowed by the. master stock-breeders of 

 the past and present. Thus equipped, 

 he pursues his course, not without 

 chart or compass, and if he succeeds 

 in controlling the drones or male bees 

 in his vicinity, he is bound to succeed 

 in his undertaking or prove toliis own 

 satisfaction that the honey bee is an 

 exception to all the rules of past ex- 

 periences. 



The modern laws of breeding point 

 out but two great objects to be gained 

 by following them. The one object is 

 to breed from stock, improving the 

 same by careful selection— the experi- 

 ment being applied to one or a dozen 

 races by the breeder if he chooses, 

 keeping each separate from the others. 

 The other is to breed up and establish 

 a thorough-bred race or races, the re- 

 sult of combination of blood and best 

 qualities of several races concentrated 

 in one fixed type or race. 



This is the modern idea of " thor- 

 ough-bred " stock. Originally the 

 term "thorough-bred," as applied to 

 stock-breeding, meant no more than 

 perfectly or thoroughly bred stock. It 

 evidently now means more than that. 

 It means a judicious cross of the 

 blood of several races, bred up to a 

 Hxed type by careful selection. 



I believe it is an admitted fact that 

 no breeder has ever succeeded in es- 

 tablishing a fixed race by crossing the 

 blood of just two pure races. Hence, 

 Mr. Heddon's experiments, however, 

 strongly he may insist upon the cor- 

 rectness of his premises, will come to 

 grief, sooner or later. 



A cross between the Italian and 

 German races will give mongrel hy- 

 brids, without fixedness of character 

 or uniformity of any kind, no matter 

 how far the experiment may be car- 

 ried. Those of us who remember how 

 this class of hybrids looked twenty 

 years ago, see tliem to-day just as we 

 saw them then. 



" CHIDB ME GENTLY." 



A short time ago, Mr. Heddon's 

 " dark bees " could gather greater 

 quantities of honey where the light 

 Italians could get none. Now, he sees 

 OHly a " good season " as an explana- 

 tion of Mr. Shuck's good report. Also, 

 the secretary of the Michigan State 

 Convent'on reports him as saying that 

 the light bees are more gentle than 

 the "dark bees" are. "Who'll be 

 the next y " 



If Mr. S. A. Shuck will look on page 

 1, volume 17, American Bee Jour- 

 nal, he will see that the pole and 

 thread experiment was tried two years 

 ago, and the actions of drones noted. 



Christiansburg, Ky, 



NewJersey and Eastern Convention. 



The fall meeting of this society was 

 held in New Brunswick, N. J., on 

 Wednesday, November 1, 1882. Mr. 

 G. W. Thompson, the President, on 

 callingtiie meeting to order, delivered 

 a stirring extemporaneous address. 



Delegates were received with an 

 address of welcome by the President, 

 from the Philadelphia Bee-Keepers' 

 Society, and were made honorary 

 members. Prof. Geo. H. Cook, Ph. 

 D., L. L. D., of Rutgers College, State 

 Geologist and Superintendent of the 

 New Jersey Agricultural Experimen- 

 tal Station, was also elected honorary 

 member. Dr. Townsend, of Phila- 

 delphia, and Prof. Kroek of Hoboken, 

 were appointed to (ill the vacancies in 

 the committee on question drawer. 



Mr. Rue, of Manalapan, chairman 

 of executive committee, reported a 

 programme of exercises, first on which 



was a paper on " Clamp Wintering " 

 by C. J. Robinson, of Richford, N. 

 y., which was read by the secretary. 



Mr. King highly disapproved of Mr. 

 Robinson's plan. Bees, he said, needed 

 a great deal of ventilation to carry 

 off the carbonic acid generated in 

 breathing ; and it was his opinion that 

 it would ruin bees to confine them in 

 such a clamp without ventilation. A 

 theory was started a number of years 

 ago, that bees needed so little air, that 

 they could be corked uptight in a bot- 

 tle and live for months. He had tried 

 the experiment, and had found, that 

 after remaining in the bottle one night, 

 the sides of the bottle were covered 

 with moisture, and that the bees did 

 not survive twenty-four hours. He 

 thought the best way to winter bees 

 was on their summer stands in chaff 

 packed hives. Another consideration 

 was, that bees in such a clamp, would 

 not breed so as to be ready for the 

 early harvest ; while bees on their 

 summer stands commenced to breed 

 by the middle of March, and are strong 

 >vith young bees by the time the bees 

 from the clamps are set out. 



Mr. Cook, of Caldwell, thought that 

 bees might be wintered successfully 

 in this way, but they would suffer from 

 spring dwindling when set out, as 

 from any kind of in-door wintering. 

 Besides the plan' was too expensive. 



Mr. Rue thought the plan might do 

 well enough in cold localities, but that 

 it was entirely unnecessary in New 

 Jersey, as bees wintered well here on 

 their summer stands. 



The Secretary thought that the sub- 

 ject of wintering was yet the most 

 important that bee-keepers could dis- 

 cuss. He had wintered his bees 

 always out of doors, far north, in New 

 York State, and also in New Jersey, and 

 while, with plenty of honey, he could 

 keep every colony alive, yet from 

 the opportunities he had had of study- 

 ing bees wintered inside, be had con- 

 cluded not to winter longer out of 

 doors. At every warm -spell, in the 

 middle of the day, the bees out of 

 doors leave the cluster and go to the 

 outside of the hive to carry honey into 

 the middle of the cluster. It soon 

 grows cold enough to chill a great 

 many so that they do not return. Thus 

 the strength of the hive is decimated 

 worse in New Jersey than in higher 

 latitudes. Mr. Robinson's plan seemed 

 the most practical way of protecting 

 bees in winter. Many persons in this 

 age are greatly troubled by carbonic 

 acid, more in imagination than in 

 reality. He thought the bees could 

 stand all the carbonic acid generated 

 all winter in their semi-torpid state. 

 It was idle to talk of the bees being 

 ruined in this plan of wintering, as it 

 has been practiced for years by Mr. 

 Robinson ; and he reports that he can 

 winter successfully very small colonies 

 and that he hiis never lost a single 

 colony in the clamps. Mr. Hutchin- 

 son, a prominent bee-keeper of the 

 West, had tried the plan last winter, 

 under Mr. Robinson's direction, with 

 a part of his stock, and had not ruined 

 his bees ; but was so well pleased, as 

 he reported to Gleanings, that he ex- 

 pects to winter largely in this way the 

 coming winter. 



