1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



273 



and members of the allied trades to 

 meet at Kansas City, Mo., in January, 

 1920, for the purpose of formulating 

 and adopting a plan and constitution 

 for a National Association." 



E. S. MILLER, 



COLIN P. CAMPBELL. 



CHAS. B. JUSTICE, 



WESLEY FOSTER, 



Committee. 

 Our fir** duty appears to be that of 

 encouraging each district where 

 honey is produced to organize their 

 local members into strong marketing 

 associations or exchanges, and to all 

 such the writer fortunately is able to 

 explain fully the workings of the Cali- 

 fornia Honey Producers' Co-operative 

 Exchange, a successful marketing as- 

 sociation, whose members own or 

 control in excess of 100,000 colonies 

 of bees. He will take unusual inter- 

 est in pointing the way to all pros- 

 pective organizations, and will imme- 

 diately furnish copies of the Califor- 

 nia Honey Exchange contract, by- 

 laws and other data to all who in- 

 quire for same. He suggests that all 

 societies now organized for other 

 than marketing purposes endeavor to 

 find a common ground and incorpor- 

 ate for marketing purposes as well. 

 The benefits derived from the pur- 

 chase of supplies alone will far ex- 

 ceed any cost of organization, and 

 though the members may dispose of 

 most of their honey locally, even sell- 

 ing it out themselves in a small way 

 if preferred, the possible surplus will 

 be taken care of by the exchange, and 

 we are sure that they can arrange to 

 keep their expenses within bounds ; 

 and it won't be long before the old 

 custom of local selling in small quan- 

 tities, with its attendant (though un- 

 calculated) costs of time and effort, 

 will give way to the new and more 

 up-to-date commercial method of 

 Wholesale distribution, leaving the 

 beekeeper wholly free for production, 

 which is his specialty. The supply 

 manufacturers welcome the greater 

 volume of business procurable by 

 them through the increased prosper- 

 ity of the organized beekeeper. The 

 California Honey-Exchange turned 

 over business approaching $15,000 to 

 one supply dealer alone during the 

 past few months. 



At first thought the beekeepers are 

 inclined to believe that the independ- 

 ent operators are opposed to organi- 

 zation among the beekeepers. This is 

 a mistake. All legitimate dealers and 

 handlers of honey everywhere wel- 

 come co-operation among the pro- 

 ducers, as its first achievement is to 

 grade the honey and put it in a better 

 container and to keep the junk honey 

 off the market. The California inde- 

 pendent honey dealers have welcomed 

 the California Exchange, admitting 

 that the Exchange over night revolu- 

 tionized the package, something the 

 operators had striven for without 

 success for ten years past. 



To all the officials of all societies, 

 exchanges and associations through- 

 out the United States, as well as in- 

 dependent beekeepers located in dis- 

 tricts where 1,000 colonies of bees or 

 more may be organized into one ex- 

 change, the writer suggests that you 

 write to him if he can render service 



in explaining the benefits, conven- 

 iences and satisfaction of organiza- 

 tion among beekeepers. 



318 L. A. Investment Bldg., 



Los Angeles, Calif. 



Controlled Mating — The Value of 

 the Sire in Pedigree Breeding 



By D. M. Macdonald 

 >HE old order changeth, giving 



Tirib. old order 

 place to new." ■ 

 I have lately 



:ly been seeing vis- 

 ions of future developments in the 

 apiculture of the world. A beekeep- 

 ers' paradise opens up before me as 

 to the future which may be revealed 

 to the eyes of the younger members 

 of the craft. What led up to my 

 dreams was a series of remarkable 

 prices obtained for Polled and Short- 

 horn young bulls of the choicest 

 strains. All around me, in the north- 

 eastern counties of Scotland our 

 farmers are at the top in regard to 

 the possession of champions of both 

 herds. At the recent annual sales 

 young sires, not yet a year old, were 

 disposed of at figures almost start- 

 ling in these war times One hun- 

 dred pounds up to 900 pounds were 

 quite common figures, and for the 

 "plums" of the choice herds from 

 one thousand to four thousand 

 pounds was not uncommon. Blood 

 tells, and these fancy prices were the 

 result of "blue" blood, and careful 

 breeding. 



My aspiration is that a combination 

 of queen-breeders will seek to emu- 

 late the doughty deeds of these cat- 

 tle-breeders, and evolve a race of 

 bees, or a strain of one or another of 

 the best races, that will prove their 

 breeding by results in their way as 

 marvelous as these young sires of 

 high pedigree. Who are prepared to 

 center this union, and so prove them- 

 selves benefactors in beedom? Here 

 in this country we work on too lim- 

 ited a scale, and continue so short a 

 time absorbed in the pursuit, carrying 

 it on as an avocation and not as a 

 vo-cation, that little can be done in 

 working for progress. Therefore, if 

 at all, the duty of improving must be 

 undertaken in America. You in the 

 United States carry on the industry 

 on such an extensive scale, your 

 varied climate is so suitable all the 

 year around for queen-breeding, and 

 so many firms already devote consid- 

 erable energy to breeding, mating and 

 improving that there is a substantial 

 foundation for future advance, on 

 which the superstructure may be 

 erected. 



It may require Government aid to 

 launch such a scheme on anything 

 like an extensive scale all along the 

 line, but there should be no difficulty 

 in securing a grant in so democratic 

 a republic, if the necessity for such 

 a proposal is convincingly submitted 

 to the powers that be. The present 

 government apiary at Washington, 

 working in unison with the already 

 established firms turning out queens, 

 all acting on well established formula 

 in regard to breeding, could form the 

 nucleus on which to build the com- 

 plete structure working all over the 

 Union, from the Atlantic to the Pa- 



cific and from Canada to Mexico — or, 

 indeed, over the whole continent. 



There can be no hesitation in the 

 mind of any beeman to ascribe a very 

 large share of our success in apicul- 

 ture to the queens heading each 

 stock, and the surplus taken of colo- 

 nies, apiaries, States and the Union 

 as a whole hinge on the question of 

 breeding prolific mothers. 



The proof of the pudding is the 

 eating of it. 



An enhanced price would be gladly 

 paid, as it would mean that for a 

 comparatively small initial outlay 

 more bees, more honey and more 

 money would be obtained, while the 

 pleasure of working with such pro- 

 lific mothers would give a new zest to 

 the pursuit. Better queens will make 

 better bees, better honey, better re- 

 turns. Quantitively and qualitatively 

 there is bound to be an improvement. 



Is all this only a dream? Nay, 

 verily! The design, the process, the 

 evolution is only what has been go- 

 ing on steadily for many years in 

 the Polled and Shorthorn herds allud- 

 ed to above, whereby they have been 

 improved by breeding and careful se- 

 lection on well-marked lines until 

 they have attained to such a state of 

 perfection that they sell readily at the 

 high prices — ten times the maximum 

 obtained in my early days. It must be 

 granted that man has more control 

 over animals than over insects, but 

 the rate of increase is in favor of the 

 latter during a full year. Breeding 

 with care and with intelligent selec- 

 tion has found to work wonders with 

 bees, where the process has gone on 

 for a long enough time. As a proof, 

 witness what has been done in pro- 

 ducing "All Goldens," "Three-banders" 

 and "Five-banders." Color breeding 

 to produce the best bee is a myth, a 

 delusion and a snare. A beautiful ex- 

 terior may produce softness, want of 

 energy and a short life. I hope the 

 splendid experiments recorded in last 

 year's Gleanings have testified that 

 improvement can be produced by 

 pure mating. That would be a gulf 

 bridged over, and this attained the 

 whole system would be shunted on to 

 the main line, instead of having a 

 number of small trains running along 

 on tiny branch lines, all leading along 

 either parallel tracks or leading away 

 in contrary directions — which is a 

 simile comparable to the present sys- 

 tem, or rather want of system, where 

 isolated breeders work at present 

 each for his own hand. 



In every other walk of life the sire 

 is the one who leaves the chief im- 

 press on the future generations. 

 Pedigree in the sire enables the 

 breeder to climb steadily up the rungs 

 of the ladder of improvement. This 

 is only asserting a well-known truth. 

 The semen conveyed by the drone to 

 the queen on her mating trip has an 

 influence for good or evil on every 

 egg the queen lays during her long 

 or short life. A weak drone imparts 

 the elements of weakness to his 

 progeny. Drones must therefore be 

 carefully bred, and if a test can be 

 agreed upon only the strongest and 

 most virile should be allowed to en- 

 gage in the race for mating. Nature 

 has provided an admirable test, but 



