THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



171 



better coniproniise ami work together? 

 Considering wintering by itself, that col- 

 ony which has gathered just a little over 

 enough stores to last until the next hon- 

 ey flow of the spring, is the fittest. 

 Such a colony has stored within itself a 

 considerable amount of energy over and 

 above the colony which has produced a 

 large surplus. It is interesting to calcu- 

 late the horse power required to gather 

 even 50 lbs. of honey (leaving out of con- 

 sideration the force expended in rearing 

 the bees necessary to accomplish it). I 

 will not give an\' figures, as, at present, 

 we can only guess at it, and to make a 

 statement without full particulars would 

 be like saying it takes so many j'ards of 

 cloth to make a suit. Our "besi'' colo- 

 nies therefore, have not within them the 

 same latent natural energy, that onr fit- 

 test possess. [Critics please read this at 

 least three times before sharpening tooth 

 and nail.] 



We therefore find that in order to bet- 

 ter ourselves commercially we must in- 

 crease our average yield, and by choosing 

 bees that have produced a little above the 

 average we get the best compromise be- 

 tween the best and the fittest — we work 

 with Nature instead of against her. And 

 this suggests the caution that, you can 

 not cut out a portion of an unorthodox 

 system and place it in a generally accept- 

 ed one. To the beginner, or to anyone 

 who does not fulfil the conditions above 

 named, and, therefore, does practically 

 nothing to control fertilization, the advice, 

 "breed from the best," is certainly right; 

 for Nature is likely to supply the "fittest" 

 drone, and the worker progeny will very 

 likely represent an average; especially if 

 we allow drones to fly from several colo- 

 nies which are not of necessity the best 

 but are of good average quality. As, 

 however, Nature will continually have an 

 inclination to supply the fittest, the sec- 

 ond generation will likely represent an 

 excess of "fitness" over other qualifica- 

 tions, and this is probably a partial ex- 

 planation of how apiaries become defec- 

 tive (defectuous is obsolete) when selec- 

 tion is abolished. 



WHAT IS MEA3NT BY UNIFORMITY. 



On page 815 of Gleanings for last year, 

 Editor Root states that you can not get 

 uniform honey yields from the daughters 

 of a queen — that they will vary consider- 

 ably under the same conditions. Dr. 

 Miller, page 971 of Gleanings, makes Mr. 

 Doolittle his witness for uniformity be- 

 ing produced by breeding freak queens. 

 If I am correctly informed, both the 

 Roots and Mr. Doolittle practice "equal- 

 izing" generally, and if that is the case, 

 their evidence at once becomes of no ac- 

 count as regards uniformity. 



Possibly I am misunderstood on uni- 

 formity. I consider the only uniformity 

 which is transmissible, is that which is 

 due to the bees themselves without the in- 

 terference of man; except when artificial 

 conditions can be so absolutely fixed 

 through enough generations to render 

 them transmissible; which latter I do not 

 believe can yet be done to any great ex- 

 tent. It must be remembered that the 

 mixing of two colonies by taking bees 

 and brood from one and giving them to 

 another, may have one of four different 

 effects. I. It may be beneficial to both 

 colonies. 2. It may be detrimental to 

 both. 3. It may help one and harm the 

 other. 4. It may be the reverse of 3. 

 We cannot form an accurate idea of the 

 exact effect of such a procedure, and, 

 therefore, we can not say that we have 

 not distroyed any uniformity that might 

 have naturally existed. Mr. Doolittle, 

 however, simply made the general state- 

 ment that uniformity had been increased, 

 and from what he has sub.sequently stat- 

 ed, I think he did not wish to have it 

 considered as any specific proof of any 

 point. As to colonies being as near 

 alike as two peas; we take two similar 

 peas from a pod, they are also practically 

 alike when we plant them (two observa- 

 ions), can we reason from this that their 

 crops will be identical ? It is thus with 

 bees, the best we can do is to see that one 

 colony gets no benefit from our manipu- 

 lation which differs from that which 

 another gets; and, doing our best, it is 

 impossible to prevent some colonies from 



