18 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



the transmission of three pairs of characters. Here he shows that 

 these characters are inherited in 27 different ways and that in a series 

 of 64: individuals all these twenty-seven types occur. But only eight 

 of these types breed true and of these, four are of each color. Each 

 of the parental types will occur once in the series of 04. The parental 

 colors occur in the proportion of three to one throughout the series. 



When we cross two races, however, we have no means of ascer- 

 taining how many pairs of Mendelian characters are involved, and the 

 higher the number dealt with the more complicated does the matter 

 become. If we assume that there are ten pairs of essential charac- 

 ters concerned when we cross the black with the Italian bee, then 

 according to Mendel we get the following startling results : 



To get the full number of combinations of characters it is neces- 

 sary to take a series of 1,048, 576 individuals. The colors will reap- 

 pear in such a series in the proportion of three to one, according to 

 which color is dominant. One individual of the series will possess 

 the ten original characters of the Italian bee and one of the black. 

 Mongrels, which breed true, will be represented by 1,022 individuals 

 and each will be of a different type. The remaining individuals of 

 the series will be unstable mongrels, of 58,025 types. 



But by increasing the characters under consideration to fifteen 

 pairs, we would expect the original parental types to reappear but 

 once each in a series of over 1,000,000,000 individuals ; 32,000 perma- 

 nent types of mongrel would appear and the remaining individuals 

 of the series would be unstable. 



As hybrid drones would not be produced until the second gen- 

 eration, the extra infusion of black or Italian blood from the drones 

 of the first generation would somewhat complicate the matter. 

 Nevertheless the mongrel types which may become permanent are 

 so great that the reappearance of all the original characters of one 

 of the parents in any queen subsequently raised is outside the limits 

 of profitable speculation. 



EDITORIAL CORNER 



Februarv 17-18-19 — at St. Louis. 



Next month a full program of the big St. Louis Convention will 

 appear in the Review. Watch for it. 



President Gates is arranging with specialists in the different lines 

 of bee-keeping to furnish material for the program of the National at 

 St. Louis. You should not miss these talks as they will be valuable 

 in your business in the future. You are invited to atteiid. 



