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140 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



no better treatment than the others: 

 in fact, I didn't think she had received 

 as good treatment as she might have 

 received, but the colony, to my best 

 judgment, was about twice as strong 

 when I examined it as any other col- 

 ony in the yard, and I believe I had 

 something to do with impressing on 

 Mr. Duff's mind the value of that 

 queen. Am I correct, Mr. Duff? 

 Mr. Duff — Yes. 



Mr. Smith — I watched that queen all 

 summer. I got queens from her; I 

 have a queen from her 3 years old. I 

 would not take $50 for that queen, be- 

 cause I believe that natural laws work 

 the same through all nature. I talked 

 with a professor of our State Univer- 

 sity; he showed me what that law 

 was. He said the best illustration 

 they had — he showed me two heads of 

 wheat, one was bearded wheat, the 

 other was a smooth wheat; he said he 

 crossed those two grades of wheat; 

 two of them were bearded; two of 

 them were smooth. Now, according to 

 the law of nature, this head of wheat 

 here is smooth; it is a full brother 

 or sister to this one; they are both 

 smooth; one will never produce any- 

 thing else but smooth wheat, the 

 other will produce both smooth and 

 bearded. 



Here are two bearded heads of wheat 

 that came from that crossed one; they 

 will produce both bearded and smooth, 

 and the other will always produce 

 bearded. That is the law of descent. 

 One will always produce bearded; the 

 other will always produce smooth; and 

 the other two will produce both. The 

 relation is the same; they came from 

 two heads of wheat. 



I asked him the principle about the 

 law as to the heredity of bees; if they 

 could breed for longevity; he said 

 "Yes." I said, "Has breeding for color 

 anything to do with longevity?" He 

 said, "No." 



He took me over to where there was 

 some corn, and said, "Here are two 

 stalksi of corn. Their ancestors 13 

 generations ago came from the same 

 hill; this one's ears are down here; the 

 others are up here — about 3 or 4 feet 

 apart. We took those from the same 

 hill; we bred down with the one that 

 was lowest in the hill, always selecting 

 the lowest ears,, for 13 years; the one 

 that stood highest we selected from 

 that, and always selected the highest. 



until now we have a general average 

 of both kinds of corn, some 3 or 4 

 feet apart, established. That was done 

 according to law." 



"As to color," he said, "that is an en- 

 tirelj^ different matter; we can take 

 that lower ear of corn, by cross-breed- 

 ing and selection we can get any color 

 we want. The color has nothing, ab- 

 solutely nothing, to do with the qual- 

 ity. I have never," he said, "bred bees 

 or livestock,, but when you come to 

 color, you can retain all the other 

 qualities and get any color you want." 



Dr. Miller told us yesterday how 

 valuable a few days in the live of 

 worker-bees are to the honey producer. 

 I believe we can add a great many 

 days to the lives of bees, and that is 

 what we are at work on; that and 

 practically that alone. I will sacrifice 

 a colony for honey and for anything 

 else to get that quality. 



I believe a long-lived bee has the 

 hustle and energy to it to do the work, 

 and I believe it is inherent in the bee 

 to insure honey. They will all gather 

 honey if they have the energy, and if 

 if we get qualities that will stand 

 for long life, we will get all the other 

 qualities. 



I expect to have an apiary next year 

 without a single queen in it under 4 

 years old. To show you the value that 

 som^ of the bee-breeders put on longe- 

 vity, I wrote to one of the leading 

 queen-breeders of the world and asked 

 him if he could sell me a queen 5 

 years old. He said, "I have not one 

 in my yard over 2 jears old." 



I will give you $10.00 a piece for 

 all 5-year-old queens that you can 

 furnish me. 



I have very few answers to letters 

 that I sent out, saying they had queens 

 over 3 years old. One man said he 

 had one 4 ; some 2 ; one breeder said 

 he had at one time reared a Carniolan 

 qtieen until she was 7 years old. It 

 seems that very few of them pay any 

 attention to longevity. 



"We are requeening every year. We 

 should give the matter of increasing 

 the longevity of our bees most serious 

 attention. The queen of Mr. DuflC is 

 an Italian queen. 



Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Duff, what is the 

 condition of the other colonies from 

 which you have requeened from this 

 queen? Are those equally good, with 

 this 7-year-old queen, or are they 

 common, ordinary colonies of bees? 



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