320 THE ITALIAN OR LIGUEIAN BEE. 



gradations of domestic fowls from the enormous Asiatic, 

 to the tiny Bantam. All these differences have followed 

 some adequate producing cause, and had we the whole 

 genealogy in each case, we could doubtless go back to 

 one original stock. Great changes are effected by select- 

 ing some point desirable to propagate, such as size, sym- 

 metry of proportions, or color, and breeding from such 

 only as exhibit the desired qualities in the greatest per- 

 fection. The longer we breed in one direction, or the 

 greater the number of generations that have exhibited 

 particular qualities, the more we expect to find those 

 points in the offspring, and the more the chances of their 

 showing the original type, are diminished. But a few 

 years since, a man conceived a fancy for breeding Shang- 

 hai fowls with short legs. He obtained by the first cross 

 but a few specimens. Selecting the largest to breed 

 from, he obtained a greater proportion of the mixed ones, 

 and after a few generations, he had almost established a 

 new variety, yet the bodies were not quite as large as he 

 wished. By crossing again with the large ones, he ob- 

 tained a few with short legs, three-quarter size, and by 

 continued experiments, he was finally able to show these 

 fowls with short legs, and bodies so little inferior in size 

 as not to be distinguished by that alone. 



Such examples of progressive improvement point out 

 the way in which we can improve these bees in color, if 

 in nothing else. "We have only to breed from the best spe- 

 cimens, and as several generations can be matured in one 

 summer, thei-e should be rapid progress.* Until all the 

 bees in a neighborhood are of this kind, there will be 

 constant danger of mixing with natives. There must be 

 continual vigilance, to discover and remove all such. It 

 will not be long before all bee-keepers become satisfied of 



* At present very many of the pure queens are dark colored, even when 

 their workers are all liantlEomely marked. We should get rid of this feature. 



