The Life of the Bee 
restricted swarming would therefore by slow 
degrees have established itself in our northern 
races. But it is precisely these prudent, 
opulent, acclimatised hives that man has 
always destroyed in order to possess himself 
of their treasure. He has permitted only— 
he does so to this day in ordinary practice 
—the feeblest colonies to survive; degenerate 
stock, secondary or tertiary swarms, which 
have just barely sufficient food to subsist 
through the winter, or whose miserable store 
he will supplement perhaps with a few drop- 
pings of honey. The result is, probably, 
that the race has grown feebler, that the 
tendency to excessive swarming has been 
hereditarily developed, and that to-day 
almost all our bees, particularly the black 
ones, swarm too often. For some years 
now the new methods of “ movable” api- 
culture have gone some way towards cor- 
recting this dangerous habit; and when we 
reflect how rapidly artificial selection acts on 
most of our domestic animals, such as oxen, 
dogs, pigeons, sheep, and horses, it is per- 
missible to believe that we shall before long 
have a race of bees that will entirely 
334 
