110 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 
is what beginners should endeavour to obtain, 
and when he has it let him yearly breed from 
the best queen in the apiary, when in a few 
seasons he will have bees which will beat any of 
the imported races. It will often be found that 
the best strains have a little Italian blood in 
their composition, which may make them of a 
rather fiery nature, but this is a detail if the 
balance sheet comes out right. 
There is another side, however, from which the 
pure bee question can be viewed. Bees cannot 
be kept pure in this country, for it is too thickly 
populated, and there are too many bees. If pure 
stock is imported, owing to the peculiar method 
by which queens are fertilized, it rapidly becomes 
crossed, and in his endeavours to keep his bees 
pure the beginner often ignores the important 
feature of strain altogether. He finally finds him- 
self with a lot of three-quarter bred Italians, of 
no particular merit as honey, gatherers, but demons 
to sting. 
Mind, I am not decrying these bees if they be 
used in their native land, as there is no doubt. 
that in their proper element some strains are first- 
rate. What I do maintain is that in this country, 
they are inferior to our own, and if, as some- 
times happens, foreign bees of an inferior strain 
are secured, the comparison becomes more strik- 
ing, so I adhere to my, conviction that success 
is far more likely if a good strain of the native 
bee is secured. 
