20 THE PRINCIPLES OF BEE BREEDING. 
establish an improved breed of bees. The experiments instituted 
were so numerous, that they might be told by fifties or hundreds. 
1. Crossing the black bee with the Italian.— When the Italian 
bee was introduced by Dzierzon, it was supposed that the workers 
produced by the Italian queen, fertilized by a black drone, would 
show an intermingling of the external markings of the parents. 
But this was soon found to be a mistake. In the second genera- 
tion already, degeneration became apparent — the hybrids divided 
numerically, one portion resembling the Italian, and the other the 
k bees. For the purpose of experiment, I continued breeding 
in these two directions, and in the fourth or fifth generation 
reached again on the one hand the pure Italian bee, and on the 
other in the fourth degree, the pure black bee. The hybridism was 
thus again resolved into its ataval elements. The facts thus experi- 
mentally ascertained are, however, of very subordinate significance, 
elucidating only the coloration of the hybrids. Of higher and 
much greater practical value, on the other hand, is the solution of 
the inquiry :—“ Do the constitutional characteristics of the two 
become commingled in the black-Italian hybrids? Or are those of 
the one variety or race simply transmitted to the other?” It is 
well known that very different answers have been given to these 
questions. Some breeders state that the hybrids of the black and 
Italian bees possess the constitutional properties of the Italians; 
while others allege the direct contrary. Some assert that the 
hybrids are more irascible than the black bees; others again say 
they are less so. Some declare that they will store more honey, 
while others say that they will store less, etc. ‘The truth is, the 
constitutional properties of the two are of an exceedingly subtile 
nature, which makes it extremely difficult to base a reply on the 
results of a cross between them. It is only by crossing the black 
bee with the Egyptian that we can obtain any clear light on the 
point under consideration. : 
2. Crossing the black bee and the Egyptian. — When the Egyp- 
Yan: bee was consigned to me by the Berlin Acclimatization 
Society, I was of opinion that this bee was of little, or at most of 
only slight importance in a scientific point of view, for I supposed 
then that whatever was to be learned of the proposed mysteries of ` 
fi had — been revealed by means of the Italians. 
‘ow, however, I feel assured that the future of apistical theo 4 
tains to the Egyptian bee. - ne _— 
Very soon some of the Egyptian queens became fertilized by 
