230 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
Similarly with our own bees : the golden opportunity 
of improving the race has been allow'ed to slip 
through our fingers. Our apiary is increased truly, 
but with bees of the swarming type, not conspicuous 
as honey-gatherers. What should we think of the 
stock-raiser who would save for breeding purposes 
the cow-calves from the mothers that most quickly go' 
dry, and send those of the heaviest milkers to the 
butcher ? If we see the case clearly, should we not 
deem ourselves guilty of equal folly in permitting the 
multiplication of the less desirable while making no 
effort to prevent the extinction of those exhibiting 
much-coveted peculiarities ? Is it our belief in the 
natural, and the condemnation of that we call artificial 
(page 1 15), which send us astray? If so, we need to 
be reminded that well-chosen artificial processes are 
not against natural ones, but in extension of them. 
Is it not truly natural for man, to whom has been 
given ‘‘dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
moveth upon the earth, to exercise his mastership 
according to the guiding of that intelligence without 
which his dominion would be a mockery — /.(?., to 
interfere by introducing the so-called artificial, in order 
that that which is already good may be better, and he, 
the master, secure, in the fullest attainable measure, 
the supply of his needs or the object of his desires? 
Natural swarming, then, which gives natural selection 
full play, or even possibly, through unwise meddling 
on the part of the bee-keeper, causes it to work still 
more inimically to his highest interest, can never 
secure results so favourable to apiculture as those 
