RAISING AND INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS. 325 
to lay in a normal manner, but microscopic examina- 
tion showed that while the spermatheca was partly 
charged with spermatozoa, these were not arranged 
in the surprising order (see Fig. 43, Vol. I.) I have 
always observed in ordinary cases, but were in endless, 
tangled confusion ; so that the queen, although able 
(as she did) to produce workers, would be commercially 
valueless, as her powers would be a most uncertain 
quantity. The operation is, in addition, troublesome, 
and demands more knowledge and greater delicacy of 
handling than one bee-keeper in a hundred could be 
supposed to possess. I know that some have claimed 
perfect results since Professor McLain’s report ap- 
peared — one calling the process easy, and saying that 
he has 200 queens artificially fertilised ; but those who 
know most of the subject will also be the most re- 
served in receiving such statements. I do not venture 
to enter the ranks of the prophets, and I admit freely 
that failure is constantly the stepping-stone to success, 
but it is my deliberate opinion that, although artificial 
fertilisation may be of service to the scientist, it cannot 
as yet be regarded as having entered the arena of 
practical apiculture. Fertilisation in confinement 
appears to me to be more capable of successful ac- 
complishment. What has been done in this direction 
wdl, with greater convenience, come before us hereafter, 
while treating of the various Races and their crosses. 
Queen Introduction though so important a factor 
in modern management, is absolutely an artificial 
process, depending for its success upon an exact 
adaptation to varied and numerous bee instincts and 
consequent conditions of temper, the latter being neither 
