December 6, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
497 
fences quickly becomes impoverished, and the Roses in these positions 
being most valuable they ought frequently to have fresh liberal additions 
of half-decayed manure and loam. Much of the dry old soil may well 
be removed. No other climbers, especially Honeysuckles, should be 
planted near the Roses, or the latter will inevitably suffer from the 
contact both above and below ground. Choice Teas may be, and in 
some cases must be, protected from severe frosts with either mats, heavy 
coverings, or bracken tied thickly over them. 
Selections of Roses. —In order to secure the best plants no time 
should be lost in procuring the requisite number. Those ordering last 
get the worst plants. Of Hybrid Perpetuals a really good dozen are as 
follows :—A. K. Williams, Charles Lefebvre, Comtesse de Chabrillant, 
Duke of Edinburgh, Dupuy Jamain, John Hopper, La France, Madame 
Lacharme, Marie Baumann, Marquise de Castellane, Mons. E. Y. Teas, 
and Sultan of Zanzibar. To these may well be added Alfred Colomb, 
Bessie Johnson, Boule de Niege, Capitaine Christy, Charles Darwin, 
Cheshunt Hybrid, Comtesse d’Oxford, Duke of Wellington, Etienne 
Levet, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Francois Michelon, Ghnbral Jacqueminot, 
Hippolyte Jamain, Jules Margottin, Madame Eugenie Yerdier, Baronne 
de Rothschild, Madame Victor Verdier, Mdlle. Prosper Laugier, Marie 
Rady, Royal Standard, Senateur Vaisse, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and Star 
of Waltham. Good Tea-scented Roses, and which are also adapted for 
furnishing sheltered walls, are Adam, Alba Rosea, Belle Lyonnaise, 
Catherine Mermet, Comtesse de Nadaillac, Devoniensis, Etoile de Lyon, 
Gloire de Dijon, Hombre, Madame Lambard, Marie Van Houtte, 
Niphetos, Perle de Lyon, Rubens, Safrano, Souvenir de Paul Neyron, 
and Souvenir d’un Ami. 
Some of the best Hybrid Teas are Distinction, Earl of Pembroke, 
Lady Mary Fitzwilliam, and Viscountess Falmouth. Such Bourbon 
Roses as Acidalie, Baron Gonella, Queen of Bedders, and Souvenir de la 
Malmaison are especially good when on their own roots in the open, and 
are very profitable where they receive shelter from walls. 
Noisettes Caroline Kuster, Celine Forestier, Cloth of Gold, Jeanne 
Desprez, Lamarque, Marechal Niel, and Triomphe de Rennes are all 
good for walls. All the China and Hybrid China Roses are worth 
growing, being well adapted for the fronts of shrubberies as well as 
walls. They are the most free-blooming of all, and are best known as 
u Monthly ” Roses. Of Moss Roses Lanei, Reine Blanche, Soupert et 
Notting, and White Bath are among the best. 
six or even eight months, yet in June and July, and a part of May and 
August they only live about six weeks. Now, why is this great difference 
in the longevity of bees during the different seasons of the year ? It 
cannot be that proper exercise in the open air is what shortens their life 
in summer, for we know that when they are diseased in winter a good fly 
in the open air restores health and quietude. This fact alone is ample 
proof that that outdoor exercise is not what shortens the life of the bee 
in summer. One writer has expressed his belief that bees in summer 
work themselves to death. I cannot agree that this can be true from the 
fact that natural law dictates that all animals live by their own efforts; 
and we find them prosperous just in proportion as they are able to sur¬ 
mount obstacles and overcome difficulties that they encounter. Labour 
promotes health, but indolence weakens it. 
Each creature is endowed with faculties or members, the functions of 
which are adapted to the performance of the work of procuring a liveli¬ 
hood, and if any one or more of these members are by accident or other¬ 
wise disabled, then the creature labours to a disadvantage, and its life is 
shortened just in proportion to that disability or inability to procure a 
livelihood. A proper exercise of any one or more of these members 
increases their strength and dimensions, but inactivity renders them weak 
and dwarfed ; and long-continued disuse reduces them to mere rudimen¬ 
tary conditions. 
While the above is true, it is equally true that over-work or excessive 
strain would injure any member of the bee or any other animal. I hold 
that incompetent wings and wing power is the chief cause of the short¬ 
ness of the summer life of the bee. The first indications that such bees 
are failing in summer is the torn and ragged condition of their wings. 
It Wiuld appear reasonable to any rational man that if one bee having 
perfect wings, and another having its wings torn and ragged, were at the 
same locality and a long distance from home, each equally loaded and 
having to face an opposing wind, there would be a survival of the fittest, 
while the other would perish. 
We have no proof that the general health of the worker bee, at the 
age of five or six weeks in summer, is more impaired than that of the bee 
of the same age, in inactive life, in fall or winter; or that the former 
would die any younger in summer, if it could have perfect wings, than 
would the latter in confinement. It is true that the former is exposed to 
birds and storms, but it is equally true that the latter suffers equally as 
much from confinement and its attendant results. 
THE COMING BEE—CLIPPING THE WINGS OF QUEENS. 
It may, perhaps, be thought by some that enough has already been 
written on the subject of the coming bee, but when we consider that the 
question of financial success or failure in bee-culture must eventually turn 
on this one point, we realise that we cannot investigate the matter too 
closely. 
What is the coming bee ? It cannot be the common brown bee : the 
importation of the Italian and other races of queens in such vast num¬ 
bers has fixed the fate of the old brown bee. What is left of the pure 
brown blood must soon be superseded by the various mixed breeds, and 
soon will only be known in history. 
We are of the opinion that it will not be the pure Italian, from the 
fact that the “ new broom ” has become somewhat old and fails to “ sweep 
clean.” The fever for bright yellow stripes is fast cooling down, and 
honey-producing bee-keepers are beginning to learn that a cross between 
the different races gives better workers and more honey. Some queen- 
breeders are already awake on this important point, and are putting into 
the market queens that are bred for paying qualities rather than fancy 
colours ; and there can be no doubt but the coming bee will be much 
superior to any that we now have, if we manage wisely. 
It will be well, however, for us all to be mindful that after all the 
most careful and judicious crossings have been made, we may, by other 
improper management, defeat the very purpose for which we are labour¬ 
ing If the hees were left to manage their own affairs in their own 
natural way, then the law of natural selection would dictate that none 
but the fittest would survive ; and that “ survival of the fittest ” means 
•“ improvement of the stock.” That improvement would be slow, yet it 
would be sure all the same. The most prolific queens would produce 
the most young swarms, and the best winged drones would meet the most 
tqueens; and also, the best workers would produce more combs and store 
more honey for breeding and winter supplies. But when we take control 
of them and dictate what shall be their conditions and surroundings, then it 
is better that we go a little slow and careful, lest we, in our eagerness to 
advance our own present interest or convenience, do a great injury to the 
bees; for when bees are injured, then it is that apiculture suffers at a 
•corresponding rate. 
Longevity is a most desirable quality in the coming bee, and anything 
that shortens the working days of the bee is all the while sapping tl e 
very foundation of bee-keeping. It is well understood that our present 
bees live from September until April or May following, and be it under¬ 
stood that it is during these cold months that bees in the northern climate 
are subject to disease consequent to cold and confinement; and yet while 
struggling against these unfavourable conditions they are found living 
Let us consider for a moment what we are doing with our bees. Some 
are expending thousands of dollars and years of valuable time in breeding 
bees that show the greatest number of and most brilliant stripes. Others 
are striving to produce large bodies; others trying to produce tongues 
long enough to work on red Clover ; others trying to produce a red Clover 
having shallow tubes to fit the tongue of the bee ; others (more practical) 
are working for the production of bees that manifest the greatest honey¬ 
gathering qualities. All seem to be hopeful that they will attain to those 
desirable ends. 
Now please allow me to ask, What would we think of a man that 
would advertise that he was trying to raise a superior stock of yellow 
queens and using black queens and black drones for starters ? What of 
another that was striving for the development of long tongues, and all the 
while depriving the mother queens of their tongues ? What of another 
that was working for large bodies, and all the while using the smallest 
queens for breeding stock ? We would pronounce them all crazy, or at 
least most woefully inconsistent. Are not many bee-keepers (and some 
who claim to be teachers), virtually acting just as inconsistent? All will 
agree with me that a bee may have bands (or stripes), colour, long 
tongue, large body, and ever so much energy, and yet with feeble wings, 
or no wings, all these faculties or qualities would be unavailing. 
I have thus led the readers along this pathway, over which I felt 
assured they would willingly accompany me, until we had arrived at our 
present standpoint. See how hard we are trying to improve our stock, 
and then what next do we do ? "Why, we just allow our young queens 
five, or perhaps fifteen minutes to meet the drone, and then cut off her 
wing or wings, and never allow her to fly again. We thus throw her 
flying members into disuse, and as I have shown, continued disuse renders 
a member or faculty rudimentary. 
Again, all will agree with me that a mother can by no possible means 
transmit that which she does not possess; and furthermore, that the 
offspring cannot inherit that faculty or quality which the parent was 
unable to transmit. If it be asked, How, then, can the stock be improved ? 
I would answer, An individual, after birth, may, by proper management, 
have its members or faculties developed to a higher and better condition, 
and that improvement may be transmitted to its offspring. The improve¬ 
ment of the race can also be made, to a certain extent, by the crossing of 
the different breeds. If a faculty or member of the individual becomes 
weak by disuse, then that condition of weakness may be transmitted from 
parent to the offspring. Disease may be transmitted from parent to 
offspring; weakness is only another name for disease. 
I would ask bee-keepers a question. In view of the above truths, 
which queen do you think would transmit to her offspring the greatest 
amount of wing power ? The one that is deprived of her wings, and those 
members all through her life being in a dormant state, or the one that i3 
allowed to retain her wings and compelled to fly as often as circumstances 
would justify ? 
If I were offering queens for sale as superior stock I would compel 
the brood mothers to fly often, even if I had to toss them up to give them 
a start.—W. H. Stewakt (in American Bee Journal). 
