December 20, 1383. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
539 
1 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
THE COMING BEE. 
This is once more announced on page 497. I wish it would 
come, we shall be glad to see it if it arrives in our day. It has 
been long talked about, and so far as we can learn it is as far off 
as ever. Predictions made about the coming and the departing 
bees have not been realised. The prophecies touching them 
have not been true. Doubtless more assertions and predictions 
will be made from time to time about coming bees and improving 
the race of bees, and hence I venture to take leave to ask the 
readers of the Journal of Horticulture to think for themselves on 
these and all matters, and take nothing for granted and little 
on trust. 
On the page quoted we had a well-written article by Mr. W. H. 
Stewart, an American bee-keeper. After asserting that the 
question of financial success or failure in bee culture must 
eventually turn on this one point—viz., “ the coming bee,” and 
that the subject cannot be too closely investigated, he asks 
“ What is the coming bee ? It cannot,” he says, “ be the 
common brown bee : the importation of the Italian and other 
races of queens 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is left of the pure brown blood must soon be superseded by the 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 the coming bee 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.” 
This writer has fixed the fate of the old brown bee and the 
Italian. If this gentleman be correct there is nothing for us of 
much consequence but the coming bee ; and he tells us where it 
must come from and how produced. I should like to quote his 
letter and mark for the reader’s notice the unsound positions he 
has taken in almost every paragraph, and the self-contradictions. 
His theory is to have breeding queens with strong wings. 
“ Let us consider,” he says, “ 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 have the greatest 
number of and most brilliant stripes. Others are striving to 
produce large-bodied bees, others are striving to get bees with 
tongues long enough to work on red Clover; others, more 
practical, are working for the production of bees with honey¬ 
gathering qualities. All seem to be hopeful that they will attain 
these desirable ends. All will agree with me that bees may have 
•bands (or stripes), long tongues, large bodies, and ever so much 
•energy, and yet with feeble wings all these faculties or qualities 
would be unavailing.” These are Mr. Stewart’s opinions. 
Nothing will do for him but strong wings. He has got some 
crude notions which he is trying to shape into a theory, by which 
bee-keepei s may raise queens and bees with strong wings. It 
appears that in America some bee-keepers let their young 
queens out amongst a class of favourite drones for a few minutes, 
and then cut their wings off lest they should fly any more and 
come in contact with drones of another kind. Mr. Stewart 
strongly objects to this, because he thinks the cut wings will 
decay for want of exercise. Here follows his theory. If a 
faculty or member of an individual becomes weak by disuse then 
that condition of weakness may be ti’ansmitted 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 : Whether a queen with wings or one 
without would transmit to her offspring the greatest amount of 
wing power P ” 1 have tried to condense his theory and make 
it clear, but his words touching the two queens are these—“ The 
one that is deprived of her wings, and those members all through 
her life being in a dormant state, or the one that is allowed to 
retain her wings and compelled to fly as often as circumstances 
would justify P 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 in the air to give them a start.” 
Mr. Stewart should know that queens do not naturally leave 
their hives for wing exercise; that they leave their hives when 
very young once or twice, or thrice it may be, if drones are not 
plentiful. After fertilisation they never leave their hives but on 
swarming occasions. The queens that retain their wings do not 
exercise them, and their progeny are never weak. If he throws 
queens up to make them fly or take wing-exercise he will not 
succeed, for queens thus treated would fly to the first hives they 
see and very likely be killed at the door. This theory is quite 
outside practice, and therefore the coming bee vill not come 
from the garden of Mr. Stewart. If it ever does come it will not 
be found better than those now so common in England, and the 
profits of it will go into the pockets of those that sell and out of 
the pockets of those who buy. Unfortunately some people are 
fond of novelties, and dealers ever bent on commercial success 
know best how to take advantage of these weaknesses. 
The Italian bee came amongst us many years ago amid 
extravagant and exaggerated praises. It is a very good and 
beautiful bee, but does not possess one point of superiority over 
the common bee, and if a cross between the two sorts be an 
improvement we have it already all over England, and have had 
it for year’s. First, second, and third crosses are common every¬ 
where ; for years my stock has been mixed with Ligurians. I 
care nothing for them beyond the common sort, finding that its 
breeding and working powers are unsurpassed for excellence. I 
have not been able to discover a fault or failing in the common 
English bee.—A. Pettigrew. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Tliomas Laxton, Bedford .—List of New Vegetables for 18S4. 
James Carter & Co., 237 and 238, High Holborn.— Vade Mecum for 1884 
{Illustrated). 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and. those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Books (A. J. D .).—As an elementary work you should first procure Sir 
Joseph Hooker’s little work on “Botany,” one of the Science Primer series, 
published by Macmillan & Co. You might also obtain Professor Oliver’s 
“ Elementary Botany,” published by the same firm. 
Murray’s Vine Composition {It. D. North). —We regret we are not able 
to answer your inquiry, as we have not seen this insecticide advertised. 
Rose Shows {E. B. H.). —The National Rose Society has fixed the follow¬ 
ing as the dates of their Shows for 1884 :—Metropolitan Show, South Ken¬ 
sington, July 1st; Salisbury, July 9th; and Manchester later in July. We 
have no knowledge of an “ International Rose Show ” to be held in England. 
Chrysanthemum Sport {I. J. R.). —Although the flowers in their present 
form are not of striking merit, the variety may improve with good culture, 
and is worth preserving for further trial. We do not remember one exactly 
like it, but have seen an old variety similar in colour, orange tinged with 
brown. 
Rhubarb ( Yorkshire ).—We are sorry you have failed to obtain the early 
variety, Buck’s Scarlet, by advertising. A sample was sent to us from Lin¬ 
colnshire some time ago, but perhaps the grower of it has no roots for sale. 
More prolific than the variety mentioned, larger, yet of medium size, and of 
good colour and quality, is Johnston’s St. Martin’s. Linnaeus is also of 
similar character, and is much grown by market gardeners near London. If 
you obtain those varieties true we think they will give you satisfaction. 
Cocoa-nut Fibre Refuse {A Tyro).— To detail the various uses to which 
cocoa-nut fibre refuse is applied would occupy more space than can be 
afforded in this column. You will find all the particulars you require on 
page 305, October 21st, 1880, and page 458, November 18th, of the same 
year. If you do not possess these numbers they can be had in return for 
Id. in postage stamps sent to the publisher, with a request that he post 
you Nos. 17 and 21, third series of this Journal. 
Peas and Slugs {A. D., Isle of Man).— We do not raise our Peas in shallow 
trenches at this period of the year, as in some soils they are kept too wet. 
We have often sprinkled sawdust amongst them as you propose for afford¬ 
ing them protection, and we should prefer it to manure and leaf soil where 
slugs abound ; but for the purpose in question we find cocoa-nut fibre refuse 
the best material, and this is so cheap and useful that a supply should be had 
