and more good men would have gone into the business. I t is true that higher priced queens are marketed but most bee keepers buy the cheap untested queens. Considering all these facts, it is to be doubted whether the honeyproducer should pay out money for queens when he can produce even better stock in his own yard. There are fortunately a few men in the queen-rearing business worthy of the'name of breeders, but, until the honey producer is sure that he is dealing with one of that class, it

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... be better for him to do his own queen rearing. Bees are now kept under decidedly unnatural conditions, and the methods of manipulation have advanced so that the bee keeper is able to protect even his very weak colonies during the winter. While of course this is desirable from the standpoint of the immediate need of a large number of colonies, it also results in the preservation of very undesirable stock which would not live through the winter unless cared for by the bee keeper. Unless the honey producer does his own weeding out, which he can easily do, to further his own interests, it might be better to give nature a chance to destroy queens which are not worth keeping. Of course, carelessness in wintering is not recommended but the bee keeper should take matters into his own hands and see to it that only first class stock with good honey producing records remains in the yard. There are some remarkable records of the work of single colonies of bees in one season, the figures running up into hundreds of pounds. It is to be regretted that queens with such records behind them have not been saved as breeders but most of them have died without leaving a long line of offspring. Fortunately, however, some of our breeders and honey producers are studying breeding problems, and we have reason to hope for better things in the near future. In the course of breeding work with a plant like alfalfa it is sometimes advisable or possibly necessary to establish a certain strain from a single individual. This is especially true where it is not possible to select a number of plants closely approaching the desired type, these plants to be allowed to cross-pollinate and produce a flux of the several individuals as suggested by Hays before this Association in 1905. The main reason for not always permitting the ordinary cross-pollination to take place is that in the case of an individual deviating to a marked degree toward a desired type it can hardly be pollinated with pollen from the less desirable individuals without reducing the standard already attained by the one plant. A great deal of work needs to be done on the subject of the fertilization of alfalfa with the object of determining to what extent the