It is a fact which I think no one will deny, that it would be for the interest of every one selling queens, to send only such as are purely fertilized. It being as easy to rear queens from pure eggs as from any other, we may look to some other cause than selfishness or cheapness of the price for the difficulty. I have managed my apiary under the impression that the Dzierzon theory is correct, that the drones from a pure queen which had mated with a black drone, were pure. I have failed in keeping my stock pure enough to breed from; and in my opinion, other bee-keepers who have reared queens in the same way, are as badly off as myself. If we wish to improve the Italian bee, we may do so by selecting the best of its race, both male and female, to breed from; not by crossing with the black bee. The type of the Italian bee should be so fixed, that the bees all show the same marking. We may fix the type of any admixture of the German and Italian bees, so that they will have similar markings. The crossing has been so recent in many cases, that there is no uniformity of color. Breeders of choice stock look as much to the quality and purity of the male as the female parent. It is my present belief that bees are as much subject to the rule, as the animal creation are. I look for higher results than any yet attained, when we control (as we soon shall) the mating of our queens; and the low priced ones have given me the most satisfaction so far. L. C. WHITING. _East Saginaw, Mich._ [For the American Bee Journal.] Italian Queens. MR. EDITOR:--Since so much has been said of late about Italian queens, (especially cheap ones,) I feel it my duty, in justice to Mr. Alley, to say, that I purchased one of his $2.50 queens last June and have bred sixteen queens from her, besides a host of drones and workers; and the facts are, first, her progeny are all three-banded; second, she is the most prolific queen in my apiary; third, her workers are very industrious; fourth and last, I am not at all out of patience because she cost me only $2.50. Five dollars will not buy her to-day; and if I have the good luck to keep her till next June (supposing she is young, as claimed by Mr. Alley), I shall not want to part with her for two fives. All who have seen her and her workers, pronounce them beauties; and Italian bees are nothing new in these parts. JAMES HEDDON. _Dowagiac, Mich._, Sept., 1870. [For the American Bee Journal.] Novice. Mr. EDITOR:--Sometime ago, in one of our articles, we mentioned that we considered the “Apiary” department in the “_Rural New Yorker_” of more real worth than some of the periodicals specially devoted to bees.