BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. 251 



Among the beekeepers of the country there has been an effort for 

 organization for the better marketing of the crop, resulting in the 

 forming of two large cooperative societies, both of which were as- 

 sisted by the Bureau of Markets of this department. As has been 

 indicated, there has also been a tendency for the beekeepers to organ- 

 ize for better education and mutual help. 



The work of the bureau in bee culture during the year has there- 

 fore been chiefly a continuation of the campaign for increasing the 

 honey crop of the country as a war measure, and to a large degree 

 the regular investigations of the bee-culture section have either been 

 curtailed or have been discontinued, except that on the diseases of 

 bees, which is so important and so immediately applicable that it 

 can not be stopped without great loss. 



De3ionstrations rsr bee culture. — Under the regular appropria- 

 tion three men are assigned to extension work in cooperation with the 

 regular extension service of the department and of the various States. 

 There was also assigned to this office, from funds available under the 

 food-production act, $15,000, which was also applied wholly to ex- 

 tension work. Since this work was all conducted as one project, it is 

 best not to attempt to separate it according to the two sources of 

 funds. 



The main feature of the extension work in beekeeping is an effort 

 to increase the honey crop of the country as a food-production meas- 

 ure. The shortage of sugar has made it necessary to increase the 

 supply of all the supplemental sweets, and none of them may be 

 increased more economically and profitably than honey j'and none of 

 them is of more value as food. As has been pointed out in a state- 

 ment from the Office of the Secretary (Circular No. 87), the amount 

 of nectar which annually is permitted to dry up and thus go to waste 

 far exceeds the amount of sugar of all kinds consumed by the Ameri- 

 can people, and this waste is of the highest economic importance, 

 especially in time of war. 



The first work in extension has been with those who already have 

 bees, and no effort has been made to induce more persons to take up 

 beekeeping. It has been shown clearly that it is unwise to encourage 

 the keeping of bees generally, for the presence of the brood diseases, 

 and especially the necessity of good care in winter, make beekeeping 

 a branch of agriculture that demands specialization. However, it is 

 realized that there must be provision for the making of beekeepers 

 for the future, and the most promising methods seem to be through 

 the clubs organized in connection with the extension work. In order 

 that material may be available when it is needed, work has been 

 begun on a program for a boys' club, and a series of special circu- 

 lars is being prepared for use in connection with this program. 

 _ During the year 16 men have been employed in beekeeping exten- 

 sion work, and considerable additional field work has been performed 

 by 4 men regularly employed in the Washington office. Three of 

 these men have been called to the Army and six have resigned to take 

 up commercial beekeeping, the present profits in beekeeping making 

 it extremely difficult to maintain a regular force for this work. The 

 first man appointed under the food-production act began work in 

 November, 1917, so that most of the work has been during the last 

 half of the fiscal year. During this time the field force has held 713 



