Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station 585 



wild-flower honey. During the next ten or fifteen days the 

 flow was nearly pure cat's-claw, and at the next extracting period 

 on June 15 and 16 the finest honey of the year was secured. 

 One colony had stored 81 pounds in this period. 



This proved to be practically the close of the commercial 

 honey flow for the season. Normally the summer rainy season 

 brings on a second blooming of mesquite, but the 1920 rains 

 failed for July and were below normal for August, resulting 

 in complete failure of second bloom for this plant. The campus 

 colonies secured no surplus honey after the June extracting 

 and required feeding this spring (1921), a condition which was 

 even worse than was anticipated because of failure of winter 

 rains, and consequent lack of early flowers for spring upbuild- 

 ing. The bees at the University Farm had, close by, forty or 

 more acres of yellow bee-flower (Wislizenia refracta) on which 

 they concentrated, and from which they secured a surplus 

 of about thirty pounds per colony. This honey was light amber, 

 of rather inferior flavor, not to be compared with the cat's-claw 

 honey taken in June, and it was retained for feeding purposes. 

 Considering the area and the rank growth of the bee-flower 

 the yield was small. This plant is of interest in that it grows 

 on "black alkaline" soil — indeed is an alkali indicator. For in- 

 structional purposes comb-honey supers were carried on two 

 hives through the best of the flow. 



Summarizing the results of the season, we find that the 

 nine colonies produced 968 pounds of extracted honey, and 127 

 sections of comb honey. The extracted honey was sold locally 

 at 20 and 221/2 cents per pound in 60-pound cans, the cat's- 

 claw moving readily at the higher price. The comb honey 

 graded and sold as follows: 43 one pound sections at 30 

 cents; 22 fancy at 35 cents; 11 extra fancy at 40 cents; and 

 the remainder graded as No. 2 and culls, sold at 25 and 20 

 cents. Actual sales averaged $21.50 per colony, omitting ac- 

 count of honey fed back to bees as well as a considerable 

 amount distributed to farm employees as a part of their labor 

 compensation. 



The maximum production figures were 170 pounds ex- 

 tracted honey for colony No. 9 and 112 pounds of extracted 

 and 55 sections of comb honey for colony No. 1, both located 

 at the University Farm. 



The autumn season was very dry. Desert broom (Bac- 



