Oct. 31, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



695 



Contributed Articles. I 



f-^^^^-^K 



No. I.-APICULTIRE AS A BUSINESS. 



Plant-Growth Conditions in the Arid and Irri- 

 g-ated Reg-ions. 



BY K. C. AIKIN. 



FOR two years the general honey crop has been rather 

 limited. The great forage-plant of the West — alfalfa — 

 is not much grown outside of the irrigated districts. 

 Drouths and other causes have worked against the main 

 source of the East — white clover — and the Eastern short 

 crop has made a demand for honey from the irrigated 

 districts. 



I observe that the people are prone to jump at conclu- 

 sions, both in general and in particular; and, regarding 

 honey-production and apiculture as a source of a living in- 

 come, an analytical discussion dealing with facts and fig- 

 ures touching the industry as a business seems timely and 

 much needed. Among the things that lead me to this dis- 

 cussion, are the rash ventures made by inexperienced ones 

 going into the business without due investigation and con- 

 sideration. But. how are we to reach these people ? My 

 thoughts through bee-paper channels will entirely miss the 

 most of these rash enthusiasts, for they do not read such 

 literature, many of them possibly but little of any kind, 

 especially of a scientific nature. However, many now in 

 the business more or less, and who do read our literature, 

 some who are planning to extend their business, or, per- 

 haps, to change locations, may be benefitted by a discus- 

 sion such as I am about to undertake. 



ALFALFA. 



Two things that need to be understood better are 

 sources of honey and the dependence to be placed in them. 

 There is a prevailing opinion throughout the East — many 

 Westerners share in it — that the two main sources of the 

 irrigated districts — alfalfa and sweet clover — are a certain 

 supply, never failing. This is one of the things that must 

 be considered in the business calculations. If an annual 

 yield of a given number of pounds per colony can be ob- 

 tained, we have somewhat to build upon. 



When I came to this place the farmers here were mak- 

 ing an effort to grow red clover, and many fields of it were 

 to be found all over this district, although alfalfa was the 

 main hay crop. Two years I obtained quite a crop of red 

 clover honey, then the clover ceased to exist. So far as soil 

 is concerned, any and a/l the clovers do exceedingly well. 

 I have never seen anywhere such immense growth and 

 blootn on white clover as I have seen here; but while this is 

 decidedly a clover soil, white and red clover will never suc- 

 ceed in general. Our climate is so dry — so many months in 

 the late summer, fall and winter without sufficient rain to 

 keep the ground moist — that the clovers do not get started, 

 or, if started, are soon killed out by drouth. Irrigating 

 water begins to get scarce in August, and in September and 

 October we can scarcely get any. Just now — October — 

 there is but a very limited water supply. I get many in- 

 quiries from the East about our country — this answers 

 many. 



In winter and spring — particularly late winter and early 

 spring — is when most of the snows fall upon the mountains. 

 When they are having their greatest precipitation in the 

 Missouri and Mississippi valleys, we are having ours, too, 

 but ours mostly falls upon the mountains. The general 

 trend of air currents is from west to east, and the high, cold 

 mountain tops condense and precipitate moisture from the 

 Pacific; thus the moisture is, as it were, strained out of the 

 air before it gets to us, hence the country at and near the 

 mountains on the east is a dry one. 



Beginning at the "foot-hills" (first hills of the moun- 

 tains, and I use distances on a magnificent scale), is the 

 dry or arid region. This arid region continues arid, but 

 gradually changing to one of more humidity as distance in- 

 creases from the mountains, until when the Missouri valley 

 is reached, 400 to 600 miles from the mountains, the rain- 

 fall becomes sufficient to make farming a reasonable suc- 

 cess. Precipitation varies as air currents vary because of 

 high or low mountains and other physical arrangements of 

 the country. 



The reader will comprehend that in the spring, as the 

 weather begins to warm, the accumulated snows begin to 

 melt and flow out of the mountains; but keep in mind the 

 great altitude of the " Rockies " and you will understand 

 that spring up there is late. Comparatively little water 

 gets down before April, the greater part coming in May and 

 June. We depend upon spring rains to start the crops 

 growing, and, by the time they are started, melting snows 

 above bring water for irrigating. There are other reasons, 

 however, for starting crops without irrigation, but not nec- 

 cessary to discuss them here. 



Remembering, then, that there is but little water to 

 apply to the soil in early spring, rather from early fall_ till 

 late spring, you will see how almost an impossibility it is 

 for white and red clover, or any shallow-rooting plant, to 

 live here. The red clover fields planted here 10 to 12 years 

 ago soon winter-killed, simply atid purely for lack oj moist- 

 ure. Only such as send long, thick tap-roots deep into the 

 ground, and such plants as by nature are fitted to withstand 

 drouth, these only can survive here. As an illustration, 

 buffalo grass will become almost perfectly dried, yet retains 

 vitalitj' and responds when moisture comes again. 



These conditions necessarily limit our flora to such 

 plants as are peculiar to arid districts, and the principal of 

 these, aside from the California region, are alfalfa, sweet 

 clover, and cleome. The former is grown of necessity, be- 

 cause timothy, clover and ordinary hay and pasture grasses 

 cannot be grown here. Sweet clover is just in its element 

 of soil and climate here, and while an unwelcome addition 

 so far as the farmer is concerned, yet it flourishes along 

 ditches, roadsides and everywhere where there is plenty of 

 moisture, if it is not cultivated out. While sweet clover en- 

 dures much dry weather when once started, it is not by 

 nature an arid-region plant. It grows most luxuriously by 

 ditches and water-courses, and around the edges of swampy 

 lands. Because the alkaline soil is its natural soil, and its 

 long tap-root can reach deep to moisture, it makes quite a 

 growth in quite dry soils, though depending upon rains to 

 start the new plants. It is a biennial. Alfalfa is of the 

 same nature as sweet clover, but will not stand quite so 

 much moisture in the way of a wet, soggy soil. Alfalfa is a 

 perennial, whereas the other clovers are more truly bien- 

 nials, hence the former once established grows on and on 

 indefinitely, roots becoming one to two inches thick, and 10 

 to 20 feet long, penetrating almost straight down. Alfalfa 

 never reaches its best until about the third year. 



Now, while in some localities there is more or less wild 

 bloom that gives a surplus honey, so far as the irrigated 

 regions are concerned as a whole, we have but three sources 

 of honey — alfalfa, sweet clover, and cleome, in the order 

 named. The first is now famed the world over, the second 

 is a common and well-known plant in all beedom — so far as 

 its reputation goes— and the third is probably confined to 

 the mountain regions, including- all arid districts. Cleome 

 is decidedly an arid region plant, likes a sandy soil, and 

 growing where neither alfalfa nor sweet clover will. Not 

 one of these plants is absolutely sure as a honey-yielder. 

 Each needs its peculiar conditions to make it succeed, both 

 in making a growth, and in nectar-yielding. My own field 

 has the three sources; first in importance is alfalfa, second 

 sweet clover, and last cleome— this latter not in quantity to 

 give a surplus with the great numbers of bees to work 

 upon it. 



As to conditions necessary for the plants, I will briefly 

 give my opinion, but consider this only as an opinion, for I 

 am not certain. Alfalfa needs to be well irrigated, and have 

 a rich, healthy growth, then bright, hot weather while 

 blooming. It does not yield well in the morning. Sweet 

 clover is much the same as alfalfa, though to yield well I 

 think it needs a more humid air, and probably less heat, 

 showery weather seeming best. Cleome yields pollen in the 

 morning, is visited by the bees before alfalfa is scarcely 

 touched, and evidently does best with cool, moist weather. 

 While cleome will grow almost from the dry, hard road, yet 

 I believe it secretes best with rather cool weather and occa- 

 sional showers. Not living in a region with abundance of 

 cleome I am not so well qualified to speak of it. 



I have harvested much alfalfa, also quite freely of 

 sweet clover, and a little cleome. Because of irrigation 

 keeping some fields of alfalfa in /r/jw^ condition every year, 

 we seldom fail to get more or less honey from it ; but that 

 it yields a paying crop every year is not true. In 12 years I 

 have not taken at most more than six fair to good crops, 

 and of these, generally speaking, I may say two were 

 alfalfa, two red clover and two sweet clover. But, while 

 two were almost exclusively alfalfa, four were mainly so, 



