September, 1913. 



303 



American Hm Journal 



TEXAS 





HortK io^di T K St ^Its 



In a State of such magnitude there is^rootn for organization among beekeepers, and the State Department of Agriculture 



has a great field in which to extend its work. 



be given thought. It is but a matter 

 of time when bee-keepers will have 

 to pay more attention to this. There 

 is at the present time a great variance 

 in the manner of packing the regular 

 sizes of honey packages adopted as 

 standard sizes by the Texas bee-keep- 

 ers. It has been a custom of many 

 to pack short weight gallons, halt 

 gallons and quarts, as well as sixty 

 pound cans, and sell them at so 

 much per pound and charge for 12 

 pounds, 6 pounds, 3 pounds, and 60 

 pounds. There is also a great differ- 

 ence of opinion even among the 

 best bee-keepers as to the proper pro- 

 portion of comb and extracted honey 

 in bulk comb honey. It is essential 

 that the State Bee-keepers' Associa- 

 tion go on record as demanding that 

 all packages be packed according to 

 a set standard. There should be uni- 

 formity in packing as W(>11 as grad- 

 ing. Then the price for.it should be 

 looked after. There is no reason why 



a short crop of honey should not 

 bring the bee-keepers more than 

 when there is a big crop. My obser- 

 vations are that there is hardly any 

 difference, due, I believe, to the lack 



of proper attention on the part of 

 bee-keepers. It is useless for any in- 

 dividual to try to accomplish these 

 results if the bee-keepers of the state 

 will not co-operate. 



BvR Western ^ Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



Some Hive Tools I Have Seen in Honey 

 Shops and Apiaries 



There is a dearth of handy hive tools. 

 The supply manufacturers make a few 

 useful ones, but there are not enough 

 for the various uses for which a bee- 

 man needs a special tool, and few of 

 the manufactured tools I have seen are 



strong enough. Perhaps one reason 

 is that the sale is too limited. It is 

 easy for each bee-keeper to go to his 

 blacksmith and have a few strong tools 

 hammered out for a dollar. 



Mr. W. B. Walcher, of Boulder, uses 

 a handy hive and super scraping tool 

 that is a joy to use. Figure 1 shows 

 how it looks. A mower tooth is ground 



