American Hee -Journal 



on so many acres of ground? and did 

 he have to show so many cattle before 

 he could have so much land? Was it? 

 and did he? 



Now I want to ask you a question, 

 and I hope you'll answer it in the first 

 number you can : Why am I not enti- 

 tled to legal protection in my territory 

 now, just as much as I would be under 

 the conditions you mention? 



To save space I may as well answer a 

 point that you — no, I don't believe you 

 would make it, but some one else may 

 make it. It is that I have no right to 

 any territory, for I haven't paid for it. 

 No, I haven't, but I'm ready to pay the 

 government for it, just as the man was 

 ready to pay for territory for his cattle. 



More and more the feeling seems to 

 be growing that it would be a good thing 

 for the general good that men should 

 make a specialty of bee-keeping. I 

 think you will agree with me that to 

 encourage a man to do that, he should 

 feel there is some sort of stability 

 about it. 



Now suppose a man settles down in a 

 given locality, investing whatever money 

 may be necessary, starting with 50 colo- 

 nies of bees. He says to you, "A man 

 was here today who talks of coming 

 and planting another apiary close be- 

 side mine. It will be a heavy blow to 

 me, for I counted on making a living 

 with my bees. If he comes it will knock 

 me out." 



You say to him, "But your 50 colo- 

 nies can not begin to occupy that field." 

 "Of course not," he says, "but I expect 

 to build up as fast as I can until I have 

 all the locality will support." You re- 

 ply, "But you're not certain just how 

 many it will support, and until you do 

 he has a perfect right to plant as many 

 as he likes, even if it be at a loss to 

 both of you." No, I can hardly imagine 

 your making such an answer. Take 

 the floor. Professor. 



Marengo, 111. 



Extension Work in Agricul- 

 ture 



BY PKOF. A. J. COOK. 



This is what our Government, State 

 and National, is doing for us with an 

 energy that may well attract and re- 

 ceive thorough appreciation and deserv- 

 ing praise at home, as it is receiving 

 from all the civilized nations of the 

 world. Our Department of Agriculture 

 is surprisingly alive, and under our effi- 

 cient Secretary Wilson is doing a mighty 

 work for the farmer, and, in helping 

 the farmer, it helps all of us. The Sta- 

 tions are not far behind in this great 

 field of research. Now the work is so 

 well, organized and unified that the eye 

 of the Government Department is over 

 and on all, and the various States are 

 cognizant of what each is doing, and 

 so all are spurred constantly to their 

 best. This is making each State and 

 the nation alive to the supreme im- 

 portance of securing better — the best — 

 men, and this search and its success 

 is giving us a magnificent corps of 

 workers, .^s yet there are not enough 

 of this kind to go around, and so we arc 

 not getting in all places as good work 



as we will very soon. Young men will 

 see the great chance to fit themselves 

 for work that is most fascinating, and 

 is, at the same time, big with benefit 

 to the world, and so the best talent will 

 be won to this valuable research work. 

 The bee-keepers are remiss in this mat- 

 ter, as each of us should demand that 

 our Agricultural Colleges and our Ex- 

 periment Stations should be as well 

 equipped in bee-keeping lines as in other 

 lines of Agricultural development, and 

 soon we would have more men attract- 

 ed to this field, to the advantage of 

 us all. 



A LiBER-^L Education. 



To be educated, one does not need 

 to go to college or university. Greeley 

 never was in either, and he was well 

 educated. To-day anj' of us who will 

 thoroughly study our best station bul- 

 letins, will find that he is soon well in- 

 formed in almost all lines of science 

 and practice, and will soon feel that he 

 is broadly trained and will feel more 

 competent to do his special work in the 

 best fashion. I am sure that the bee- 

 keeper and all others would greatly 

 profit, if they would procure the bulle- 

 tins from all the stations, and thor- 

 oughly study them all. This will not 

 only give the best that is known in our 

 special line of work, but will make us 

 conversant with all that is doing in kin- 

 dred lines, and we will be surprised at 

 the advantage that we shall gain from 

 this broader range of thought and vis- 

 ion. The man, no matter what his spe- 

 cial line of work, who will thoroughly 

 study the bulletins that are being sent 

 out by our several stations, and the 

 Government, will soon be well-informed 

 in the very best departments of knowl- 

 edge, and with the added reading, which 

 will soon follow as a sure result, will 

 become broadly educated, and become a 

 power in his county and State. 



A Valuable Bulletin. 



Bulletin No. 75, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, is specially worthy of 

 study by all bee-keepers. It is a full 

 discussion of the methods to be adopted 

 in working for extracted honey. Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips is thorough in his work, 

 and is conservative, and so if he errs 

 he will not be likely to mislead. He 

 also is very wise in a happy mingling 

 of the scientific with the practical, so 

 he will constantly broaden our outlook, 

 while he at the same time gives us the 

 best that is known in methods and prac- 

 tice. This bulletin is a sort of compila- 

 tion of what is being practiced by our 

 best bee-keepers. 



It is a fact that it will pay the most 

 bee-keepers to produce, mainly, extract- 

 ed honey. Success is easier, the results 

 more certain, and in case the bee-keeper 

 is as far from market as we are on the 

 Pacific Coast, then the matter of mar- 

 keting and shipment are both on the 

 side of the extracted honey. 



Wf.ll-Ripened Honf.v. 



This is a matter so exceedingly im- 

 portant, that no one can aflford to dis- 

 regard it in the least. I know, as does 

 every other bee-keeper of wide experi- 

 ence, that honey can be ripened outside 

 the hive and lose none of its excellence 



and flavor. This can only be true where 

 the warm, equable temperature of the 

 hive is maintained. We know that di- 

 'gestion of the nectar is not completed 

 till long after the same is placed in the 

 cells of the comb. For this reduc- 

 tion to be complete, the conditions of 

 the hive must be secured, else the change 

 is incomplete and the product is not as 

 good. We must remember, then, that 

 two things are requisite in the ripening 

 process — one, the reduction of the water 

 content down to 18 or 20 percent, and 

 also to complete the work of digestion. 

 The latter is as important as the former. 

 The fact that the conditions are sure in 

 the hive, and not at all sure outside, 

 makes it wise, and the only wise course, 

 to extract only after the honey is fully 

 ripened. To be sure, it saves some la- 

 bor to extract just as soon as the bees 

 commence to cap the honey, but the 

 danger that we may not if we follow this 

 practice secure the very best article of 

 honey, which should always be the aim 

 of our methods and practice, makes 

 me advise all to leave the honey till all 

 is capped. 



Reliquefying Granulated Honey. 



I think that Dr. Phillips has not em- 

 phasized the importance of this matter 

 any too much. I do not think that di- 

 rect heat is to be avoided, however, 

 if applied in the best way. In case we 

 use the method advised, we are quite 

 likely to get the water too hot and in- 

 jure the flavor of our product. I believe 

 that our market for extracted honey 

 has been almost as much injured by 

 putting into the sales rooms an article 

 where the flavor has been injured by 

 too much heat, as in any way. Without 

 doubt the very best way to reduce the 

 honey is to subject it to a warm tem- 

 perature, say of 100 degrees, or a little 

 more or less, and let it liquefy slowly. 

 This takes time, but it will give us a 

 product that is no whit inferior to hon- 

 ey that has never crystallized at all. 

 And if it pays always to produce the 

 best, can we not afford to take the 

 trouble? 



-"Vgain, if draining off the levulose and 

 melting the dextrose, gives us a superior 

 article (and I have never eaten anv 

 that wos so fine), I see no objection 

 to doing it. Of course this is not honey, 

 nor is cream milk; yet we shall con- 

 tinue taking cream at our house. Of 

 course, this is of no practical mipoi'.- 

 ance as it will never be done to any ex- 

 tent, but to secure a little superior hon- 

 ey for one's own use, it is entirely 

 proper, and in no way wrong, at least 

 so it seems to me. 



I hope all our readers will get this 

 valuable bulletin and thoroughly study it. 



Claremont, Calif. 



Apiarian Rights of Priority 

 Questioned 



BY N. P. AXDEKSO.V. 



Some time ago, Editor E. R. Root, in 

 Gleanings, wrote a considerable article 

 in behalf of the rights of priority, 

 strongly defending same, and even go- 

 ing so far as to say that it would be a 

 desirable thing to have the government 



