September, 1908. 



American Vee Journal 



dote to the article of that man McCain 

 immediately preceding you on page 241. 

 His proof-of-purity seal doesn't stand a 

 ghost of a chance against the poison- 

 tainted-wax business. No use disputing 

 it, when that article of yours gets the 



they have been buying of comb? In 

 short, please tell us hozv the spread of 

 your "facts" is going to "increase be- 

 yond any demand heretofore known" 

 the sale of honey. 

 Marengo, 111. 



Apiary of Roy D. Tait. in Colorado. 



run of all the papers, I'll have to give 

 up production of comb-honey and invest 

 in an up-to-date extractor. It's hardly 

 like you to pull others down for the 

 sake of pulling yourself up, in other 

 words, knocking out my market for 

 comb-honey so you may better sell ex- 

 tracted; but I'm willing to stand it and 

 change to extracted honey if by means 

 of your pronunciamento "the sale of 

 honey will increase beyond any demand 

 heretofore known." 



Really, however, doctor, I must con- 

 fess that it isn't very clear to me just 

 how the proposed spread of informa- 

 tion is to increase the sale of honey. 

 Tell a man that the bees scatter poison 

 over the comb, and will he have a con- 

 suming desire to buy more honey than 

 before he ever heard of such a thing? 

 Tell him something about intoxicants, 

 "and so it is with beeswax," and will 

 he feel it a matter of principle to pat- 

 ronize the bee-keeper? I don't see the 

 connection, do you? 



If you don't mind, I'd like to ask 

 a question or two. How do you know 

 that bees invariably expel poison upon 

 the slightest jar or disturbance of the 

 hive? And how does it happen that 

 the poison thus expelled is "scattered 

 over the combs," and none of it gets 

 into the honey? For one would naturally 

 think that just as much poison would 

 get inio an open cell of honey as would 

 settle on the capping of a cell. Doesn't 

 the liquid condition of the honey favor 

 the ab.sorption of the poison rather more 

 than the solid cappings? And when the 

 limited amount of honey obtained from 

 the cappings is fed back to the bees, 

 as you say. how can you be sure that 

 they will not put it into the surplus? 



There arc those who prefer extracted 

 to comb honey, and I suppose you know 

 that some very much prefer comb 

 honey. Kow suppose you get these lat- 

 ter shunted off from buying comb honey 

 altogether, are you sure they will buy 

 just as many pounds of extracted as 



Bee-Keeping and Vegetable- 

 Growing 



BY ROY D. TAIT. 



You see by the pictures I send that 

 we combine vegetable-growing with bee- 

 keeping, both on the intensive plan, 

 rather than the extensive. 



Our farm consists of 5 acres, and our 

 apiary of 23 colonies of bees, of the 



Here in this Grand Valley, of ours, 

 where our main honey-flow is from al- 

 falfa, we can manage these cross bees 

 to a better advantage than our brothers 

 in the East. We know to a day when 

 the flow begins, also when it will stop, 

 and we can work accordingly. 



You can get some idea of how vege- 

 tables grow in this country by the pic- 

 ture of our market wagon, which makes 

 from 3 to 5 trips a week into Grand 

 Junction, with honey and vegetables. 

 Our honey is carried in the wagon in 

 regular supers with the division-boards 

 between the sections, so no matter how 

 many sections are in the super, they all 

 stand upright and never tumble over by 

 the jolting of the wagon. 

 , It is really a pleasure to peddle in this 

 way, for we have a good class of custo- 

 mers, carry a first-class article in honey, 

 vegetables, and fruit, and get a good 

 price for our goods. We do not have 

 to hire any outside help, and make a 

 good living and something more. 



The outlook for the summer is fine 

 for the alfalfa. Men say that they will 

 get the fourth cutting this year, which 

 means 4 honey-flows for us. 



We take the American Bee Journal 

 and another bee-paper, and if I kept only 

 one colony of bees I would take them. 

 I don't know but I would take them if 

 I did not keep a bee, for as long as we 

 have been taking these 2 papers, we 

 have never yet seen an article in either 

 about the other but what was compli- 

 mentary, and — oh, well, we just like to 

 read them, that's all ; for in no other 

 papers do we get the writings from 

 such a corps of Christian writers, and 

 they are doing good in more ways than 

 one. 



Mesa Co., Colo. 



HoNEY' AND Vkgetari.k W.\gon OK RoY D. Tait. 



mixed variety, but mostly hybrids, and 

 noted for their hustling qualities, also 

 their willingness for a scrap, which they 

 will begin at the least provocation. How- 

 ever, no better honey-gatherers ever flew 

 than these bees, and as long as they 

 "deliver the goods," and "board them- 

 selves," I will put up with their stings, 

 for with "all their faults I love them 

 still." 



Queens and Queen-Rearing 



BY GRANT ANDERSON. 



There has been much of late in the 

 bee-papers concerning the rearing of 

 queens, mostly written by men not quali- 

 fied to write on that subject. I deem 

 it best, therefore, to inform the read- 

 ers of the "Old Reliable" that the au- 



