September, 1908. 



American IB^e Journal 



owing to our long dry spells of weather, 

 it can only succeed in moist spots or in 

 places where it can be irrigated. I have 

 seen it growing freely along roadsides 

 through the Eel River country in Hum- 

 boldt county, one of the garden spots 

 of the State, and which, let me remark, 

 was once a redwood (Sequoia scmper- 

 vircns) forest.. When the trees were 

 converted into lumber, and the stumps 

 burnt out of the soil, the land for years 

 was devoted to the raising of Humboldt 

 Reds — a Hne potato in its day. But in 

 time the land failed to produce profit- 

 able crops of these tubers, as the farm- 

 ers did not know how to fertilize the 

 soil or rotate crops, as is practised 

 nowadays. So the region became a dairy 

 country, and the land now produces 

 large crops of various fodder-plants for 

 soiling cattle. 



Of course this land can again be 

 devoted to potato growing, by modern 

 methods, and bring returns that will 

 surprise the old-time farmer. But it is 

 of clover I was writing. Well, any 

 land that is moist, be it river-bottom 

 or hillside, will grow white clover, and 

 give the bees splendid honey-pasturage. 

 The other day I had occasion to pass 

 through that portion of Berkeley, away 

 up on the hillsides, a few miles north 

 of where I live, and I saw many lawns 

 entirely of the plant under considera- 

 tion, and white with blossoms, upon 

 which the bees worked merrily. Some 

 of those lawns were all of several hun- 

 dred feet elevation above the bay. 



Bees and the Agricultural Press. 



I have been reading several of the 

 best of the agricultural papers of this 

 country during the past year or so. and 

 I have been impressed with the fact 

 that few of them have anything in them 

 about bees, and most of those that have 

 anything give but a meager amount of 

 space to the subject. 



The Rural New-Yorker has no apiary 

 department, but it touches upon bees 

 and bee-keeping occasionally. I observe 

 that its editor knows a thing or two 

 about these insects, and gives them praise 

 for their usefulness as pollenizers of 

 flowers, fruits, and vegetables. He has 

 shown that bees do not damage fruit — 

 'tis birds or something else. 



In the spring the Practical Farmer 

 had a whole page of interesting letters 

 from bee-keepers. But on another oc- 

 casion I noticed that the editor was 

 "away off" when he came to write of 

 bees, especially of Caucasians as "sting- 

 less bees." 



The Farm Journal has a regular bee- 

 column which is written for Eastern 

 bee-keepers, and, I suppose, is all right. 

 Suburban Life, while not a farmer's 

 paper, is so near such that I mention 

 it here. It now and then treats on 

 bees. The June number had a reliable 

 article about a New York State queen- 

 breeder. It was not intended as an ad- 

 vertisement, but it was really one of 

 the best notices I think a bee-keeper 

 ever received. One feature about the 

 article I did not like was that it gave 

 the impression that there was "millions" 

 to be made in rearing queens for sale. 

 Show me the breeder that has yet made 

 a fortune at the business! In the Au- 

 gust number (just to hand) of the 



same magazine, I find this question in 

 its query department : "Why do cu- 

 cumbers which blossom freely fail to 

 set fruit ?" In replying, the editor ven- 

 tures one of the reasons in these words : 

 "Probably because there are no bees 

 to fertilize the flower." 



One of the papers that has long given 

 a good quota of space to bees and bee- 

 keeping is the Pacific Rural Press. The 

 issue of July 18 has an article by young 

 Mr. Ralph Benton on "Bee-keeping : a 

 California Industry." The article is 

 mainly a history of the honey-bee in this 

 State, but I think the writer claims too 

 much for California as a honey State. 

 A column in the same issue is devoted 

 to an account taken from a Fresno pa- 

 per of a runaway team in an apiary, a 

 story that is most tragic, and likely to 

 give the reader a dislike for bees and 

 bee-keeping. But such an accident to 

 a 4-horse team getting into an apiary 

 and being stung to death, as well as the 

 driver meeting the s-ime fate, to say 

 nothing of bemg almost driven insane, 

 is no worse than if the team got into 

 a corral and was gored to death by an 

 infuriated bull, or was set upon by mad 

 dogs. 



But, as I was going to remark, the 

 agricultural press does not give the 

 space to apiarian subjects that it did a 

 decade or more ago. Probably these 

 papers know that such field had better 

 be left to more competent and reliable 

 hands, to-wit : the bee-papers. So smote 

 it be. 



Kicking Up the Dast. 



Did you ever watch a bee gathering 

 pollen from a plentiful source? Recent- 

 ly I did, as the bees turned out en 

 masse upon the poppies in our garden. 

 How a bee would hunch up a lot of an- 

 thers or stamens and kick up her legs 

 most immodestly, so as to collect the 

 pollen on her thighs or bread-baskets. 

 Sometimes a cozen bees would be busily 

 hustling up the pollen on one of those 

 poppies. It was really interesting. 



Too Many Fussy Fixings. 



Gentle reader, did it ever occur to you 

 that this matter of getting out fixings, 

 or bee and honey furniture, is getting 

 to be a costly business? And it is get- 

 ting to be far too costly, too, for the 

 apiarist. And I will venture the state- 

 ment, at the expense, possibly, of in- 

 curring the displeasure of some supply 

 manufacturers, that there has been a 

 useless multiplicity of contraptions com- 

 monly denominated "bee-ware." Yes, 

 'tis time to beware of such extrava- 

 gance. When we get down to one or 

 two styles of hives with a uniform lot 

 of frames and other accessories, we will 

 get all the honey there is to be got, 

 and have much fatter purses. 



This reflection was impressed upon 

 me when conversing with a merchant 

 in San Francisco recently — a gentle- 

 man who would carry apiarian supplies 

 but for the fact that it required too much 

 capital to do so, to say nothing of the 

 la.ge amount of store-room required to 

 house such fi.xtures. And, then, the 

 manufacturer requires spot cash, though 

 credit is extended in nearly, if not all, 

 other lines of trade. 



Here I might remark parenthetically 

 that I would hardly blame the manufac- 

 turer getting paid in advance, inasmuch 

 as I believe one big eastern concern 

 got "pinched" several times by the 

 financial embarrassment of a couple of 

 firms in San Francisco. 



The strenuosity of modern bee-keep- 

 ing as practiced in a large portion of 

 the United States is a pace that is too 

 killing for the honey-producer and the 

 bee-ware maker. Let's get down to 

 hard-pan, money and honey. There's 

 where prosperity lies. 



Wee Honey-Bees. 



A couple of weeks ago my attention 

 was attracted to some of the smallest 

 honey-bees I ever saw. Some were 

 working upon flowers at the University 

 of California; the others were getting 

 honey ( ?) and pollen from parsnip 

 flowers on my place. The former bees 

 were less than half the size of Italians; 

 the others were smaller still. 



Caucasians Non-Stingers. 



I have seen bees that would make a 

 fellow try to jump over a church- 

 steeple, or even attempt to crawl 

 through a brick wall in order to get 

 away from them in the most expedi- 

 tious way possible. Black bees are pug- 

 nacious when it suits their fancy; Ital- 

 ian bees are rambunctious when they're 

 crazy ; punics and hybrids are said to 

 be in fighting trim always, but Cau- 

 casian bees are as gentle as kittens and 

 as meek as little lambs. I will take 

 my stand and live and die by the latter 

 race of honey-gatherers. They are the 

 bees for me. This is the decision I have 

 arrived at after trying a strain I ob- 

 tained from Michigan. 



I_notice that the Practical Farmer 

 states that the Causcasians have no 

 stings — that they are, forsooth, stingless. 

 They have stings, and can sting when 

 they find it incumbent to defend their 

 hives, and they have to be well provoked 

 . before they will do so even then. 



I further notice that the editors of 

 Gleanings are slow to give any adequate 

 meed of praise to these bees. From what 

 I can glean from various sources I would 

 say they are in the shadowy minority, 

 yet time may prove their deductions cor- 

 rect. 



Aside from the "stingers" of these 

 bees, I find them ahead of any other 

 bees I ever had in early brood-rearing, 

 getting out almost before the sun is up 

 to be a-field after a load of the newly- 

 distilled nectar, and they keep incessant- 

 ly working away all day. This makes 

 them the best honey-gathers. 



Other good features may be recorded 

 in their favor, but the above will suffice. 



Bee Journal for 1907 — 40c. 



We still have on hand some complete 

 vo.umes of the American Bee Journal for 

 1907, which we will mail for 40 cents 

 each. The first half of that year the Bee 

 Journal was issued weekly, and the last 

 half monthly, which would make 32 

 numbers. And all of them for only 40 

 cents! Surely this is a bargain for any 

 new reader who has become a subscriber 

 this year. 



