1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



377 



I did not put up a great amount of the 

 chunk honey, using only such pieces as 

 were white and clean and could not be ex- 

 tracted, with a few sections which were 

 largely drone comb and not finished. How- 

 ever, 1 am satisfied that here in the North 

 the handy bee-man may add not a little to 

 his income by selling section, extracted, 

 and chunk honey, though I doubt seriously 

 if our people can be educated to ladle the 

 latter out of a five-gallon can. 



Difference of locality has all to do with 

 the question of chunk, extracted, or fine 

 section honey. In Texas many of the Mex- 

 icans and negroes are allegories of poverty, 

 though their sweet tooth is abnormally de- 

 veloped. They like honey, they want comb 

 honey, but will not buy sections for lack of 

 money, nor the extracted for fear it is adul- 

 terated. That is all there is to it. Of 

 course the whites also buy chunk honey, 

 just as I would to save a few cents a pound. 



Of course, you may cut Texas from the 

 map of the United States, lay it down on 

 the map again, and find that it will cover 

 the entire country to Canada, reach half 

 way across the Pacific, or almost to the 

 West Indies; but while it has an area of 

 about 305,000 square miles it has a popula- 

 tion of only about 3,000,000. Let us com- 

 pare it with this portion of the North. 

 Iowa has an area of about 50, 000 square 

 miles, with a population of about 2,400,000. 

 Here in Iowa the average daily wage is at 

 least three times what it is iii Texas. To 

 substantiate this I tell you that I have seen 

 Mexicans setting out onions and making 

 but 50 cts. a day, working twelve to four- 

 teen hours a day; and the manager of the 

 l>evine drugstore, at Devine, Texas, said, 

 when I protested, " Why, that is good for a 

 Mexican." 



I am not saying a thing derogatory to the 

 great State which produced such heroes as 

 Crockett, Bowie, and the handful of fight- 

 ing devils who made the Alamo and Texas 

 famous for all time. I am only jiointing 

 out to our over-enthusiastic big Tehana 

 friend that size is not all there is in this 

 world. Iowa is all fertile, but Texas is not, 

 nor can it ever be. She has too recently 

 arisen from the ocean. She has too much 

 rock, gravel, sand, and too little water, for 

 the precious fluid does not gush out in 

 many places as it does in the park at San 

 Antonio, at the head of the old San Pedro 

 ditch. Were half the population of the 

 North as poor as is half the population of 

 Texas, we too could sell chunk honey; as it 

 is, we sell automobiles, diamonds, and fan- 

 cy section honey to our farmers. 



If my memory serves me, there are not 

 as many negroes in Texas as in Iowa; but 

 the Spanish-speaking population must pre- 

 dominate over the whites, while said whites 

 are of all nationalities, with the poorer cla«s 

 in excess. 



To a person who has never traveled in 

 Texas, Arizona, and other States where 

 there are large numbers of the poorer Mexi- 

 can laborers, it is hard to realize how dread- 



fully poor they are. Six bits a day is big 

 wages, and just about double what they 

 earn in Old Mexico. Had the North the 

 comparatively scanty population Texas has,, 

 and the relatively large proportion of verj/- 

 poor persons, we, too, would, I do not doubt, 

 be very glad to sell chunk honey as cheap^ 

 as they do in Texas. 



Along the Big River of the North the 

 Texan bee-keeper comes in competition 

 with the cheap Mexican honey. It is cheap, 

 but not always poor in quality. I have 

 bought it for five cents a pound — good 

 comb honey in ollas, which afterward serve 

 as water-jars. 



Buck Grove, Iowa, May 6. 



A CASE OF APPARENT DYSENTERY AFT- 

 ER SEVERAL WEEKS OF FINE WEATH- 

 ER. 



Is it Bee Paralysis? 

 BY CATHARINE BBATTIE. 



I am completely puzzled by the conditions 

 surrounding one of my colonies, and wish to 

 know if some one can give a solution of the 

 difficulty. There is evidently some disease 

 that destroys the adult bees in great num- 

 bers while, every cell of brood remains per- 

 fectly sound. It is evident, too, that the 

 disease is some form of bowel trouble, for 

 the bees are spotting the bottom-board of 

 the hive' badly. Can it be dysentery? We 

 have had three or four weeks of beautiful 

 weather, when the bees could fly every day. 



Thinking the trouble might be caused by 

 the honey which was gathered last autumn, 

 I extracted all of it and fed sugar syrup. 

 At present, and for the last two weeks, these 

 bees have had nothing but this syrup to eat 

 in addition to the nectar which they have 

 been gathering almost daily. Still, the 

 trouble has not lessened, and the hive is 

 now almost depopulated. It began as long 

 ago as last .lanuary. At first there was no 

 indication of the bowel trouble, though bees 

 were dying in great numbers outside the 

 hive. 



Many of the bees, although not all of 

 them, have greatly swollen abdomens, 

 which are so much elongated as to give the 

 appearance of a queen. There is a great 

 and continuous disturbance around the en- 

 trance, tlie bees apparently fighting and 

 throwing each other from the alighting- 

 board. Sometimes those thrown off are 

 plainly disabled and sick, while others fly 

 away as if nothing were the matter. At 

 first I thought it must be a case of robbing; 

 but the bees around the entrance acted 

 somewhat in the distracted manner that 

 bees just queenless do, although the queen 

 was present and laying, and every cell of 

 brood is all right. Is it bee paralysis? If 

 so, do you consider it safe to use the combs; 

 and save the brood, as Mr. Popjjleton, of 

 Florida, advises? 



Later. — No one is spraying fruit-trees any- 

 where near; in fact, there is no fruit in the 



