1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Go.'l 



it upon the ground, and wet it. It was 

 up in ten days. This was the white 

 variety. Sweet clover will not bloom the 

 same year it comes up, no matter how high 

 it grows — at least this has been my expe- 

 rience. In one sense it is an annual. If 

 the seed gets into the soil as soon as ripe, 

 or in time to come up that fall, it will bloom 

 the following season, and so on; but it must 

 have two seasons' growth. My experience 

 has been entirely with the white, so I know 

 nothing about the yellow variety. 



QUEEX LAYING IN QUEEX-CELL-S. 



Does a queen lay in queen-cells? If so, 

 the theory that worker eggs are laid in 

 worker-cells and drone eggs in drone-cells, 

 because of the size of the cells, is exploded. 

 The queen surely could not lay a worker 

 egg in a queen-ceil if the size of the cell 

 counts for any thing. 



AN UNDERSIZED QUEEN THAT MADE A LOT 

 OF TROUBLE. 



I once thought I had a colony of queen- 

 killers, as I gave queens and cells repeated- 

 ly, the bees destroying them all. I had 

 gone over the combs time and again with- 

 out finding the queen; but one day when I 

 opened the hive 1 saw a ball on the bottom- 

 board, and when I picked it up and scatter- 

 ed the bees I found a bee about the size of a 

 worker, but shaped more like a queen. I 

 killed it, and this ended the trouble. Now, 

 if I had scattered these combs of bees around 

 among other hives, this dimiautive queen 

 would have been killed. Until she was 

 turned on her back she looked like a work- 

 er, but the under side of her was very differ- 

 ent. 



Joplin, Mo. 



A SHORT CROP IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, 

 CAL. 



Cotton-fields Taking the Place of Alfalfa-ranges. 



BY J. W. GEORGE. 



k 



As the season of 1910 is coming to a close 

 it may be of interest to some to know just 

 what the results were in Imperial \'alley. 

 I have talked with a number of our best 

 bee-men, and find that they are all agreed 

 that we are short in our crop. Mr. Wag- 

 ner, our bee-inspector, estimates we are 

 short about one-third of the normal crop, 

 while Mr. Perkins, who is a clcser observer, 

 estimates the shortage to be about half a 

 case. 



The question is, why is our crop short? 

 In my o]nnion, there is just one answer; 

 and that is, there has been too much of the 

 alfalfa-range jjlowed up and put into cotton. 

 The farmers have the cotton craze; and 

 where it will all end is problematical. It 

 now looks very much as though the bee- 

 men would have to seek new ranges, for the 

 cotton acreage will be increased very large- 

 ly next year; and if this is done at the ex- 

 pense of alfalfa, what will the crop be next 

 year in view of the fact that it was cut down 

 one-third this vear? 



Cotton may be a good honey-plant in 

 some places, but it has not proved so here 

 as yet; and I fear that many of us will find 

 ourselves in an unenviable position next 

 spring, for the cotton bloom does not come 

 in this locality until the strength of the 

 colony is spent. Then when it does come, 

 the bees breed up wonderfully; but by the 

 time, the colonies get strong enough to store 

 surplus, the cool nights arrive and the hivf s 

 are full to overflowing with bees with no 

 honey in the combs, and the nights too 

 cool for the cotton to secrete nectar. 



I may be wrong in my conclusions; but I 

 am not enthusiastic over the outlook; and 

 to those who contemplate coming into the 

 valley to keep bees I would say, make haste 

 slowly until we see what efTect the cotton is 

 going to have on the bee industry here. 



There was a shortage of water at the lat- 

 ter end of the season, and all that can be 

 heard on our streets is the water shortage 

 and the future of cotton in Imperial Valley. 

 In a way it is very similar to the conditioa 

 three years ago when every one had tl.e 

 cantaloup fever. The people Avent canta- 

 loup crazy, and there was but one remedy — 

 get "stung."' However, cotton is a staple, 

 and it looks very much as though it had 

 come to stay, so that, from a bee-keeping 

 standpoint, the future looks very discourag- 

 ing, and I myself am beginning to womllr 

 where I can go to be sure of a crop. 



The same men operated the same bees 

 and under the same conditions as last year; 

 but this year I have noted that we are very 

 short in our yield. We got a very good 

 price for our honey, which balanced things 

 up somewhat; but if there is a big crop on 

 the coast next year, and the cotton acreage 

 increases while the alfalfa decreases, where 

 shall we be? 



Imperial, Cal. 



NEW ENGLAND FAIR. 



The Apiarian Exhibit at Worcester, Mass., Sept. 

 5-8, 1910. 



BY BURTON N. GATES. 



An extraordinary display of comb and ex- 

 tracted honey, in amount exceeding half a 

 ton, was made by Mr. R. H. Holmes, « f 

 Shoreham, Vermont, but which, throupli 

 courtesy to the less professional and exteii- 

 sive bee-keepers, was not entered in compe- 

 tition. Mr. Holmes says his crop was en- 

 tirely removed before the first of Angus', 

 having come exclusively from basswood and 

 clover. One seldom sees finer honey, espe- 

 cially that which is produced in New En;:- 

 land. Besides the superior quality of Mr. 

 Holmes' product, both in flavor and color, 

 is the even grading and "jDolishing" of h s 

 sections. Buyers of this " Red, White, and 

 Blue " brand of comb honey have remarked 

 to the writer that they are always certain to 

 find all sections alike in a case. This i> a 

 worthy example for i)ackers of comb honey. 



