GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1918 



for the honey crop that we had last year. 

 Crop conditions are very favorable. ' ' — S. D. 

 House, Onondaga County, N. Y. 



' ' James Bachler on page 234, April Glean- 

 ings, says that by increasing the amount of 

 honey he consumes he is bothered but little 

 with rheumatism, etc. I have just passed my 

 82nd birthday; have kept bees since 1864; 

 have not eaten two pounds of honey per 

 year; consequently, I never had the rheuma- 

 tism." — J. L. Anderson, McHenry County, 

 Ills. 



' ' I don 't think our loss will exceed 30 per 

 cent at the most. Have reports from a num- 

 ber of men in this locality that run from 50 

 to 80 per cent loss, and they all report bees 

 very weak. I have fed one yard about 300 

 pounds of sugar. Had to feed all our bees 

 during April. I don 't think I ever saw 

 clover look any better. ' ' — A. L. Coggshall, 

 Tompkins County, N. Y. 



' ' Things are looking good to us here on 

 the Tombigbee Kiver from a honey stand- 

 point. The bees are working overtime on 

 tupelo. Beekeepers report their bees in bet- 

 ter shape, with fewer losses and more brood 

 and honey than they have ever known be- 

 fore. We beekeepers here will surely get in- 

 to the next Liberty loan in great shape, if 

 Uncle Sam needs it. ' ' — J. E. Sutton, Clarke 

 County, Ala. 



"A letter by Lafayette, date of June 28, 

 1827, just presented to Consul-General Skin- 

 ner in London as a gift to the American 

 Government, speaks of the invention of a bee 

 hive and of his interest in agricultural de- 

 velopment generally. Possibly you may be 

 able to follow this up so that we may all 

 know to what extent Lafayette was inter- 

 ested in bees." — Wm. H. Ellis, Chester Coun- 

 ty, Pa. 



' ' I am constantly receiving letters from 

 my old customers inquiring about queens. I 

 regret to have to disappoint them, but there 

 does sometimes come a time in the life of a 

 queen-breeder when it is absolutely impos- 

 sible to raise queens. The fearful drouth in 

 southeast Texas has put me almost clean out 

 of the queen business. I have often wished 

 that there was some way in which I could 

 tell each and every one of my customers just 

 how badly hit I have been. ' ' — H. D. Murry, 

 Lamar County, Tex. 



"Our pleasant March weather was follow- 

 ed by a very cold and disagreeable April. 

 Three times during that month the ther- 

 mometer registered 20 degrees F. Three 

 good drizzling rains prepared the soil for 

 what now appears will be a record breaking 

 season for crops of all kinds. May opens up 

 very warm, and is fast overcoming the set- 

 back by cold weather in April. The pastures 

 present green blankets of white clover and 

 the fruit bloom is profuse to the limit. * * 

 The severe winter losses keep percolating 

 thru and were not overestimated at any time. 

 There are yet beekeepers who still try to 



winter in a barn, or a shed, as well as those 

 who leave them on the summer stands. There 

 was an abundance of winter stores in most 

 instances. ' ' — Hamlin Miller, Iowa. 



' ' In his address to the beekeepers of our 

 country Prof. Baldwin of the Department of 

 Agriculture emphasized speeding up of all 

 colonies to the limit of production, saying 

 there would be an approximate sugar short- 

 age of 20 per cent this year and beekeepers 

 were expected to make up in part this short- 

 age. He strongly urged the production of 

 extracted honey, and, if not extracted, then 

 chunk comb honey, in preference to section 

 honey which he said, was a ' frill ' and we 

 had no time for frills when at war. ' ' — S. H. 

 Burton, Daviess County, Ind. 



' ' If such conditions were prevalent every 

 year as now, this would be some bee country. 

 The bees today (Apr. 29) are what might be 

 termed fairly strong colonies only, but the 

 weather is warm, and many colonies with 

 only half to two-thirds population are full of 

 honey and the queen is honey-bound. In my 

 own apiary I have hives two stories, 10- 

 frame each, from which readily could be ex- 

 tracted 40 pounds of honey, all from maple. 

 Never before in my experience has there 

 been such a flow and such weather to gather 

 it. ' ' — E. J. Ladd, Multnomah County., Ore. 



"Stress of work has given me little time 

 to inquire into the way in which the Arabs 

 store and collect honey here. The Sultaa of 

 Alakalla presented the mess I am in — head- 

 quarters mess — with another tin of honey a 

 short time ago. It was very carelessly col- 

 lected, being full of young and capped brood 

 and pollen. It was supplied in the usual 

 round tin they make use of, about a five- 

 pound tin, I should say. The honey itself 

 is decidedly good, of rich flavor and savors 

 of the date. I have examined the date-palm 

 flower, and do not think it gives honey — 

 not in any quantity. ' ' — E. H. Macdonald, 

 Capt. L, 1st South Lancashire Eegt., Aden 

 Field Corps, Arabia. 



' ' The eastern part of the Uintah Indian 

 Reservation is in Uintah County and the 

 western part has been organized into Du- 

 chesne County. The altitude is about 5,300 

 feet, and the precipitation runs from 5 to 

 12 inches. Most of the Indian allotments 

 that have been improved have been in 

 charge of white men who leased the land 

 from the Indians thru the agency officers. 

 The agency furnished alfalfa and sweet 

 clover seed to sow the land with, and the 

 leaseholders were under contract to grow 

 and sow these crops and have a large pro- 

 portion of the 1n"l ' -oduciTigf them at the 

 end of their lease. In consequence of this 

 policy, which has scattered the seed of sweet 

 clover over all of the waste ground where the 

 water runs, the lionoy-producing industry is 

 growing fast, and these two counties will 

 soon produce more honey than all the rest of 

 Utah."-Joab Collier, Uintah County, Utah, 

 Mar. 27. 



