1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



23 



tion work for the A. and M. College. 

 He is looking into beekeeping condi- 

 tions in the tropics and making an in- 

 vestigation of marketing conditions. 



State Entomologist, F. B. Paddock, 

 and Prof. Louis H. Scholl held a meet- 

 ing in San Antonio on Nov. 14 with 

 other prominent beekeepers looking 

 toward the request to be made on the 

 legislature for increased appropriations 

 to be used in the Foulbrood Eradica- 

 tion Work. 



Director B. Youngblood, of the State 

 Experiment stations, has signified his 

 determination to provide for the estab- 

 lishment of a State experimental api- 

 ary in his forthcoming estimates. This 

 is the result of the agitation of Mr. 

 Louis H. Scholl in urging that the 

 State of Texas establish a series of 

 apiaries in the honey-producing cen- 

 ters so that practical experiments may 

 be made under actual apiary conditions 

 in the South. Most bee literature and 

 former experiments of this kind have 



subscribed for stock has the opportu- 

 nity of doing so up to that date. 



Mr. H. D. Murray, of Mathis, Tex., 

 reports the meeting of the Live Oak 

 County Association held at Three 

 Rivers on Nov. 4, as having been very 

 successful. Over3000 colonies of bees 

 were represented, and not nearly all of 

 the beemen of the county were present. 

 The next meeting was held in Oak- 

 ville, Monday, Dec. 4. 



Honey stocks in the hands of the pro- 

 ducer are about exhausted. There has 

 not been such a complete clean-up of 

 the surplus stock in a number of 

 years. These bee-men who held their 

 honey during the period of demor- 

 alized prices in the summer have been 

 rewarded by securing from two to 

 three cents per pound more for their 

 product than their neighbors. It is 

 significant that the advance in prices 

 offered to the producers began just as 

 soon as the announcement was made 

 of the successful organization of the 



number of apiaries that it has. Every 

 farmer who feels the high cost of living 

 and is tired of eating out of a paper 

 bag could well investigate the possi- 

 bility of making a start toward inde- 

 pendence by securing a couple of hives 

 of bees. E. G. LeStourgeon. 



It the bees had not been on high benches. Louis Werner, of Edwardsville. 111., would 

 have suffered again from flood conditions 



referred to northern conditions. In 

 Texas, climatic and honey conditions 

 being so different it is advisable to 

 definitely determine what modification 

 of accepted usage is most desirable. 



Mr. T. P. Robinson, of Bartlett, as 

 superintendent of the State Fair at 

 Dallas, has just successfully staged one 

 of the best and most instructive bee 

 and honey exhibits ever held in the 

 South. Under the efficient manage- 

 ment of Mr. Robinson these exhibits 

 have grown to be of increasing value 

 to the industry every year. 



Southern beekeepers will welcome 

 the new eight-page paper. The Bee- 

 keepers' Item, published at New Braun- 

 fels, Tex,, under the editorship of Mr. 

 Louis H. Scholl. The initial number 

 appeared Dec. 1. 



The Texas Honey Producers' Asso- 

 ciation has perfected its organization 

 and will begin operations Jan. 1. E. 

 G. LeStourgeon has been elected as 

 manager and Mr. A. M. Patterson, of 

 the Adams State Bank of Devine, as 

 treasurer. The business office will be 

 established in San Antonio. The direc- 

 tors met on Nov. 25 to approve bonds 

 in the sum of $10,000 each, furnished 

 by the manager and treasurer. The 

 association will be incorporated for 

 $2.5,000. Subscription books are open 

 to Jan. 1, and any one who has not 



Texas Honey Producers' Association. 



In the horsemint districts bee-men 

 are anxiously looking for rainy weather. 

 This plant is a biennial and must have 

 sufficient moisture when it comes in 

 the fall to get its root system well de- 

 veloped. Good flows of horsemint 

 honey are gathered in years following 

 a wet fall and winter. It is a peculiar 

 thing that the contrary is true of mes- 

 quite. The best mesquite honey crops 

 are always gathered after a dry winter. 



The Producers' Association formed 

 by the beekeepers has already secured 

 members controlling over 20,000 colo- 

 nies of bees. This means that if next 

 year is a normal honey season some 

 two million pounds of honey will be 

 marketed directly by the producers 

 themselves through their own selling 

 organization and under an association 

 label. 



The most recent estimates of the 

 1916 honey crop place the figures for 

 honey sold as 5,000,000 pounds. Of this 

 three-fifths was raised in southwest 

 Texas, about a million pounds in the 

 alfalfa country of the Pecos Valley and 

 west Texas and another million in the 

 cotton belt. And yet the surface has 

 hardly been scratched. It has been 

 asserted by agents of the Department 

 of Agriculture that Texas could easily 

 and profitably support ten times the 



Those. Comb Honey Rates As stated 



in our last issue, the beekeepers of the 

 central West made a united effort a 

 short time ago to have the rates on 

 comb honey lowered within reason, as 

 they now are double first-class on 

 local shipments in the central West, 

 and West I 



The appearance of the representatives 

 of the beekeepers before the rate com- 

 mission has resulted in a reduction of 

 t he rates ,_altji^ough they are n ot yet as 

 low.as.:desired.^ If was^'h^opedTo have 

 comb honey in the second-class when 

 properly packed instead of first-class. 

 The following is a quotation from the 

 representative of the commission : 



" We beg to quote below for your in- 

 formation an item which will appear 

 in Supplement 5 now in the hands of 

 the printer, and which will become 

 effective on or about Jan. 25, 1917: 



" Comb honey in section frames : In 

 wooden boxes only, LCL, Dl In 

 wooden boxes with or without glass 

 tronts, two or more enclosed in wooden 

 boxes only or m crates, see Note LCL 

 1. In packages named, CL Min Wt 

 30,000 lbs,, 4. Note comb honey in sec- 

 tion frames in wooden boxes with or 

 without glass fronts, two or more en- 

 closed in wooden boxes only or in 

 crates, must be protected by a pad of 

 hay, straw, excelsior or similar mate- 

 rial not less than four inches in thick- 

 ness in the bottom of box or crate and 

 the package plainly marked on top 

 Fragile— this side up.'" 



It is to be noted that shipments un- 

 protected still remain at double first- 

 class. But surely there will be no comb 

 honey shipped by reliable beekeepers 

 which will be subject to this rate. It 

 is the uninformed and careless bee- 

 keeper that makes the rise in rates 

 necessary to cover .damages to honey 

 in shipping. It behooves us to educate 

 every uninformed beekeeper on proper 

 methods of shipping honey as well as 

 on any other topic of general interest. 

 ■*■ 



Bee Pep.— That inimitable secretary 

 of the Iowa association, Hamlin B. 

 Miller, conceived the idea, before their 

 meeting was held, to send to all mem- 

 bers and prospective members a little 

 specially gottten up 4-page paper en- 

 titled, " Bee Pep." It contained news 

 items of special interest to Iowa bee- 

 keepers, and was designed to stimulate 

 the attendance at the annual meeting 

 in Des Moines. It undoubtedly did; 

 witness the crowd in attendance at the 

 meeting. 



WITNESS THAT we have already 

 two special candidates available to 



