January, 1910. 



American Hee Journal 



tails were carefully studieil tlie profits 

 could be greatly increased in many in- 

 stances. For instance, it one is not re- 

 quired to case liis honey for shipment 

 to another market, the product can be 

 increased by omitting the separators, 

 for anything that divides the cluster 

 will surely retard comb-building. A 

 larger section would also aid in secur- 

 ing a larger yield ; but it is well to keep 

 in line with standard goods. I find 

 that many bee-keepers are shipping 

 their honey to a distant market when it 

 could have been sold at home for even 

 better prices. 



One most excellent way of getting 

 returns is to produce comb honey in 

 shallow extracting frames, and then 

 cutting it out and place it in pails of say 

 3 pounds of comb and 2 of extracted. 

 This is called "chunk honey," and the 

 demand is constantly increasing. It re- 

 lieves the burden of carrying over a 

 lot of unfinished sections from one 

 season to the other, and more honey 

 can be secured because the working 

 force is not divided with sections and 

 separators. 



Vari.-\ble Bee-Keepers — F.vll Feeding. 



Some bee-keepers get very enthusi- 

 astic over their bees during the honey- 



flow and then neglect them during fall 

 and winter. A colony of bees could 

 yield a hundred pounds of surplus and 

 starve with an empty brood-chamber 

 during winter. If you permit this to 

 happen, the humane society ought to 

 get after you. Fall feeding is always 

 more satisfactory than spring feeding, 

 and there is no danger of overfeeding 

 in the fall, for if an abundance is pro- 

 vided they will begin in the supers that 

 mucli earlier the next season. 



Size of Hive Preferred. 



Some of us are undoubtedly preju- 

 diced in our methods of doing things. 

 If you prefer a lO-frame hive to the 8- 

 frame size, by all means adopt the one 

 that you prefer. With me I find that 

 my bees build «/ more readily than 

 they iridcit on/, and for this reason I 

 prefer the 8-frame hive tiered up ac- 

 according to the strength of the col- 

 ony. In wintering I think I get best 

 results in the smaller brood-chamber, 

 for I would prefer a specified amount 

 of honey stored in 8 combs rather than 

 have the same ainount distributed in 

 10. In regard to these disputed points it 

 is always well to say that difference in 

 locality may require different methods. 

 To be continued.) 



"f^mmmrw? 



m.iM^^M9MMim^i^y 



ficflcc^ioiij^ 



or a 



California Bee Kcepe- 



By W. A. PRYAL. Alden Station, Oakland. Calif. 



And Alfalta Bows to the Bees 



SoiTie years back a few alfalfa grow- 

 ers raised quite a how-de-do because 

 bees extracted nectar from their alfalfa 

 blossoms, and, forsooth, the crop, es- 

 pecially of seed, was ruined. Of course, 

 bee-keepers never believed that such 

 could be the case; in fact, they just 

 knew the contrary was true. We all 

 remember the case of the Australian 

 farmers who were only too glad to 

 have bees brought near their clover- 

 fields that the seed-vessels would be 

 fertilized by these insects. 



From " Kimball's Dairy Farmer," 

 Oct. 1.5. I learn that Prof. Coburn, in 

 his admirable work, " The Hook of 

 .Mfalfa," pays a very high compliment 

 to the honey-bee in the necessary work 

 it does for tiie seed of this plant. He 

 says : 



" It lias been discovered that tlie honev 

 bee is of more importance to the alfalfa than 



the alfalfa is to the bee." "The peculiar 



construction of the alfalfa blossom renders 

 it unable to fertilize itself, and its shape 

 makes cross-fertilization very difficult. In 

 the niarveions "balance of ijood * in nature, 

 alfalfa, like thousands of (jther plants, is 

 aided in its lease of life by the insect world. 

 It is not known just Ik)W many insects or 

 birds assist this remarkable plant, but the 

 honey-bee is the m<ist conspicuous, the most 

 industrious, the most eauer, and certainly 

 the most useful." 



Then the author cites several experi- 

 ments that were carried to a- success- 



ful conclusion to prove that without 

 the bee there would be no alfalfa seed. 

 Good I Plant more alfalfa, ye farm- 

 ers and stockmen, and invite a few of 

 the nicest people in the world to come 

 with their honey-bees and be your 

 neighbors. 



True " Wonderberry," or the Himalaya 

 Blackberry 



A good many persons who have made 

 the acquaintance of the Himalaya black- 

 berry look upon it as an Asiatic fruit; 

 others claim it as purely of California 

 parentage. Just what it is I am at a 

 loss to say, as it is one of Luther Bur- 

 bank's "creations," whatever that may 

 mean. It was only a few months ago 

 that our noted plant breeder, in a re- 

 markable letter be sent the Rural New- 

 Yorker, stated that this fruit was one 

 of the many notable creations he sent 

 out. Whether that means that he pro- 

 duced it from seed of his own hybridiz- 

 ing, or if it is one of his "pick-ups," 

 like the Australian Crimson Rhubarb. 

 Spineless Cactus, and, I am led to be- 

 lieve others, including the so-called 

 Wonderberry, or Slnlanium >ti,trriini 

 hurbaiikii, as it might, through cour- 

 tesy, be called, I cannot say. .'Vt any 

 rate, I should judge it has some claim 

 to at least a partial birthplace in the 

 Himalayan Mountains. And all this 



uncertainty as to its real nationality 

 impels me to christen it the "Wonder- 

 berry." And 'tis a wonder in other 

 ways, besides. It may not be the best 

 of our "wizard's" plant-productions; 

 it is certainly no mean one, and I am 

 giving him the benefit of the doubt as 

 to his being its putative father, to put 

 it that way. 



To the bees it must be a wonderberry, 

 for, as far as I know (and I am ac- 

 quainted with about all the blackberries 

 under cultivation in this part of the 

 world) it is the only black-fruited 

 berry that blooms through a good por- 

 tion of the late fall, and sometimes in 

 a limited way. even into December. It 

 makes good bee-pasturage; the pity is 

 that there are not more of them grown. 

 It begins to ripen its fruit, which is 

 borne in prodigious quantities, just 

 about the time raspberries and com- 

 mon blackberries are going out of sea- 

 son, and it so continues to ripen an 



HiM.M.AVA Bl.^ckhekkv Bi.ossoms. 



abundance of luscious fruit for over a 

 month, and slacks off gradually for 

 several weeks more, and sometimes it 

 runs on even into winter. 



The vines are rampant growers, and 

 often push their luxuriant growth 20 

 feet all about them. They should be 

 grown on trellises; usually the wood 

 lives on for a number of years, being 

 in this regard unlike other blackber- 

 ries. As a preserving fruit for jams 

 and jellies it is par excellence. I don't 

 know if it will succeed in the Fast. It 

 is worth trying for its fruit and the 

 bee-forage it furnishes. 



Eucalyptus for Quick-Get-Richers 



1 notice that a lot of the papers and 

 magazines are publishing the advertise- 

 ments of promoters of eucalyptus hard- 

 wood schemes, most of which claim 

 that thousands of acres of this valuable 



