March, igio. 



American ?ae Journal 



new location I want to be distant enough so 

 as not to infringe on prior riflits. Tlie con- 

 ditions in California are so different from 

 here that I cannot precisely say what I want, 

 nor do I know what might be tiad. Are api- 

 aries depending only upon wild sage invari- 

 ably very isolated— no roads to them, a great 

 Pistance from habitations, etc.-' 



I would be greatly obliged to you if you 

 would inform and advise me. so that I may 

 succeed in finding a suitable location. I 

 suppose that it is a difficult task, but that is 

 no reason to desist from trying to rtnd what 

 1 wish. 1. A. H. 



As this correspondent surmises, he 

 has propounded a difficult task, one 

 that would take many pages of tliis 

 journal to deal with in a satisfactory 

 manner. However, I shall briefly an- 

 swer a few of his questions, and would 

 refer the gentleman to articles and let- 

 ters from various correspondents of 

 the American Bee Journal in past is- 

 sues, especially to what was said of Mr. 

 Vernon Townsend's apiary and experi- 

 ence on page 213 of 1910. 



The California bee-keeper does not 

 find it so necessary to be near a sage- 

 field now as formerly; these latter 

 ranges are mostly in far-away places, 

 among the hills and mountains, and 

 the majority are almost inaccessible ; 

 but that does not hinder the sturdy api- 

 arist from reaching them any more 

 than it does the bees from flying over 

 the hills, or winging their way against 

 strong wind currents through moun- 

 tain passes to get to the nectar-fields. 

 One can find the most delightful cli- 

 mate within 25 miles or so of the sea- 

 coast ; further inland one will find 

 pretty hot conditions at times, though 

 after one becomes acclimated the heat 

 is rarely oppressive, except for a few 

 days at certain periods of the summer. 

 It is in the hot valleys that one usually 

 finds the large areas devoted to alfalfa 

 growing; here ideal locations are often 

 found for apiaries. 



I would advise any one seeking a 

 good location in California to follow 

 the course pursued by Mr. Townsend ; 

 go over the ground carefully and note 

 results. This might be done in less 

 time, and at less expense, than Mr. T. 

 found necessary; his experience, as 

 noted in the article mentioned, should 

 be of immense value to any one seek- 

 ing a bee-range in California. How- 

 ever, I would not undertake to advise 

 any one locating in the same county 

 Mr. Townsend selected ; there are lots 

 of other places just as good, and, per- 

 haps, better. What would suit one in- 

 dividual might not suit the next. 



Where Ignorance is Bliss ; or Bees vs. 

 Flowers 



Mr. Thomas Chantry writes me from 

 Price, Utah, of the thorny road he has 

 to travel as a bee-keeper where he has 

 located 4 car-loads of colonies of bees. 

 His home is in Los Angeles county, 

 this State, but he wanted to gather the 

 vast sweetness that was going to waste 

 in one of the rich alfalfa districts of 

 Utah. It really seems that "he ran up 

 against " more ignorance than one could 

 possibly suppose existed in these en- 

 lightened United States. Possibly that 

 is^because he went where the light of 

 intelligence has hardly penetrated up 

 to this year of grace. 



It seems that the denizens of the 

 alfalfa region have gotten it into their 

 thought-foundries — for it appears use- 



less to say "brains" in this case — that 

 the visits of bees to the alfalfa bloom 

 rob the plants of their vitality; that 

 the alfalfa becomes poor and useless 

 for the purpose it is intended, to-wit : 

 fodder for stock. Besides, I suppose 

 the seed does not form in the seed- 

 vessels. 



.•Kny chjld in the lower grades of a 

 Missouri public school would be able 

 to prove to those Utah alfalfa-growers 

 that they are wrong; that, on the con- 

 trary, the bee is of great benefit to the 

 alfalfa, and consequently to the farmer. 

 This fact was made patent in a splen- 

 did article prepared by Prof. Coburn, 

 and printed in his book on " ."Mfalfa," 

 an extract of which I used in the Jan- 

 uary issue of this Journal. I might 

 quote other instances, but it seems un- 

 necessary. 



Mr. Chantry may secure some valu- 

 ble literature, I believe, bearing on this 

 very subject, by writing to the National 

 Bee-Keepers' .Association. By all 

 means turn the light upon those Utah 

 farmers; they will be the better for it. 



Bees as Soil Fertilizers 



It has long been known that bees are 

 among the most wonderful factors in 

 the cross-fertilization of flowers, but it 

 has not been so well known that these 

 same insects also fertilize the soil so 

 that we often have larger and better 

 flowers. Did you ever stop to consider 

 what becomes of the millions and 

 millions of bees that are produced in a 

 large apiary. 



Years come and go, and during every 

 day of those years for many months 

 thereof, the mother-bee industriously 

 toils on producing bees, for what.-' In 

 the end, to die like all animated things, 

 and like the rest of God's creatures, to 

 be resolved again into dust. And in 

 this dissolution of the bee lies a great 

 fertilizer, greater than at first thought 

 we are apt to consider her. One has 

 but to notice the wonderful growth of 

 vegetation in front of the colonies in 

 the apiary to know how great a soil- 

 fertilizer dead bees are. I have not 



studied this matter from the standpoint 

 of a scientist, but simply as a casual ob- 

 server. I feel that if it were tested in 

 some of the Experiment Stations it 

 would be found that the decaying car- 

 cass of a bee generates a germ (to put 

 it that way) that is a great factor in 

 soil-fertilization. 



This much advanced, I drop the mat- 

 ter for others to try it out as they may 



see fit. 



*-•-• 



Acacia Mollissima— Mainly for Pollen 



One of the glories of a California 

 garden during the winter months is 

 the beautiful Acacia mollissima. This 

 is a tree from Australia or adjacent 

 islands, I believe, and is thoroughly at 

 home in this State. It is of a fairly 

 rapid growth, of pleasing form and 

 graceful, feathery foliage. The wood 

 is hard, of splendid grain, and can be 

 used for many purposes where a beau- 



-ACACIA. 



tiful fine-grained wood that takes a 

 splendid finish is required. I have seen 

 specimens of these trees here over 60 

 feet high, and in the neighborhood of 

 2 feet in diameter. During January 

 and February it is in blossom, and it 

 is a common sight to see trees one 

 mass of solid golden yellow — a sight 

 that the eye fairly delights to feast 

 upon. Its blossoms are eagerly sought 

 after by the bees, mostly for pollen. 



outherii 

 rBeedom 



Conducted bv LOUIS H. SCHOOL. New Braunfels, Tex. 



Bulk-Comb Honey— A Recapitulation and 

 a Word of Warning 



That bulk-comb honey will be more 

 e.xtensively produced in other parts of 

 the country outside of Texas becomes 

 apparent more and more, as indicated 

 by the many letters regarding it that 

 have come to me since the first article 

 on this subject was written last October 

 in the American Bee Journal. The in- 

 terest in the subject is participated in 

 by more of our bee-keepers than was 



first expected when the articles were 

 begun, and it is very gratifying, indeed, 

 to learn that so many are "taken" with 

 the idea. While there has been an oc- 

 casional one with an objection to this 

 kind of honey-production, the great 

 majority of the letters show a favor for 

 a change from the production of the 

 section-box honey to the very much 

 more feasible, more economical, and 

 more easy way of producing bulk- 

 comb honey. ^lore than this, dozens 

 of letters show that there are numerous 



