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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jutv 15 



I 



NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



Object:— To promote and protect the interests of its mem 

 bers; to prevent the adulteration of honey. 



Officers:— E R. Root, President, Medina, O.; R. C. Aikin 

 Vice-president, Loveland, Col.; Dr. A. B. Mason, Secre- 

 tary, 3512 Monroe St.. Sta. B, Toledo, O.; Eugene Secor, 

 General Manager, Forest City, Iowa. 



Board OF Directors:— E. Whitcomb, Friend, Neb.; W. Z 

 Hutchinson, Flint, Mich.; A. I. Root, Medina, O.; E. T. 

 Abbott, St. Joseph, Mo.; P. H. Elwood, Starkville, N. Y.; 

 E. R. Root, Medina, O.; T. G. Newman, San Francisco, 

 Cal.; G. M. Doolittle, Borodino, N. Y.; W. F. Marks, Cha- 

 pinville, N. Y.; J. M. Hambauch, Escondido, Cal.; C. P. 

 Dadant, Hamilton, 111.; C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



Fees:— Annual membership fee, Jl.OO. Remittances may be 

 sent here or to General Manager as above. 



It is not true that alfalfa honey is always 

 light. In some localities it is a light amber, 

 and in others it is next thing to water-white. 

 But the flavor, so far as I can find, is always 

 good. 



Hutchinson is right in preaching "more 

 bees." I find in my travels that the most 

 successful bee-keepers — those who make mon- 

 ey — are those who run from 500 to 1000 col- 

 onies, and some of them make more clean 

 cash than the ranch and fruit men with ten 

 times the investment. 



MY LONG TRIP. 



By the time this journal reaches our West- 

 ern readers my trip of some five or six thou- 

 sand miles on the cars, and some three or four 

 hundred more in a buggy, will be near the 

 end. My note-book and cameras have been 

 kept busy ; and as the months go by I'll try 

 to tell you what I have seen and learned. 



I find it hard work writing copy on the 

 cars, and trying to edit a bee-journal at long 

 range, even with so good a veteran as A. I. R. 

 at home to read proof and splice out the gaps. 

 Editor Hill has my sincere sympathy. 



PRICES ON CALIFORNIA SAGE HONEY. 



Southern California will not have the 

 big crop that was expected earlier in the sea- 

 son. The rain fell short at just the critical 

 time. But some of the buyers and commis- 

 sion merchants are trying to cram the idea 

 into bee-keepers that the yield has " been tre- 

 mendous," and, in consequence, are making 

 low offerings. A few who need ready money 

 may have to take advantage of the low mar- 

 ket ; but I am satisfied that prices will ad- 

 vance a little later, as soon as some small lots 

 are sold. But I know of some large lots that 

 will be held till better prices are obtained. 



THE FUTURE OF IDAHO AS A BEE COUNTRY. 

 One of the paradises of bee-keeping to be 

 is in the State of Idaho. I have just passed 

 through thousands and thousands of acres of 

 white clover, red clover, and alfalfa, and yet 

 no bees in sight. Thousands of acres of alfal- 

 fa are to be opened up as soon as irrigation is 

 extended. I don't mean to say that there are 



no bees in Idaho, for there are a good many, 

 but not nearly what the State will support if 

 what I can see and learn is correct. But no 

 one should locate in Idaho, or anywhere else, 

 until he has investigated for himself, and 

 made a preliminary advance trip ; and no one 

 should even then think of going on to the 

 bee-range of some other person already lo- 

 cated. 



the FOURTH OF JULY AT THE HOME OF THE 

 HONEY-BEES. 



The machinery is still, and everybody has 

 gone except two or three of the faithful ones. 

 Mr. Wardell is in the apiary, and has been al- 

 most ever since daylight. He rather wanted 

 some help, but nobody wanted to help on the 

 Fourth. Basswood is in full bloom, and hon- 

 ey is coming in with a rush. Every empty 

 comb on the premises has been gathered up, 

 and, later, every frame containing sheets of 

 foundation, and yet some of the bees are 

 building combs back of the division-board. 

 " Robert" promises to have plenty of sheets 

 of foundation in the frames bright and early 

 to morrow morning, but he did not want to 

 tackle the work on Independence day. 



Well, we are glad that honey has finally 

 come. There is not any more need of feeding 

 at present. Each one of the 540 colonies and 

 nuclei is filling its combs, and the bees all 

 seem to be happy. — A. I. R. 



BEES AS FERTILIZERS. 



In our intercourse with the farming class 

 we not infrequently meet people who are al- 

 most if not quite hostile to the bee-keeper. 

 They seem to think the bee-keepers' bees 

 have no business trespassing on some one 

 else's land, etc. Many of these people can 

 not be reached through the agricultural press, 

 for they do not read agricultural papers 

 Some of them, of course, could, and the more 

 professional apicultural writers should, write 

 from time to time suitable articles for these 

 papers. It should be the bee-keepers' busi- 

 ness to furnish their local newspapers with 

 such articles, and thus all classes could be 

 reached. 



While it can not always be positively prov- 

 en that honey-bees are important factors in 

 bringing about fertilization of blossoms, yet 

 we do know that in some instances they help 

 materially. If they are a help in some cases, 

 they at least should stand above suspicion of 

 doing harm in other instances. 



We know of many fruit-trees — cherry, ap- 

 ple, and pear — standing in the midst of large 

 apiaries, bearing fruit abundantly from year 

 to year. If these trees can fruit under such 

 conditions it certainly can not be said that bees 

 are doing them injury; and if they do not in- 

 jure the fruit-bloom it is not likely they will 

 other bloom — for instance, the buckwheat. 



A neighbor of one of our friends in New 

 York expressed his fear that the bees might 

 injure his buckwheat if he should sow it 

 next to the apiary. It took a great deal of 

 arguing to convince him that there was no 

 such danger. 



Honey-bees are by no means the only in- 



