986 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



less there is water. The climate and soil 

 are such that, g-iven water, the most luxu- 

 riant growth can be obtained; and this is 

 especially true of the cottonwood. Nearly 

 all the roadsides are skirted on one or both 

 sides with irrigation-ditches; and along the 

 ditches are these trees. In one of our drives 

 with Mr. Chambers or with Mr. Rohrig, I 

 do not remember which, we passed a line 

 of them some 15 or 20 inches in diameter, 

 and through them was running barbed 

 wire. Posts had been set out, and wire 

 tacked on them. The posts began to sprout 

 at the roots and at the top, and grew into 

 trees; and there they were, mammoth 

 spreading shade-trees, with the wire run- 

 ning right centrally through them. They 

 grow so rapidly that they can be grown 

 and cut for firewood; but for building pur- 

 poses the timber is almost valueless. 



THICK HONEY DURING DRY SEASONS. 



The past summer has cut our honey crop 

 down to a mere pittance of what we expect- 

 ed in the spring. Bees can not make honey 

 when there is none to gather. I managed 

 to fill two alcohol-barrels with a mixed va- 

 riety of extracted. I never saw such hard 

 work in extracting as this year. It seemed 

 as though the water was all evaporated out 

 of the honey, and it was as thick as old 

 buckwheat honey is in cold weather. Did 

 you ever notice that the dry season seemed 

 to work that way with the honey you were 

 extracting? I shall sell my honey as it is, 

 for I have had poor luck in canning it in 

 glass cans. It seems funny that people will 

 pay 15 cts. for a section of honey that will 

 not weigh a pound, and lots of comb at that, 

 when thej^ can for a shilling get a pound of 

 pure honey. E. L. Blackmore. 



Aplington, la., Sept. 25. 



[In hot dry climates, especially those in 

 the West, the honey is always thicker. It 

 is not surprising that, during a very severe 

 drouth in a locality usually having consid- 

 erable humidity, the honey should be thick- 

 er.— Ed.] 



A CORRECTION FROM CALIFORNIA. 



Friend Root: — Referring to your last is- 

 sue of Gleanings, page 907, letter from Ja- 

 mul and your comments thereon : Both letter 

 and comments are misleading. Your cor- 

 respondent avers, "so he is told," they de- 

 cided "there would be 10,000,'" and then 

 goes on, without even an " if," to make his 

 figures, portraying the immensity of the 

 crop from " a mere speck." Here is no in- 

 formation as to the number of cases actually 

 needed or used. Then, in your footnote, 



3'ou cite it just as if it were a fact that 

 these people had bought 10,000 cases, and 

 apparently assume that they must neces- 

 sarily have many of them left on hand — to 

 show that my estimate of the crop must be 

 wrong. False premises lead to erroneous 

 conclusions. On Feb. 3, 1901, the Escondi- 

 do people asked me to submit prices on 

 cases and cans, saying they might want 

 from "3000 to 5000, if the yield is a big 

 one." The j'ield was not a big one with 

 them, and they did not take even as many 

 as their lowest estimate. I am in position 

 to knoiv just how many they, as well as 

 others, did take, and it was upon positive 

 knowledge in the premises that I based my 

 estimate for the whole of California. Of 

 course the careful reader will see that there 

 is absolutely nothing said as to actual 

 yield, but the average reader will sajs 

 " Escondido is a little bit of a side station, 

 and they bought 10,000 cases and did not 

 have hone)' enough to fill half of them, 

 therefore Claj'ton's a Bull, and the truth 

 is not in him." C. H. Clayton. 



Lang, Cal., Nov. 23. 



WASHINGTON AS A BEE COUNTRY. 



Please tell J. O. Haynes, page 908, that, 

 if he wishes to keep out of alkali water and 

 hot weather, by coming to the State of 

 Washington he will have to come west of 

 the Cascade Mountains; then he will be in 

 God's chosen country for water, climate, 

 fruit, etc. Here we have no hot weather; 

 70° is the average in summer; and for a few 

 days, not to exceed two weeks, it goes up to 

 80 or possibly 90. He will find no mosqui- 

 tos, chigoes, ticks, flies, or gnats, and 

 scarcely any fleas; only one kind of snake, 

 and that a garter snake. In winter, away 

 up here in the northwest corner of the 

 northwest State of the Union, he will 

 scarcely see it below 40°. I can now pick 

 the finest of roses, pansies, daises, sweet 

 peas, red clover, white clover, and dande- 

 lion blooms all on my five lots, and can do 

 so almost every week in the 3'ear. He will 

 find no windstorms here; no thunder and 

 lightning, and plenty of nature's best and 

 purest spring and snow water he ever saw, 

 and living is as cheap as anywhere, and plen- 

 ty of everj' thing. But he won't find this a 

 very good bee country, for the simple reason 

 that the summers are entirely too cool, 

 caused by a continued northwest wind 

 which blows over the Olympic Mountains, 

 which are continually covered with snow 

 for many miles in distance. I have kept 

 bees here six ^^ears. The first year I was 

 away out in the woods, and they made over 

 100 lbs. per colony, part extracted and part 

 comb. For the next four years they made 

 from nothing to 25 lbs.; but this year they 

 did well, making 125 lbs. of comb honey 

 right here in town, and the country around 

 here is overstocked with bees, and also cat- 

 tle, which run loose and eat up all the bee- 

 pasture. A Subscriber. 



Centralia, Wash., Nov. 27. 



