August, lyi" 



277 



American Hee Journal 



vide the beekeeper with dependMble 

 information that will enable hini to 

 improve his locality, but to iiivosti- 

 gate the conditions that influence nec- 

 tar secretion, the insects that com- 

 pete with the honey bee in gathering 

 the nectar, and assist the bee in 

 plant poUenation. These are only a 

 few ot the many problems under in- 

 vestigation in the department of bot- 

 any by Dr. Pammel and his assist- 

 ants. It is estimated that at least 

 four years will be necessary to cover 

 the ground laid out in these investi- 

 gation and Dr. Pammel is anxious to 

 get in touch with the wide aw'ake bee 

 keepers of Iowa and surrounding 

 states in order to learn of any pecu- 

 liar conditions that may arise. It the 

 beekeepers of Iowa could realize the 

 possible \alue of this work, they 

 would co-operate most heartily and 

 send to Dr. Pammel at Ames samples 

 of the plants on which they find bees 

 working and make notes of the length 

 ot time they are seen to work, etc. 

 Dr. Pammel will be at the field meet 

 at Hamilton September 7th to get 

 personally acquainted with the bee- 

 keepers present, and will talk on the 

 "Place ot Botany in the Beekeepers' 

 Education" at Keokuk the follow-ing 

 day. 



fROF. C. E. BARTHOLOMEW. 



Prof. Bartholomew is no stranger 

 to the beekeepers who attend the 

 Iowa conventions. At the last meet- 

 ing he was elected President of the 

 association. The beekeepers have 

 confidence in Prof. Bartholomew, 



both as to his ability and his loyalty 

 to the business of beekeeping. He has 

 been a practical beekeeper as well as 

 a theoretical student of apiculture. A 

 scientifically trained man with prac- 

 tical experience can do much for the 

 beekeeping interests in such a position 

 as he occupies. Prof. Bartholomew is 

 not a boomer and is careful to advise 

 against taking up beekeeping ill-ad- 

 visedly. While he recognizes the 

 fact that it is but a partially devel- 

 oped business and there is no immedi- 

 ate danger of crowding the field, he 

 makes it plain to those with whom 

 he comes in contact that the untrained 

 and careless owner is a detriment to 

 the industry and should be discour- 

 aged. According to his instruction the 

 beekeeper should never own more 

 bees than will be properly cared tor. 

 If a man has only time enough to 

 care tor one or five colonies he 

 should never have more, and he never 

 should have any unless they are to be 

 given proper attention. 



The influence of these men upon the 

 students of the college who are going 

 out to the farms of every corner ot 

 the state will be very helpful to the 

 beekeeping interests. The student 

 who leaves the college will feel that 

 beekeeping is worthy of respect and 

 that it is not to be lightly taken up 

 with half a dozen stray swarms in 

 nail kegs. 



Prof. Bartholomew is keeping elab- 

 orate records at the experimental 

 apiary. The daily and hourly tempera- 

 ture is recorded by self-recording in- 



struments, the humidity of the atmos- 

 phere, the direction and velocity of 

 the wind and other weather condi- 

 tions are carefully noted. That weath- 

 er conditions Influence honey pro- 

 duction to a great extent is well 

 known to all practical beekeepers and 

 it is proposed to learn why and how 

 this influence arises. A self-record- 

 ing scale will probably soon be in 

 operation so that the gain or loss tor 

 any day can be noted not as a whole 

 but by minutes or hours. This record 

 together with the weather conditions 

 will be very valuable. By means ot 

 elaborate experiments Prof. Bartho- 

 lomew proposes to ascertain just how 

 m\ich honey is necessary to produce 

 a pound of bees and many other things 

 ot interest and value to the honey pro- 

 ducer. That the results ot these ex- 

 periments will be very valuable to 

 the beekeeping specialist is apparent 

 to all. Prof. Bartholomew will also 

 be at Hamilton and Keokuk and will 

 have something interesting to tell 

 those in attendance. 

 Atlantic, Iowa. 



PROF. BARTHOLOMEW MAKING HIS DAILY WEATHER RECORDS AT THE 



EXPERIMENTAL APIARY 



Shipping Bees to British 

 Columbia 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD, 

 i I-'oulbrooil In slice tor) 



ACCORDING to the terms of one ot 

 the clauses of our foul brood act 

 all bees imported into British 

 Columbia are quarantined for 9 

 months at the point ot entry. The 

 transportation companies, to protect 

 themselves from a lot ot trouble, re- 

 fuse to accept bees for delivery in 

 British Columbia, so shippers in the 

 United Sta*,es and Eastern Canada 

 will find it wise to turn dow'n all ord- 

 ers from this province. 



Queens in cages are at present ad- 

 mitted, but every beekeerer has been 

 advised to buy only from breeders who 

 can show a clean bill of health from 

 an inspector. 



Today British Columbia has fully 

 one thousand beekeepers, mostly be- 

 ginners on a small scale, but as the 

 inspectors become acquainted with its 

 immense territory they begin to be- 

 lieve that the province will at no dis- 

 tant date march into the front rank 

 as a honey iiroducer. Our government 

 is guiding the efforts of every pne in 

 the industry and our progress is very 

 raiiid. We cut down our importations 

 of honey last year by 589^ and trebled 

 our home production. 



Our primeval forests are literally 

 full of honey bees in the settled dis- 

 tricts, so there is no excuse for any- 

 body wanting to import from other 

 regions. 



The inspectors' job is to keep this 

 huge area tree ot foul brood. We have 

 had four attacks in five years, all 

 traceable to imported bees. I am 

 fighting the last and most serious. It 

 originated in the city of Vancouver 

 from imported queens, and was car- 

 ried to a couple ot other points by un- 

 lucky purrhasers. I^st fall I found 



