1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



dilworth's "exclusive right of territory." 

 More and more, as men think of making a regu- 

 lar business of raising honey this matter of exclu- 

 sive territory " will not down," but will come to the 

 front. For one, I shall gladly welcome any fair 

 and honest solution of the problem. Friend Dil- 

 worth's plan is " to pay each farmer or lot-holder 

 within the flight of his bees a certain sum yearly, 

 not to keep any bees on his property." It is some- 

 thing after the plan recommended by Mr. S. T. Pet- 

 tit, of Canada. In the foot-note, friend Root says, 

 " Go to your neighbors all round about you, if you 

 are located in the country, and get them to sign a 

 paper, agreeing not to keep bees under a certain 

 number of years." The plan has a look of fairness 

 about it. Now, will friends Dil worth and Root put 

 it in practice? If I am not mistaken, friend Root 

 has said he would like to have exclusive territory; 

 and if I am not still more mistaken, there isn't a 

 man in the business, having as many as a hundred 

 colonies, who would like another hundred colonies 

 set down within half a mile of him. So, friend 

 Root, you are just the one to try it. Still, I'm not 

 so sure that I hate you bad enough to want you to 

 try it. If you were to start out to-day to get every 

 one within a mile of you to sign a paper not to 

 raise oranges in the open air, I think it would cost 

 some money; for people who never dreamed of 

 raising oranges would feel sure there was money 

 in it, and I'm not sure but it might be the means of 

 getting some started in the business. So in the 

 bee-matter, I think you would find a good many 

 who would refuse to sign altogether, and others to 

 ask an unreasonable sum, while the very fact of 

 your attempting to buy some men off would start 

 them to thinking whether they ought not to keep 

 bees. Then suppose you have bought up or had 

 given you all the territory within two miles of you, 

 except just one acre that belongs to old Grasper, 

 within a quarter of a mile of you, the whole affair 

 is utterly worthless unless you can get that acre, 

 and Grasper has you at his mercy. Then there 

 may be sheriffs' sales, and things of that sort 

 among so large a number, and then your previous 

 arrangements are upset. 



I have just looked at the map, and counted the 

 different parties owning land on one-fourth of the 

 ground within two miles of me— and surely apia- 

 ries should be at least two miles apart, if of full 

 size— and I find there are 30. This includes no vil- 

 lage or suburb; and if I take in the whole ground, 

 village and all, it runs up into the hundreds. Excuse 

 me from stirring up those hundreds. I have no 

 trouble now, and never had; but if I started out 

 with a paper I might make myself trouble. Tou 

 can see, friend Root, that, in the great majority of 

 cases, you would have from 100 to 500 parties of all 

 sorts to deal with. But friend Dilworth isjustthat 

 much ahead of the majority, that he sees some plan 

 is needed. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



I grant, doctor, that, in my locality, it 

 would be a pretty big job to get exclusive 

 territory ; but where one has a farm, and all 

 around him are large farmers, it seems to 

 me there ought not to be any difficulty in 

 purchasing it. Large farms do not change 

 owners very often. If that does not answer, 

 go where land is cheap, and buy all within a 

 mile in every direction. Who will tell us 

 how many acres it would take ? By the 



way, almost everybody in our neighbor- 

 hood has given up bee-keeping, and I be- 

 lieve that that would be the result to a cer- 

 tain extent in the course of a number of 

 years, especially if the acknowledged bee- 

 keeper of the locality does not have any 

 very big bonanza, and they do not come very 

 often. 



BEE CULTURE IN PREMIUM LIST. 



WHY THIS INDUSTRY HAS NOT RECEIVED THE PO- 

 SITION IT DESERVES. 



J WISH to call the attention of our bee-keeping 

 friends at large to a matter in which I think we 

 are all interested; that is, the manner in which 

 our vocation is neglected by agricultural so- 

 cieties. I find, in looking over a great many 

 premium lists in this and adjoining States, that bee 

 culture is recognized in only comparatively few 

 of them. Now, why is it so, and who is at fault? Is 

 it the officers of said societies, or bee-keepers them- 

 selves? I am inclined to think that, in a majority 

 of such cases, it is the latter; for in my experience 

 with agricultural societies I have never met a board 

 of officers who were not only willing but anxious to 

 add an apiarian department to their premium list. 



As I have intimated that bee-keepers are at fault, 

 I must explain wherein. As a rule, officers of agri- 

 cultural societies are not conversant with or skilled 

 in apiculture, consequently are at a loss to know 

 the requisites in an apiarian department, which 

 could be furnished them by almost any bee-keeper 

 who would volunteer to do so. But this is too often 

 neglected or deferred until too late; and the conse- 

 quence is, apiculture is left out. Now, friends, let 

 me insist that every bee-keeper consider himself a 

 committee of one to look after this important mat- 

 ter of seeing that our industry is represented in 

 your respective agricultural premiumlists. In case 

 you should meet any opposition in the board of offi- 

 cers, press upon them the fact that bee-keeping is 

 an essential branch of agriculture, in that the hon- 

 ey-bee is indispensable to the fertilization necessa- 

 ry in the vegetable kingdom; that honey is a pro- 

 duction of the farm, and can be had at the door of 

 every farmer who will acquire the proper knowl- 

 edge of handling a colony of bees. Besides, it is a 

 wholesome and desirable article of food, and is get- 

 ting to be one of the staple articles of our markets, 

 therefore its production should be encouraged by 

 every agricultural society in the land. 



Now, friend Root, as some of our bee-keeping 

 friends may be a little backward, and feel incompe- 

 tent to furnish the requisite list, and as it has been 

 suggested in Gleanings that a list be published as 

 a guide for those interested, allow me, with your as- 

 sistance, to submit the following]form,or criterion, 

 for county fairs: 



1st Pr. 2d Pr. 



Best colony Italian bees |2.00 $1 .00 



Native, or black bees. . . 2.00 1.00 



" Italian queen-bee 1.00 50 



" Display of comb honey, quality 

 and manner of putting up for 



market to be considered 3.00 1.50 



" display of extracted or strained 



hon«y,ifor market 2.00 1.00 



" 5 lbs. fancy comb honey 1.00 50 



" 5 lbs. fancy extracted honey. . . 1.00 50 



" Specimen comb foundation.. . 1.00 50 



" 5 lbs. beeswax 1.00 50 



" Bee-hive for all purposes 1.00 50 



" Display of apiarian implem'ts . 3.00 1.50 

 Benton, 111., Feb. 12, 1889, Wm. Hutchison, 



