Marc-li. 11)1- 



[American lee Journal 



suspect tliey get very \itt\e rf a //y g-ood 

 honey. That being the case, tliey im- 

 port some good stuff from other locali- 

 ties to mix up with theirs to make it 

 salable — probably they might get some 

 from Canada if it were not for the 

 duty. That being the case, Mr. Miller, 

 we can overlook your ideas on " blend- 

 ing," and we will give you full license 

 to go ahead and do all the "mixing" 

 vou care to. 



Most Severe Winter on Record 



In speaking of the weather (page 48), 

 I am made to say that on Dec. 17th it 

 looked like a change to warmer 

 weather. Of course, it should have 

 been./««. 17th, as the copy for Febru- 

 ary was sent on that date. Sorry to 

 say that my prophecy as to warmer 

 weather proved to be otherwise, and 

 since that date we have had the most 

 severe winter on record — oflicially, the 

 Toronto observatory says the coldest 

 January in over 50 years, and February 

 up to date (Feb. 13th) looks as if it was 

 going to break another record. Sat- 

 urday last was the coldest day in 17 

 years, according to the Toronto official 

 figures — I'.t degrees below zero. But 

 that is letting us down easy, for all 

 ■" unofficial " thermometers registered 

 from 22 to 34 degrees below. 



As to how this will affect outdoor 

 bees remains to be seen, but judging 

 by external conditions in my own api- 

 aries so far, I do not anticipate trouble 

 unless this awfully cold weather con- 

 tinues too long. I have 20 colonies at 

 the home yard in hives made with 

 dout le boarding, with heavy paper be- 

 tween, and with them it will be a pretty 

 hard test. One trouble has been to 

 keep the entrances free from ice, as 

 the moisture condensing on the sides 

 and ends of the hives would run to the 

 front and cause trouble. The less the 

 protection the hives have the larger the 

 ■entrance has to be. and this is (to me) 

 a pretty good argument in favor of 

 well-protected hives in our climate. 



By the way, this will be a good sea- 

 son to test out the paper-covered hive. 

 and if any are wintering their bees in 

 that style a report will be appreciated. 



As to the winter weather spoken of, 

 I have an idea that there have been 

 seasons with more stormy weather, and 

 more really disagreeable days. But the 

 cold since Jan. -5 has been con/iima/, 

 which accounts for the very low 

 monthly average temperature. 



Short Course in Bee-Keeping 



On page 48 I mentiorked the Short 

 Course in Bee-Keeping as being in 

 progress at Guelph College at the time 

 I was writing. Needless to say the in- 

 terest in the different sessions con- 

 tinued right through the whole two 

 weeks, and no doubt much practical 

 information was received by the large 

 number of students in attendance. 

 While I was attending another course, 

 yet it was an impossibility to stay away 

 from the bee-keepers all the time, and 

 I generally managed to get around to 

 them at least once a day. 



In common with all the Short Courses 

 in connection w-ith the college, the bee- 

 keeping course was intensely practical, 



and experience has shown me that the 

 "show me" attitude is by far the best 

 method of imparting knowledge to be- 

 ginners in any line of work. And just 

 here I may say, that with the men like 

 Clark, of Borodino, telling how to rear 

 queens, there was a chance for others 

 besides "beginners" to learn some- 

 thing. The same thing might be said 

 in connection with the practical talks 

 and demonstrations given by Mr. Sib- 

 bald on the general management of 

 apiaries, and of course the different 

 lectures of Mr. Pettit, the Provincial 

 Apiarist, were highly appreciated by 

 all privileged to listen to him. 



Aside from these strictly bee-keeping 

 topics, etc., the students were treated 

 to lectures from different members of 

 the college staff, who took up various 

 phases ol work indirectly connected 

 with the bee-keeping industry. Alto- 

 gether it was no doubt a very success- 

 ful Short Course viewed from every 

 standpoint, as I found all the students 

 enthusiastic, the Provincial Apiarist 

 likewise, and President Creelman made 

 no secret of the fact that he was pleased 

 with the large attendance. These vari- 

 ous factors augur well for the future 

 status of bee-keeping at the college, 

 and any unselfish person can not but 

 be pleased with the progress being 

 made in our industrv. 



improving tlie Honey-Bee 



As to the improving of the honey- 

 bee, written about so entertainingly on 

 page 50, by Mr. A. C. Miller, I must 

 confess that my short visit of 4 weeks 

 at the Guelph College this winter has 

 made me quite skeptical as to the 

 chances of making any very rapid, 

 ferynatienl changes in the character- 

 istics of the bees. It is said that a 

 "little knowledge is a dangerous thing," 



and while I didn't get even enough for 

 that, yet I confess that the brief 

 glimpses into Mendelism and other 

 laws of breeding have served to make 

 me believe that the breeder of bees 

 has a tremendous task when he sets 

 out to make any decided changes in 

 his stock in the course of a very few 

 short years. 



It may be argued that breeders of 

 live stock, such as cattle, horses, sheep, 

 poultry, etc., have made great strides, 

 Init please remember that they do not 

 have to reckon with parthenogenesis, 

 and the impossibility of controlling 

 the male side of the breeding stock. 

 Even without these difficulties, it is 

 surprising to learn how often breeders 

 meet with disappointment; and while 

 in their case a mutant or sport is com- 

 paratively easy to keep true to type, 

 with bees we can not claim that advan- 

 tage, owing to the difficulty of control- 

 ling the drone problem. 



Just at present I am strictly in the 

 " don't know class," in the matter of 

 claims made by different men, and 

 while in that condition I trust I may 

 be excused for being so skeptical — 

 anyway, honest doubt is better than be- 

 ing too sure, and then find out after all 

 that we have been mistaken. 



Just a parting word on this question : 

 The very little I have been able to glean 

 on the subject under discussion, con- 

 vinces me that the claims made as to 

 taking bees and in a few years produc- 

 ing offspring from them with longer 

 tongues than the average, is a "joke." 

 At the same time let us welcome the 

 honest investigator, and if any one can 

 succeed in changing any of the char- 

 acteristics of the honey-bee to the bet- 

 terment of the race, all honor to him 

 even if such changes are made along 

 lines directly antagonistic to Mendel 

 or any other so-called authority. 



B^ Western <^ Bee-H^eping 



Conducted by Wesley Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



Delta County (Colo.) Bee-Keeping 



Delta county is a typical county of the 

 Western Slope in Colorado — desert of 

 a most pronounced type — sage-brush, 

 shad scale and chico growing on the 

 yellow, almost-bare clay-soil. Scarcely 

 any grass grows except what is irri- 

 gated, and the prairies and mesas are 

 green only in the spring. But such 

 soil! — just irrigate, and the way things 

 do grow — the roadsides where irrigat- 

 ing water can get at the roots of the 

 plants will shoot up weeds to a pro- 

 digious height, and the weeds do grow 

 so high that teams on the roads are 

 hidden by them. To the north, rising 

 from bare yellow mesas towards Grand 

 Mesa, mountain high and covered with 

 timber with beautiful lakes, I am told, 

 on its flat summit. From the summit 

 of this mesa the city of Delta gets its 

 water-supply, which is better than the 

 water of many Western Slope towns. 

 It is piped something like 20 miles. 



Grand Mesa is the largest and highest 

 in Colorado, and rises to about 10,000 

 feet elevation, or about a mile above 

 the little city of Delta. 



To the southeast rise the steep-sided 

 mesas, yellow and bare as the mesas 

 that hover under the shelter of the 

 Grand Mesa. These mesas to the 

 southeast rise quite high, and as you 

 go farther back become real mountains, 

 and through them is channeled the 

 wonderful Black Canyon of the Gun- 

 nison, the sides of which rise several 

 thousand feet, and so narrow that the 

 chasm is impassable for a good part of 

 its length. From this canyon the Gun- 

 nison tunnel cuts through under these 

 mountains and mesas for 6 miles, and 

 spills the waters of Colorado's largest 

 stream into the Uncompahgre Valley, 

 several miles above Montrose, and 

 about 30 miles above and south of 

 Delta. 



When the waters of the Gunnison 

 are fully conserved they will irrigate 



