MAY 1, 1915 



349 



Kl ronlro, in llio very heart of tlial won- 

 derful coiinlry; and because he has enforced 

 the law to the letter he lias called down on 

 his head the wrath of the beekeepers of 

 other counties. Indeed, the bcenien of Im- 

 jierial Co. have been accused of playing 

 the part of the dog- in the manger. It is 

 but natural that the " outsiders " should 

 coni)ilain of unfairness. On the other hand, 

 when one talks with the "insiders" he can 

 see that there is some justice in their claims. 



We met several prominent beekeepers of 

 the valley and discussed this whole question. 

 They deny that they are opposed to the 

 importation of bees from other localities 

 |)roviding those bees are healthy them- 

 selves, and providing also they come fi'om 

 locations where there are no bee diseases. 

 They freely acknowledged that they had 

 stopped shipments into their valley because 

 the bees in question came from localities 

 where bee disease was rampant, and they 

 insist that they will do it again. Their 

 condition, they contend, is different from, 

 that of any other county in California in 

 that it is surrounded either by barren moun- 

 tain ranges or deserts. There is no possible 

 chance of bee disease coming there unless it 

 is imported by direct shipment. 



Their valley is practically free of disease, 

 although occasional cases of it crop out 

 liere and there; but through the systematic 

 efforts of the inspector, Mr. Wagner, they 

 are hoping to stamp it out entirely. That 

 they could never do if they allowed indis- 

 criminate shipments into the valley. 



They admit that they have a wonderful 

 bee country, and say that any man who 

 desires can come into their midst and bring 

 bees, providing those bees can show a clean 

 bill of health, and jiroviding it can be shown 

 that the locality whence they come is fi'ee 

 from disease. 



Later on we shall be glad to present some 

 photos of some of the leaders in that 

 valley, and some of the wonderful erosion 

 that has taken place in that country when 

 the water broke loose and filled up the 

 Salton Sea Basin. This was formerly a 

 ban-en hot dry basin below the level of the 

 .«;ea. It is now, owing to a blunder of an 

 irrigation company, a big inland sea. Hun- 

 dreds of fine ranches or farms were liter- 

 ally washed away and a new river bed e.s- 

 tablished. This "blunder" was both a 

 blessing and a cui-se to the valley. Those 

 who were not hurt do not care, and those 

 who were have filed damage suits. When 

 boys or men fool with a hole in a dyke or 

 other barrier to a big water supi>ly they 

 should be careful what they do. In this 

 ease millions of dollars of damage was done. 



Soceeggfinl Co-operative Experimenta 



That the beekeeper who looks beyond the 

 end of his nose is the man who gets the big 

 lioney i^roduction is shown by the results of 

 exiieriments reported to the Ontario Pro- 

 vincial Apiarist. A unique policy is that 

 of the province in sending out standard 

 material and directions for carrying on a 

 definite experiment, to all who desire to 

 make the experiment and accurately report 

 the results. While not listed as such, the 

 whole plan is in itself an experiment to 

 prove that the beekeeper interested in the 

 progress of his science actually averages 

 more than twice the efficiency of the indif- 

 ferent fellow. This was shown in reports 

 from 5-11 exjDerimenters. 



These 541 had an average of 28.6 colonies 

 each and in experience varied from one 

 year to forty. Hives of every variety were 

 reported, but more than half were Lang- 

 stroth. Pure Italian colonies nearly equaled 

 hybrids and blacks together, a large in- 

 crease over last year. 



The experiments concerned prevention of 

 natural swarming in comb and in extracted 

 honey production by holding the colonies 

 together, the prevention of natural swarm- 

 ing by manipulation of hives instead of 

 combs, the method of spring management, 

 special inquiries in races of bees, and the 

 '■' smoke " method of queen introduction. 

 The last proved entirely satisfactory with 

 tAvo-thirds of the experimenters. 



Experiments for 1915 include the starva- 

 tion and " smoke " plans of introducing a 

 laying queen to a whole colony, shipping 

 and introducing combless packages of bees, 

 and the use of the wire-cloth bee-escape 

 boai ds for removing bees from supers. 



The 



cast the Honey Yield, bottli in the 

 East and West; Whatt shall! the 

 Harvest be for 1915 ? 



We have been getting from the general 

 Government, for some time back, at the 

 suggestion of Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the 

 Department of Agriculture, daily weather- 

 maps showing the isothermal lines of tem- 

 perature in every portion of the United 

 States, the direction of the wind, and the 

 height of the barometer. The isothermal 

 lines are shown by red line.s giving the 

 tem.perature of evei-y day of the year at 8 

 o'clock in the morning; and it is astonish- 

 ing how the isothermal lines will move from 

 north to south. For example, on April 20 



