1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



509 



Chicag'o to those who are located east, I 

 can not now say. There are quite a few 

 bee-keepers who are planning' to attend; 

 and those who think of going', not only to 

 study some of the peculiar conditions in the 

 West, but to learn about our bright and 

 hustling- bee-friends in the irrig^ated lands, 

 should let us know whether they intend to 

 go, so that we can, if possible, make up a 

 party and leave Chicago all in one day. I 

 expect to g-o, and it is possible and even 

 probable that another Root will attend. 

 Mr. York, Dr. Miller, Geo. E. Hilton, and 

 W. Z. Hutchinson so far have announced 

 their intention of being present. Shall we 

 make up a party? 



If you think you can not afford to g^o for 

 what you learn at the convention, perhaps 

 you can afford the expense of learning- 

 something' about the great West. 



EUGENK SECOR STILL GENERAL MANAGER OF 



THE NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' 



ASSOCIATION. 



Some little time ago it was announced 

 that Mr. Eugene Secor, General Manager 

 of the National Bee-keepers' Association, 

 had sent in his resignation, and that the 

 Board of Directors had selected E. T. Ab- 

 bot, of St. Joseph, Mo., to fill out his unex- 

 pired term. But the Board, in reviewing 

 its work, after a great deal of writing back 

 and forth, during which valuable time has 

 been lost, finally discovered that Mr. Se- 

 cor's resignation was never formally ac- 

 cepted ; that the procedure was irregular 

 and out of order by which Mr. Abbott was 

 supposed to be elected. Some complica- 

 tions having arisen, it was decided by the 

 Board not to accept Mr. Secor's resigna- 

 tion, and to request him to fill out the un- 

 expired time, or till the next general elec- 

 tion. To this, Mr. Secor has agreed. All 

 dues and membership fees, hereafter, should 

 be sent, as before, to Mr. Eugene Secor, 

 Forest City, la., who is still the General 

 Manager, and will continue to be such till 

 his successor is elected and qualified. 



E. R. Root, 

 Acting Chairman of Board of Directors. 



the editor and that cigar ; tobacco 

 and life insurance. 

 Two or three of our correspondents have 

 suggested that I had better take that cigar 

 out of my mouth where I am shown in my 

 regulation California bee-suit on page 427, 

 up in the canyon of the mountains, as 

 smoking does not comport with A. I. R.'s 

 teaching. A careful scrutiny of the pic- 

 ture reveals to me for the first time that 

 there is something in my mouth that looks 

 a little like a cigarette. Whether it is a 

 defect in the negative, or some conspicuous 

 object in the background that happened to 

 come in direct alignment with my mouth, I 

 can not say. But, say: I have about as 

 much use for cigars and cigarettes as I 

 have for whisky and beer. I have made a 

 pledge with my boy that, if he ever sees me 



smoking a cigar or cigarette, he has my 

 full permission to do likewise. " All right, 

 papa; we will agree to that." 



I have never used tobacco — don't care for 

 it, and don't know why I should assume a 

 great expense for nothing. When I was 

 twenty-five I resolved to invest my tobacco 

 money in life insurance; for I figured out • 

 what tobacco costs some users of it per 

 year. Well, I have, as a net result, $5000 

 of old-line life insurance all paid up, and 

 am now on another policy of $8500 of the 

 same kind of insurance. In twenty years' 

 time -these policies will be worth their face 

 value, even if I live; and they are worth 

 that any time if I die. When I see a friend 

 enjoying "solid comfort" out of his cigar 

 I don't begrudge his pleasure one bit, for I 

 get "solid comfort" out of my "tobacco 

 money " because I know it is 7iot all going 

 up into smoke. I have many friends (and 

 they are good men too) who use tobacco; and 

 there are many worse things in this world 

 than tobacco; but there are many better 

 things. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF IRRIGATION IN THE 



GREAT west; A FEW INTERESTING 



FIGURES. 



Mr. Frederick Haynes Newell, Chief 

 of the Division of Hydrography of the Unit- 

 ed States Geological Survey, expert on ir- 

 rigation for the eleventh and twelfth cen- 

 sus, etc., in the New York Indepetident for 

 May 22 contributes a very interesting arti- 

 cle on the reclamation of the arid public 

 lands of the United States. As irrigation 

 has so much to do with the growing of al- 

 falfa, I take it that this will be of great in- 

 terest to our readers. Mr. Newell says it 

 is now no longer possible for more settlers 

 to go out on the public domain and make 

 homes, for the reason that private enter- 

 prise has gone about as far as it can with 

 irrigation, and all irrigated lands thus far 

 are taken up. He saj^s that something like 

 40 per cent of the entire area of the United 

 States, not including outside territory, or 

 from 60,000,000 to 100,000,000 acres, re- 

 quires irrigation to produce plants useful 

 for the supply of man and animals. In 

 the year 1890 only about three and a half 

 million of acres were cropped by irrigation; 

 and yet if the government will do what pri- 

 vate enterprise can not do, there is a possi- 

 bility of all this vast area being brought 

 under irrigation, and therefore made avail- 

 able for farms and ranches. In 1890 there 

 were only three and a half million acres 

 under irrigation. How much more there 

 might be now he does not say. But I judge 

 there has not been a very great increase, at 

 least since 1895; and yet if the government 

 will ^ke hold of the matter, and utilize the 

 waters of the great floods and rivers that 

 now goto waste, constructing lakes, canals, 

 and flumes, from which private enterprise 

 could take off small ditches, it might be 

 possible to increase the little area now un- 

 der irrigation to twenty or thirty times its 

 present extent. Some portions of our coun- 



