1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



using- a modern band-saw that will cut a 

 kerf of only a sixteenth or the thirty-second 

 of an inch, the mills use larg-e circular 

 saws that will cut a little faster, but which 

 will cut a kerf five-eighths wide. Such a 

 wanton waste seems almost wicked. Late 

 statistics show that there are 235 billion 

 feet of standing timber within the borders 

 of Oregon; but there are 300 immense mills 

 that cut in one season 670 million feet. At 

 this terrible rate of slaughter and fearful 

 wastefulness by using thick saws and leav- 

 ing stumps 20 feet high, how long will it be 

 before Oregon will be reduced to the condi- 

 tion of Michigan, Maine, and other States 

 that once had lumber to burn? The State 

 of Oregon should see to it, in the interest of 

 future generations, that such wasteful meth- 

 ods within her own borders are stopped, 

 and that right speedily. 



R?:garding brushed swarms, several lay 

 stress on the fact that bees should be smoked, 

 drummed, or jarred in order to make them 

 fill themselves with honey. In forcing a 

 swarm we ought to bring about, as nearly 

 as possible, the conditions that exist in a 

 natural swarm. When nature sends out a 

 swarm the bees fill themselves with honey; 

 therefore when we force them we must make 

 them store up a sufficient supply so that, 

 when they begin to work in starters in the 

 new hive, they will have enough to spare to 

 commence comb-building in earnest. 



RANCHING ON A LARGE SCALE. 



IiMMEniATELY following the Denver con- 

 vention I made a trip into Central Nebraska 

 and there visited one of the most extensive 

 ranchers in the world — Mr. H. D. Watkins, 

 of Kearney. Mr. W. has 10,000 acres of 

 land, 3000 of which are in alfalfa. You 

 just ought to see those immense fields of 

 bloom; the thousands of tons of hay in stacks; 

 and how things are done in a truly whole- 

 sale way in the great West. Well, I am 

 going to give you a chance to see. I took 

 two dozen photographs, and later on I will 

 give our readers something of an idea of 

 alfalfa-growing on an immense scale. And 

 here is a rancher who proposes to go into 

 bee-keeping also on an immense scale. 

 Just imagine, if you please, 3000 acres with- 

 in bee-range, and within control of one man, 

 then think what an apiary or two could do. 



nomenclature; forced swarms. 

 Klsewhere Mr. H. R. Boardman, refer- 

 ring to shook or brushed swarms, suggests 

 that we call them "artificial" swarms; for 



whether they be brushed, shaken, smoked, 

 frightened, drummed, or jarred out of the 

 hive, they become, in a certain sense, artifi- 

 cial, and therefore he would recommend the 

 name artificial swarms. This term, it is 

 true, is more comprehensive, but, unfortu- 

 nately, it has been associated for many 

 years in the text-books with the plan of 

 simple dividing; i. e., taking out one set of 

 combs from the hive, and putting them bod- 

 ily, bees and all, into another hive on an- 

 other stand. I would suggest that we use 

 the word "forced" swarms, for that will 

 describe either shook or brushed swarms, 

 and avoid at the same time the ungrammat- 

 ical adjective "shook." When we get the 

 bees out of the hive by any of the processes 

 named we force them out — we tnake them 

 swarm, and if reports are to be believed 

 we make them think that they have actual- 

 ly swarmed, and that, therefore, they must 

 get down to business. 



THE DENVER CONVENTION; A BRIEF REPORT 

 OF THE PROCEEDINGS; MORNING SES- 

 SION, FIRST DAY. 



I ARRIVED in time to hear Dr. Miller dis- 

 cuss the question, "The most hopeful field 

 for the North American Bee-keepers' Asso- 

 ciation." The doctor did not really know 

 which was the most hopeful field. A lot of 

 good, he said, had been done by the Asso- 

 ciation in fighting the adulteration evil, and 

 he hoped it could do much more. One field 

 was in the line of what the general govern- 

 ment could do for apiculture. He referred 

 to what had been brought about for all the 

 different branches of agriculture except bee- 

 keeping; and then he stated that the United 

 States was an exception to all fhe civilized 

 countries in the fact that it did not give 

 more substantial aid to apiculture. He 

 was thankful personally that the govern- 

 ment recognized us enough to appoint an 

 Apicultural Investigator ; and while this 

 was good as far as it went, it might do 

 more by placing at that official's disposal 

 more funds by which certain lines of work 

 could be carried out. 



He believed that the Association should 

 help individual States to get foul-brood laws 

 — not that he believed it should pay all ex- 

 penses of a lobbyist, but he thought it 

 might offer at least small pecuniarj'^ aid, 

 under certain reasonable restrictions. 



Again, honey was a fine article of diet, 

 and the Association might do a great deal 

 to bring before the general public this fact 

 by getting leading articles printed through 

 the associated-press reports. Finally, there 

 ought to be a closes connection between this 

 Association iind the government at Wash- 

 ington. Prof. Frank Benton, Apicultural 

 Investigator, was doing ^l good work; and 

 he hoped that he might tell us more about 

 what he is doing. 



The response to this was by Mr. P^. T. 

 Abbott, of St. Joseph, Mo. He spoke of 

 the fact that some bee-keepers and some 

 farmers do not succeed ; and one of the rea- 

 sons for this was ignorance; and he felt 



