1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



8'>9 



IDAHO AS A 



BKK country; 



AND ITS SOIL. 



ITS CLIMA'IE 



Leaving Portland, Oregon, I took the 

 train homeward. My next stop was at 

 Nampa, Idaho. I had previously received 

 a letter from Mr. F. G. Getting ham, from 

 that place, desiring me to stop off on my re- 

 turn; but I did not recognize his name as 

 one that stood for an old schoolmate of years 

 gone by until I met him face to face. 



Mr. Cottingham was a dealer in supplies, 

 and has kept bees, although his regular 

 business is that of a contractor and build- 

 er. He particularly desired that I should 

 see that country, with its possibilities in 

 the bee-keeping line; and, accordingly', the 

 next day he verj' kindlj' drove me over some- 

 thing like forty miles of as pretty farming 

 country (barring some desert tracts) as I 

 ever saw. While it had to be irrigated, 

 like a great portion of the West, yet I could 

 readily see that the soil was wonderfully 

 productive; and the climate, too, was like 

 that of my own State, without its humidity. 

 Here we could not only find natural farm 

 crops such as are grown in the East, but 

 alfalfa and other plants that are peculiar 

 to the West. 



This particular portion of Southern 

 Idaho, what little I saw of it, seemed to be 

 one of the finest bee countries in all the 

 United States; and the strange p.irt of it 

 was that, at the time of my visit, there 

 were apparently very few bee-keepers to 

 take care of the alfalfa- fields. But I un- 

 derstand that, since I have mentioned the 

 fact in our journal, some bee-keepers have 

 ^one westward and have located in that vi- 

 cinity. The resident bee-keepers had no 

 objections to others coming into their local- 

 ity provided they did not squat their bees 

 in places already occupied; but when they 

 did this, and one man brought foul brood 

 from the East — well, you can just imagine 

 they were not a little displeased, and right- 

 ly so. 



The whole area of the United States 

 where bees can be kept is so fully occupied 

 now, that, when there is an unoccupied 

 field where they can be kept, there is apt 

 to be an exodus to it as soon as the fact is 

 known. But strange it is that bee-keepers, 

 after all that has been said, should rush 

 into fields already taken up; for all through 

 Idaho there is unoccupied territory, and 

 room for all. 



While the climate is very dry, and the 

 dust almost suffocating, yet to me there 

 were many attractions. Wild game? There 

 was plenty of it. One who can live in the 

 North -Central States of the East would 



have no difficulty in adapting himself to 

 the climate of Idaho. 



But, to return. 



Mr. Cottingham and I stopped to visit va- 

 rious bee-keepers on the way to Boise, the 

 chief city of the State, and its capital. At 

 Meridian, about midway, we met Mr. E. F. 

 Atwater, a bee-keeper only twenty years of 

 age— a young man full of enthusiam, who, 

 by reason of ill health, had left the cold 

 Dakotas, and gone further northwest until 

 he had struck the beautiful climate of Ida- 

 ho. At the time I met him he was finding 

 both health and strength. He had 140 col- 

 onies, and considered his locality a para- 

 dise for bees. Although so young, he writes 

 for a number of agricultural papers, and 

 his communications have appeared at vari- 

 ous times in these columns. I had with me 

 that day only a small pocket camera, and 



E. F. ATVVATEK, Jl'.Sr I'KOM HIS BKE-VAKD. 



with this I took a shot of him which I pre- 

 sent at this time. His hives are put under 

 a gable roof of shade-boards, and was run- 

 ning for both queens and honey. At the 

 time of mj' visit he was experimenting with 

 the Swarthmore method of fertilizing queens, 

 which method he was inclined to regard as 

 a success. 



A UNIQUE SCHEME OF MAKING WATER RUN 

 UP HILL FOR IRRIGATING PURPOSES. 



Leaving Mr. Atwater, Mr. Cottingham 

 and I drove on to Boise. There was one 

 thing here that interested me greatly. It 

 was an irrigating-device, many of which 

 we see in the irrigating region, that will 

 lift a small quantity of water up six to ten 



