Aug. 13, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



517 



C 



Contributed Articles 





A Cool Season in California. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



WE often find that with the seasons and years we are 

 forced to change some of ourold and, as we supposed, 

 well-grounded opinions. I commenced keeping bees 

 in Michigan in 1870, and for more than a dozen years had 

 good honey-production ; so I came to the warranted conclu- 

 sion, as one might suppose, that a fairly good honey crop 

 coujd be counted on in that goodly State. I felt in those 

 days that the only certain checks on certain or assured suc- 

 cess were disastrous wintering, which I soon solved ; and 

 "foul brood," which, fortunately, never laid its fatal clutch 

 on my pets of the hive. 



Imagine my surprise, then, when three seasons of un- 

 precedented drouths gave us no honey at all. We had to 

 reformulate our opinions, and say with the proper rainfall 

 we were sure of a honey crop. In Michigan, we rarely had 

 a year so cool that it precluded, for the season through, all 

 nectar-secretion. 



In California it has been usually, I supposed always, 

 true, that with sufBcient rainfall we were sure of a good 

 honey-year. I was told when I came here, nearly ten years 

 ago, that with 15 inches of rainfall we were sure of a good 

 honey-product. This led me to proclaim two valuable char- 

 acteristics of our section for the bee-keeper : We could be 

 sure of a phenomenal honey-product with a year of ample 

 rainfall ; and, second, we could know by early spring 

 whether or not the crop was to be ours, and so could buy, 

 or not buy, our supplies, and could arrange our business as 

 the circumstance of rainfall dictated. If this were surely 

 true, it would be no mean factor in our conclusions as to 

 our standing as the leading honey State in our country, 

 and probably one of the very best in the whole world. 



The present season has changed our views, and we find 

 we have to reckon not only with rainfall, but with the cold 

 and damp of spring as well. Last winter gave us a gener- 

 ous rainfall, and we, from all former experience, so far as 

 I knew, had a right to count on a large and sure honey- 

 product. Indeed, for all the years that I have been here, we 

 never have had such abundant and well-timed rains as were 

 ours the past season. As we should expect, the herbage 

 and flowers have been very rich and luxuriant. Yet I doubt 

 if we can secure more than one-third of an average honey 

 crop this year. 



The reason is not far to seek. We have had an excep- 

 tionally cold and damp season. Many mornings of April 

 and May, and on into June, were so cool that a little fire 

 was agreeable nearly every morning. This cool of the 

 morning held on through the entire day, and while the bees, 

 true to their nature and habits of industry, were out early 

 for the possible nectar, failed to store as we had been led to 

 hope would be the case. 



As just stated, I doubt if we will secure more than one- 

 third of a crop in this section of the State. In the north 

 the rainfall was also short, so I doubt if we make any mis- 

 take in giving this as the probability for the entire State 

 for the season. 



Unfortunately, this removes the ground for sure 

 prophesy in the early season, and we must put a question- 

 mark after the prospects, even in seasons of generous rain- 

 fall, for we must also have the genial warmth, for though 

 a damp, cool season may secure ample vegetation, it will 

 not give us the nectar in the flowers. 



A PROMISING REGION. 



There is being carved out of the very desert of River- 

 side County, Calif., a very promising region, agriculturally. 

 I speak of the Indio or Coachella valley on the Southern 

 Pacific railroad, about ISO miles east of Los Angeles. This 

 was absolute desert, but, like most of California, the soil is 

 a rich alluvium, and is also very deep and pliable, so that 

 it needs only water to make it wondrously productive. 

 Three years ago it was found that by boring artesian wells 

 a copious supply of the finest water has been secured. 

 These great artesian wells are a marvel to behold. They 

 pour out with no pumping at all. While the country only 

 awoke to man's attention three years ago, there are already 



hundreds of these wells, and an area of richest verdure 

 already makes this one of the most attractive agricultural 

 regions to be seen anywhere. 



The climate is warm the entire year, and very warm in 

 the summer. Yet it is so dry, atmospherically, that people 

 work, they say, comfortably all day in the hot sunshine, 

 even roofing buildings. 



This region is going to be a great alfalfa country. So 

 great is the warmth that even ten crops of alfalfa are 

 grown in a year, and in many cases 2j^ tons to the acre are 

 secured. This is sure to become a great alfalfa section. 

 Even at present they are growing alfalfa and feeding hogs 

 at a great profit. There is also a great natural growth of 

 mesquite, which is also of the great Legume family, and, 

 as we should expect, one of the best of honey-plants. I see 

 no reason why this new region should not more than sur- 

 pass the famous San Joaquin region, and should not equal 

 the very best parts of Arizona. I look to see in the 

 Coachella valley not only one of the best farming sections 

 in the United States, but one of the best regions for honey- 

 production in the world. This valley is so early that early 

 June cantaloupes are sent to Chicago ; and early July grapes 

 can be produced in profusion. It will be the great place for 

 early fruits and vegetables. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif., July 17. 



Examining Apiaries and Curing Them of 

 Foul Brood. 



{Special Bulletin by the Ontario Department of Agriculture.) 

 BY WM. M'BVOY, INSPECTOR OF APIARIES. 



BEFORE opening any colony, go from hive to hive 

 and give each colony a little smoke at the entrance of 

 their hive. This will check the bees for a time from 

 coming from other colonies to bother you when you have 

 a hive open and are examining the combs. 



When you take out a comb to examine it, turn your 

 back to the sun and hold the comb on a slant, so as to let 

 the sun shine on the lower side and bottom of the cells, and 

 there look for the dark scales left from the foul matter that 

 glued itself fast when drying down ; for where you find 

 punctured cappings and ropy matter you will find plenty of 

 cells with the dark stain-marks of foul brood on the lower 

 side of the cells. Every bee-keeper should know the stain- 

 mark of foul brood, as it is more important for him to learn 

 to tell it at a glance than to have to use a pin and lift a lit- 

 tle of the matter out of a cell by the head of a pin to see if 

 it will stretch three-fourths of an inch. Dead brood of 

 other kinds often have pin-hole cappings, and several cells 

 in the same combs will be found with scales in them ; and 

 for this reason every bee-keeper should learn to tell the one 

 class of dead brood from the other, because we often find 

 both classes of dead brood in the same colony with very 

 little foul brood in the same comb, that the bee-keeper did not 

 notice ; after testing the other kinds, and not finding any 

 to stretch he felt sure that that colony was not diseased 

 when it was, and in time it would get worse, and get robbed 

 out by the bees from other colonies, and then the disease 

 would be spread all through the apiary. 



I have often been called to come at once by parties feel- 

 ing sure that their colonies had foul brood, and when I got 

 there I sometimes found that it was not. In some cases I 

 found a very sudden loss of the most of the old bees, and 

 nearly all the brood dead and decaying. This was the re- 

 sult of some foolish people spraying fruit-trees while in 

 full bloom, and the bee-keeper, not knowing what caused 

 the sudden loss of nearly all his old bees, and finding so 

 much decaying brood, felt sure that his colonies had foul 

 brood. The only sure way for those people that cannot tell 

 foul brood at a glance, is to put the head of a pin into the 

 matter in the cells and lift it out, and if it stretches they 

 can depend upon it that it is foul brood ; but, as I have often 

 said, the most important thing to learn is to know the stain- 

 mark of foul brood, and then it never will make much head- 

 way in any apiary or cause much loss, because the bee-keeper 

 would spot the disease at a glance and head it ofi' at once. 



Honey, to become diseased, must first be stored in cells 

 where foul-brood matter has been dried down, and it is the 

 bees feeding their larva; from the honey stored in these dis- 

 eased cells that spreads foul brood. More brood dies of foul 

 brood at the ages of six, seven, eight and nine days than at 

 any other age. 



The disease is spread by bees lobbing foul-broody cole- 



