1504 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



THE ALEXANDER APIARY, FROM THE NORTHWEST. 

 There is probably not another apiary in the world consisting of 700 colonies. 



THE LAST DAYS OF E. 

 DER. 



W. ALEXAN- 



De tails of a Visit as Told by a Friend; 



Japanese Buckwheat not Considered 



as Desirable as the SilverhuU. 



BY PERCY ORTON. 



Being desirous of enlarging my home yard to 

 its full extent I made a trip to the home of my 

 friend E. W. Alexander, to see the farms and 

 growing buckwheat, in order that I could better 

 compare it with our own section. The distance 

 is about 50 miles. On the trip I passed through 

 Mayfield, the home of George W. Haines, and 1 

 could see through the car window his apiary of 

 150 colonies. Mr. Haines is situated near the 

 lower Adirondacics, about ten miles west of my 

 home, in a very fine location. He harvested 

 about four tons of extracted and comb honey this 

 year. 



I also went through Johnstown, the home of 

 Mr. Chas. Stewart, the State Bee Inspector for 

 this section. Mr. Stewart has started a yard in 

 the city, and has in his four yards about 450 col- 

 onies. From Schenectady to Delanson, a distance 

 of 15 miles, I estimated the number of acres of 

 buckwheat, and I could not count more than 4^ 



ALEXANDER HONEY-HOUSE AND APIARY, FROM THE SOUTH. 



acres. 1 am a farmer, and can judge the size of 

 fields fairly accurately. 



1 arrived at Mr. Alexander's home about 11 

 A.M.; took dinner and had a good visit, but was 

 pained to find him in such poor health. How- 

 ever, he felt just as free as he always did to tell 

 any thing he could to help another bee-keeper. 

 He was very much interested when I asked him 

 if the farmers liked Japanese buckwheat as well 

 as silverhull or gray, and if his bees worked on 

 it as well as on the latter. He said the farmers 

 did not get as many bushels per acre from the 

 Japanese buckwheat, as it grows so many false 

 kernels, and he said that he would not give 15 

 cts. an acre for it as a honey-producer — that his 

 bees would fly right over fields of the Japanese to 

 the silverhull and gray. I was glad to hear so 

 noted a bee-keeper say this, as I have found by 

 years of experience with both that the Japanese 

 is not as good for honey as for flour, the yield of 

 flour on an average being but 20 lbs. per bushel. 

 All thraugh our valley we grow silverhull, and 

 get from 25 to 34 lbs. of flour per bushel, and 

 plenty of honey. 



I looked over the buckwheat-fields that could 

 be seen from the apiary, and came to the conclu- 

 sion that the 700 colonies of bees never reach one- 

 fourth the buckwheat that many people think 

 they do. I don't mean to say any one has mis- 

 represented any thing, but 

 I believe that most bee- 

 keepers can keep four 

 times as many bees in one 

 yard as they do now. 



Before closing I want to 

 say a little about black 

 brood. If any one finds 

 his combs are affected, 

 the queen should be caged 

 and empty combs or 

 frames of foundation 

 placed above the zinc over 

 the old hive, and the 

 queen released into the 

 top story. In 30 days the 



