1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



101 



GLEANINGS FROM OUR 

 EXCHANGES 



By W. K. Morrison 



The Cuban bee-keepers have seen rather poor 

 times for the past two or three years. Now it 

 looks as if their condition would be somewhat 

 worse for some time ahead. 



The Australians can not secure a fair bid for 

 their eucalyptus honey in England. If they 

 would make their own biscuits, using their own 

 honey, perhaps they would be glad to keep it. 

 There is nothing like independence. 



The Agricultural Experiment Station of Ari- 

 zona has just issued an excellent free bulletin en- 

 titled "Citrus Culture in the Arid Southwest," 

 which may interest a number of Gleanings 

 readers. It does not mention the value of citrus 

 bloom to bee-keepers, but that is understood. 

 -^ 



OLD HONLY. 



Stand up, doctor, and take your medicine. 

 Honey has been taken from Pompeii and Hercu- 

 laneum on several occasions, and, so far as I am 

 aware, it was eatable. Honey in a fair state of 

 preservation was taken from the tomb of one of 

 the Pharaohs (Amenhotep II.). Is that old ? 

 -*- 



At Norwich, England, the town council, ac- 

 cording to the British Bee Journal, has placed an 

 order for 14,500 shade-trees. These will proba- 

 bly be of two species — lindens and oriental planes 

 — both of exceptional value to bee-keepers, and 

 very handsome shade-trees. The first is the Eu- 

 ropean linden, or basswood; but the latter is not 

 so well known here, though it may be frequent- 

 ly seen in the parks and avenues of our eastern 

 cities. 



SPURIOUS SWKETS AND POISONOUS PRESERVATIVES. 



A correspondent who resides in Texas writes 

 me that pickle-factories use saccharine in their 

 business of putting up pickles. They do, un- 

 fortunately. I think they are not quite so bad 

 as the soda-water manufacturers who use both 

 benzoate of soda and saccharine. These are in- 

 sidious poisons, and ought to be barred from all 

 human food and drinks. It is the opinion of 

 eminent authorities on poisons that saccharine 

 ought not to be sold at all except for laboratory 

 use. In Germany only one factory now makes 

 it, and that is under strict supervision by the im- 

 perial government. I note that Indiana has suc- 

 ceeded in barring out benzoate of soda in food. 

 That knocks out a lot of syrups, jellies, etc., and 

 makes a wider market for honey. Bee keepers 

 owe it to themselves to give the facts the widest 

 publicity. 



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BEE-KEEPING IN NORTH AFRICA. 



Fischer, the German ethnologist, has this to 

 say of the Berbers of Morocco, a statement which 

 also applies to the whole of North Africa: "Bee 

 culture is carried on by them with especial zeal, 



and wax is, therefore, one of the exports of 

 Southern Morocco." Some time ago a French 

 bee-journal rather sarcastically criticised me for 

 attributing the fine physique of these North Af- 

 rica folk to the honey and other excellent natu- 

 ral foods they use; but Professor Fischer's arti- 

 cle (Smithsonian Report, 1907) rather bears me 

 out. At first he notes they are great producers 

 of apricots, figs, dates, and similar crops. Fur- 

 ther he states: " The Berbers physically are an 

 extraordinarily powerful and sturdy race — slen- 

 der, muscular, somewhat about the average in 

 height, but with no tendency toward fat, which 

 is considered becoming only among the young 

 girls of a few tribes. Their endurance of bodily 

 exertion and privation is wonderful; but above 

 all they excel in walking and running. " It looks 

 as if my French critic would have to swallow 

 this German pill, as it is backed up by Ameri- 

 can observation. 



r.OVERNMENT AID TO BEE-KEEPERS. 

 Dr. Miller hints that it would do no harm if 

 the federal government would devote a little 

 more of its money toward the encouragement of 

 the bee-keeping industry. I will add a little 

 more to that. We are avasiing hundreds of mil- 

 lions on preparation for wars that will never 

 come. Certainly no European power has the re- 

 motest idea of declaring war on us, and we could 

 not make war on any one of them. The war 

 business has a great resemblance to the liquor 

 business, and we still have to combat it just as 

 the temperance people have done with the alco- 

 hol trade. It is a vast evil. Just think, doctor. 

 We waste enough money in a year to build a 

 double-track electric railway from New York to 

 San Francisco. Not only that, we set a bad ex- 

 ample, for Brazil and Argentina are now arrang- 

 ing to have large navies. Let's have that appro- 

 priation of $100,000 for bees. 



MORE IRRIGATION FOR IMPERIAL VALLEY. 



The prospects are very favorable for a govern- 

 ment reclamation project in the famous Imperial 

 Valley, in California, which will reclaim 200,000 

 acres of very rich land. Water will be taken 

 from l.aguna dam (which is now building), at an 

 elevation of 145 feet. This was sufficiently high 

 to send the water from the extreme south end of 

 the valley northward to the Southern Pacific 

 track at Imperial Junction. It ought to be not- 

 ed that the Colorado River runs south, while the 

 flow of the canal is northward. This new sys- 

 tem will irrigate lands higher than the present ir- 

 rigated areas, some of which are below sea-level. 

 A vote is being taken, and it is not expected 

 there will be any opposition to the project, for 

 Uncle Sam will do the work in his usual satisfac- 

 tory manner. Previous irrigation work in the 

 valley has been done by private enterprise. 

 There is a probability that vast areas will be re- 

 claimed in and around Imperial Valley; in fact, 

 it looks now as if Imperial Valley would become 

 the banner producing section of the Golden 

 State; but it will require government supervision 

 and assistance to accomplish it, as the engineer- 

 ing work must be of a stupendous and enduring 

 character, which can not be left to private initia- 

 tive. 



