1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



299 



for many home seekers. The enterprise is back- 

 ed by a number of railways — the Burlington, 

 Great Northern, Union Pacific, St. Paul, Flori- 

 da East Coast, Northern Pacific, Santa Fe, and 

 the Rock Island. Mr. Edmund T. Perkins, Engi- 

 neer in Charge ofU. S. Reclamation Service, is on 

 the advisory committee, so that Uncle Sam will 

 be represented. The exposition will be held in 

 Chicago, November 27 to December 4, this yea'. 

 The secretary is Robert P. Cross, 407 Commer- 

 cial National Bank Building, Chicago, who will 

 furnish details. It will be a big affair. 

 -^ 



SUNFLOWERS FOR BKES. 



The Ontario Agricultural College has made 

 some very interesting experiments with sunflow- 

 ers, that are worthy of emulation elsewhere. 

 Ttie average annual yield of Russian Mammoth, 

 for a period of ten years, was 76.1 bushels; for 

 White Beauty, 75.9; and for Black Giant, 69.1 

 per acre. For silage the average yield over a 

 period of 13 years was, Black Giant, 6.0 tons of 

 heads and 20 b tons for the whole crop; Mam- 

 moth Russian, 5.7 tons of heads and 16.8 tons 

 for whole crop; White Beauty, 5.8 tons of heads 

 and 13.4 tons lor whole crop. This report is cer- 

 tainly very encouraging to bee-keepers and poul- 

 try men, as there are many States just as well suit- 

 ed to sunrtowets as is Ontario. Farmer bee-keep- 

 ers ought to think over this report. For bees the 

 blossoms of sunflowers come at an opportune 

 time. Any way, we feel quite grateful to the 

 Ontario College for its report. 

 ■^ 



THE BEE FLORA OF AMERICA. 



The writer is inclined to agree with Mr. Grant 

 Stanley in the matter of publishing a work on 

 the honey flora of North America It need not 

 be so large as to preclude any one from carrying 

 it around in his pocket. The revised edition of 

 Gray's Flora of the United States is not so very 

 large, and there is an edition in limp leather suit- 

 able for the pocket. A book on the honey Jlora 

 would not be a third as large. 



I have the complete flora of France, which slips 

 into one's inside coat pocket easily. The honey- 

 plants are marked in three degrees — fair, good, 

 excellent. The honey flora of Spain, of which I 

 have a copy, is excellent, and that, too, fits the 

 pocket nicely. Mr. School speaks of the honey- 

 plants of Texas; but does not the Lone Star State 

 have all the climates between sub-tropical and 

 north temperate.^ The writer remembers very dis- 

 tinctly being in the panhandle of Texas when 

 the thermometer registered 26 degrees below ze- 

 ro, Fahrenheit; at least we were told by the ob- 

 server at Amarillo that it was so at one point. 

 That gives an extensive flora, possibly half of 

 that of the United States. 



Here the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture could do good service, as the undertaking is 

 too much for private effort. Every important 

 European country has a honey "flora." Russia, 

 probably, has the best. 



WAX FROM CANDELILLA WEED. 



More particulars are now available regarding 

 this wonderful discovery. If all the reports are 

 true, beeswax will have a very serious competitor 



ere long. It is said the quality is high, and there 

 seems to be plenty of it. At any rate, the plant, 

 I'tiiilatithus pa-uones, is common in the states of 

 Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua Durango, 

 Zacatecas, Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, Ja- 

 lisco, Pueblo, and San Luis Potosi. There is 

 some of it this side of the Rio Grande, in Texas, 

 and in New Mexico and Arizona. 



The plant is described as growing to a height 

 of 3 to 5 feet in the form of stalks without leaves. 

 These are from % X-O Yz inch in diameter. An 

 acre will yield from one-half to two tons of weed 

 per annum. The amount of wax is from 3)^ to 

 5 per cent. 



The color of the wax is light, and it may be 

 bleached white. It has a high melting-point, 

 placing it ahead of all other vegetable waxes. It 

 makes fine candles, and gives a beautiful light. 

 It makes good varnish, and is fine for shoe-polish; 

 in fact, it gives more luster than Carnauba wax. 

 It is considered excellent for phonograph records, 

 and it answers well for the insulation of electric 

 wires. It has a higher melting-point than bees- 

 wax, hence it could be used by druggists; but 

 that will largely lie with the pure-food authori- 

 ties at Washington. 



It certainly looks as though the new wax would 

 prove a serious rival to beeswax. All substitutes 

 for beeswax ought to pay a duty of 10 cts. per 

 lb. I would be satisfied to let beeswax in free, 

 provided substitutes paid a duty. 



IRRIGATION PROJECTS. 



The lands on the Sun River, Montana, project 

 are being rapidly taken up. 



The Truckee-Carson project is 90 per cent 

 completed. Owing to heavy falls of snow in the 

 mountains there will be plenty of water available. 



There are over 16,000 acres in cultivation un- 

 der the Leasburg diversion dam in New Mexico. 

 It is believed the supply of water will be ample, 

 but there is no storage. 



On the Carlsbad, New Mexico, project, water 

 was turned on March 15. Many acres are being 

 planted in alfalfa and orchards. 



On the Strawberry Valley project in Utah an 

 additional force of men is being employed to 

 complete the tunnel, which will be three miles in 

 length. 



The sum of $100,000 has been alloted for the 

 Flathead project in Montana. This will con- 

 struct the Jocko unit (6000 acres); the Mission 

 unit (6000 acres), and the Poison unit (3000 acres). 

 The woik will be done mainly by Indians. 



At the Yuma, Arizona, project 7500 acres are 

 under cultivation. 



On April 1, 50 per cent of the pumping sys- 

 tem of the Minidoka project in Idaho was com- 

 pleted 



On the Gunnison tunnel, near Montrose, Col- 

 orado, only 1739 feet of the six-mile tunnel now 

 remains to be completed. In March, 595 feet 

 advance was made. 



On the North Platte project the Pathfinder 

 dam is now 194 feet above the foundation. 



Private companies expect to add 500,000 acres 

 to the irrigated lands around Denver. It would 

 seem from this that the government irrigation- 

 works encourage rather than hinder private en- 

 terprise. 



