78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping Among the Rockies 



Wesley Fostee, Boulder, Col. 



INTERSTATE SHIPMENT OF DISEASED BEES. 



Mr. Chadwick asks whether the bees 

 spoken of as having been kept from being 

 shipped into Colorado were known to be 

 diseased. No, we did not know, except 

 that the district where the bees are is known 

 to be diseased. We did not try to stop the 

 shipment by law, for one State can not 

 legislate against another. All that was done 

 was to notify the party of the conditions 

 that prevailed where the shipment was in- 

 tended to be made, stating that we would 

 inspect the bees upon arrival. I do not 

 believe that the county ordinances such as 

 Mr. Chadwick speaks of would hold very 

 many minutes under the rulings of the 

 Inter- State Commerce Commission. A bee- 

 keeper would have to submit to inspection 

 after arrival; but I do not believe that the 

 shipment could be stopped unless the bees 

 were known to be diseased. Our Colorado 

 law is broad enough so that I think an 

 inspector would be upheld in destroying 

 all diseased bees ujjon arrival. This would 

 not be just unless the disease was being 

 introduced into a clean district. In a dis- 

 trict where foul brood already exists, the 

 man who shipped in bees, and a few were 

 found diseased, should be accorded the same 

 treatment that others in the vicinitj^ are 

 given. 



Colorado at the present time has no Eu- 

 ropean foul brood that we know of, and 

 the beekeepers here would be very much in 

 favor of destroying all colonies in a ship- 

 ment that had this disease; and our law 

 would stand back of the procedure. I do 

 not think that such measures for the pro- 

 tection of bees from diseases are unjust. 

 The good of the whole beekeeping frater- 

 nity is of more consequence than the de- 

 sires of some unenlightened individual. Far 

 more damage has been done by the indis- 

 criminate shipping of diseased bees all over 

 the country than by stringent laws that may 

 seem to work a hardship on any one person. 

 We must encourage in every way the legiti- 

 mate spread of aggressive beekeeping meth- 

 ods ; but the spreading of diseases must be 



curtailed also. 



* * * 



THE EFFECT OF TARIFF REDUCTION ON PRICES. 



Local business houses are making increas- 

 ed efforts to clear their shelves of all stocks 

 bought under present price conditions. Busi- 

 ness men seem to be optimistic, but expect 

 a readjustment of prices after the Demo- 

 cratic administration has begun its work at 

 tariff reduction ; and when the tariff is men- 



tioned, the beekeeper immediately thinks of 

 free sugar, and whether honey will be put 

 on the free list. And the next commodity 

 thought of is lumber. I do not know what 

 will be done with honey; but the talk is 

 strongly for free sugar, and perhaps the 

 admission of lumber free of duty. Person- 

 ally I believe that free sugar will aid rather 

 than hurt the beemen. This will depend, of 

 course, on whether sugar is reduced to the 

 consumer by taking off the tariff. If we 

 could get sugar for three cents instead of 

 five or five and a half, much more of it 

 would be fed in the fall to put the bees in 

 prime condition for wintering. Being situ- 

 ated so far inland, and not familiar with 

 the markets where foreign honey would cut 

 a figure, I do not know what the effect 

 would be if honey were put on the free list. 

 Lumber admitted free ought to have a 

 definite effect on the price of bee-supplies; 

 and it might be that the qualitj^ of the lum- 

 ber obtainable would be improved. Taking 

 the whole situation, I think that the beemen 

 will not be averse to the general plans for 

 tariff revision. What we are concerned in 

 is a reduction in the cost of necessities for 

 the home and in our business. One of the 

 greatest promises of the times is that the 

 people as a whole are asking for something 

 definite — stated, not in political terms, such 

 as tariff revision, but in terms of economics 

 — a lower price for sugar, lumber, woolen 

 and cotton goods, and all staples that con- 

 sume the bulk of our incomes. 



CONVERSATIONS WITH DOOLITTLE 

 AT BORODINO, NEW YORK 



Continued from page 77. 

 honey, and trade even-handed pound for 

 pound for butter. And in the days of the 

 six-pound box, I sold my whole crop to a 

 dealer for 26 cents a pound, taking hitn 

 four wagonloads, and on my return home 

 loaded these wagons with coal at our near- 

 est station, $3.50 a ton. Now it takes nerar- 

 ly four pounds of honey to purchase wh.ai 

 one pound did when father kept bees; and 

 our nice section honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions, when sold by the wagonload, brnigs 

 only 121/2 cents instead of 26. Now a wag- 

 onload of coal costs $6.80 at the same place 

 where the $3.50 coal was obtained in t!ie 

 days when beekeeping was carried on in a 

 more primitive way. This state of ail'airs 

 can hardly be laid to overproduction, as I 

 verily believe that the per-capita consump- 

 tion in those days was two if not tln-ee 

 times as large as it is to-day. 



