876 



develop our local markets, and not rush in 

 more honey to the great commercial centers. 



The year 1913 has seen extremes of 

 weather conditions. While these extremes 

 have been local thej' have been none the less 

 record-breakers. First we had the Southern 

 California freeze ; then the floods in Nebras- 

 ka and Ohio, and then the snow blizzard 

 south of the Great Lakes. They all wrought 

 fearful damage to property ; but, fortu- 

 nately, no great harm came to the bees.' 



The year 1913 has witnessed the enact- 

 ment of an unusual amount of foul-brood 

 legislation. Several States have passed new 

 laws outright, and others have made im- 

 portant amendments to the old laws. Among 

 the States that have had foul-brood legisla- 

 tion during 1913 of some sort may be men- 

 tioned the following: California, Connec- 

 ticut, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, 

 Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. 



In the line of national legislation has 

 come the enactment of a new tariff law by 

 which the tariff on honey per gallon has 

 been cut down from 20 cents to 10. This 

 means a little less than a cent a pound. 

 What effect this is going to have on the 

 cheaper grades of honey in this country 

 I'emains to be seen ; but so far it has had no 

 apparent effect. Parcel post came in with 

 1913, and it has come to stay. It is expect- 

 ed that there will be a general reduction of 

 express rates to compete with parcel post. 

 All this goes to help the beekeeper seeking 

 to find a market for his product.. 



No important invention has been brought 

 out during 1913 ; but a number of improve- 

 ments have been made, not only in devices 

 but in methods. Among the last mentioned 

 we should unhesitatingly put to the fore- 

 front the Arthur C. Miller direct method of 

 introducing queens with smoke — a method 

 that practically insures the safe introduc- 

 tion of not only laying but of virgin queens. 

 It is not only reliable, but saves from two 

 to four days of valuable time. Reports 

 from all over the United States from queen- 

 breeders and honey-producers alike univer- 

 sally agree that this is one of the gi'eatest 

 tricks of the trade given in 1913. 



Among improvements and inventions may 

 be mentioned the Arthur F. Hodgson ven- 

 tilated escape-board, described on page 577. 



Great improvements have been made in 

 shipping bees without combs. Combless 

 packages of bees have been sent to many 

 distant points in the United States by the use 

 of water, and with the loss of only about a 

 dozen bees to the pound. As there are about 

 4800 bees to the pound the percentage of 

 loss is only i/4 of one per cent. But it 

 should not be understood that all combless 



&LEAN1NGS IN BEE CULTURE 



packages of bees went' through in good 

 order. Some arrived at their destination 

 with a loss of 75 per cent ; but investigation 

 has shown that in most cases, if not in all 

 of them, the cause of death was due to a 

 leakage in the water-container. At all events, 

 when the bees arrived at their destination 

 the water-bottles were entirely empty. 



The other substantial improvements that 

 have been made are in capping-melter ma- 

 chinery, honey-pumps, and power honey- 

 extractors. 



The tendency on the part of all large 

 honey-jDroducers has been decidedly toward 

 the introduction of power machinery for 

 taking honey off the hives. There is a rea- 

 son for this, and that is the high cost of 

 labor that often can not be secured at any 

 price when it is the most needed. It is actu- 

 ally cheaper for the large honey-producer 

 to pay interest and depreciation on his in- 

 vestment of machinery than to try to hire 

 help which he can not get, or lose a sub- 

 stantial percentage of his crop. 



There is another tendency ; and that is, to 

 make the production of honey a special line 

 of business. While the backlotter is much 

 more in evidence also, the careless, don't- 

 read-the-bee-papers farmer class of bee- 

 keepers is being eliminated by bee disease. 

 While the yearsl910, 1911, and 1912 showed 

 this iDrocess of elimination was going on, 

 1913 has seen the field in many cases turned 

 over to the specialist. We can point to 

 scores of places where this has occurred, 

 especially where European foul brood has 

 wiped black bees and their owners out of 

 existence. 



During the early part of 1913 the West- 

 ern Honey Bee, j^ublished by the California 

 State Beekeepers' Association, was started. 

 Its purpose was to get the beekeepers of the 

 Pacific coast in closer touch; and, appar- 

 ently, it has succeeded in its mission. Dur- 

 ing this year, also, the Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal was absorbed by the Canadian Horticul- 

 turist. The bee part of it is ably edited by 

 the Provincial Apiarist, Prof. Pettit, . at 

 Guelph, Ont., Can, 



Among the deaths of notable beekeepers 

 that should be mentioned for 1913 is Oliver 

 Foster, of Boulder, Coh, who died March 

 12 ; Dan White, of New London, Ohio, who 

 died June 2; Wm. McEvoy, of Woodburn, 

 Ontario, and I. R. Good, of Marion, Ind., 

 who died Oct. 5. 



Thus, gradually, some of the brilliant 

 lights in beedom are being snuffed out ; and 

 the few remaining that bridge the past to 

 the present can nearly all be counted on the 

 fingers of one's hand. 



