48 



February. ISIH. 



American line Journal 



that colony began to improve imme- 

 diately, not even waiting for the new 

 generation of bees. 



Giving a more general answer to 

 your question, it may be said that the 

 season was of such a peculiar charac- 

 ter that it could hardly be said that 

 bees were crosser at one time than 

 another. In most years there will be 

 days now and then when the flow lets 

 up a little or the weather is bad, and 

 when the bees will be cross. This year 

 it was good gathering weather right 

 along. If a shower came, it came in 

 the night, and the next day the 

 bees were " on their job." For all that 

 there were some cross bees all through 

 the season. How many colonies were 

 responsible for this it would be hard to 

 say. In the main, our bees are better 

 natured than thev were a few years ago. 

 In the judgment of the writer their 

 tempers are vastly improved: although 

 Dr. Miller hardlyagrees with that view. 

 The difficulty iii a correct judgment 

 arises from the fact that a very few 

 vicious colonies may furnish enough 

 cross bees to give a bad reputation to 

 the whole apiary. For years selection 

 in breeding was made with the sole 

 view of getting bees that would do the 

 best storing, without any regard to 

 their color or their temper. The result 

 was an increase of the amount of lioney 

 gathered, with an unpleasantly greater 

 increase in the amount of stings. The 

 bees were mostly hybrids of the vicious 

 sort. Then pure Italian stock was in- 

 troduced solelyfor the sake of improve- 

 ment of temper, and now our bees are 

 almost entireh Italians. All the same 

 we are constantly sifting out those that 

 show too much temper. 



Alfalfa or Sweet Clover Hay vs. Timothy 



Mrs. C. Theill says in the Practical 

 Farmer : 



" A ton of alfalfa or sweet clover hay 

 is worth three tons of timothy when 

 fed in conjunction with corn products 

 to cattle. Where one ton of timothy 

 grows, two tons of clover or from three 

 to five tons of alfalfa or sweet clover 

 might have been grown. Furthermore, 

 every spear of timothy hay takes fer- 

 tility from the soil in the form of nitro- 



■1 



'^ii 



Robert E. Foster, of Rifle. Colo., dumuiiig a late swarm into a weak 

 gunny-sack swarm catcher. 



rolony from his 



gen, and must some day be replaced to 

 retain the fertility of the farm, whereas 

 every spear of clover or alfalfa has the 

 power to and does take out of the air 

 nitrogen, and deposits it in the soil and 

 leaves the ground richer in that neces- 

 sary element." 



Southern 



Beedom^ 



Conducted by I.ouis H. Scholl. New Braunfels. Tex. 



The Texas Foul Brood Law 



It is Id bo vpgrottcil thai the beo- 

 keepers of the Great Lone Star State, 

 one of the leading honey producing 

 states in the Union, are paying so 

 little attention to organized effort. 

 One of the results of this lack of in- 

 terest is that today we are without 

 protection against foul brood. We 

 have an exoellent foul brood law, one 

 that enables us to do i-tTeotive work, 

 but this law is entirely inoperative on 

 account of the lack of money to car- 



ry oil tho work. Without a suffioient 

 appropriation by the I..egislature the 

 best foul brood laws in the world 

 mean little. 



FUNDS ARIi NEEUEI). 



It takes money to inspect bees, es- 

 pecially in as large a state as Texas. 

 It behooves the beekeepers to con- 

 sider this well and prepare now to 

 take the i)ropor stops, that w-e may 

 obtain from the next Legislature the 

 money required and protect our in- 

 terests. 



FOUL BROOD WILL SPREAD. 



Unless we unite and pull together, 

 we will not gain the results we 

 should; and until we awaken to the 

 fact that we must "roll up our 

 sleeves" and work together with a 

 determination to cheek the ravages of 

 foul brood this disease will continue 

 to spread and make tlie situation 

 worse with continued delay. 



There have recently been several 

 instances where diseased bees were 

 moved from one place to another. 

 This will continue as long as there 

 is no prohibition backed by lawful en- 

 forcement. There have been com- 

 plaints to the effect that foul brood 

 diseased bees were moved into terri- 

 tory already occupied by healthy bees 

 of iirogressive bee-keopers. What are 

 they to do if our foul brood law is 

 inoperative? 



WHY THE LACK OF INTEREST ? 



There are many beekeepers entire- 

 ly unconcerned. They do not feel the 

 need of tile inspection. There is no 

 foul brood in their apiaries and. as 

 far as they know, none in the neigh- 

 borhood. Little do they realize how 

 dangerously mistaken they are in 



