332 FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 



vance. It emphasized also the variableness of the sea- 

 sons. Another item of no small importance was the har- 

 vests of the present and future as compared with the past. 

 Some have said that with the advance of civilization, the 

 plow and the ax have cut off our resources for nectar, 

 and we are no more to expect such crops as we have 

 had in the past. We shall see where the year 1903 put 

 the emphasis in that matter. 



A furnace put in the cellar somewhat late the pre- 

 vious winter had made bad work with the wintering, so 

 that by the 12th of May, 1903, I could muster only 124 

 colonies all told, and some of them were very weak 

 indeed. The dense carpet of white clover promised well, 

 provided the weather was good (as it turned out there 

 was too much cold and wet for best expectations), but 

 enough supers were piled ready-filled to satisfy any rea- 

 sonable demands. The cool, wet weather hindered stor- 

 ing no little, but was no doubt an advantage in the long 

 run, for it kept the clover growing and blowing, and I 

 don't know really when it did cease to yield. 



The season was remarkably early, so that second 

 stories were given some colonies by May 13, and May 

 25 we began giving supers. Three days later there were 

 evidences of abundant storing. July 1 we began taking 

 off supers, and from that on had a busy time both taking 

 off and putting on. Xo trouble with robber-bees ; supers 

 could be set on hives and left till the bees all ran out of 

 their own accord, standing all day if necessary. This up 

 to July 18, after which time the bees would have spells 

 of letting up, only to go at it afresh after the pause. 



Finally it began to dawn on us that our stock of filled 

 supers was running dangerously low. More sections were 

 ordered. Getting them ready as needed was added to our 

 already heavy task. We were kept on the jump till near 

 the middle of August. Then came the National conven- 

 tion at Los Angeles. Some 12,000 finished sections wxre 

 piled up in the house, but a lot more were on the hives, 

 and I hesitated about going. But my assistant insisted I 

 should go ; the bees had let up on storing, and I thought 



