680 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 21 , 190S 



4^ (£ontrtbutcb -f 

 Special Clrticles 



jf 



Honey Markets— Bees and Pollination— 

 Cleome 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



SINCE coming to Europe I have been surprised at two 

 things : First, the apparent scarcity of honey as an article 



of food; and, second, at the high price which it brings 

 in the market. 



As to the first point, let me say that though I have been 

 in all the British Isles — England, Ireland, and Scotland — in 

 France, Belgium. Holland, and now in Germany, yet not in a 

 single case, either at hotel or pension, has honey been put 

 before us. Several times I have called for it, only to be told 

 that there was none at hand. I had been told that in Europe 

 honey was as invariably a table article as is butter in America. 

 True, this was said of Switzerland, and as yet we have not 

 feasted at the boards of the Swiss. But so far as I have seen 

 and tasted this incomparable sweet, the best of all the carbo- 

 hydrate foods is most marked by its scarcity in all European 

 hostelries. I would that honey might be known and tasted, 

 yea, freely eaten by all who crave this delectable food. 



Again, honey is very high in all the countries where I 

 have visited. I ask for it at the groceries, only to be told, in 

 case it is to be had at all, which very often it is not, that it is, 

 in Britain, from •><» to 1 shilling — that is, 18 to 25 cents 

 per pound; in France and Belgium, a franc or more, which is 

 20 cents; in Holland about the same, while here in Berlin it 

 takes a mark (about 25 cents) to get a pound of comb honey. 



It is unfortunate that our splendid comb honey cannot 

 rSach the consumer at a price that he can afford to pay, even 

 though he be a laboring man, earning his daily bread by the 

 sweat of his brow. Such men are often — very often — God's 

 best servants, and so most deserving his best bounties. Surely, 

 it ought to be the good work of our associations so to plan 

 that such wholesome food as honey shall reach the eater at a 

 price that he can afford to pay, even though he be an humble 

 member of society. 



If our associations could so plan that enough of the 

 middle men would, be eliminated so that prices would remain 

 within the reach of the day-laborer, a great blessing would 

 be wrought. I believe that the American bee-keeper could 

 live and thrive if extracted honey could always be sold at 6 

 cents per pound, and comb honey at 10 cents per pound. Can 

 we not fashion machinery that will carry this to the table at 

 a SO percent advance— say 9 cents for extracted and 15 cents 

 for comb? What a boon it would be could the world's poor 

 get these, and even better rates on second-grade honey ! I 

 hope our associations, such as have been organized in some 

 of the States, as well as the National Association, will hammer 

 away on this proposition till results come that will bless the 

 producer and the consumer alike. 



I am also rather surprised to learn how away-behind the 

 European honey-producer is in the way he puts his honey into 

 the market. True, I have seen some fine, clean sections, but 

 for the most part, when I have called for honey I have been 

 offered an article that would find no buyers at all in the marts 

 of our own cities. This, I believe, is true all along the line. 

 We do our work better and practice methods that are far 

 more brainy than are those used here. In getting from Europe 

 such masters as the Dadants, and Grimms, I believe we have 

 secured the very best that Europe has to give. The rank and 

 file of those who hold the plow — all those who work in manual- 

 labor pursuits— read and study far less than do our farmers, 

 orchardists, and bee-keepers. Their ways are away behind 

 ours, and their methods are surprisingly not up-to-date. 



Bees and Pollination. 



larn surprised to find how few in Europe, especially 

 in Britain, depend solely upon bees for their support. I 

 am told, by reliable authority, that only one person in all 

 the British Isles is exclusively a bee-keeper. It is said 

 that he is constantly facing the "wolf at the door," yet 

 there are hosts of small bee-keepers, who keep a few bees. 

 Thus the number of bees is greater than in many sections 

 of our own country. I believe the good that comes to 



European agriculture from this redundancy of bees is far 

 frorn being appreciated. Bees do a grand work in cross- 

 pollinating the flowers of orchard, garden and field. They 

 help tremendously in increasing the productivity of crops 

 by this necessary work. Speed the day when every sec- 

 tion of the United States shall be as populous in bees as 

 is the best stocked countries of Germany, Switzerland, and 

 Austria. 



Yellow Cleome. 



A subscriber from Arizona sends me flowers of what 

 we may well call the "Arizona Bee-Plant," or yellow 

 cleome. He says it often yields very abundantly of nec- 

 tar, and barring the fact that, it often fails utterly as a 

 honey-plant, he would regard it as one of the very best 

 honey-plants of the world. He adds that the years of 

 failure are in the majority. 



This is a close relative of the famous Rocky Mountain 

 Bee-Plant, or we may well call it the Colorado Bee-Plant. 

 The latter is pink, while this Arizona one is yellow. 



This is known to science as Cleome lutea, or yellow 

 cleome. It is also closely related to the other cleome, or 

 spider-plant. I mention both the other plants in my 

 "Bee-Keeper's Guide," but not this one. It deserves a 

 place in the list. 



It will be remembered that, years ago, in the '80's, 

 when I experimented under the auspices of the U. S. 

 Government, to determine if special planting for honey 

 was practical, I used Cleome integrifolia as one of the 

 plants. I found, just as our friend says of this Arizona 

 bee-plant, that it very often failed to give any honey at 

 all. I drew the conclusion, — and I see no reason now to 

 change the verdict, — that special planting for bees is not a 

 practical proposition. Often the results will be nothing, 

 and thus the balance will be on the loss side of the ledger. 



We may well plant sweet clover and the mints by the 

 roadside and in waste-places; we may well plant lindens, 

 tulip trees, etc., along the highways (eucalypts or acacias, 

 if in the arid regions) ; we are wise to encourage farmers in 

 sowing alfalfa, alsike, buckwheat, etc.; but I do not believe 

 it will ever pay to use good land to produce plants that 

 are only valuable for honey. 



Were I to locate an apiary, I should like, if possible, 

 to be close by large orchards, to have the early stimulative 

 efifects of orchard bloom. For like reasons I should like 

 to have abundant soft maples in the East, and many buck- 

 thorns in California. Above all, I should wish hard by 

 the basswoods and white clover in the East, and sages 

 and wild buckwheat in the West. Berlin, Germany. 



Economy of Wintering Bees in the Cellar 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



I FIND the following from the pen of Dr. Miller, in Glean- 

 ings in Bee-Culture : 

 "C. P. Dadant says in the American Bee Journal that 8 

 or 10 pounds is a fair estimate of the honey consumed by a 

 colony wintered in the cellar, and nearly double that by a 

 colony on the summer stand in a cold winter. According to 

 that, for the labor of carrying in and out one would get about 

 8 pounds of honey for each colony. Good pay. At the same 

 time, I'd be glad to feel sure that the cellared colony is just 

 as well off in all respects." 



This item has called my attention to the fact that I have 

 perhaps not explained my meaning sufficiently. I did not 

 mean to say that the amount stated would carry a colony from 

 crop to crop, but only through the real winter — the time when 

 bees are kept in the cellar. My experience has been that the 

 colony wintered out-of-doors has in the meantime produced a 

 larger quantity of brood than the colony wintered in the 

 cellar; that when the cellared colony is taken out, it has to 

 get accustomed to the changed conditions and has to begin 

 to breed, and that it. in the end, spends a goodly portion of 

 the savings in catching up with the other, wintered out-of- 

 doors. 



I have often heard Canadian bee-keepers say that their 

 bees breed in the cellar, at the end of winter, but I have seen 

 very little of this in our latitude. Different conditions cause 

 different results. We do not leave our bees so long in the 

 cellar here, as they do at the North. We cannot, for as soon 

 as the warm days come the difficulty arises of keeping them 

 quiet. That is why we have ceased wintering bees in the 

 cellar, although there is occasionally a season when we would 

 be glad to liavc them indoors. 



