THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Ill 



TIIK DIJONK- I'l; AP AM) S\V A ItMKi:. 



Mr. Hi;.mry Ai.i.i.v : I want to tell 

 you that your clrDue and-ciuecn trap is 

 the best irn])lemcnL I have ever used 

 in beekee]iinjj;. One of my neighbors 

 would not believe the trap would catch 

 a queen ; so he ])laced it on a hive. 

 The bees swarmed and started off, the 

 neighbor started for them, without first 

 examining the trap to see if the queen 

 was in it. The queen was trapped and 

 the bees arrived home before the man 

 in pursuit. 



rilK, SWAUMKK. 



A beekeeper living near here bought 

 one of your swarmers and placed it on 

 a hive according to directions, and went 

 out to his work, ploughing. When he 

 returned home his bees had swarmed 

 and were at work in the new hive and 

 all right without any trouble to him. 

 Joseph P. Skwall. 



CiiDiining, Gil. 



THE APIARY. 



Every fruit grower ought to raise a 

 few bees and every cultivator of grains 

 and plnnts should do likewise. The 

 fruit blossoms waste a great deal of nec- 

 tar unless bees are around to gather it, 

 and it is yet to be shown that they in- 

 jure any of the fruits. It is a sugges- 

 tive question whether bees do not im- 

 prove every kind of plant growth, and 

 whether all of our vegetation would not 

 be better if bees were more plentiful. 



In locating an apiary, care should be 

 taken to see what kind of a harvest the 

 bees are to have. Planting exclusively 

 for honey is hardly paying work unless 

 there are some native blossoms already 

 ])lanted beforehand. In great fruit and 

 llower regions the bees are sure to find 

 enough nectar to make plenty of honey. 

 The ideal place for an apiary is where 

 the bees can get spring, summer and 

 fall blooms. 'The fruit grower can add 

 beekeeping to his other labors, and 

 make a i)rofit thereby. Many of our 

 flowers, such as clover, squashes, and 

 fruit blossoms, fail of fruitage, unless 

 some insect bear the pollen of one blos- 



som to the pistil of another. It has 

 been repeatedly demonstrated that if 

 these plants be screened from insects 

 the yield of seed and fruit would be 

 but partial. All of the hundred million 

 pounds of honey thai are gathered an- 

 nually by the l)ees would all go to waste 

 were it not for the apiarist and his foster- 

 ing care of the bees. There is no doubt 

 but millions of wealth of nectar annu- 

 ally go to waste now in this country, 

 for no matter how numerous the colo- 

 nies of bees may be in any section it 

 is doubtful whether they exhaust the 

 floral resources. There are still great 

 resources of the industry that have 

 never been touched, and with the in- 

 creased demand for honey more profits 

 than ever will be realized from bees. 



Already a large amount of honey is 

 annually consumed in the various in- 

 dustries of pork-packing, tobacco and 

 other manufactures, while the commer- 

 cial value of beeswax is very great. 

 Nearly 500 tons of beeswax are annu- 

 ally imported into Great Britain, while 

 Russia alone uses nearly 5,000 tons in 

 the ceremonies of the church. 



It is in Germany and Switzerland 

 that the resources of the flowers are 

 utilized in the most advantageous way, 

 and very little nectar from trees or 

 plants is allowed to go to waste. The 

 art of beekeeping is taught in the pub- 

 lic schools of Germany, and instructors 

 frequently go from town to town to 

 teach the farmers how best to keep 

 bees, and to utilize the nectar of their 

 fruit orchard and clover fields. In 

 Switzerland honey is used almost as 

 commonly as butter, and large quanti- 

 ties are raised and consumed in this 

 small country. 



In making this industry profitable 

 the apiarist must look after all of the 

 details and see to it that nothing is 

 allowed to go to waste. The produc- 

 tion of a first-class article can only be 

 obtained where the honey is completely 

 capped and ripened by the bees 'Phe 

 so-called tiering-up system is indispen- 

 sable in this ; and to make a" fancy ar- 

 ticle, the highest-priced white-poplar 



