20 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



New York, Dec. 5, upon the best 

 method of irrigating tlie arid lands of 

 the country. 



He claims that about 120,000,000 

 acres can be rendered arable by his 

 method. In the wheat belt at the low 

 estimate of fifteen bushels of wheat 

 per acre this land would produce 

 1,800,000,000 bushels; in corn at 60 

 bushels per acre would yield 

 7,200,000,000 bushels ; or sown to oats 

 one-half that number of Inishels could 

 be easily raised. If planted exclu- 

 sively to potatoes, and the yield be 

 equal to districts where the system of 

 irrigation is in vogue, we can approx- 

 imate 12,000,000,000 bushels. What 

 do the eastern people think of this 

 output ? 



What would he done with this enor- 

 mous surplus in addition to what is 

 raised annually in this country, and 

 what price would it bring in the mar- 

 ket? The visil)Ie supply would appall 

 them, the present storage room en- 

 tirely inadequate to store it. 



Even now at nearly all the railroad 

 stations in Nebraska, corn is being 

 dumped in great piles on the ground 

 for want of shipping facilities and 

 room in which to store it. 



Cereals and nearly everj'^ kind of 

 vegetables grown on irrigated land 

 are superior in quality, they yield 

 greater and command better prices as 

 lean testify from personal observation. 

 On sucli land the yield of alfalfa is 

 enormous and if it produces nectar in 

 quantities as claimed for it, what a 

 field for bee-men so fortunate as to be 

 located near the heretofore arid lands 

 of this continent, soon to be re- 

 claimed and made to blossom as the 

 rose. 



A few more great honey-producing 

 districts like California, opened up for 

 settlement and rendered arable by 

 irrigation, will practically solve the 

 problem, how to increase the product. 

 But will not the small producers be 

 driven to the wall, and be forced to 

 quit the business? 



California apiarists, paying no taxes 



on laud over which millions upon 

 millions of bees roam at pleasure, 

 can better afford to sell honey at five 

 cents per pound than those in the 

 states burdened with heavy taxes, and 

 greater labor and expense attend the 

 production of liotii extracted and 

 comb-honey. 



And if vast tracts of land in the 

 west and northwest are reclaimed, ac- 

 tual settlers will soon be found to take 

 up every quarter section, or at least 

 when it becomes generally known that 

 failure of crops from drougiit is an im- 

 j)ossibility. 



The prophet ( ?), who based his pre- 

 dictions on retros[)ective views, pos- 

 sessed no great faculty. No great 

 stretch of imagination or mental acu- 

 men is necessary to fit a prophecy to 

 events long since passed into tradi- 

 tion or history ; but he who can dis- 

 cern the signs of the times in coming 

 events, to a certaint}', is a greater and 

 more reliable prophet than I claim to 

 be. 



This brings to mind the second 

 proposition of my problem, which I 

 fear cannot be satisfactorily solved at 

 the present time ; for a retrospective 

 view upon which I largel}' base my 

 predictions for the future output (as 

 I have heretofore said that it is not 

 necessar}' to possess great mental acu- 

 men to judge the future by the past) 

 leads me to infer and believe that 

 "what has been will be, ' and that no 

 more lioney will be consuuied next 

 year than during the year last [)ast. 



As to increased production : we 

 all know that the seasons, or climatic 

 conditions of the atmosphere regu- 

 late the flow of nectar. 



It has been said that every season 

 farmers raise a good crop of corn, the 

 honey-producing plants yield rich 

 stores of honey in abundance ; which 

 is a grave mistake, for the ground may 

 be too wet or too dry during the life 

 of those flowers, or too cold for bees 

 to fly, and afterwards the season be 

 sufficiently warm and long enough to 

 mature the corn crop. 



