THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



99 



COMMISSION MKN. 



I think lluit nitliiT too Iwird 

 things are said of the eonmiission 

 men. An imptiitial trial eoniniittee 

 would give verdict of as many 

 causes of c()in|>laint by city houses 

 against fanners as the other way. 

 In other words, it would sliow that 

 dishonest parlies are found in every 

 calling, but that honesty and sound 

 business principles goverti the nia- 

 jorit}'. Established business houses 

 do not live by five-dollar steals. 

 Their reputations are as important 

 capital stock as is the coin they have 

 •invested. And a commission house 

 that would do a good business can- 

 not afford to steal and cheat, and 

 it does not need to do so. Patro- 

 nize houses of established reputa- 

 tion therefore, if you ship your 

 honey, and all will be well. In ad- 

 dition to that, let local merchants 

 sell for you on commission. Neat 

 packages will always sell and you 

 are saved freight and the trouble 

 of putting up goods for transporta- 

 tion. But, if a man has merchants 

 in town selling honey for him, I 

 don't consider it just the right 

 thing for him to go about in a 

 wagon and sell, thus destroying the 

 merchant's trade. If he goes be- 

 yond the field of the merchant's 

 custom I see nothing wrong in it. 

 But, for mj' part, if I cannot live 

 in the bee business without, in ad- 

 dition to the other trials of the 

 calling, going about peddling from 

 liouse to house, I shall go into some- 

 thing else. 



The present season is as prom- 

 ising as the last one was unprom- 

 ising. 



Gonzales^ Cal. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



PLANTING FOR HONEY. 



C. H. DlBBERX, 



In the November number of the 

 Apiculturist appears an article on 



this subject by Mr. R. L. Taylor, 



thai is rc'iiiarkal>le to say the least. 

 Mr. Taylor seems to lament the 

 time and money spent l)y bee- 

 ke('[)ers for seed of honey plants, 

 and then asks, "What are the i)rac- 

 tical results?" Mr. Taylor evi- 

 dently belongs to that class of 

 beekeepers who think that after 

 planting a small patch of sweet 

 clover or other honey -3'ielding 

 plants, they should ever alter be 

 able to take off case after case of 

 fine honey as a result of their "com- 

 petition with nature." I have ad- 

 vocated and pi'actised planting for 

 honey alone, for many years, and 

 believe it has paid me well. It is 

 true it is not easy to see just the 

 amount of honey realized from a 

 given number of acres planted, and 

 we are apt to conclude, that the 

 bees would have done just as well 

 anyway. A little observation and 

 thought ought to convince us that 

 this is wrong. 



Years ago, when I had less than 

 one hundred colonies of bees, they 

 generally did ver}' well on the flow- 

 ers that grew spontaneously, and I 

 usually had considerable honey to 

 sell. When my bees increased, 

 however, to two hundred or more 

 colonies, I seemed to have reached 

 the point where in an ordinary 

 year, they would gather just about 

 enough to keep them through the 

 year. I was not so situated that I 

 could divide them up, and then re- 

 sorted to increasing the bloom in 

 my immediate vicinity. During 

 the last few years I have had from 

 one to five acres in sweet clover, 

 and besides have it scattered far 

 and wide in waste places. I now 

 depend fully as much on the yield 

 of honey from sweet clover as from 

 either white clover or linden. My 

 yield now per colon}^ from two 

 hundred is as good as formerly 

 from one hundred. 



Now, Mr. Taylor seems to think 

 that because there are some 3,000 



