Oct. 18, 1906 



879 



American Itee Journal 



Werner, Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Kimmej, Daniel 

 Widicus, and John C. Frank— all of Illinois; 

 Huber H. Root and Fred W. Muth, of Ohio; 

 General Manager N. E. France, W. H. Put- 

 nam, C. J. Thies, Miss Mathilde Candler, and 

 C. A. Hatch (with several others), of Wiscon- 

 sin ; Vice-President George E. Hilton, Secre- 

 tary W. Z. Hutchinson, and G. A. Bleech, of 

 Michigan; Geo. H. Adkins, of New York; 

 Dr. G. Bohrer, of Kansas; and John C. Bull 

 ( with :i others), of Indiana. 



Some of the foregoing will get on the car 

 when it arrives in St. Louis. Doubtless there 

 will be others who will write us before the 

 time to start. The car will hold over 50, so 

 there will be room for all who will likely be 

 able to go from this part of the country and 

 along the line of the Frisco System. 



Contributed Articles 



Swarming— The National.— Mr. Wm. 



M. Whitney, of Lake Geneva, Wis., wrote us 

 as follows on Sept. 21 : 



Friend Yore: — I wi6h to pat Mr. Bevins 

 on the back for what he says on page 799 re- 

 specting " Prevention of Swarming — How to 

 Put on Supers," etc. He has hit the nail 

 squarely on the head, I think. I, too, like 

 occasionally to see a " big swarm " issue, and 

 to have a " lot of big queen-cells," which, as 

 a rule, give me better queens than any I can 

 buy. 



People may talk of no swarming at all as 

 much as they please, but there are seasons 

 when it is impossible to prevent swarming 

 entirely, or even to keep it within reasonable 

 bounds. It is my belief that C. P. Dadant & 

 Sons' method, which, I think, is considered 

 by most practical bee-keepers good practise, 

 is the best of which I have any knowledge to 

 prevent swarming. 



Again. I wish to say that I agree with you 

 entirely in what you say respecting the aid 

 bee-keepers derive from the National Associa- 

 tion. Not one penny has it helped me in the 

 sale of my honey, but I would not exchange 

 the benefits of the Association with the ad- 

 vanced bee-keepers for ten times what it costs 

 to become a member. I think very, very 

 much of my membership in the Chicago- 

 Northwestern ; but I feel that a good market 

 for the product of the apiary depends upon 

 my own efforts. As long as I am a bee-keeper 

 I shall hope to retain my membership, how- 

 ever. The way one is benefitted by such as- 

 sociations are too numerous and too valuable 

 to be ignored. Wm. M. Whitney. 



The fact is, the National Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation has done, and is doing, a great work 

 for bee-keepers, and at very little expense to 

 the individual members. And it can be of 

 even greater use in the future, if wisely man- 

 aged. 



" Notes from Canada, by R. F. Holter- 

 mann," is the latest new department in Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture. The iir6t instalment of 

 the " Notes " is very interesting. Mr. Holter- 

 mann is a brother-in-law of Mr. Morley 

 Pettit. who conducts " Canadian Beedom " in 

 this Journal. We suppose there will ba con- 

 siderable rivalry between these brothers-in- 

 law, to 6ee which will be able to turn out fhe 

 better department. As Mr. Pettit has about 

 a year's start of Mr. Holtermann, he probably 

 will be able to keep ahead for quite a while, 

 at least. 



National Bee-Keepers' Association 



will hold its 37th annual convention in San 

 Antonio, Tex., Nov. 8, 9, and 10 Will TOO 

 be there? 



Honey Plants and Regions- 

 Other Subjects 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK 



As all our long-time bee-keepers will 

 remember, I tried extensive experi- 

 ments along in the '80's to determine 

 whether it would pay to practise arti- 

 ficial planting of honey-plants solely 

 for honey. This was done in a care- 

 ful, scientific way, and I feel sure that 

 the conclusions at which I arrived, 

 after several years' extensive planting, 

 will never be disproved. I used the 

 Rocky Mountain bee-plant, or cleome, 

 Chapman's honey-plant, and some 

 others. While there is no doubt that 

 at some seasons there might be a gain, 

 nectar-production at best is so erratic 

 that we may be assured that it will 

 never pay to plant with only honey in 

 view. There are too many other plants, 

 excellent for honey, which have other 

 valuable use. 



It will pay, however, to scatter de- 

 sirable bee-plants along roadsides and 

 waste-places, and no bee-keeper can 

 afford to neglect such practise. In 

 choosing plants for this purpose, we 

 should aim to find out that they are 

 very general in their production of 

 nectar, having few "off" years; that 

 the honey from them is of good quality; 

 that they will persist without care ; 

 and that there is no danger that they 

 will ever become a serious weed-pest. 



As I recently came through Colorado 

 and Utah, I saw very much more of 

 the Rocky Mountain bee-plant, or 

 cleome, than I have ever seen before. 

 This shows that the bee-keepers are 

 alive to their opportunities, and are 

 scattering broadly this excellent honey- 

 plant. Our friends of the arid regions 

 of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Col- 

 orado may well see to it that not only 

 this, but the yellow cleome, shall be 

 scattered as widely as may be. It 

 would also be well that mesquite should 

 be widely planted. 



I am led to this discussion by what I 

 noted in the interesting apiary of our 

 German friend Schultz, who lives a 

 few miles out of Berlin, in Germany. 

 The roadsides, and village and city 

 streets in the near vicinity of Mr. 

 Schultz, are well planted with the 

 European linden and the honey-locust. 

 Mr. Schultz informed me that these 

 trees gave very bountiful crops of most 

 excellent honey almost every season. 

 It would be a great addition to our own 

 landscape, if we had more trees along 

 our roadsides. In such roadside plant- 

 ing we should always consider utility, 

 and certainly no one should neglect 

 planting of our honey-producing trees. 

 The linden and the beautiful tulip of 

 the East, and the eucalyptus of Cali- 

 fornia and contiguous States, are good 

 examples of this kind. 



Mr. Schultz was also very loud in 

 his praise of Phacelia tanacetifolia. 

 This was an introduced plant which 



had been widely scattered in this place, 

 and Mr. Schultz informs me that the 

 amount of honey secured from this 

 plant is almost past belief. Here we 

 have a hint for our own progress. 

 While we already have many excellent 

 plants, there is no doubt that the 

 United States Government might 

 bring us others that would do for us 

 what the phacelia has done for Ger- 

 many. 



It may interest the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal to know that 

 this same phacelia that is praised so 

 much in Germany, is one of our very 

 common wild plants of Southern Cali- 

 fornia. It is not only very common, 

 but very beautiful, and I have rarely 

 seen it without having seen bees work- 

 ing thick upon its blossoms. It be- 

 longs to the great natural order Hy- 

 drophyllacea;, which abounds in inter- 

 esting species in this region. One of 

 the peculiarities of many of the plants 

 of this family, is that they show a 

 scorpeoid infloresence. This mode of 

 flowering produces a flower-spike 

 which closely resembles a coiled worm 

 or caterpillar. Some of the examples 

 are so striking that they are almost 

 startling to one who is not used to 

 them. 



Honey-Regions. 



I was interested, a few days since, 

 in reading one of the bee-papers, to 

 note what a diversity exists in the 

 honey-production of the present sea- 

 son. Few of the States have a maxi- 

 mum year. Some regions, like north- 

 ern Illinois, have been an entire fail- 

 ure. Most regions, like Michigan and 

 California, have not given a full crop. 

 This shows that it is very wise to de- 

 velop this industry wherever the nat- 

 ural resources permit. 



It will be remembered by our readers 

 that something over a year ago, as I 

 passed across the continent, I remarked 

 upon the vast areas of honey-plants 

 where few if any bees were kept, and 

 urged that it would be very wise if our 

 Government would determine just what 

 sections promised success to the bee- 

 keeper. A few days since I came 

 across the middle section of our coun- 

 try, and here again in many parts of 

 that great central area I saw many 

 bee-plants like mesquite, cleome, etc., 

 and yet no bees. Here, again, then, 

 we have an argument for such valuable 

 research for our Entomological Bureau, 

 especially the Division of Apiculture, 

 that must prove of signal benefit to 

 the bee-keepers of our country. 



The present season in California has 

 been rather disappointing. The rains 

 were ample last winter, and we have 

 been wont to feel that with abundant 

 rains we could almost depend upon a 

 good honey crop. Yet there are limi- 

 tations even here. One comes from 

 cold, dry wind. This is a handicap to 

 the bee-keeper for two reasons : 1st, it 

 is found that the flowers do not secrete 

 in such cases; and, again, at such 



