270 ANITUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The work of these men was an effort to instruct beekeepers in 

 better methods of production and care of their bees, so that the 

 honey crop of the country might be increased. It will be desirable 

 for many years to keep on increasing the production of honey, in order 

 to conserve this natural resource which is now so generally wasted. 

 There was also a great demand for honej^ for export to the allied 

 countries, and this demand has continued since the cessation of hos- 

 tilities. 



During the fiscal year the field men, assisted from time to time by 

 the regular office force, held over 1,000 meetings, attended by 25,000 

 beekeepers, and in addition they have visited over 2,500 apiaries and 

 have given personal instruction to the owners regarding their bee- 

 keeping practices. The work of organizing the beekeepers into asso- 

 ciations has been continued, and in several States these county organ- 

 izations are being federated with the State beekeepers' organizations. 

 There are now over 300 such county associations of beekeepers. Dur- 

 ing the year arrangements were made so that every man of the field 

 force is assigned to a single State in cooperation with the extension 

 divisions, both cooperating organizations paying part of the expense. 



The meetings held by the field men must be limited in the topics 

 discussed, and it is impossible to cover many important lines of work 

 for lack of time. To overcome this difficulty a trial was made in 

 the holding of extension short courses of a week's duration. The 

 first of these schools was held in California during the year, and 

 these were so successful, in spite of the severe influenza epidemic, 

 that the same plan was later put in operation in New York, Indiana, 

 loAva, and Minnesota. The average attendance at these schools was 

 about 100 beekeepers, who came for intensive instruction for a period 

 of a week, and the work with these men during these schools leads 

 to a strong belief that more good was done than could have been 

 accomplished in the same time with shorter meetings even with a 

 larger number in attendance. These schools are planned for com- 

 mercial beekeepers. The instruction was on fundamental problems 

 of the beekeepers, no attention being given to the mere simple 

 mechanical operations, but emphasis was placed on the reasons for 

 various practices as based on the behavior of the bees. In every 

 State where the work was given the beekeepers and extension officials 

 have asked that similar schools be held in the future, and other 

 States have asked for schools. 



A bulletin on commercial comb-honey production (Farmers' Bul- 

 letin 1039) was issued during the year. It is a revision of Farmers' 

 Bulletin 503. A bulletin on swarm control is in process of prepara- 

 tion, and one on extracted honey production. When these bulletins 

 are issued it is planned to publish a bulletin on beginning beekeeping, 

 and then to discontinue the present general bulletin on beekeeping 

 (Farmers' Bulletin 447) and to replace it with one which will serve 

 to tie together the various technical bulletins on special topics. 



Wintering of bees. Little work has been done during the year 

 on the investigational phases of this problem, because the field men 

 have been necessarily occupied with purely practical work and the 

 office force with answering requests for information sent in by bee- 

 keepers, but observations have been continued which fully substan- 

 tiate the results of the more detailed work. During the year two 



