I89'i 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



341 



rains occurrinR every 9 and 10 years alternately. Here was 

 a valuable discovery ! Our farmers, who have been struggling 

 through three or four years of severe drouth, are now assured 

 of an exceptionally wet season this year, such as they have 

 not had since 1888, and they are rejoicing and planning in 

 sure anticipation thereof accordingly. These unusually 

 heavy rains will commence in .Tune — our winter— two or three 

 fairly good years will follow; but then, alas ! wo have also 

 the grim satisfaction of knowing — and It is perhaps one of 

 those cases where blissful ignorance would be preferable to 

 wisdom — that the three years Immediately preceding our next 

 cycle year — 190") — when the influence of the last storm cycle 

 year has past, will be seasons of bitter drouth. Still, tho the 

 knowledge may not be palatable, we are at least forewarned, 

 and can order our affairs accordingly, and lay up not for the 

 proverbial wet, but for the coming dz-y day. Mr. Hutchins 

 predicted an unusually wet winter for 1897, with a few good 

 years to follow, as far back as 1887! How easily and re- 

 liably could he not have answered the "Question-TSox," iutor- 

 rogatory had it been propounded here ! 



I said just now, "Until the next cycle year — 1905." 

 Among such as have been sufficiently interested to follow me 

 thus far, there are some who may perhaps wish to correct me ; 

 for Hutchins' storm cycle, it will be observed, is not due until 

 1907. True, but there have fortunately been other cycle 

 hunters in the field, and only one very wet year out of 9 or 

 10 " Isn't good enough ;" so, as the following table shows, we 

 have Meldrum's cycle, giving us an exceptionally rainy season 

 every 12J.2' years. Further, we've the Sun Spot cycle, with a 

 periodicity of something under 12 years. This table should 

 prove instructive to those who may contemplate taking an 

 active Interest In the subject : 



Bainfall at Ceres. South Africa. 



1878 .i:i In.— Storm Cycle. 1888 62i4 In.— Storm Cycle. 



1878 2914 1889 .37!4 



1880 30— Meldrum's Cycle. isno .32 



1881 325i 1891 31>i 



1 882 32 1892 56— Meldrum's Cycle. 



1883 44-Sun Spot Cycle. 1893 46 



1884 ... 28 1894 37 



1885 41 1895 57!4-Sun Spot Cycle. 



1886 38ii 1896 25 



1887 35(4 



Meldrum's cycle would seem to have been a bit out of gear 

 in ISSO, unless it's a misprint. Nor did the abnormally 

 heavy rainfall of 1895 extend, as this year's will do, all over 

 the colony. Still, on the whole, the theory serves. 



Now from this table it will be seen that Meldrum's next 

 big rain year will be 1905, the Storm cycle's In 1907, and 

 the Suu Spot's also In 1907 — pretty well all of a heap, like 

 Brown's cows ! The result will be a series of splendid seasons, 

 good harvests, cheap food, the milk streaming from the cows' 

 udders, and the honey running out of the hive-entrances. Oh ! 

 but we shall have to pay for it — unless we pay Nature's debt 

 In the interim ; for, like a swarm of bees, these cycles have 

 clustered together, and will go on together, separating only 

 very gradually, for some time to come; this indicates long 

 and severe drouths before their recurrence. Here again 

 ignorance would have been bliss ; and many would perhaps 

 gladly say with Paddy, who, when in a storm anxiously in- 

 quired of the captain if he had an almanac on board, and 

 beiug answered in the negative, despondently remarkt, 

 "Then, sure, we'll have to take the weather as It comes." 

 But I suppose we must e'en take the good and the bad to- 

 gether, enjoying with becoming gratitude the one, and doing 

 our best to be cheerful and resigned under the infliction of 

 the other. 



I cannot help thinking but that with comparatively little 

 labor a dependable cycle, or series of cycles, could be formu- 

 lated for California, and perhaps also for Texas (two of your 

 great honey-producing districts seemiugly). In the eastern 

 States you have, I know, many local Interferences or sub- 

 factors to contend with, and to take into consideration, such 

 as your big lakes and the gulf stream ; but that there are fixt 

 and immutable rules regulating your seasons on the whole, and 

 regulating the seeming irregularities of that troublesome 

 though beneficent gulf stream, there can be little doubt. 



Scan the shipping records along your eastern coast to be- 

 gin with, and see If there is not a periodicity In years of 

 numerically great casualties, and then compare with your 

 rainfall records, and see if these abnormal shipping casualty 

 years do not synchronize with seasons of abundant rains. I 

 remember to have read somewhere that increase in force and 

 volume of the gulf stream Is always accompanied by unusually 

 stormy weather. So, then, it this increase occurs with any 

 degree of regularity, Lieut. Maury's publlsht researches will 

 probably afford the knowledge. 



I have little doubt but that a dependable cycle for both 

 sides of your continent can be formulated with a little labor 



and care, when you will no longer need to propound such 

 questions as the above, nor yet like Paddy, be forced to take 

 the weather as it comes ; you will at least be able preparedly 

 to meet It. 



But I fear I am growing tedious and taking up too much 

 of your limited space. I wish success to any and all who may 

 hereby be stimulated to embark on a cycle-searching tour, and 

 predict for the whole of the United States a very wet sum- 

 mer this year. South Africa. 



P. S. — Between 1900 and 1905 we are to have a spell of 

 drouth such as has not been experienced In the colony since 

 1844. So you see our X rays almanac tells just what is in 

 store for us, years in advance. S. A. D. 



Report of the North American Couveutiou Held 

 at St. Joseph, Mo., Oct. 10-12, 1894. 



REPOBTED BY LOUIS B. LIGHTON. 



(Continued from page 326 . 



The following is an essay In full, as written by the Secre- 

 tary, Prank Benton, only an outline of which he gave at the 

 convention : 



WHAT SHALL WE PLANT FOR HONEY ? 



One who travels over a few hundred miles of our country 

 cannot but note the meager number of colonies of bees which 

 help to add to the thrifty look of the homes of those who till 

 the soil. He is forced to conclude that not one-tenth of the 

 nectar produced Is gathered. More than nine-tenths of It are 

 secreted but to be evaporated, to be reabsorbed by the plants, 

 or to be collected by wild bees and other insects. Why, then, 

 should we consider planting for honey ? The answer Is sim- 

 ple. It is not often we can find one locality giving a continu- 

 ous and abundant honey-flow from spring until fall, indeed 

 such localities are very rare, and even if we find one which 

 nearly or quite fulfils these conditions we may not be able to 

 locate an apiary there. To bring the location we already have 

 up to such a standard is what every one owning even a few 

 colonies would be glad to do If at all practicable, and he Is es- 

 pecially anxious to see his way clear to do this if he is the own- 

 er of a home and expecting to remain there permanently and 

 engage in the cultivation of bees. He wishes, moreover, to 

 make his honey-crop a more certain one — to remove as far as 

 he can all possibility of having to depend upon mere luck In 

 connection with his chosen occupation. 



The solution of this question in its details must be a mat- 

 ter for each bee-keeper to work out for himself. But experi- 

 ment and actual practice have Indicated certain lines within 

 which we may look for a measure of success in this direction, 

 and certain others which will only lead to disappointment. My 

 own experience of over a quarter of a century, as well as my 

 observations among the bee-keepers of this country and of the 

 more advanced nations of the Old World, lead me to the firm 

 conviction that the systematic, advanced bee-cultivation of the 

 future will, and must of necessity, be based largely upon the 

 supplying of adddlMonal sources of pasturage for our bees be- 

 sides those now existing, or, in some instances, in place of 

 these — must fill the gaps, and. In so far as is possible In 

 any branch of agriculture, must replace uncertainty with cer- 

 tainty. I will merely indicate a few of the things we may 

 plant and encourage others in planting with this object In 

 view. From many of these we can hardly hope for great gain 

 ourselves, but others — our children or our children's children 

 — will bless us for the gift. 



Just here there comes to my mind a very pretty little 

 French poem which I do not remember to have seen translated. 

 Some careless young fellows riding along see a white-haired 

 octogenarian planting trees and deride him for It, asking, 

 "car au nom des dieux, je vous prie, quels fruits pouvez-vous en 

 recuclllir ;"' (for, in the name of the gods, I ask you, what 

 fruits can you gather from them?) The old man, pointing to 



