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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 22, 1902. 



will have the pleasure of sharing: in these 

 pleasures for a fixed price — to be fixed later. 



We will plan for special excursions at low 

 rates to places of interest in various parts of 

 the State. 



We gave our committee on exhibits ?50. 

 and the authority to beg a thousand, for the 

 purpose of making a great exhibition. 



We decided to ''spread " ourselves in such 

 a way as to make the visiting bee-keepers for- 

 ever proud of having attended the Denver 

 meeting, and those who don't come everlast- 

 ingly ashamed of themselves. And we have 

 persuaded the Mayor of the city, and the Gov- 

 ernor of the State, to do their utmost to make 

 the occasion memorable: and the men who 

 hold the purse-strings of the city, are inter- 

 ested. Promises later. Then, too, the Secre- 

 tary of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, 

 who is past-master in such matters, has be- 

 come an enthusiastic member of our banciuet 

 committee — a committee that is not too big to 

 do things. 



f hat ought to be enough to tell you now. 

 You are to tell us when we may give the 

 banquet. You are to name us three men, in- 

 cluding yourself, who will respond briefly and 

 tlitiiikfiilly to addresses of welcome by Presi- 

 dent Harris, Governor Orman, and Mayor 

 Wright. As for the banquet, you are to pre- 

 pare for it and nothing more — to be in good 

 humor, in good appetite, and in large num- 

 bers. 



As for our people ? With the kind co-opera- 

 tion of the railroads, we'll bring them to Den- 

 ver in crowds. There'll be as many of our 

 folks as of yours, if you dare ! And before 

 we are done with you, j-ou'll be ours and we'll 

 be yours. 



Scatter the news! Tell it in Gath and 

 Askelon. We'll tell it wherever Denver 

 papers circulate. Yours truly, 



D. W. Working, 

 i'^ecretary Colorado State Aasonatton. 



It is very evident to me that the man who 

 misses the coming convention at Denver will 

 miss the treat of his lifetime. I expect to see 

 it outstrip its predecessors in every possible 

 manner — and that is saying a great deal. But 

 look at the conditions: In the heart of the 

 great West, and for the ./7r.s7 titnr. Bee-keep- 

 ers of both high and low degree, all over the 

 West, will flock to it. The local arrange- 

 ments, upon which the success of a conven- 

 tion is so largely dependent, are in the hands 

 of very capable men. The rates of the rail- 

 roads will be low. It is at the right time of 

 the year — before cold weather, and after the 

 work and heat of the season are over. The 

 sights to be seen in and around Denver are 

 equal to any on earth. Go to Denver, meet 

 the boys, have one grand holiday, and go 

 home loaded with enthusiasm and new ideas 

 — the two things upon which all successes 

 have been builded. 



W. Z. HrTCHixsox. Fres. 



Now, we submit that if the whole of the 

 above doesn't sound about as windy as the 

 windiest thing that ever came from this noto- 

 rious "Windy City" (Chicago), we are no 

 lover of honey. But if there are any who 

 doubt the ability of those Denverites to carry 

 out their big plans and schemes, the best way 

 to see them fail (or succeed) is to go to the 

 convention. 



Just think of that banquet— with meat and 

 other eatables soaring aloft in price I And 

 the trolley ride ! Yes. and the Governor and 

 Mayor ! And there's that hustling Secretary 

 Working them all I 



■Well, it looks to us as if it is going to be a 

 regular hallelujah time. We hope to be able 

 to '■ take it all in " when the time comes. But 

 our capacity may not be equal to it. even if 

 we should be " Aikin " ever so hard to do so. 



Let's all abscond to Denver, and swarm 

 down on the bee brethren and sisters there in 

 regular apiarian style. 



Hurrah for Denver ! And the convention I 



I Weekly Budget. I 



Red Clover Queens. — The breeder who 

 rears and mails the red clover queens we have 

 been offering, writes us that he expects to be 

 able to begin to mail our orders June 10 to 

 June 1.5. If the weather is favorable, he in- 

 tends to have all our present queen orders 

 filled by July 1st. 



A postal card will be mailed a day or two in 

 advance of sending the queen, to each person 

 entitled to receive a queen from us. 



This will answer a number of readers who 

 are getting somewhat anxious about the red 

 clover queens they are to have. 



Cacti and Alfalfa in Arizona.— Editor 

 E. R. Root, of Gleanings in Bee-Culture, as 

 will be remembered, made a trip through the 

 South and AY est last year, and afterward 

 described his journeys with pencil and picture. 

 This week, through the courtesy of Gleanings, 



around them when the photos were taken ; 

 but on account of their small size, of course 

 they do not show), for all a bee has to do is 

 dip down into one of the great, big cups and 

 drink and drink to its fill. Then it flutters 

 off. scarcely able to fly, while the others are 

 gorging themselves only to go back home in a 

 lazy, uncertain flight. 



In the picture shown we have a general 

 view of the whole forest of tree cacti. Over 

 in the distance will be seen the mountains 

 near which orange-growing. I was told, was 

 possible. The broad expanse of country 

 shown in the general view, is a perfect desert. 

 Nothing will thrive there but these cacti: a 

 peculiar kind of thistle, or what seemed to be 

 such to me, and the ever-present sage-brush; 

 and yet, on the ot/nr \iile of the road were 

 beautiful market gardens and fields of alfalfa. 

 AYhy this difference * you ask. The one can 

 be irrigated, and the other can not: and I 

 hope it never can, because this desert has 

 some attraction just as Nature left it, and 

 man should not be allowed to desecrate it. 



This forest is probably the largest, both in 

 the number of trees and in its general size, of 

 any iu the world. There seems to be no ap- 

 parent effort to preserve these magnificent 

 specimens. They are mutilated by curio- 

 seekers tearing off a piece of the barli. Then, 

 as it the work of civilized man was not 

 enough, the Indians mutilate them with their 

 bad aim, throwing stones to knock down the 

 fruit that develops from the flowers, of which 

 the bees are so fond. Indeed, there is no way 



THE celebrated forest of giant cacti on the road leading from 



TEMI'E TO PHfEXIX, ARIZONA, 



we give two of the illustrations that will be 

 of interest to our readers, and the following 

 part of the write-uii which accoiujianied 

 them : 



We had planned to drive to Phcenix, and in 

 doing so we had to i)ass by a cactus forest, 

 jierhaps the most remarkable in the world, on 

 the main road leading from Temi)e to Phienix. 

 As we came up alongside of these magnificent 

 specimens of tree cacti, monarchs of their 

 kindr I could not help thinking of my old boy- 

 hood days at school, when I was studying 

 geography, how I used to look at the pictures 

 of these giant cacti, or what seemed to me to 

 be very funny trees then, and whether or not 

 I should ever see the real thing, I asked Mr. 

 Chambers to drive up near some of them 

 while I, with my little pocket kodak, would 

 take in a more permanent reminder of them, 

 and here are some of the " shots.'' 



On the top of these cacti will be seen small 

 objects. They are nothing more nor less 

 than beautiful blossoms that yield copiously 

 a rich, thick nectar. Quite a little swarm of 

 bees will hover around them (they were thick 



by which this fruit can be gotten out by pelt- 

 ing it down. Taking it all in all, it seems too 

 bad that the general government is not tak- 

 ing more active measures to preserve such 

 magnificent specimens of cacti — specimens 

 that take years to grow, and that landscape 

 gardeners in the Eastern cities would pay 

 thousands of dollars for if they could only 

 cultivate them. 



Speaking about the fruit of the tree, cactus 

 reminds me that no one but an Indian can 

 eat it. It affects white men very seriously, 

 and some have been known to die from it: for 

 it has a beautiful flavor, and therein lies the 

 danger. Before civilization had encroached 

 on either side of this magnificent fore.st of 

 cacti, the Indians were in the habit of getting 

 water from them. There is a trick about it 

 that they alone understand; and although 

 the water, I am told, is somewhat brackish, 

 yet to one almost dying of thirst, I suppose it 

 has all the freshness of the delightful cool 

 springs that we knew in our childhood days. 



After I had snapped the kodak right and 

 left, I got into the buggy again ; but as I did 

 [Continued on page 336.) 



