August, 1907. 



American Hee Journal 



ernment, ten cents for every citizen — 

 man, woman and child — as shown by 

 the hist census. Half of this goes to 

 the country and half to the city, and is 

 to be expended to teach only Agricul- 

 ture in the country high schools, Me- 

 chanics in the city schools, and Domes- 

 tic Science in both. Thus we will give 

 to our boys and girls just such instruc- 

 tion as they will need as they engage 

 in the sterner duties of life. This mon- 

 ey is not to pay for buildings, nor for 

 instruction in other lines, but is to be 

 used wholly for the purpose of technical 

 instruction. 



This is not a new plan, but has been 

 tried in four States, and with most 

 gratifying success. Georgia, Alabama, 

 Nebraska and IVIinnesota have all es- 

 tablished these Agricultural High 

 Schools, and although they were start- 

 ed in Georgia wholly as a private en- 

 terprise, they are now taken over by 

 the State and are to be found in every 

 county of the State. We have one such 

 school in California, and it is doing 

 good work, and will make it easy to mul- 

 tiply such institutions. 



These schools have been so well re- 

 ceived where they have been started, 

 that it will not be difficult to get this 

 Bill passed almost unanimously, by the 

 coming Congress, and we should all do 

 all we can to help in the matter. 



This plan carried out promises much 

 in many ways : It will make more effi- 

 cient farmers, more intelligent laborers; 

 will give education a more practical tone, 

 without lessening its disciplinary value, 

 and will tend to swell the already large 

 and rapidly-growing attendance at our 

 agricultural colleges. The business of 

 agriculture will be elevated, as more 

 intelligence is brought into it, and the 

 call for trained men in these Agricultu- 

 ral High Schools, will bring a demand 

 for more knowledge and research in 

 these directions, which must be worth 

 much to our people. 



It is also proposed to unite with each 

 of these high schools a research station, 

 where the pupils will be trained in actual 

 investigation. This will require a trained 

 man to lead in the work, and will surely 

 be of rich service to the pupils, and to 

 the whole country. 



The whole trend of education at the 

 present time is toward technical studies, 

 and the above plan will surely fill a felt 

 need. I hope that this measure will 

 meet as much approval as will that of the 

 "Parcels Post." 



Columbus, Ohio. 



A Visit to a Nebraska Bee- 

 Keeper 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



Wife and I have never traveled much 

 together. We have always been too 

 busy. In our young days it was out 

 of the question to take a wedding trip, 

 for we could not afford it. But during 

 the present season we concluded to 

 take a trip out West. The bee-busi- 

 ness was very dull — all that the bees 

 needed in the early part of June was 

 feed. No honey, but little work, and 

 a very limited sale of comb founda- 

 tion! Besides, our young people are 



all able-bodied and fully suited to the 

 requirements of the business. So we 

 could be foot-loose for the first time 

 in our lives during the month of flow- 

 ers, and yet not feel that we were neg- 

 lecting anytliing that needed attention. 



The morning of June 13 found us at 

 Grand Island, Nebr. Mr. -Wm'. Stolley, 

 one of the oldest settlers of that part 

 of the country, has been a good friend 

 of mine for 20 years or more, but we 

 had never met, although we had often 

 exchanged views and had found that 

 our political, social, religious and apia- 

 rian ideas were very similar. 



On our arrival at the hotel in Grand 

 Island, we telephoned Mr. Stolley, who 

 was waiting for this signal, to come 

 after us. lie was soon on hand with 



elms, etc., and is in a large shed in the 

 shape of a half moon. 



Our host is an amateur in bee-cul- 

 ture. He has at present only about 

 45 colonies, and he aims to keep down 

 increase. His method was new to me. 

 It consists in removing all the brood 

 from the colony, or colonies, that try 

 to swarm, placing the brood in a hive- 

 body just above the old colony, and 

 from time to time returning the young 

 bees to the parent colony. This method 

 seems to give good results with the 

 large hives, but I would not trust it 

 with small hives, for I saw an example 

 of failtfre right there. The hives used 

 by Mr. Stolley are large .American 14- 

 framc hives, and in those the method 

 succeed.^, but he has also a few Heddon 



WiLLi.\M Stolley. 



his carriage, and in a few minutes we 

 were riding towards his home, and chat- 

 ting happily. We were promised a 

 hearty reception from the ladies, and 

 we certainly got it, for there are no 

 more congenial persons than Mrs. Stol- 

 ley and her two daughters. 



The road to the Stolley home is shad- 

 ed most of the way by forest trees, 

 which Mr. Stolley told us had been 

 nearly all furnished by himself. Be- 

 fore arriving at his home he drove 

 through his grove — forest, about 50 

 years old, planted and cared for by him. 

 It contains between 40 and 50 acres, 

 and is cut by several lanes. Mr. Stol- 

 ley takes great pride in his grove, and 

 the avenues through it are as well cared 

 for as the drives of a city park. Na- 

 tive and foreign trees are growing in 

 this timber, and we saw a magnificent 

 German oak-tree, also a number of for- 

 eign basswoods. 



The apiary is situated on the south 

 edge cf the grove, shaded by maples. 



hives. One of the colonies in those 

 hives had swarmed two days before, 

 and its brood had been removed as men- 

 tioned. On the day of our visit it 

 swarmed again, and upon opening it 

 we found that there were only a few 

 eggs, but several of these were in 

 queen-cells which had been hurriedly 

 built by the bees. The colony was so 

 intent upon swarming that there were 

 perhaps 50 queen-cells started, in most 

 cases only a rudiment, but they had evi- 

 dently not given up their intentions, 

 for so small a matter as the loss of 

 their brood. 



Another interesting thing I found was 

 the evidence of the quest of a home by 

 what has ordinarily been called "scouts," 

 and of which some authors are inclined 

 to deny the existence. Mr. Stolley has, 

 at the top of his shed-apiary, four de- 

 coy hives, placed in full view, and con- 

 taining combs already built and in good 

 condition. He often harvests swarms, 

 which enter those hives of their own 



