264 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 1 



Bee-keeping Among The 

 Rockies 



By Wesley Foster. Boulder, Colo. 



At the Colorado convention Rev. R. H. 

 Rhodes said that he had been charged with 

 having sown the first sweet clover in Colo- 

 rado, and that, whether it was true or not, 

 he would always defend sweet clover. As 

 the agricultural colleges are endorsing "the 

 weed "we may soon be hailing Rev. Mr. 

 Rhodes as a benefactor instead of a male- 

 factor, especially since there are hosts of bee- 

 keepers and farmers who vehemently de- 

 clare that sweet clover is not a weed. 

 4^ 

 CROP PROSPECTS FOR 1911. 



The snowfall on the mountain ranges in 

 Colorado has been heavier than for ten years 

 past. On the Front Range, which extends 

 from Pike's Peak to the Wyoming line, the 

 snowfall has been about thirty feet. Last 

 winter it was only six feet. The farmers are 

 feeling hopeful, though the damage from 

 grasshoppers is yet hard to conjecture. They 

 have already hatched out in large numbers, 

 and at this writing, April 10, some of them 

 are an inch long; but we shall probably have 

 snow and rain that will destroy most of these, 

 so the more that come out now the better. 

 4y 



NATURE AND BEES. 



I sometimes think that every bee-man is 

 a queer genius, if not a little bit off in the 

 upper story. The bee-man is always a mys- 

 tery to his neighbors, receiving stings that 

 do not pain him at all, but which would 

 kill anybody else. Then he knows all the 

 mysteries of the hive, an unknown world to 

 the uninitiated. What queer ideas we have 

 of things we do not understand! In wan- 

 dering over the fields to find the source of 

 the pollen and honey the bees bring in, one 

 sees many wild bees, hornets, wasps, etc., 

 that are after the same foods that the bees 

 collect. Tf he makes a study of insect life, 

 a fairly clear chain of the voluntary process 

 may be discerned, the wild bees living soli- 

 tary lives, but social to the extent that their 

 burrows are close together. Wild bees, as a 

 rule, do not visit every flower that has nec- 

 tar and pollen, as the honey-bee does, but a 

 certain species will confine its efforts to just 

 one flower. The promiscuous work of the 

 honey-bee has made its existence over the 

 whole earth possible. The honey-bee seems 

 to be the only one that secretes wax and 

 builds comb therefrom. Some flies resem- 

 ble bees very closely; but these may be dis- 

 tinguished by the number of wings, as they 

 have only two. 



One can not know too much about the 

 brothers, cousins, and second cousins of the 

 honey-bee. The physiology of the bee egg, 

 as told on pages 72, 73, Feb. 1, by Dr. Bruen- 

 nich, and the psychology of the bee in "The 

 Life of the Bee," by Maeterlinck, are well 

 worth further study. The nature of the lit- 



tle subjects is a never failing source of in- 

 terest to the true bee-keeper; but, after all, 

 isn't it just a little bit queer to be interested 

 in bees, bugs, and flowers? 



-^ 



CONCERNING COOPERATION. 



Mrs. Acklin, page 164, March 15, asks why 

 it is more difficult to secure cooperation 

 among bee-keepers than among those in 

 other industries. The reason is that bee- 

 keepers, particularly those who specialize, 

 are nearly all widely separated, and no as- 

 sociation can do aggressive work whert the 

 members are isolated from each other. In 

 districts where bee-keepers are not great dis- 

 tances apart, cooperation is and has been a 

 success; but they, the same as other produ- 

 cers, have not worked out a cooperative bus- 

 iness organization such as the trusts have 

 perfected. The success achieved by the 

 orange-growers would never have been ac- 

 complished without a close association. If 

 the orange-growers were spread all over the 

 country, as the apple-growers are, there 

 would be no orange-growers' association. 

 My only hope for a national association 

 founded on business lines is the joining to- 

 gether of local associations of producers that 

 in the future will make the marketing of 

 honey and the buying of supplies a success. 



First we must demonstrate our ability to 

 get together locally, and market successful- 

 ly, before we can make a go of the larger as- 

 sociation. Colorado bee-keepers for ten 

 years have proven the value of cooperation. 

 If each State would organize in this way, it 

 would be an excellent preparation for the 

 larger association talked about. The State 

 associations of bee-keepers and the National 

 association are all thinking and working to 

 some extent in the line of business coopera- 

 tion; and a few questions that will have to 

 be answered in the affirmative may not be 

 out of place if this question of cooperation 

 is ever any thing more than talk. Do I be- 

 lieve that there are business brains and 

 honesty enough among bee-keepers to make 

 a national cooperative association a success? 

 Do I know of a man with the knowledge, 

 ability, and judgment to manage such a 

 business and safely get the craft afloat? 

 Could seven directors (of sufficiently good 

 judgment) be found who would serve with- 

 out pay? Am I willing to put in 25 cts. for 

 stock for every hive of bees that I possess? 

 Am I willing to sell my honey through the 

 association on commission, say 10 per cent? 

 Am I willing to grade my honey according 

 to the rules adopted by the association, and 

 trust the manager's judgment when he tells 

 me that it will have to be regraded in the 

 association's warehouse at a cost to me of 5 

 cts. per case? Do I have the fullest confi- 

 dence in the honesty of purpose and manage- 

 ment of the association? and am I an en- 

 thusiastic believer in the idea of cooperation? 

 These questions answered in the affirmative 

 will give a fair rei:)ly for a prosjiective can- 

 didate for membership in an association. 

 Do we really mean any thing, or are we just 

 talking? 



