AUGUST 1, 1914 



579 



GENEEAL 



DENCE 



COLORADO 



IF PRESENT 



BY WESLEY FOSTER 



Allowing for a wide margin, I should say 

 that there are 3000 moi'e colonies of bees m 

 Boulder County than in 1913. The indica- 

 tions since early in the spring have been 

 favorable, and the beemen have made in- 

 crease generously. The increase made by 

 the specialists living in Boulder is about 

 1000. This heavy increase will atSect the 

 honey crop materially, but still we should 

 have honey to ship. The year 1913 was the 

 best season for Boulder County for a num- 

 ber of years, and the indications are still 

 better for 1914, except for several things. 

 We cannot hope for the late flow of honey 

 that we had last year, and we have had sev- 

 eral very severe hailstorms. There is more 

 overstocking than last year, and we cannot 

 tell until the last of August whether more 

 shipments will be made this year than last. 

 The indications are that there will be more. 

 The season is two weeks earlier, and there 

 are more colonies of bees. We think that 

 conditions are favorable if we get a case or 

 two of comb honey by the 4th of July, and 

 on the 8th I took off 17 cases. Mr. Collins, 

 of this city, took off five cases of comb 

 honey on the 1st of July. Sweet clover has 

 begun yielding nectar, and the second crop 

 of alfalfa is just coming in bloom (July 9). 

 There has been little work done in the comb- 

 honey supers during the past week; but 

 super work should pick up now. Nearly all 

 the colonies in this county are operated for 

 comb honey. There were about 6000 colo- 

 nies in the hands of specialists last year, 

 and about 8000 this year. The crop last 

 year was two to three cases of comb honey 

 to the hive ; but what it will be this year will 

 have to be guessed at until about the last of 

 August. 



The comb-honey shipments totaled about 

 twelve cars last year. Some quite large local 

 shipments were made, and the home con- 

 sumption is considerable. 



The frequent rains have kept the horse- 

 mint on the dry mesas blooming almost 

 continuously ; and while it is drying up now, 

 the nectar secured has been quite gratifying. 

 Our surplus, however, is practically all 

 9.1falfa and sweet clover. The alfalfa hay 



crop has been heavy, which has retarded 

 the cutting by the farmers, and now the 

 grain must be cut so that there should be 

 little complaint on the beekeepers' part, for 

 much alfalfa will stand in bloom some time. 

 If we could have one good general rain in 

 July, with hot weather following, and an- 

 other good rain early in August it would 

 help wonderfully. Cool weather is our un- 

 doing, and we should prefer it dry and hot 

 rather than wet and cool. 



We still are 3^/2 inches above normal this 

 year in rainfall, though the excess for July 

 so far is negligible — only one-tenth of an 

 inch. Thei'e is plenty of irrigation water, 

 however, and gi'owing weather is good. The 

 agi'icultural outlook as given in Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 604, issued June 23, gives con- 

 ditions in the West very well, as they apply 

 to Boulder County, and presumably they 

 are as correct for the rest of the western 

 country as they are for this part of it. 



The Rocky Mountain States have been blessed with 

 an unusual amount of moisture as a result of heavy 

 snows and late winter rains. The weather is fre- 

 quently mentioned as ideal. The irrigated sections 

 have ample water supplies impounded, and the areas 

 devoted to dry-land crops have exceptional supplies 

 of ground moisture. The growing weather has been 



good, particularly for grains The hay crop 



throughout this grand division is reported as extra 

 good, this applying to both the seeded forage crops — ■ 

 clover and alfalfa — and to the native grasses on the 

 open range. 



Take it on the whole, Boulder County so 

 far is blessed with good prospects for a crop 

 of comb honey as good in quality as last 

 year. I think this county is in better shape 

 for a crop than the average honey-produc- 

 ing county in Colorado this year. 



COLORADO AND INTER-MOUNTAIN PROSPECTS. 



I want to give the reports of honey 

 prospects in Coloi-ado, New Mexico, Idaho, 

 and Wyoming as given in more than twenty 

 letters from beekeepers in those States. They 

 are intended only as showing indications. 



May 13 Mr. C. Stimson, of Holly, in the 

 lower Arkansas Valley in Colorado, wrote, 

 "Weather has been favorable all spring; big 

 rain this spring, and weather fine since. A 

 few flakes of snow fell yesterday. A ter- 

 rific hailstorm was reported from the west 



