AUGUST 15, 1914 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFOENIA 



P. C. 



From July, 1912, to March, 1914, I lost 

 35 colonies, so that I had 70 extra supers 

 for tiering up my strongest colonies to two 

 surplus supers. If I had had the seventy 

 supers on 35 additional colonies, and but 

 one super for any of my colonies, I figure 

 that I should have been the loser by several 

 hundred pounds of honey. 



THE FUTURE OP BEEKEEPING IN THE V^EST. 



A trip through the Rocky Mountain 

 region gave me an opportunity to study the 

 outlook for the bee industry of the future 

 in that region, along lines of prospective 

 development. There is great promise in the 

 future of the West, and in years to come the 

 opportunities for an extension of this indus- 

 try will multiply. This development will 

 necessarily come with the development and 

 extension of irrigated areas, and, though 

 slow at first, will in time cover large areas 

 of soil now considered hopelessly desert. 

 Some of the projects to be taken up in the 

 future will be to get water on to vast tracts 

 of rich desert lands. To accomplish this, 

 engineering feats perhaps greater than that 

 of the Panama canal may be executed. The 

 necessity, in years to come, for the develop- 

 ment of these great irrigating schemes to 

 make the desert help sustain teeming mil- 

 lions of inhabitants is already apparent. 

 With the advent of water on the desert 

 lands will come the bee, and the develop- 

 ment of the beekeeping industry on a great- 

 er portion of our desert valley lands. Utah, 

 which has thousands upon thousands of 

 acres of rich lands in its southern part, 

 could, with water, become almost an empire 

 in itself. Much of it is already being set- 

 tled by a sturdy class who expect in time to 

 secure water from some source by the aid of 

 the government. The source is yet somewhat 

 i-emote ; but that water can be brought from 

 a distance for these fertile tracts I have no 

 doubt; and that it will be in a reasonable 

 time is almost certain. As I have said, with 

 the advent of water to these lands will come 

 (he honeybee and the expansion of the in- 

 dustry in the West. One thing that impress- 

 ed me more than others was the wasteful 

 system of irrigation in Utah and Colorado. 

 Here the water is carried in open dirt 

 ditches through mains and laterals. In the 

 orange districts of California every inch of 

 water is conserved by bringing it from the 

 mountains in cement ditches and cement 

 pipe-distributing systems to the cement dis- 



tributing-flumes, all of which are water- 

 tight. This system will in time be adopted 

 generally in all localities, for the water lost 

 through seepage would be sufficient to en- 

 large an irrigated area to a considerable 

 extent. 



There is said to be undeveloped water 

 power in the West yet in the hands of the 

 government, amounting to 5,000,000 horse- 

 power, to say nothing of the vast amount 

 filed on by individuals that is yet undevel- 

 oped. This is sure to be a great factor in 

 developing and distributing water for these 

 desert lands; for with this great amount of 

 power at hand it will be possible to raise 

 water over mountain tops if necessary, and 

 lower it to the valley below. The above may 

 seem to some as not bearing on the bee" 

 business; but it will have a great bearing in 

 the far West in time; for with water wiU 

 come alfalfa, and perhaps other plants may 

 find their way into these cultivated areas 

 that will help swell the honey production. 

 I cannot at least refrain from pointing out 

 that the West is as yet only partially devel- 

 oped. The future will give opportunity for 

 many who are ready to grasp situations as 

 they develop. 



There are many places to be found in the 

 Pacific and Rocky Mountain States, where 

 water development is the only thing lacking 

 to make a fertile valley and an opportunity 

 for the beekeeper. 



Continued from previous page 



that the time for such a movement is not 

 quite ripe, but with the idea of creating an 

 agitation that will eventually lead to some- 

 thing practical in this direction. 



In the mean time it is also hoped that 

 more beekeepers may get the spirit of hold- 

 ing the now much-talked-about field-day 

 demonstration meetings that are being held 

 in so many places. I would that these were 

 so frequently held over the entire country 

 that all the beekeepers might be in closer 

 touch with each other, and all those most 

 important things that concern them mate- 

 rially in their chosen vocation upon which 

 they must depend for a livelihood. With 

 such meetings held occasionally in every 

 hamlet, town, and city throughout the coun- 

 try, it would be possible to reach the smaller 

 beekeepers and spread the valuable informa- 

 tion among the very class of beekeepers that 

 we have not been able to reach. Let us pull 

 for more of these field-day meetings. I'll 

 make a beginning. 



