968 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



In the mean time the apicultural school 

 in charge of Dr. Burton N. Gates, of the 

 Agricultural College, Amhei-st, Mass., is 

 pusliing ahead. It has done some splendid 

 work, and during 1914 it entered on some 

 new fields of investigation which have been 

 referred to in these columns. The same is 

 true of the school at Guelph, Ontario, Can., 

 in cliarge of S. T. Pettit. 



During the year 1914 Uncle Sam estab- 

 lished permanent headquarters in a building 

 and grounds devoted exclusively to bee 

 culture at Drummond, a suburb just outside 

 of Washington, D. C. All this is in charge 

 of Dr. E. F. Pliillips. He and his able 

 assistants have done excellent work the past 

 year in the line of diagnosing bee diseases. 

 This is worth all it cost, even if they did 

 nothing more. 



But they have done a great deal more. 

 During the past winter Dr. Phillips and his 

 assistant Mr. Demuth conducted a series of 

 experiments in wintering that were exceed- 

 ingly valuable. The result showing the 

 temperature of the winter cluster was given 

 on page 879, November 15. 



The year 1914 has seen some unusually 

 extensive operations in migratory beekeep- 

 ing. The A. I. Root Co. sent one carload 

 of bees to Florida and brought back three 

 and one half. They also sent two carloads of 

 bees to the Dismal Swamp, Va., and in the 

 mean time the Marchant Bee and Honey 

 Co., with headquarters at Canton, O., and 

 Apalachicola, Fla., has sent another carload 

 of bees to Apalachicola. 



Migratory beekeeping, or sending whole 

 yards of bees by the wagon or truck to the 

 swamps, has been practiced to some extent 

 this year. Considerable attention has been 

 devoted to the feasibility of keeping bees in 

 and near swamj^s after the main honey- 

 flows are over. While the publishers of 

 this journal did, perhaps, the most extensive 

 work in this line during the past year, 

 others have been trying their hand at it. 



In the line of improvements and inven- 

 tions we might mention the gearless friction- 

 drive honey-extractors. This will doubtless 

 supplant all other forms for power-driven 

 machines. 



The year 1914 shows a still further ten- 

 dency to run to extracted honey rather than 

 comb. The operation of the net-weight law 

 will augment this tendency very consider- 

 ably. This is a mistake. Exti-acted honey 

 is getting lower and lower in price, and 

 comb honey is more than holding its own. 

 If a considerable number of comb-honey 

 producers change over to extracted they will 

 regret it. The fact is, there should be 

 more comb-honey producers. The net-weight 



law will produce no hardship if we only 

 make up our minds to comply with it; and 

 the fellow wlio does will have no trouble in 

 disposing of liis crop. 



During the early part of the year 1914 

 there was an unprecedented demand for 

 queen-bees. In the month of March there 

 was scarcely a queen-breeder who could fill 

 half the orders. During July and August 

 those same breeders could have reared twice 

 as many queens if they had had the orders 

 for them. The business is being overdone 

 in the latter part of the season and under- 

 done in the fore part. The breeders of the 

 South should get busy earlier. 



The year 1913 seemed to set its seal of 

 approval on the A. C. Milter smoke method 

 of introduction; but 1914 seems a little in- 

 clined to raise a question of doubt as to its 

 reliability. 



The year 1914 has been kind to us in 

 that it has taken only a very few prominent 

 beekee]3ers. First and foremost, without 

 question, was Mr. T. F. Bingham, of smoker 

 fame, dying at the ripe old age of 84, See 

 another column. 



Dr. John Phin was another man taken 

 within the last year. While not known 

 generally as a practical beekeeper he was 

 the author of a number of industrial books 

 on various lines both practical and scientific, 

 including a dictionary of bee terms. 



F. B. Cavanagh, of Hebron, Ind., a 

 director in the National Beekee^jers' Asso- 

 ciation, and one who produced large crops 

 of honey, also died within the year. He 

 was a brilliant beekeeper; and had he lived 

 lie would have practiced migi-atoiy beekeep- 

 ing on a large scale. He not only produced 

 large crops of honey, but sold it all direct 

 to the consumer, for he did a large bottling 

 business. 



Aaron Snyder, of Kingston, N. Y., was 

 another beekeeper and honey-salesman who 

 died in 1914. He wrote more or less for 

 the bee journals, and was well known in his 

 part of the State because he came directly 

 in touch with the consumer with his honey. 



This reminds us that the bottling of 

 extracted honey is now being carried on on 

 a larger scale than ever before in the United 

 States. Several large bottlers are engaged 

 in the business of putting up extracted hon- 

 ey in glass and tin. Honey in the liquid 

 form is now reaching the consumer in larger 

 quantities than it ever did before. 



Taking it all in all, there has been a 

 steady gain in knowledge and progi'ess in 

 every thing connected with the bee business. 

 Wliile the gi-eat war is giving us a setback, 

 it is not without its compensating advaji- 

 tage. 



