178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



ieo, in her present impoverished condition, 

 is equally anxious to sell. 



For some reason which no one is able to 

 explain satisfactorily, except thru the agen- 

 cy of bad diplomacy and crooked politics, 

 the southern boundary line of the United 

 States takes a sharp dip upward, thereby 

 missing some of the best soil on the conti- 

 nent. Had the original boundary been car- 

 ried down along the line of parallel 32, the 

 area of the Imperial Valley would have 

 been much larger than it is. It would make 

 available thousands and thousands of acres 

 of land that would open up good bee loca- 

 tions, and which would be as good as any 

 territory now in the United States. 



Two bills are now before Congress pro- 

 viding for the purchase of Lower Califor- 

 nia, that large peninsula that extends 

 southward for 800 or 900 miles, and also 

 for the purchase of that strip which bars 

 us from the Gulf of California. 



In view of the fact that this opens up 

 some beautiful bee country our subscribers, 

 especially those in the West, are urged to 

 write to their Senators and Representatives 

 in CongTess, urging them to support and 

 vote for these two bills. According to a 

 writer in the Independent, Mr. Edwin E. 

 Slosson, " It is an exceptionally favorable 

 time to secure these much-needed accessions 

 to our territory now when the presidency 

 of Mexico is held by a man who owes his 

 position to American support, and when 

 the Powers whose ambition such action 

 would thwart are occupied elsewhere. . . . 

 The money we would pay for it would be 

 very welcome to Mexico, now impoverished 

 by five years of anarchy." 



There certainly can be no objection to 

 the acquisition of additional territory to 

 the United States by honorable purchase, 

 whatever we may think of the present pol- 

 icy of the warring nations in Euroi^e in 

 the line of land-grabbing simply because 

 they are big and powerful. 



This crooked boundai-y line which, early 

 in the '50's, took a sharp dip northward, 

 goes back to some crooked history on the 

 part of some of Uncle Sam's diplomats in 

 the early days. During those times Daniel 

 Webster did some things that will not go 

 down very greatly to his credit. Accord- 

 ing to Edwin E. Slosson, already referred 

 to, the children who are now studying 

 United States history will come to regard 

 Daniel Webster as the New Yorkers now 

 regard Benedict Arnold. 



It is going to cost millions and millions 

 to undo the work of Webster and some of 

 his colleagues. 



There are additional reasons why we 



should have the Gulf of California and 

 Lower California, because it is apparent 

 that Japan and Germany have been looking 

 with covetous eyes on this part of the 

 world. Mexico is too weak to. protest 

 against either of them establishing coaling- 

 stations there; and if Uncle Sam acquires 

 the territory it will end all possible chance 

 of international complications over the 

 Monroe doctrine, because it is to be pre- 

 sumed that neither of the nations mention- 

 ed will attempt to put foot on our territory 

 when once acquired. 



Imports of Honey; Why the Price of 

 Domestic Honeys of Lower Grade is 

 Down and Markets Slow 



The general belief that the low prices 

 received for southern extracted honeys of 

 low grade have been caused by increased 

 imports of low-grade extracted from Latin 

 America is confirmed in Bulletin No. 325 

 published by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. 



During the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1915, the United States imported three 

 times as much honey from foreign countries 

 as had been imported in any previous year. 

 The total foreign imports for the five fis- 

 cal years ending June 30, 1910 to 1914, 

 were 104, 113, 115, 116, and 75 thousands 

 of gallons, as compared with the 303,965 

 gallons imported in the fiscal year ending 

 in 1915. The value of the imports for last 

 year totaled $124,843. 



This change has been due to the war in 

 Europe which closed to commerce certain 

 of the countries which had been heavy buy- 

 ers of Latin American honey. The bee- 

 keepers left without a market shipped the 

 product to the United States. 



The bulletin sums up the statistics in the 

 following conclusions: 



" Compared with the total production of 

 the United States as reported by the cen- 

 sus, the heavy imports for the present fiscal 

 year, wliich from all sources probably total 

 over 600,000 gallons, are therefore about 12 

 per cent, though probably less, if compared 

 with the actual jDroduction. Compared with 

 the portion of the home crop actually mar- 

 keted, howevei", the percentage would be 

 mucli larger, and its absolute bulk compar- 

 ed to the quantity of low-grade extracted 

 honey produced here for market is so great 

 that it has seriously interfered with the 

 marketing of the latter, and, combined with 

 the financial depression in the South, where 

 the lower grades are largely produced and 

 consumed, has forced the prices of such 



