E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



3 



EDITORIAL 



FOR ALL OF US it is the New Year's 

 season. We have hung up the new calendar 



for 1917 and bc- 



THE DA WN 



OF A 



NEW BAY 



fore us lies a 

 clean new slate 

 on which to 

 write the record 

 of another year. But, for the beekeeping 

 world there is good warrant for believing 

 that something more than a new year is 

 just ahead — there is dawning a new day of 

 a long and better era in the beekeepers' 

 world. Our East is already brightly streak- 

 ed with its certain promise. If we were 

 to characterize this new day we would call 

 it the Day of Betters — better bees, better 

 equipment, better beekeeping, better bee- 

 keepers, better training, better knowledge, 

 better markets, better prices, better appre- 

 ciation of our profession and of the im- 

 portance of honey — better everything along 

 the whole line reaching from the larva in 

 the brood-combs to the honey service of a 

 palace Pullman. 



Let us subpoena the facts to prove the 

 case — to give substance to the prophecy of 

 the new and better day that we declare to 

 be already breaking above the beemen's 

 eastern horizon. These prophetic facts are 

 all abundant enough — it is only hard to ar- 

 ray them in their sequence and importance. 

 As a first instance, let us turn back a 

 dozen j^ears and inquire concerning the 

 status of the beekeepers' profession even 

 so short a time ago. At that time how 

 many agricultural schools had given any 

 recognition to apiculture? Not one. What 

 had the national government in its Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture done for the beekeeper 

 and his calling? Very little. 



To day we may safely say that never in 

 tlie history of beekeeping has there been 

 so great an opportunity for education. 

 Congress, in appropriating $5000 in exten- 

 sion woi'k in apiculture, has established, 

 in three different states, government ex- 

 perts whose business it is to help, teach, 

 and encourage. Agricultural colleges in 



ten states are offering courses in beekeeping. 

 Valuable and instructive government and 

 state bulletins are available in increasing 

 numbers. There are more and better books 

 on the subject; and while there are fewer 

 apicultural journals they are of a higher 

 class. 



New states are passing inspection laws; 

 and other states having laws inadequate are 

 rapidly repealing them and passing better 

 ones. More efficient inspectors are being 

 appointed, and the whole work of inspection 

 is being put on a firmer foundation. At 

 the same time the various brood diseases 

 are making beekeeping an intolerable nui- 

 sance for the careless, slipshod beekeeper, 

 so that the conditions for the progressive 

 man in the industry are far safer. 



Improved methods have made honey pro- 

 duction easier, and at the same time the 

 demand f(U' honey has increased all out of 

 proportion to the increased production. It 

 may be bought in any grocery. Thousands 

 of families who never thought of using 

 honey are now substituting it for so much 

 sugar, finding it more healthful while no 

 more expensive in the end. So great is 

 the demand, in fact, that the extracted- 

 honey market this year, in the majority of 

 localities, was almost bare by the holidays. 



Beekeeping has truly become a man's 

 business that commands the respect of 

 every one. Truly the new day has dawned 

 — a brighter day — a day full of possibilities 

 and of oiTportunities for success. 



AT FIRST THOUGHT, one might suppose 

 that selling honey from the doorstep of the 



beekeeper (as 

 PROFITABLE exemplified in 

 FOR ALL HON-the article on 

 EY- SELLERS "The Roadside 

 Market" in this 

 issue) can be of interest only to small pro- 

 ducers, and that those who number their 

 colonies by the hundreds can not dispose 

 of any appreciable amount of honey in this 



