E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



JUST AT THE HOUR of going to press, 

 Gleanings has received news of a confer- 

 ence held -April 

 AN APPEAL 23 at the Bee 

 TO ALL Culture Labora- 



BEEKEEPEES tory at Drum- 

 mond, Md., call- 

 ed by Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Office of 

 Bee Culture Investigations, Bureau of En- 

 tomology. The purpose of the conference 

 was to consider the problems immediately 

 confronting beekeeping in the war crisis. 

 Invitations to this conference were tele- 

 graphed to editors of bee journals east of 

 the Mississippi, to supply manufacturers 

 and teachers of beekeei^ing in the same ter- 

 ritory. The meeting was conducted Tby 

 Prof. Francis Jager, president of the Na- 

 tional Beekeepers' Association, and Dr. 

 Burton N. Gates, of the Massachusetts Ag- 

 ricultural College acted as secretary. A 

 number of eastern men prominent in the 

 beekeeping profession and supply business 

 responded to the hurried invitation to this 

 conference. Among others who addressed 

 the conference were Dr. L. 0. Howard, chief 

 of the Bureau of Entomology, and J. W. 

 Fisher, of the Office of Markets. 



While we have received a comparatively 

 complete rejiort of the doings of the con- 

 ference, we are unable to do more at press 

 hour than to summarize these doings as 

 follows : 



Committees were appointed for the fol- 

 lowing purposes: (1) To obtain an in- 

 creased allotment of funds for the Office of 

 Bee Culture Investigations for this emer- 

 gency; (2) To ascertain the available sup- 

 ply of honey-containers and to urge the 

 cominission which is dealing with tliis gen- 

 eral subject to include honey-containers in 

 their plans; (3) To learn what markets are 

 available for exports of honey; (4) To as- 

 certain the supply of ]japer containers in 

 case tin or glass cannot be had; (5) To re- 

 quest the postal authorities to pernjit the 

 mailing of combless packages of bees. 

 These committees began work prompth', and 



their reports will be issued as quickly as 

 possible. 



The conferenice drew up a series of 

 recommendations, addressed " To the Bee- 

 keepers of the United States." The in- 

 troduction to these recommendations notes 

 the fact that the present war crisis of the 

 nation has brought the supreme test of the 

 usefulness of the beekeeping industry, and 

 demands the fulfilment of its highest obliga- 

 tion. The specific recommendations made 

 urge the following efforts : 



1. Producei-s to increase production to the 

 gi-eatest possible extent, giving preference 

 to extracted honey, because in that way the 

 total honey supply may be more greatly in- 

 creased. (Two comb -honey supers may 

 easily be converted into a deep extracting- 

 super or a hive body.) 



2. Inspectors of apiaries to emphasize 

 educational work, even to take precedence 

 over the inspection of individual colonies. 



3. Beekeepers to organize county or loieal 

 associations for the rapid dissemination of 

 information, these to be affiliated with a 

 state association, which in turn should join 

 a nation-wide organization; the holding of 

 field meetings in early summer to give prac- 

 tical information on manipulations ; keepers 

 in the producing centers which are far from 

 ruarkets to organize practicable co-opera- 

 tive buying and selling associations. 



4. Bee-journals and agricultural press to 

 co-operate in every way in this movement, 

 and especially in securing and printing the 

 most reliable market quotations and crop 

 estimates possible. 



5. The teachers of beekeeping and exten- 

 sion workers to increase their activities. 



6. To urge the government agencies to 

 give preference to beekeepei-s'" supplies, 

 bees, honey, etc., in freight shipments. 



7. The manufacturei-s of beekeeping sup- 

 plies to continue their present policy of 

 operating their plants at their maximum 

 physical capacity in order that supplies 

 for the 1917 crop may be available, and 

 to exi^edite shipments. 



