June, 1917 



ni.KANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



433 



T 



SUCCESS AFTER FAILURE 



Fruit-growers Pay $^.oo a Colony 



^or the Use of the Bees During the 



Blossoming Period 



By E. R. Root 



H E R K is 



n t li i II ,u 



that s u ('- 

 ceeds like suc- 

 cess. On t h e 

 other hand, bit- 

 ter experience 

 lias shown that 

 sometimps suc- 

 cess does not come except thru 

 and sometimes it is necessary for one to 

 meet severe defeat more than once before 

 victory is his. 



I have already told the story of the late 

 John Repp — see Gleanings for Aug. 15, 

 1913, page 561, and again for May 1, 1914, 

 page 348; how John Rep^j, on land that 

 was considered good for nothing, made an 

 attempt to go into the fruit business, but 

 made a failure; of how he tried it again, and 

 failed once more; of how the wagging heads 

 made the prediction " no use ; the man has 

 not got it in him," and that " soil condi- 

 tions " were wrong. But that was not John 

 Repp. He tried the third time; and just 

 as he was on the eve of success, or just as he 

 had achieved success, he died. Fortunately 

 he had a wife (still living and past 80) with 

 pluck and determination. The sjDirit of the 

 parents was bred in the boys, Albert, 

 Charles, and Joseph. The dearly bought 

 experience of the father, the irrepressible 

 spirit of the dear mother, and the severe 

 struggles of tlie boj's during the time the 

 father was trying to get on even terms with 

 the world, was not without its value; and 

 now the Repp brothers are famous tlie world 

 over for their achievements in fruit-grow- 

 ing. They have 800 acres, 500 of which 

 are devoted to fruit, and the whole country 

 round about them has caught the spirit, so 

 that there are now 5000 acres in Gloucester 

 Co., N. J., devoted to the growing of apples, 

 pears, peaches, cherries, and gi'apes. But 

 it is easy to see that the orchards of the 

 Repp brothers are in the lead. 



So successful have these boys been that 

 their enormous crops have to be stored in 

 a mammoth cold-storage plant they built. 

 capable of holding 120,000 bushels of 

 apples; for it did not take them very long 

 to see that such 

 yields could not be 

 all marketed at one 

 time. The plant is 

 one of the most 

 modernly equipped 

 that one can find in 

 the country. S o 

 perfect are i'.s ap- 

 pointments that 

 some varieties can 



failure ; pleasure 



The Repps built macadamized roads thru their 

 orchards. 



be kei)t sound 

 and in good con- 

 dition for three 

 years, or until 

 such time as the 

 market is ready 

 to receive them. 

 And such ap- 

 ples ! It was my 

 to taste some of them, and I 

 found them to be as sound and juicy as one 

 could wish, with none of that wilted, mushy, 

 or mealy taste. 



So far my story would be more suitable 

 for a fruit journal than for a bee journal. 

 But listen : The Repp boys would no more 

 think of raising fruit without bees to pollin- 

 ate the blossoms than they would attempt to 

 get along without spraying or pruning. 



Said Charley Repp, the present manager 

 of the cold-storage plant and of the orchard 

 business : " So indispensable are bees to 

 the growing of fruit in this county that our 

 fruit-growers have come to the conclusion 

 that they can afford to pay local beemen the 

 rate of $5.00 a colony to have the bees in 

 the orchards during the time the trees are 

 in bloom, and then take them away again." 

 Think of it ! 



This is nearly equivalent to the price of 

 the colony itself. 



Mr. Repp went on to state that the quali- 

 ties tliat make up a good fruit-grower do 

 not necessarily make a good beekeeper. So 

 he and his neighbors have concluded that it 

 is cheaper in effect to buy the bees outright, 

 and, after the season is over, give the bees 

 back again to the beekeejDer. The transac- 

 tion is virtually a temporary purchase, with 

 the proviso that the beemau can take away 

 the property that he sold, and the following 

 year come back and sell it again, and so on 

 ad infinittim. That is a mighty good prop- 

 osition, you may say, for the beekeeper; 

 but it is probably a better one for the fruit- 

 grower, because he has no responsibility in 

 wintering, and, what is much more, he does 

 not have to be bothered with the bees at a 

 time of j-ear when they are Tiot needed. It 

 is about time that some of the fruitmen in 

 the country should wake up. If the apple- 

 gi'owers of New 

 Jersey can afford to 

 pay a rental of 

 $5.00 for only three 

 weeks, others can. 



I took a number 

 of photograijhs of 

 the orchards. Pic- 

 ture No. 1 shows 

 a road down thru 

 the center of a big 



