July, :917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



513 



velous thins' is tliat corn is yrown in some 

 of the valleys for thirty yeai's with no fer- 

 tilizer. More remarkable still is it that the 

 hills have just as rich and productive land 

 as the valleys, but with less moisture, of 

 cours<>. But some ranchmen have discov- 

 ered that sweet clover will s"row on these 

 liills; and where this fact is known boe- 

 keoiiing- has jumped aliead by leaps and 

 bounds. The farmer is pleased also because 

 he can grow more cattle and hogs. 



As I looked over the temtory in and 

 about Sioux City 1 wislied more than once 

 I w^as a young man, and thai I could avail 

 myself of Horace Greeley's advice, squat on 

 some of this land, grow wheat, alfalfa, corn, 

 sweet clover, cattle, and last, but not least, 

 bees and honey. I think I never saw deeper 

 and more productive land than in the vi- 

 cinity of Sioux City, la., except, perhaps, in 

 one other locality and that was Imperial 

 Valley, California, where it is claimed that 

 the land there for soil productiveness is 

 equal to the far-famed land of the Nile 

 Valley of Egypt, where Pharaoh grew corn 

 in anticipation of the seven years' famine. 



It is almost impossible to show in a 

 photograph land that spans miles of terri- 

 tory ; but rigs. 1 and 2 give views of some 

 of these "knobs," as I call them, where 

 sweet clover seems to thrive so luxuriantly. 

 Fig. 1 is a view near Sioux City, adjoining 

 one of the characteristic knobs where the 

 banks are so steep that no agricultural ma- 

 chinei"y will ever be able to climb— not even 

 a gasoline-tractor; but man and beast, by 

 w-alking back and forth, on so-called " cat 

 ti'acks," can gain the summit. One can 

 scatter the seed of sweet clover, and the 

 beasts and the bees furnish the milk and 

 lioney as well as the meat. 



Fig. 2 shows a more distant view of that 

 country; and on the right one gets an idea 



Fig. '2. — A fouple of tiwet't-iluvcr hills iie;ir the 

 apiaries of the Wastern Honey-producers, Sioux 

 City, lea. 



of some of these veritable little mountains. 

 Near the creeks and rivers the clovers thi'ive 

 luxuriantly, and everywhere white clover 

 is very much in evidence. I found it in 

 the valleys, and I found it on the hills. 

 Altogether I believe Iowa is destined to be 

 one of the great^est states for sweet-clover 

 13 reduction, and with the white clover will 

 stand in the front rank. If there is any 

 land in all the United States equal to that 

 offered to the children of Israel it is this 

 middle West. 



THE WESTERN HONEY PRODUCERS. 



This is a rather long introduction to the 

 brief story I am now about to tell of the 

 apiaries of the Western Honey Producers 

 in Sioux City, la. Mr. Southworth is the 

 man who looks after the buying and selling 

 of honey ; and his partner, Mr. E. G. Brown, 

 is the one wdio attends to the bees. The 

 Westei'u Honey producers not only produce 

 honey in carlots, but they buy carloads and 

 carloads of it to take care of their bottling 

 trade. Last year, Mr. Brown, with 320 colo- 

 nies spring count, produced 40.000 pounds 

 of honey and increased to 500. This year 

 he has set his stakes to make an increase 

 up to 1000 colonies and to secure 80,000 

 pounds. He believes the conditions are fav- 



Fig. 3. — The Belfrage apiary, beecelhir. and ('xtra( ting-hou.^e of the Western Honey producers. 



