July. 1917 



terests which have usually been successful 

 at sora.e rf the smaller fairs. Mr. i. i . 

 Rohinson, of Bartlett Texas, who i s ui 

 charee of exhibits at the lexas btate 1 an, 

 which is held in Dallas, is already making 

 trips among the beekeepers with a view ot 

 stimulating interest in the honey exhibits at 

 the coming fair. The beekeepers of this 

 state should realize now as never before the 

 necessity of bringing before the people the 

 value of honey, which is not a luxury but a 

 necessity. ^ ^ ^ 



The matter of beekeepers securing credit 

 from their local bankers is apparently a 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



551 



matter of concern in other stales as well 

 as in Texas. We often hear a beekeeper 

 express much disgust over the fact that his 

 banker will not consider his apiary good 

 security for a loan. Very seldom have we 

 heard of a banker advancing money with 

 wliich to purchase additional bees, taking 

 the bees as collateral. It is up to the bee- 

 keepers to demonstrate that beekeeping is a 

 stable industiT and not a fickle speculation. 

 While it is no doubt true that the bankers 

 are too conservative in accepting apiaries as 

 security, the fact still remains that such 

 risks are greater than in many other indus- 

 tries. 



AMONG THE ROCKIES 



Wesley Foster, Boulder, Colorado 



THE beekeep- 

 ers of the 

 Inter- 

 mountain region 

 will have to wake up on the container sitiui- 

 tion While many have bought their cans, 

 few" have enough for their requirements. 

 Should the can -manufacturers be tor- 

 bidden to sell cans to beekeepers for use in 

 storing extracted honey, we shall be forced 

 into a very serious situation. 



Barrels in sufficient quantities are unob- 

 tainable; and, even if they ^^^^/^jf "^^^^' 

 the loss from having to store alfalfa honey 

 in barrels would be at least one per cent. 



Aikin honey-bags are out of the question, 

 as the large producer has no plf^;,° ^^o^^ 

 filled bags until they are granulated sohd, 

 and they cannot be piled up until solid. A 

 hard paper-board package might be practi- 

 cable, but a bag will not do. 



The best thing the beekeeper can do is to 

 get all the cans possible and use ban-els as a 

 last resort. Many can storeseveral tons in 

 their large tanks, but this will necessitate a 

 hard disagi-eeable job chopping out the 



granulated honey. . ^^-^^ 



Honey of the Inter - mountain re.gion 

 should be put in tin cans. The matter might 

 be taken up with the Government to advan 

 ta^e- and if we can secure no cans, the bet- 

 ted pl^i would be to stick to the comb- 

 honey production, so that we can obtain a 

 honev crop in some form. 



HOW^MUcS HOKEY IS HANDLED IK CABLOTS? 



It seems to me that the estimate of only 

 ten per cent of the honey crop being handled 

 in cariots is pretty low The wholesale price 

 is not governed entirely by the carlot ship- 

 ments The local carlot shipments have a 

 gi-eat influence on the market whenthey go 

 upon the city markets, as they do m many 



'^Probably ninety per cent of the produc- 



tion of the Inter- 

 mountain region 

 i s handled i n 

 cariots, or goes 

 upon the wholesale markets; and while I 

 am not so familiar with Texas and Ca itor- 

 nia, I do know that a large part of <-ah±or- 

 nia's crop is handled in cariots, and lexas 

 honey finds its way into the wholesale mar- 

 kets of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Mis- 

 souri in large quantities. 



If the total production of honey tor the 

 United States is around $20,000,000 the 

 amount of honey going into_ the wholesale 

 markets is doubtless four to six million 



The Bureau of Markets will doubtless 

 soon be able to give us statistics on the hon- 

 ey shipments of the United States, and then 

 we shall know more about the i^elation ot 

 price as affected by the wholesale market. 



HARD TO ERADICATE, BUT EASY TO CURE. 



In our experience with European tout 

 brood, we find something to learn every day. 

 It is hard to eradicate but easy to cure. 

 What is meant by that is that an individual 

 apiary can be cleaned up readily, but it is 

 difficult to clean up a district comprising 

 twenty apiaries. Bees and swarms are very 

 elusive. We have them, and we do not have 

 them At the same time we are not discour- 

 aged, for I believe we are making headway. 

 In one apiary of over 100 colonies, 24 were 

 found affected with European foul brood 

 In this apiary were about 15 colonies that 

 had been requeened last season with Golden 

 Italian stock, several of these being some- 

 what weak, but not one of these colonies 

 showed any signs of the disease on examin- 

 ation in May. , 



While it is impossible to keep all colonies 

 strong at all times, it is easier to do so with 

 resistant Italian queens, and tbe disease can 

 be mastered with good stock and mtelhgent 

 care. 



