GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1920 



way we have a record of every needful thing 

 for each colony. We find that it makes the 

 work more interesting for the men and is a 

 valuable test for the manager in checking 

 up the bee-yard work. We think that every 

 yard should have a number and every hive 

 a number. In this way a few years will 

 give one some very interesting data on the 

 progress of the season, and the information 

 collected will undoubtedly be of value in 

 years to come. Of course, beekeepers ac- 

 cumulate this information in their minds, 

 but to have it down in black and white will 

 be a great reinforcement to the memory. 

 The Extracting-house. 



In our operations we have extracting- 

 houses at about one-half of our out-apiaries, 

 and we store the extracting combs in these 

 houses during the winter. These extracting- 

 houses have floors in which bolts are set so 

 that we can set up our extracting outfit in 

 a very short time. In the apiaries in which 

 we do not have houses built we use our 

 portable extracting outfit, which is on a 

 four-wheel truck. 



With each extracting outfit we have two 



honey-tanks, holding about 10,000 pounds 

 each. These tanks are filled by the honey- 

 pumps, and the honey runs down the inside 

 wall of the tank so that the settling may go 

 on while the honey is running in. If the 

 honey falls right in the center of the tank 

 from the honey-pump, this will throw the 

 honey into the tank in such a way as to 

 keep it in a continual turmoil, and it will 

 not settle much during the day. However, 

 by running the honey down the side of the 

 tank we find that along in the afternoon 

 the tanks may be drained off almost to the 

 bottom, and whatever honey is in the bot- 

 tom that is not well settled can be drawn 

 off into a can and marked, and then it can 

 be re-settled when it is brought to the home 

 extracting - yard plant. Not over five or 

 six cans in each day's extracting will need 

 further settling or straining. 



We have several extra tanks at the home 

 plant where we can handle the honey with- 

 out the yard men's being delayed in their 

 work. 



Boulder, Colo. 



CHANGE OF BEE PASTURE 



IN the 1 den 

 days of some 



30 or 40 years 

 ago we used to 

 think of Ari- 

 zona as one 

 great desert of 

 mesquite, c a t - 

 claw, and cacti, 

 of the cowboy — 



the land where the bad man with his six- 

 shooter used to terrorize everybody and 

 everything. While the greater part of Ari- 

 zona is still a desert, and possibly always 

 will be, yet the transformations that have 

 taken place within the last 20 years rival 

 the tales of the Arabian Nights — not stories 

 of bad men and six-shooters, as seen in the 

 movies, but stories of old-time deserts that 

 are now veritable gardens of Eden. Even 

 in 1901 when I visited that State I saw none 

 of the expected bad 

 things. On the other 

 hand, there were in 

 the Salt Eiver Val- 

 ley immense fields of 

 alfalfa, cattle, milk, 

 and honey galore. 



Ever since the des- 

 ert gave way to 

 those great fields of 

 alfalfa breast-high — 

 the finest I ever saw 

 in the world — bees 

 and beekeepers, lots 

 of them, have been 

 moving there b e - 

 cause the alfalfa was 

 then, as it is today, 



Illustrated by Cotton Supplanting 

 Alfalfa in Arizona. Some Beekeep- 

 ing Conditions in that Arid Country 



By E. R. Root 



A forest of giant cacti, which range from 10 to 

 30 feet high. Some seasons these yield a consid- 

 erable amount of honey — seldom, howeiv^r, e^iois'* 

 for any surplus, 



a wonderful 

 honey plant. 



Within the 

 last three or 

 four years a 

 wonderful 

 change has tak- 

 en place. Alfal- 

 fa has given 

 way to the 

 Egyptian or long-staple cotton that is used 

 for making automobile tires — a cotton that 

 is bringing $500 a bale, and is scarce at 

 even that enormous figure. Cotton, on ac- 

 count of the enormous prices paid, gradu- 

 ally supplanted the alfalfa until today nine- 

 tenths of the old alfalfa land is devoted to 

 the growing of cotton. The once enormous 

 cattle industry and, with it, the dairy inter- 

 ests were struck a body blow. Nothing 

 must stand in the way of the automobile 

 industry when the 

 rancher was paid all 

 the way from 60 

 cents to $1.00 a 

 pound for his cotton, 

 and he could make a 

 clean profit of $300 

 to $500 per acre for 

 his land. What car- 

 ed he so long as he 

 got his price? Then 

 the price of land be- 

 gan to soar, too. It 

 became so fabulous- 

 ly high that many of 

 the ranchers began 

 to sell, and buy the 

 same kind of land at 



