April, 1921 



G T. K A N T N G S I N P. E E C U E T I' R E 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



Survey at Wasliiiigtoii and by tlioir aiil start 

 a campaign against the rats. 



All beekeepers of Texas who expect to 

 ship package bees or queens are warned 

 that many northern States have quarantine 

 laws, and some of these States have an- 

 nounced that no bees without proper in- 

 spection certificate can enter their borders. 

 As Texas provides free inspection, take no 

 chance, apply to Dr. M. C. Tanquary, Col- 

 lege Station, Tex., for inspection, stating 

 that you expect to ship bees. 



Every little while someone discovers a 

 new cause for foul brood. Texas has had her 

 quota of these, but California has a new 

 one. A well-known beekeeper writes in the 

 Western Honey Bee that he has discovered 

 that the organism which causes the foul 

 brood, lives in the pollen of willows and 

 like plants; it attacks man and gives him 

 hay fever, causes all adult disease of bees 

 and European and American foul brood in 

 bee larvae. If this be so, it is useless to 

 fight bee disease. Texas has enough faith 

 in what she has accomplished to go ahead 

 on the old line and not worry about this 

 new explanation. 



The Beekeepers' Short Course at A. & M. 

 College, College Station, Tex., has been men- 

 tioned several times in these columns. The 

 dates are July 25 and 31. The instructors 

 will be from the professors of A. and M. 

 College and the men from the experiment 

 station. To aid these a number of the bee- 

 keepers of the State will give instruction 

 along the lines in which they excel. A bee- 

 man of national reputation will give one or 

 two addresses. Five hundred beekeejjers are 

 expected. 



L. W. Watson, the new State apiarist, is 

 on the job. He has visited the various ex- 

 perimental yards and is now outlining the 

 work of his department. He is very much 

 impressed with Texas problems and is going 

 to solve some of them. 



A large number of our disputes and con- 

 troversies are due to a lack of specific in- 

 formation. A fine example is the case of the 

 huisache. Many honey producers give this 

 tree as a honey plant, and others are ready 

 to defend their claim that a bee gets only 

 pollen from it. This misunderstanding comes 

 from the fact that growing in the same lo- 

 calities from the Edwards Escarpment to 

 Mexico, there are two plants very similar in 

 appearance and size, having flowers of 

 nearly tlie same color and shape, but one is 

 nectar-bearing and the other is not. Acacia 

 famesiana Willd. (huisacluO is seldom, if 

 ever, a honey plant, while Acacia tortuosa 

 Willd. (huisachillo) is a good yieldcr of 

 nectar. The latter, however, does not occur 

 in such numbers as the huisache. 



San Antonio, Tex. H. B. Parks. 



In Iowa ^^'^' ^^^^*^ J"st taken a peep at 



the bees in the cellar, and 

 from all appearances they are wintering fine- 

 ly. They are very quiet, and the mortality is, 

 if anything, less than usual at this time of 

 year. From present conditions, we shall be 

 very much surprised, if they do not come 

 out of tlie cellar in normal condition. In 

 fact, if the weather continues the remain- 

 der of the winter as it has thus far, we ex- 

 pect the bees wintered outside to come thru 

 in fairly good condition, provided they were 

 supplied with plenty of good stores, as we 

 have had no very cold weather and what lit- 

 tle we have had has been for only a few 

 daj's at a time. If the outside bees should 

 winter well, it will undoubtedly give en- 

 couragement to young beekeepers to try it 

 again, which would be taking long chances. 

 Young Iowa beekeepers should not take this 

 winter as a basis for future wintering. Many 

 gray-haired men have never seen an Iowa 

 winter as mild as this one, and it will prob- 

 ably be a long time before another rolls 

 around; so better give your bees the proper 

 protection than wish you had. 



There is still plenty of honey in Iowa un- 

 sold, and the market is holding steady, but 

 the demand is not heavy. With but few ex- 

 ceptions the beekeepers have kept their 

 heads and not slashed prices, and it is well 

 they did. While this holding the price steady 

 may not allow us all to clean up the 1920 

 crop, it will go a long ways towards stabil- 

 izing prices for another year. 



In a former article I stated that I doubted 

 whether the slashing of prices would make 

 any material difference in creating a de- 

 mand. Since that time we have shaded our 

 prices three times, and lately we have been 

 offering fancy clover extracted at $12.00 jier 

 GO-pound can at the apiary, and $12. .TO 

 f. o. b.; yet we are selling no more honey 

 than we did before we cut prices at all, so 

 we have made up our mind just to "bide a 

 wee." 



While we have for the past 10 years sold 

 nearly all our honey to the mail-order trade, 

 we should like mighty well to see <'o-o))era- 

 tive marketing come into vogue, and we 

 would do all we could to hel]) put it over in 

 our State. 



Conditions ]ia\'0 changed very materially 

 in the past two years as to this manner of 

 selling lioney. Excessive freight rates have 

 done untold harm to our business. Naturally 

 a trade of this kind takes honey in small 

 shipments and must go at local freight 

 rates. We have lots of customers to whom 

 the freight in 200-pound lots adds 2c per 

 pound to the price of the honey, and smaller 

 lots proportionately higher. The jirice of 

 containers is cutting into the profits or else 

 adding to the ])iice to the consumer. Ship- 

 ))iiig box lumber has doubled in price, and 

 poorer quality at that. Our printing is quite 



