December, 1021 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



747 



little Ford is standing in the corner loaded 

 with supers. 



Flagstaff, Ariz. 



[The Eocky Mountain bee plant (Cleome 

 Serrulata) was tried out by beekeepers 

 tliruout the country years ago in an effort 

 to cultivate it as a honey plant. In 1891 

 the Michigan Experiment Station planted 

 several acres of it for the sole purpose of 

 testing its honey-producing qualities, but 

 the results were disappointing so far as nec- 



tar T^as concerned. This, of course, is only 

 one of many illustrations of a nectar-bear- 

 ing plant being of minor importance out- 

 side of its natural environment but a de- 

 pendable source of large crops of honey 

 when growing in its natural home. Appar- 

 ently this plant is a heavy yielder of nectar 

 at greater altitudes. The finding of so many 

 bee-trees more than 7,000 feet above the 

 sea, is an indication of the importance of 

 this plant as a yielder of nectar in its native 

 liome. — Editor.] 



PACKAGE BEES FOR THE NORTH 



A COUPLE of 

 months ago, 

 after I had 

 visited central 

 Alabama and 

 had noted the 

 wonderful o p - 

 portunities for 

 bee-raising and 

 queen-rearing in 



that part of the country, a statement came 

 out in one of the Montgomery papers that 

 this particular country was so good that 

 10,000 beekeepers would come into Mont- 

 gomery County alone. 



As it transpired, this was the innocent 

 prophecy of an enthusiastic booster from 

 Montgomery and vicinity, and not the state- 

 ment authorized by any beekeeper, much less 

 by myself. The real honest facts of the 

 case are these: The territory in question is 



'building Up a Great Industry in 



the South. cA (jood Use for Bit- 



ter'weed Honey 



By E. R. Root 



Bitterweed. 



not a great honey country. The average 

 yield per colony is not large as compared 

 with those of the North; but there is an al- 

 most continuous light flow from month to 

 month, possibly eight or nine months of 



the year — just 

 such a flow as is 

 ideal for the 

 p r o d u c tion of 

 bees and queens. 

 It is my belief, 

 from what I 

 have seen from 

 two trips in that 

 country, that the 

 territory within 200 miles of Montgomery, 

 Ala., while mediocre for the production of 

 honey, is the best for raising bees and queens 

 for the North of any equal area in the 

 United States unless it be the alluvial lands 

 in central and southern Louisiana. Of this 

 I shall speak more at length at another 

 time. 



As a matter of fact, if the figures I have 

 gathered are correct, and I think they are, 

 there are actually more bees raised and 

 queens reared in central Alabama and east- 

 ern Mississippi than in any other equal 

 area in the world. Quite a number of the 

 queen-breeders in the territory reared and 

 delivered over 8,000 queens this last season. 

 Two or three reached the 10,000 mark; and 

 one in particular actually raised and sold 

 over 15,000 queens; and he said that, if he 

 had had the orders, he could easily have 

 made it 20,000. 



Buying Package Bees in Spring Instead of 

 Wintering in North. 

 The honey comes in just fast enough to 

 keep up breeding, and by the first of April 

 the hives will be boiling over with bees. 

 The surplus of these bees is shipped north 

 in packages holding from two to three 

 pounds each. Scores and scores of instances 

 will show where these three pounds of bees, 

 when shipped and put on combs in the 

 North, have made a production of honey 

 equal to any of those wintered over in the 

 cellar or outdoors. Large numbers of ex- 

 tensive honey-producers in the North are 

 already beginning to raise the question 

 why thev can not buy their bees in package 

 form from this Southland cheaper than they 

 can winter over in cellars or packing-cases, 

 using honey that they might otherwise sell, 

 and the proceeds from which they could 

 use for buying bees from the South with 



