1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1241 



bees and of certain strains of Italian bees 

 which seem to have deteriorated. 



Carniolan bees are very prolific, and are, 

 at the same time, gentle; and there are 

 records to show that as honey- producers 

 they are excellent. The recently introduced 

 Caucasian bees, which have attracted con- 

 siderable attention, are the most gentle bees 

 known at the present time; and records of 

 honey production now coming in indicate 

 that they are excellent. The Cyprian race, 

 which has been criticised on account of its 

 temper, ranks second to none in honey pro- 

 duction. 



Of these races, the Carniolans are sold in 

 this country to some extent, and the Cypri- 

 ans in less numbers. So far no queen- 

 breeder has offered Caucasian queens for 

 sale, and there is, without doubt, an oppor- 

 tunity for a wide sale of these queens, as is 

 evidenced by the requests which come to the 

 Bureau of Entomology. 



The Bureau can do more toward the wider 

 introduction of these races by inducing reli- 

 able men to take up rearing of pure-bred 

 queens than by a more general distribution. 

 It is not the purpose merely to give away 

 queens, and the future distributions will be 

 limited as follows: 



To any experienced queen-breeder who 

 will guarantee to rear queens, and mate 

 them purely in considerable numbers for 

 general sale, the Bureau will send, as far as 

 the supply will allow, one high-grade breed- 

 ing-queen, purely mated and carefully test- 

 ed. In addition, several queens whose mat- 

 ings are not known will be sent for drone 

 production, since drones are not affected by 

 the mating; all queens, however, will be 

 from good stock, the number to depend on 

 the supply on hand. The breeder making 

 the request must give evidence of his abil- 

 ity to rear good queens; must agree to of- 

 er at least two hundred pure-bred queens 

 a year for sale to the general public, and 

 must not ask for them an exorbitant price. 

 It is the opinion of the Department that 

 twenty per cent more than the current price 

 for Italian queens would be fair. It will 

 also be expected that in future years the 

 breeders will do their utmost toward the im- 

 provement in honey production, at the same 

 time maintaining the purity of the races. 

 The Bureau will be glad to aid breeders of 

 this class to its utmost ability, but will not 

 aid in any way a breeder who offers for 

 sale or sells crossed hybrids of the various 

 races, except in the case of untested queens, 

 and even in that case every possible effort 

 should be made to get pure matings. 



After this distribution, all inquiries to the 

 Bureau will be answered by giving a list of 

 reliable breeders, including those who have 

 received stock from the Government apiary; 

 and the name of any breeder who knowingly 

 sends out inferior stock will be dropped. It 

 is not the purpose to interfere with the pri- 

 vate business of the persons receiving these 

 queens; but these precautions are taken to 

 protect the bee-keepers of the country. 



No applications for queens under other 



circumstances will be considered. All appli- 

 cations will be considered in the order of 

 their receipt. L. 0. Howard, 



Entomologist. 

 James Wilson, Sec. of Agricidture. 



BEE-KEEPING IN NEVADA. 



The Alfalfa Question, and the Trouble with 

 the Cattle-men; the Law on Adultera- 

 tion in California. 



BY TRANSIENT. 



The honey-flow here in the Humboldt 

 meadows has been a long and very slow one, 

 and is now about ended. The crop has been 

 about half of what we expect in a fairly 

 good season. 



The agitation of the question between the 

 cattle-men and the apiarist, whether bees do 

 injure the alfalfa hay or not, still goes on. 

 Attempts were made at the last session of 

 the legislature to pass a law compelling ev- 

 ery bee-man to own one hundred and sixty 

 acres of improved farming land or cease 

 handling bees. It did not leave the com- 

 mittee room however. It will be brought 

 up again at the next session, when they tell 

 us "something will be doing." 



The weather in this great valley has been 

 marvelously fine this summer, and has aided 

 the bee in struggling for what little it has 

 obtained for us in the shape of nectar. 



The grasshoppers have been the cause of 

 our loss of half a crop this season. They 

 have been with us for the past three sea- 

 sons, but do not seem to multiply as in oth- 

 er regions or we should be eaten up this 

 year. 



One carload of white alfalfa honey went 

 forward last week to England, and was the 

 product of our principal apiarists, the Tyler 

 Bros. 



The honey crop here this season will not 

 exceed, probably, seven carloads. 



The problem of wintering the bees has 

 not been solved here yet. Fully a third of 

 our bees were lost in wintering the past 

 mild winter. It is probably the hardest spot 

 on the earth to winter safely one's bees, 

 but the problem may yet be solved. 



The grasshopper, the heat, the high 

 winds, the animosity of the cattle-men, and 

 the excessive freight rates, both east and 

 west, prevent this broad valley from being 

 a bee-man's paradise. 



Foul brood has got its grip on many of 

 our apiaries. Some have been wiped out, 

 while others are in such bad shape that the 

 owners are disconsolate. 



Our bee society organized and met once. 

 It seems to have fallen into a deep sleep. 



Can not some one competent to handle the 

 question scientifically, as well as from a 

 practical point (Prof. Cook, for instance), 

 write us an article for Gleanings, showing 

 that the bee in its work of gathering nectar 

 from alfalfa does not in any way deprive 

 the mown hay of any of its weight or of its 

 saccharine matter ? We can then have said 



