100 



March, 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



dies are such fools as to risk being 

 stung by coming in broad daylight and 

 dhusting right feminist those pesky 

 stingers? . No, it is another kind of burd 

 that dusts there; Oi'll fux the beggar, 

 so Oi' will, Oi' will." 



My friend was much excited by this 

 time and he gave some characteristic 

 flourishes to his language, which ordi- 

 narily was choice and free from Hiber- 

 nie burrs. 



"What will you do to chase him 

 away?" I ventured to ask. 



"I won't do any chasing; I'll set a 

 good supper for him to-night," he said, 

 in plain English. 



Then I knew it was a skunk that was 

 the "burd of rare plumage" that was 

 doing the dusting. Then, out came an 

 egg and a bottle of strychnine from 

 Pat's pocket. 'With the point of a pen- 

 knife he inserted a grain or so of the 

 stuff in the egg and buried it in the 

 dirt in front of the hive. 



The next morning a big skunk was 

 found half way down the hill toward 

 the creek where the varmint was pro- 

 ceeding for a drink to stop the fiery 

 pain the poison made in his interior, 

 when he died. That ended one of Pat's 

 troubles and one of the bees' worst tor- 

 mentors and destroyers. 



At the Monterey bee-keepers' mee:- 

 ing the matter of depredations by 

 skunks was considered. Mr. Vernon 

 Townsend was sorely bothered by them. 

 He was killing them off by wholesale. 

 He poisoned them in a manner similar 

 to that just described and used by Mr 

 Keating. Other bee-keepers said they 

 did the same. 



Bees that are much bothered by 

 skunks become very vicious ; they seem 

 anxious to repel any invader of the 

 apiary, .^nd 'tis small wonder when 

 their slumbers are disturbed by night 

 marauders so frequently. Why, it_ is 

 enough to give any one or anything 

 nervous prostration; don't you think so? 



breath, they having gotten outside the 

 hive to let the life-coil slip away from 

 them. 



Mr. Benton still not heaving in sight, 

 I ventured to poke my head into a 

 room in the basement of the aforesaid 

 "Bug Building." Sure enough, the gen- 

 tleman I sougfit was there.^ He had sev- 

 eral of his students in apiculture about 

 him, and they were making a syrupy 

 food for tlie bees, as he told me — some 

 of the colonies were short of provis- 

 ions. The students, some of whom were 

 Philippines, went on with their work 

 while Mr. B. and the writer held short 

 converse. Then the boys went out to 

 dish out the rations to the hungry bees. 

 Believing the "chief chef" of the feast 

 should be present to superintend the 

 banquet, I was about to take my de- 

 parture when Mr. B. assured me there 

 was no need of my being in a hurry to 

 go, as the boys knew how to attend to 

 the distribution of the life - giving 

 syrup. 



Then I remarked that the above-re- 

 ferred-to disease was prevalent in the 

 apiary, and wondered if he (Mr. B.) 

 had ascertained what it was. I had 

 left some specimens of my diseased bees 

 from the same cause, with the univer- 

 sity man a few weeks before. He re- 

 plied that he had not yet determined 

 what it was, but one of the students 

 had the matter under pathological study 

 and was making fair progress with the 

 subject. We then spoke of the pro- 

 posed change in the foul-brood law, 

 which I will notice in another item. 



That Queer Disease — Doing Things 

 at Berkeley University. 



I was over to the University early 

 in the month to see Dr. Anderson of the 

 Dairy School, and before returning I 

 thought I would see Mr. Ralph Ben- 

 ton, of the Bee Department. A hunt 

 through the "Bug Building" did not 

 reveal his whereabouts; thence to the 

 apiary back of the "Gym," near by. I 

 found the gate to the apiary open, 

 but my man was not there. I ven- 

 tured in and looked at the "exterior 

 condition" of the colonies to see how 

 they fared in comparison with mine. 

 The day was not a propitious one, as 

 have been few days since Christmas, 

 still, many bees were flying, and, I sup- 

 pose, working on the bloom of the 

 acacias and the eucalpyti, of which 

 there are many about Berkeley. 



A few of the hives did not show much 

 animation, wherein they differed little 

 from some of my colonies. Some of 

 these weaklings were the ones troubled 

 with the peculiar disease I have here- 

 tofore commented upon in these col- 

 umns. There were many bees long dead 

 in front of the entrance, and a num- 

 ber more were giving up their last 



competent apiarists as foul-brood inspec- 

 tors, the dread disease would be soon 

 banished from the State. They urged 

 that the supervisors hereafter name 

 practical bee-men as inspectors. 



The convention, however, went on 

 record as favoring the bill after they 

 had made some changes, one of which 

 is that the person who is to have charge 

 of the pathological work at Berkeley, 

 be a university graduate — it doesn't 

 make any difference from what insti- 

 tution — and that the State allow a fixed 

 sum per annum to carry on the work 

 in conjunction with the present county 

 inspectors. 



How the law will work if it should 

 pass the legislature. I am not able to 

 tell. To have the work done by com- 

 petent men will be a blessing to the 

 bee-keepers, even if the people's taxes 

 are increased somewhat to help the mat- 

 ter. Then, it is doubtful if it will be 

 any better done by a college man than 

 if it were done by one who had a thor- 

 ough training somewhere else. The 

 greatest work done in California for 

 the fruit-growers was done by a man 

 who never had even a high school edu- 

 cation. His work on entomology has 

 been introduced into the schools of the 

 State. It was he who started the cru- 

 sade in an intelligent way against the 

 insects that were ruining the fruit crops 

 of the State. His name was Matthew 

 Cooke, and he studied the subject while 

 he made fruit-boxes in a factory at 

 Sacramento. 



A Queen-Bee Snag. 



The attempt to amend the Foul-brood 

 Law of California and graft on a pro- 

 vision to make it one of the close con- 

 cerns of the University of California, 

 met with more objection than was at 

 first expected, so I learn. That the 

 main provisions of the law will be good 

 is not doubted; to get rid of malignant 

 bee-diseases is a disideratum much to 

 be desired by the California apiarists. 

 A casual perusal of the law as drafted 

 by Mr. Benton, early in January, caused 

 me to remark to that gentleman that 

 some provisions were objectionable, es- 

 pecially that requiring all queen-bees 

 and attendant bees brought to the State, 

 or passing from one county into an- 

 other, to be inspected by a university 

 pathologist or his deputy, or by a county 

 foul-brood inspector, before they could 

 be delivered to the consignee for use 

 in his apiary. I went over the injus- 

 tice and needlessness of the provision in 

 the case of queens coming in mailing- 

 cages. The author of the provision, 

 thought it well then to change the word- 

 ing. I wrote this Journal of this pro- 

 posed provision, as I also did the edi- 

 tors of Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



I understand there was quite a time 

 over the consideration of the bill at the 

 Los Angeles Convention at the meet- 

 ing, at the close of January. It was a 

 hard tussel ; a committee was out nearly 

 the whole session of the meeting 

 wrestling with the several provisions. 

 I believe the queen-bee detention was 

 knocked out. The sentiment of the 

 meeting seemed to be that if the several 

 county boards of supervisors appointed 



A Wet Year Indeed in California. 



Up to the first of January the rain- 

 fall was much below normal, and many 

 persons believed we were in for an- 

 other dry year. Of course there are 

 always some persons who set themselves 

 up as weather prophets, and a word 

 from them is carried the country around 

 as gospel truth. But, fortunately, the 

 wheels of industry do not stop on their 

 account. So the wise farmer goes on 

 and plows his land, sows his grain, and 



And so it came to pass this year 



And so it same to pass this year 

 that this style of farmer is now be- 

 ing back and taking things easy; he's 

 happy, and wears a broad grin when 

 he meets the pessimistical rancher. For 

 the rain came, and came, and came, and 

 at this writing (Feb. 13) it is still 

 coming. What the end will be I know 

 not; this I know, however, the hills 

 and mountains from Del Norte to San 

 Diego, and for the full width of the 

 State where they are not covered with 

 snow, are so saturated with water that 

 torrents are streaming down their sides 

 into the valleys below ; some of the 

 latter are flooded and in places crops 

 have been ruined. On some of the 

 river islands in the upper central por- 

 tion of the State the water will not re- 

 cede in time for the farmer to get in a 

 crop this year. But the land in nearly 

 all cases will be so enriched by the 

 sediment deposited by the flood-waters 

 that for years after great crops will 

 result. .And this will be the bee-man's 

 year to get a record-breaking harvest, 

 provided, the climatic conditions are 

 just right during the blooming of the 

 nectar-secreting flowers. 



