THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



597 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keepiug in tlie Great Northwest. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Having just taken a trip into and 

 partially through the region above- 

 named, I propose, while the subject is 

 fresh, to jot down for the American 

 Bee Journal a few impressions of 

 the country, apiculturally considered. 

 My tour extended from 8t. Paul to 

 Winnipeg, Manitoba, thence west- 

 ward, 409 miles to the last rail of the 

 Canada Pacilic Hallway, returning to 

 Winnipeg, thence east to Hawk Lake, 

 about half way to Thunder Bay on 

 Lake Superior; again returning to 

 Winnipeg, thence, via Minneapolis to 

 the Jim River Valley, Dakota, and 

 from there to Chicago, where I now 

 write. The Great Northwest I take 

 to comprise the vast tracts of land 

 north and west of St. Paul. 



At present, and if properly farmed 

 for all time, this region, taken as a 

 whole, may, without impropriety, be 

 considered the world's largest and 

 grandest wheat-field ; beginning with 

 the famous lied River Valley in North- 

 ern Minnesota, and stretcliing north- 

 ward to the limit of cereal culture, 

 and westward to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains ; it may, almost without exag- 

 geration, be said to be one mammoth 

 wheat field, the like of which is not to 

 be found on the earth's surface. The 

 only part of this field that can be said 

 to be fully worked, is the before-men- 

 tioned Red River Valley. There I saw 

 a sight that made me open my eyes 

 wider than they were ever stretched 

 before. Wheat on either side of the 

 railway track, from thence apparently 

 to the horizon ; much of it standing, 

 more of it reaped or in course of reap- 

 ing by the wonderful self-binders that 

 convert standing grain into sheaves 

 as if by magic ; miles of it in shock ; 

 teams busy liauling dry sheaves to the 

 steam threshers that were puffing and 

 buzzing on every hand ; men bagging 

 the threshed grain; and, again, more 

 teams hauling to the nearest elevators. 



Here are the big Bonanza farms, of 

 which we have read and lieard so 

 much. All through my westward 

 journey, and more than as far again, 

 there is a strip of at least 500 or 600 

 miles wide, capable of presenting just 

 such a spectacle as I saw in the Red 

 River Valley, and in the course of a 

 very short time it will present a simi- 

 lar spectacle. These immense wheat 

 areas are fast filling up with a popu- 

 lation that will speedily become com- 

 fortable, if not rich. I don't think 

 this mammoth wheat lield will ever 

 be much of a bee country. The sum- 

 mers are too short; the winters too 

 long, and the thermometer gets too far 

 below zero. Fancy wintering bees 

 where the mercury sometimes dips 

 down to 60- below zero ! But these 

 thrifty wheat farmers will all have 



parlors, or at anv rate kitchens, where 

 their queens and princesses will sit 

 " eating bread and honey," that is, if 

 they can get the honey, as they will 

 be able to do, if bee-keeping spreads 

 itself in those more genial regions 

 where it can be practicably and profita- 

 bly carried on. These are not very 

 far to the south of this mammoth 

 wheat field of the world. 



I do not know what is the limit of 

 paying apiculture in Minnesota, but 

 there is a limit, a line of north lati- 

 tude beyond which bee-keeping, as a 

 business, cannot be carried on. Be- 

 yond that limit, there will soon be a 

 market for honey, which bee-keepers 

 had better keep an eye on ; a market 

 in which all other products that are 

 not native bring high prices, and a 

 market, too, in which the luxuries, as 

 well as the necessaries of life, are in 

 brisk demand, for this remarkable 

 region is not being peopled with a 

 poor, economical and struggling class, 

 but mainly with those who have come 

 from the Eastern States and Prov- 

 inces, with more or less means. Their 

 aim is to be able to boast in the short- 

 est time possible that they [possess all 

 the delicacies they left behind them, 

 and they will not leave honey out of 

 their catalogue. 



I do not pretend to have made a 

 thorough apicultiiial exploration ; my 

 trip was too hasty for that, and 1 am 

 only jotting down impressions. But 

 let me now advert to a region which, 

 1 believe, presents large scope for bee- 

 keeping. I refer to the far-famed 

 Jim River Valley in Dakota. Before 

 seeing this highly-favored spot of 

 earth, I thought it had been over- 

 praised. Now that I have been there, 

 I am ready to say with the Queen of 

 Sheba, "the half was not told me." 

 I have seen much of the earth's sur- 

 face in general, and of the continent 

 of America in particular, but this, to 

 my mind, judged from an agricultural 

 standpoint, is the gem and crown of 

 it all. 



The climate and soil must have 

 some peculiar qualities, for herefrom 

 four to six degrees farther south than 

 the Manitoba wheat areas, " A No. 1 

 hard " can be, and is, grown in all its 

 primest excellence. At the same time, 

 the Indian corn is as good as in Illi- 

 nois ; water and musk melons grown 

 on the open prairie, without hot-bed 

 forcing, were ripe, luscious and abun- 

 dant when I was there, Sept. 6 and 7. 

 But bees don't suck nectar from mel- 

 ons, though boys and " children of a 

 larger growth'" are wont to do so. 

 Let me say, then, that asters, boneset, 

 goldenrod, and innumerable flowers 

 were in a blaze of glory at the dates 

 named, all over the untouched prairie. 

 Such a magnificence of floral beauty, 

 I never saw on this broad continent 

 before in the month of September. 

 This means an abundant fall honey 

 harvest, the great desideratum for 

 successful and profitable bee-keeping. 



1 have often regretted that I am 

 not more of an af)icultural botanist, 

 and never did so more sincerely than 

 as I gazed upon those gorgeous Da- 

 kota prairies a few days ago, for I 

 would like to be able to name well- 

 known honey plants, which I am sure 



luxuriate there. It is the same all the 

 season through. From early spring 

 to nipping frost, those prairies are 

 one vast flower-garden. There are no 

 wild bees, so far as I could learn. 

 Trees are conspicuous by their ab- 

 sence, except along the river banks 

 and bottoms, and there the growth is 

 not large enough to allow of a hollow 

 trunk suflicient to accommodate a 

 colony of bees. If there were natural 

 hives, I question if " wintering on 

 their summer stands'' would work, 

 for even in the Jim River Valley the 

 mercury sometimes falls pretty low. 

 But no country was ever better 

 adapted for cellar or clamp wintering. 

 That peculiar soil of which I have 

 spoken, requires no walls of wood or 

 masonry when a cellar is dug in it. 

 Cover an excavation with a shed or 

 building, and the walls remain as 

 intact as when they were first shaved 

 down witli a sliariJ spade. I saw cel- 

 lars of this kind that have been in 

 use for three or four winters, and 

 there is no crumbling of the walls, 

 while such a thing as a damp cellar is 

 unknown, except so far as the dryest 

 earth has a trace of dampness in it. 

 No rotting boards to mar the sweet- 

 ness of the air ; no solid walls of stone 

 or brick to stop the pores and forbid 

 capillary circulation. Surely, this is 

 the paradise of cellar or clamp win- 

 tering for the bee-keeper. 



My visit to this charming valley an- 

 swers the question I have often asked, 

 viz. : is there not a region somewhere 

 on this continent suitable for isolated 

 queen-breeding, where the season is 

 of sufficient length to make the busi- 

 ness profitable y Mr. Jones' islands 

 are too bleak and inhospitable to 

 make it other than a costly business 

 to breed absolutely pure queens there. 

 When I was at his place early in June, 

 operations on the islands had not yet 

 begun. In the Jim River Valley 

 spring opens as early as in New York, 

 Southern Ontario, Northern Illinois, 

 or Central Mieliigan, and the season is 

 as long. Here. then, is an opening 

 for some enterprising man who wants 

 to raise dollar (pieens that have only 

 to be mated to be infallibly all right. 

 I have no doubt this line valley will, 

 ere long, swarm with bees and bee- 

 keepers. I met with one man, a car- 

 penter, who was working at- house 

 building " on the distant prairie " sev- 

 eral miles from his own house, who 

 took a few colonies to the Jim Kiver 

 Valley this spring, and regretted his 

 inability t« look after them, for they 

 both swarmed and gathered honey to 

 an extent he never saw equaled in all 

 his life before. 



Sept. 14, 1882. 



Scientific American. 



Does the Bee Injure (Jrapes? 



T. T. ROBERTSON, M. D. 



It has long been believed, and is 

 now almost universally accepted as a 

 fact, that the bee destroys grapes and 

 other fruits. I have watched the little 

 workers for vears, and have been loth 

 to believe it. I observed long ago 

 that they never attacked sound grapes. 



