1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



:83 



also. Try it next Aug-ust, and see if you 

 are not pleased with the idea." 



Elsewhere in this issue we have called 

 for reports of the hone}' crop throughout the 

 United States. Be sure to condense these 

 reports on to postal cards, not exceeding a 

 half-dozen lines. 



Mr. Wilmon Newell, who a few months 

 ago accepted a position as Assistant State 

 Entomolog-ist in charge of the Experimental 

 apiary at the A. & M. College, College Sta- 

 tion, Texes, has now resigned to accept a 

 similar position as Assistant State Ento- 

 mologist of Georgia. In the meantime Mr. 

 Louis Scholl, Hunter, Texas, Secretary of 

 the State Bee-keepers' Association, has been 

 appointed to fill the position vacated by Mr. 

 Newell. Both have been promoted, and are 

 both good men for their places. 



THE HONEY SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



The following letter, recently received 

 from the California National Honey-produc- 

 ers' Association, will explain itself. 



Mr. Editor: — California bee-men owe you a great 

 deal for many different subjects wisely sumined up in 

 this valuable journal ; but. in my mind, the most im- 

 portant is the continued and persistent effort to keep 

 down the tendency to booin the crop prospects to such 

 an extent as to surprise and alarm the conservative bee- 

 man. It is a positive fact that no one can be sure of a 

 big crop in Southern California until it is produced. 

 All that a person can justly say (when the conditions 

 are most favorible) is that the prospects are good for 

 a crop of honey up to the time of the report. It makes 

 many of us tired who have had the most experience, 

 to read a positive assertion that " a certain season will 

 be a record-breaker," or that California will " produce 

 so much honey that we shall not know what to do with 

 it." I wish to add my emphatic protest to that of 

 Gleanings against these reports, as they create a 

 hardship, not only for the bee-men but also the deal- 

 er, for tliey are, in nineteen out of twenty cases, wide 

 of the mark and utterly misleading. 



The reports sent to the California National Honey- 

 producers' Association show that reliable men from 

 different sections estimate that Southern California 

 can not, under the most favorable conditions, secure 

 more than from one-third to one-half of a crop this 

 season. In three of our own apiaries the queens stopped 

 laying for three weeks, and all the others are affected 

 in a lesser degree by the continued cold dark weather. 

 Unless it should come off warm within the next two 

 or three weeks, we shall have practically a crop fail- 

 ure in Southern California except in a few small lo- 

 calities which have been favored with more sunshine 

 than the rest, and report as high as 30 lbs. to the colo- 

 ny now in the tank.«.. 



Again, I wish to say, do net report j'our crop pros- 

 pects on the highest possible output under the most 

 favorable conditions, for we seldom get all these con- 

 ditions that are required to make a large yield. 

 Geo. I,. Emerson, 



Sec. C. .\. H. P. Ass'7i. 



I,os Angeles, Cal., June 11, 190o. 



It has been our policy to report as nearly 

 as possible the e.vac^ condition of the season 

 in different localities. To try to "bull the 

 market" in the interest of bee-keepers, 

 when there was a big crop of honey, might 

 be almost as disastrous as to "bear" it at 

 the wrong time. What producers need is 

 an absolutely truthful statement, so that 

 prices may be regulated accordingly. If 

 the statement goes out that there is a .scar- 

 city of honey, many producers would hold 

 their crops with a view of getting higher 

 prices. While they are holding, others 

 would be unloading their crop, with the re- 

 sult that the market would be going down, 

 down, down, and the fellows who are hold- 

 ing would, in the end, have to sell lower 

 than their neighbors who have taken ad- 

 vantage of an early sale, when the nrices 

 were comparatively good. If, on the other 

 hand, inflation reports go out when the crop 

 is light, prices will rule low at the very be- 

 ginning, with the result that a good bulk of 

 the honey will be sold at a low price when 

 it might just as well have obtained a high- 

 er figure. 



PORTABLE EXTRACTING HONEY-HOUSE. 



When I visited Mr. Chalon Fowls, in 

 Oberlin, in company with Mr. W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson, a few weeks ago, he showed us a 

 very neat extracting-house in the barn, that 

 he had just completed, of such size and 

 shape that it could be moved from one yard 

 to another. The total cost of the structure, 

 not including any labor, was only $15.00. 

 As he is a specialist bee-keeper, he has 

 spare hours which he can devote to general 

 work that comes in effective during the gen- 

 eral rush of the season when he has no 

 leisure. Accordingly, in the spring he con- 

 structed indoors a small extracting-house 

 6X10X7 feet high, inside measurement. 

 From the floor to the top of the peak, the 

 distance is 8 feet. The roof-boards are 

 sides of drygoods- boxes which are then 

 covered with tar felting. A door and two 

 windows (the latter sliding so as to pro- 

 vide for the escape of the bees) complete 

 the structure. 



Mr. Fowls now concludes that it would 

 have been better if he had made it two feet 

 longer and one foot lower. This would 

 have required no more material, made the 

 building no more expensive, but at the same 

 time more convenient as well as roomy. 

 The space overhead does not count for much, 

 but floor space is every thing. 



After the building was constructed, the 

 next thing was to move it. Mr. Fowls made 

 a wooden axletree to fit the rear wheels of 

 his regular wagon, of a sufficient length so 

 that the wheels would clear the building. 

 This was connected to a reach which would 

 be long enough to allow the building to 

 clear the running gear and the front wheels 

 on the regular axletree. 



After the building was mounted in the 

 manner described, it was run up in front of 

 the photographer's office, and a picture 

 taken of it. The result is shown in the il- 



