OUR CROPS 69 



the appearance of a white, flat-roofed town, 

 its streets laid out with admirable neatness 

 and order, the inhabitants prosperous and 

 industrious though since coming to New 

 Mexico I have learned that the bee is by no 

 means always busy ; that, on the contrary, 

 he is sometimes very lazy whole hives of 

 him and that he has to be entreated, some- 

 times rather evilly, to labour. He is due to 

 work, I am told, for from three to five months 

 of the year in this climate ; but occasionally 

 he shirks. He sips largely from the alfalfa 

 bloom ; and, indeed, alfalfa is the chief de- 

 pendence of the bee as well as of other farm 

 stock. An average of fifty pounds of comb- 

 honey per hive is considered a very moderate 

 estimate of the yield. 



In speaking of that matter of co-operation, 

 on even a small scale, I by no means share the 

 despondency of ' those who know.' I have 

 reason to believe that a combination of no 

 more than three persons, provided they under- 

 took to raise more or less the same products, 

 and under present unfavourable conditions, 

 could find profitable market for their wares. 

 A careful study of the question, reinforced 



