1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



(jroduetion of honey a somewhat uncertain 

 business. The bloom of 60 acres of buck- 

 wheat added to what other h'>ney-producing 

 plants which would blossom at the same 

 time, would undoubtedly help 100 colonies 

 very much to till up their hives for winter 

 and give some surplus. I should consider it 

 (juite a help to an otherwise fair location; 

 but I can not see how we can ever ascertain 

 any thing like a cori'ect knowledge of what 

 our harvest will be, or the number of colo- 

 nies that will overstock a location. My ad- 

 vice is, don't make any debts expecting to 

 pay them from your future crop of clover, 

 basswood, or buckwheat honey; for if you do 

 there are many chances that you may be 

 badly disappointed. 

 Delanson, N. Y. 



[When we visited Mr. Alexander, two 

 years ago this coming summer, he showed 

 us how the bees were working on golden- 

 rod as well as buckwheat. At that time he 

 stated that the bees were getting as much 

 (if not more) from the goldenrod as from 

 the buckwheat. While his locality has gen- 

 erally been credited with being a great buck- 

 wheat country (and this is true), yet if this 

 were the only source it is doubtful if our 

 correspondent would be able to maintain so 

 maay bees in only one locality. Goldenrod 

 thrives luxuriantly there, and, moreover, 

 the conditions seem to be just such as to 

 make it yield a large amount of nectar. 

 The surrounding counti'y is very hilly and 

 stony. Some of the side-hills, in conse- 

 quence, can not very well be cultivated, and 

 it is these that grow up wild with golden- 

 roil. 



As to the amount of acreage that it takes 

 to support a given number of colonies, if 

 JMr. Alexander's l)ees have a llighL of three 

 or four miles for pasturage, the lowest cal- 

 culation shows that there ai"e 25 colonies to 

 the square mile, taking three miles as a ra- 

 dius, we will say, and 700 colonies as the 

 basis of our figures. But the average bee- 

 range of this size would not have over 200 

 colonies, or seven to the square mile. If the 

 200 were divided up into three outyards, or 

 even two, the available bee-range would be 

 more evenly distributed. — Ed.] 



HOW BEE-KEEPING HAS DEVELOPED. 



Some Siig:gestions to Those who would 

 Make it their Only Business. 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



First, a brief backward glance at the past, 

 a glimpse of the present, then let the eye 

 rest upon the future. 



In the past, almost "every farmer had a 

 small Hock of sheep, two or three cows, a 

 dozen or two hens, raised an acre of Max, 

 made his own cheese and clothing, and, 

 among other things, kept a few hives of Ijees 

 — brimstoning the heaviest and lightest in 

 the fall. Had a man attempted bee-keeping 

 as a specialty, the keeping of one hundred or 



even fifty colonies, he would have been look- 

 ed upon as visionary, wild, almost a lunatic; 

 and, under the existing conditions, it would 

 have been a foolish move. The product 

 would have been in poor shape for transpor- 

 tation or retailing, the fa(^ilities for transpor- 

 tation most meager, and a sufficient number 

 of consumers mostdifficult to find and reach. 



As the years rolled by, population increas- 

 ed wonderfully; railroads, steamboats, and 

 other modes of transportation multiplied; 

 and then came the invention of the movable- 

 comb hive, the honey-extractor, the bee- 

 smoker, comb foundation, and the section 

 honey-box. The product of the apiary was 

 secui'ed in a marketable, transportable shape: 

 there were means of transportation, anil a 

 /market. Men began keeping bees in larger 

 numbers, making a prominent side issue of 

 a business that eventually grew into specialty. 

 Bee journals came upon the field of action; 

 factories for the manufacture of bee-supplies 

 wei'e built, and bee-keeping as a separate 

 rural industry became an established fact. 



But there were many problems to l^e 

 solved. The successful wintering of the l)ees, 

 and the control of inci'ease or swaruiing, 

 were difficult of solution, and bee-keeping as 

 understood and managed in those days was 

 truly an uncertain pursuit — very profital)le 

 if things turned out well, but likely to leave 

 the bee-keeper, some fine spring morning, 

 with only empty hives and combs. It is no 

 wonder that the advice was to combine bee- 

 keeping with some other pursuit. Gradually 

 the difficulties were overcome. Foul brood 

 could be banished from an apiary or from a 

 neighborhood; swarming could be prevented 

 or forestalled, and the proper food, temper- 

 ature, ventilation, etc., brought the bees safe- 

 ly through long severe winters. That bee- 

 keeping might be depended upon as a sole 

 business was proveil by the success of such 

 men as Crane, Hetherington. Coggshall. Ell- 

 wood, Holtermanu, Miller, Townsend, Cov- 

 erdale, Aikin, Gill, Mclntyre, Mendleson, 

 and many others equally successful but not 

 so widely known. 



This is an age of specialty, and bee-keep- 

 ing is no exception to the rule. One farmer 

 is a stock-grower; another raises potatoes, 

 as did Mr. Terry; another, great fields of 

 cabbages; another, fruits, etc., and, instead 

 of keeping a few bees, they buy their honey 

 of the man who makes a specialty of its pro- 

 duction, he in turn buying his meat, milk, 

 and potatoes. Many who are now keeping 

 bees in connection with some other pursuit 

 are asking themselves and others if they 

 shall drop this other pursuit and make a sole 

 business of bee-keeping. To such I wimld 

 say that never tvere the ])rospccts brigliter for 

 making a success oj bee-keeping as a sole bus- 

 iness. 



One feature that I have not touched upon, 

 and it is most important, is the continually 

 increasing demand for honey. Its use for 

 manufacturing purposes, especially by the 

 great baking i-ompanies throughout the coun- 

 ti'y, has done more to put commercial bee- 

 keeping upon a sound basis than many of 



