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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



ing up the high prices obtained by English bee-keep- 

 ers for their honey; and this tends to whet the endeav- 

 ors of the bee-keepers abroad to scoop in some of the 

 " almighty dollars " by sending their produce to com- 

 pete with ours. As regards the consumption of hon- 

 ey. I feel sure a much larger quantity is disposed of 

 than a few years ago, as the growth of the industry 

 must be steadily progressing. The hive-makers of 

 ten years or more ago are still offering hives for sale, 

 and have, no doubt, collectively turned out thousands 

 yearly; and our advertising columns record that sec- 

 tions are imported by the million yearly. There is 

 only one class of honey-producers who can compla- 

 cently view these advances, and they are the heather- 

 honey men who live " ayont the Tweed." May they 

 have a record output at 2s. to 2s. &d. per pound (48 to 

 60 cts ) in the coming summer.— W. Woodley. 

 Beedon, Newbury. 



Our readers will remember we said noth- 

 ing relative to exporting honey to England. 

 On the contrary, we stated our opinion that 

 American consumers were quite as well able 

 to pay good pi'ices as Englishmen, to say the 

 least, and we believe there is very little 

 American honey now exported to the Eng- 

 lish market. A good deal of the honey that 

 the writer of the note complains of comes 

 from British colonies where the "almighty" 

 dollar is the standard of value — notaialy in 

 the West Indies and Canada. We maintain 

 that the population of this country, which is 

 about 85,000,000, can consume all the honey 

 we produce and considerably more. 



Another fact which prevents us for the 

 present from exporting honey in any quanti- 

 ty is the low price offered by English buy- 

 ers, who bottle the honey and expect to 

 make a large profit on the transaction— and 

 they do, according to Mr. Woodley's own 

 showing. It is the bottler who is after the 

 dollars — or shillings. We do not covet the 

 English market, but its prices. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT S POLICY OF CREAT- 

 ING FOREST RESERVES. 



Some of our Western contemporaries are 

 making severe comments on President Roose- 

 velt's policy of creating great forest reserves, 

 claiming there is very little timber on these 

 lands. The government is probably aware 

 of this, but trees can be planted on them, 

 and that is probably what will be done later 

 on when we get round to it. No other agen- 

 cy could do this better than the federal gov- 

 ernment, as work of this kind lasts for 

 centuries, and hence can not be delegated to 

 private enterprise. 



No greater calamity could befall this coun- 

 try than to cut down all its foi'ests; but this 

 is precisely what is being done; and without 

 planting on a vast scale we are measurably 

 near the time when there will be no timber 

 available except at prices which would be 

 prohibitive of competition with other nations 

 who manufactui'e wooden goods. 



There is another side to the question; for 

 it is probable, if these forest reserves are kept 

 as great game preserves, the money gain 

 would be greater than the present plan of 

 cutting off the trees and using them as pas- 

 tures. 



So far as we can see, the Rocky Mountain 

 States are anxious to pursue the same sui- 

 cidal poli(;y which characterized the Central 

 States. We are sure some of the reserves. 



if properly planted, would become grand 

 places for bee-keeping, and this ought not 

 to be overlooked in the reckoning-up. Men 

 will have to be engaged to care for the for- 

 est, others to cut the timber, others to use 

 the wood in factories; tourists and hunters 

 will be attracted to the locality, and in the 

 end a large population will be maintained. 



The pe<»ple of the East, who have seen the 

 folly of indiscriminate timber-cuttmg, are 

 willing to vote public money to support the 

 President's policy, and we judge bee-keep- 

 ex's are with him. Bee-men have a dou- 

 ble interest in this problem, because they 

 want to see a bee flora created and a supply 

 of timber maintained for all time. We can 

 join hands with the foresters, saw-millers, 

 huntei's, tourists, and anglers to prevent the 

 further despoliation of the national domain. 

 Maine is succesfully pursuing the policy just 

 recommended, and Ontario is practically do- 

 ing the same, so also New York. The same 

 criticisms have been leveled at the work in 

 these three sections, but we hear little of it 

 now. 



DESTRUCTION OF BEES BY SMELTER SMOKE; 

 A SETTLEMENT WITH THE SMELTERS BY 

 WHICH THE SUFFERING BEE-KEEP- 

 ERS WERK AWARDED $60,000 

 DAMAGES. 



On both of our trips through the arid re- 

 gions of the great West some years ago, 

 studying up the bee question, we observed 

 that those bee-yards that were in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the big smelters were seri- 

 ously damaged. The highly poisonous gases 

 that permeated the atmosphere seemed to 

 kill vegetation, especially all plant life that 

 furnished honey, and at the same time mak- 

 ing serious inroads on the lives of the bees 

 themselves. In fact, all vegetation for miles 

 around was badly iDlighted by the noxious 

 gases. The damage was seriously discussed 

 by bee-keepers, and it was evident at that 

 time that either the smelters would have to 

 move or else the bee-keepers. 



As we understood the question, the bee-own- 

 ers had the right of priority occupation of the 

 territory; and in the early days, before these 

 big works moved into the territory, bee- 

 keeping there was a very lucrative business. 



The question has been discussed pro and 

 con tnrough all these years; and sometimes 

 it was thought that the aid of the courts 

 would have to be invoked; but it appears 

 that both sides (and wisely, too, as we think) 

 resorted to a friendly arbitration, with the 

 result as recorded in the heading. While 

 apparently, at least, the alleged sum is a 

 large one, it is a comparatively small part of 

 the damage that has been done. 



We are personally acquainted with Mr. E. 

 S. Lovesy. one who has suffered in this way, 

 and we remember him as a man of sterling 

 qualities — certainly not one who would be 

 inclined to misrepresent or exaggerate the 

 actual damage. 



He has written an article on the general 

 subject for the Deseret Farmer, which we 

 are pleased to publish in full, as it is of more 



