1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1071 



McNeil is well posted on the law of bees, 

 and is evidently in touch with the Manager 

 of the National. 



The board of health ought to read up on 

 the Arkadelphia, Ark., and Rochester, N. Y., 

 cases, where the authorities of these places 

 tried to have bee-keeping declared a public 

 nuisance. They were promptly squelched 

 in the courts. Cases of this sort show the 

 necessity of bee-keepers being banded to- 

 gether for mutual defensive purposes. 



Later. — The case has been dropped. 



GOLDENS FOR HARDINESS. 



Since our editorial on p. 889, July 1, re- 

 garding the lack of hardiness in some strains 

 of extra-yellow bees we have received sever- 

 al letters- from breeders of these strains, to- 

 gether with letters from their customers, to 

 the effect that these bees are not lacking in 

 hardiness. One writer from Kansas City, 

 Mo., in speaking of a queen of the Swarth- 

 more sti'ain, cites the fact that the colony 

 with this queen produced 15G lbs. of fancy 

 comb honey, selling at 25 cts. per lb. Fur- 

 thermore, there was no swarming from this 

 hive, and they wintered perfectly. We be- 

 lieve the wintering problem in the latitude 

 of Kansas City would be a much less difficult 

 one than it would be further north. 



Of course, in the North, or elsewhere, 

 where one is looking more for color than 

 for other desirable qualities, there will al- 

 ways be a considerable demand for them on 

 this account. We have no intention of de- 

 crying their value, for there will always be 

 more or less demand for them in the North, 

 and in the South we think that, in many in 

 instances, they will be equal if not supe- 

 rior to the ordinary three-banded stock; 

 but in view of the reports of a number of 

 lai'ge reputable bee-keepers of their large 

 winter losses of these bees as compared 

 with the three-banded Italian, Carniolan, 

 and Caucasians, under similar conditions, 

 we felt that the publication of these reports 

 was due our readers. It is the duty of this 

 journal to state the facts, cut where it will. 



THE USE OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS; BEE- 

 KEEPERS' RIGHTS AS TO OVERSTOCKING 

 PROTECTED. 



We have just received a copy of a book is- 

 sued by the Forest Service at Washington 

 bearing the above title. It is quite dift'erent 

 from the "Use Book" issued by the same 

 authorities. This one is intended for popu- 

 lar use and to a great extent answers the 

 criticisms which have been hurled at the 

 Forest Service of the United States govern- 

 ment. 



From this book we glean the important 

 fact that the area of the forest reserves in 

 United States, Alaska, and Porto Rico, is al- 

 most 150,000,000 acres, which is large enough 

 to be considered an empire. 



An idea has gone abroad that forest reserves 

 are closed to private enterprise. This is not 

 the case, however. On the contrary, cattle 

 and sheep ranching, mining, hunting, and 



bee-keeping go on just the same as on the 

 public range, except thei'e is a certain 

 amount of government regulation to pi'otect 

 the timber from thieves and forest fires. 

 Land suitable for agriculture may be home- 

 steaded. Mining may go onason the range. 

 Timber for Imilding a nouse is allowed all 

 settlers, and firewood is free to all. Lum- 

 bering can be done only after a contract has 

 been made, and always under government 

 supei'vision. The timber is handled in such 

 a manner that cutting never ends. Ranch- 

 ing is allowed as usual, but the number of 

 cattle or sheep is limited to the number the 

 land will support, and measures will be 

 taken to increase the pasturage. The cattle- 

 men are expected to pay a fee for this ser- 

 vice, and they are glad to agree to this, as 

 they get protection and a good range for 

 their animals. There can be no cattle-men's 

 and sheep-herdei's' wars on a forest reserve. 



Where the matter vitally interests a bee- 

 keeper is in the I'egulations for the preven- 

 tion of overstocking. In doing this the 

 government does the bee-keeping interests a 

 great service. And it may go further, if the 

 bee-keepers ask for it, and much of the land 

 may be seeded down with honey-plants 

 such as alfilarela, sweet clover, white clover, 

 and similar pasture plants. 



By careful attention to this detail the For- 

 est Service can do a very important work for 

 the benefit of the bee-keepers of the West, 

 and no doubt it will do so when the oppor- 

 tunity offers. The forest-reserve area is as 

 follows (in acres): Arizona, 9,463,725; Cal- 

 ifornia, 21,849,171; Colorado, 15,748,772; Ida- 

 ho, 20,336,427; Kansas, 97,280; Montana, 20,- 

 528,263; Nebraska, 556,072; Nevada, 1,391,- 

 999; New Mexico, 7.007,644; Oklahoma, 60,- 

 800; Oregon, 16,463,535; South Dakota, 1,- 

 263,720; Utah, 7,119,472; Washington, 12,- 

 065,500; Wyoming, 9,020,475. Total area re- 

 served, 142.972,855. Alaska and Porto Rico 

 also have reserves. 



IRRIGATION FARMING AND NEW ALFALFA- 

 FIELDS FOR BEE KEEPERS. 



As some of our readers are interested in 

 the above subject we revert to it again to 

 avoid being misunderstood. Gleanings has 

 already dwelt briefly on the reclamation 

 projects in course of construction by the 

 United States government under the direc- 

 tion of the Secretary of the Interior, who 

 will furnish particulars of any project. See 

 Gleanings for May 15, p. 690. There are 

 projects equally desirable, constructed under 

 the Carey Act, passed by the national Con- 

 gress. In this case a charge of 50 cents per 

 acre is made by the government, and the 

 cost of the irrigation works is added on to 

 this. The canal and dams are constructed 

 by a corporation which is responsible to the 

 State, and which must sell watei'-rights at a 

 price fixed by the Governor of the State, who 

 has full powers in the matter. The mainte- 

 nance of the iri'igation-plant is borne l)y the 

 settlers in cooperation. The conditions are, 

 therefore, almost the same as in the case of 

 the United States reclamation projects. The 



