540 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



Colony 5 44 lbs. 12 oz 



Table No. 4. 



Net gain per colony. 



Net weight of evaporated and inverted sugai 

 syrup which was stored during the period: 

 Colony 1 li 



Colony 2 



Colony 3 1 5 lbs. 5 oz 



Colony 1 i : lbs. 9 oz 



Colony f> 



Table No. 5 



Number of pounds of honey for mainte- 

 nance added to the gain in weight Thai is, 

 net gain plus 3 pounds 3 oui 



Total weight of st< plus the 



amount used by the colony during the twenty 

 five days: 

 Colony 1 . 21 lbs. 



Colony 2 '.' 2 lbs. 5 oz 



Colony 3 is lbs. S oz 



Colony 4 ... 20 lbs. 12 oz 



Colony 5 19 lbs, 14 oz 



Table No. 6. 



Number of pounds of dry sugar fed in the 

 form of syrup: 



Colony 1 2:; lbs. 7 3-7 oz. 



Colony 2 23 lbs, T 3-7 oz. 



Colony 3 20 lbs. 14 1-4 oz. 



Colony 4 23 lbs. 7 3-7 oz. 



Colony f, 23 lbs 



Table No. 7. 



Number of pounds dry sugar equivalent 

 stored in combs and used by colony, consider- 

 ing the difference in consistency of syrup at 

 the time of feeding and after the syrup was 

 stored: 



Colony 1 17 lbs. 5 oz 



Colony 2 17 lbs. 13 3-5 oz 



Colony 8 14 lbs. 12 4-5 oz 



Colony 4 16 lbs. 9 3-5 oz 



Colony 5 15 lbs. 14 2-5 oz 



Table No. 8. 



Number of combs built fully out during 

 feeding period from the foundation furnished: 



Colony 1 6 



Colony 2 7 



Colony 3 i 



Colony 4 5^< 



Colony 5 7 



Table No. 9. 



Number of pounds of sugar required to pro- 

 duce one pound of wax : 



Colony 1 10 lbs. 7 oz. 



Colony 2 12 lbs. 14 oz. 



Colony 3 16 lbs. 4 oz. 



Colony 4 20 lbs. 



Colony 5 17 lbs. 5 oz. 



Average Ml lbs. 9 oz. 



From table No. 1 you will notice 

 that the initial weights of tin- (shi- 

 nies after shaking upon foundation 



vary greatly. This variation is due 

 to the different sizes of hives, in- 

 stt id of the difference in number of 

 bees. 



ario, Iowa. 



A Valuable Pest— To Beemen 



By C. D. Stuart 



II T S the Yellow Star or Russian 

 Thistle a menace to Northern 

 California ?" 



To decide the question, farmers 

 from Butte, Tehama, Glenn and sur- 

 rounding counties held a meeting 

 December 2, 1916. The solemnity of 

 the session presaged an affirmative 

 answer, only a single dissenting 

 voice being heard — the humble pro- 

 test of some beeman, perhaps : but 

 his identity is not revealed by official 

 records of the proceedings. 



Declared a pest and a menace, this 

 nectar-secreting plant was con- 

 demned to death by fire, by water, 

 by forceful removal from the soil 

 and by burial. But at the end of the 

 meeting in the late afternoon, the 

 thistle still flourished, and to this 

 day is obeying the ancient injunction 

 to increase and multiply its kind, to 

 the secret satisfaction of apiarists. 



According to the report, the Cen- 

 solstitialis, or yellow star 

 thistle, was discovered in Northern 

 California about twenty-five years 

 ago, only an occasional bunch grow- 

 ing at that time along a short-cut 

 road through a hay field. About the 

 same date other small plants were 

 imported from Russia. (The report 

 does not say for what purpose, or if 

 they were brought in by accident.) 

 One of the farmers at the meeting 

 said: "It looks something like the 

 saffron we had back east;" but later 

 he concluded that it was "some kind 

 of a weed." and paid no further at- 

 tention to it. 





In a few years the thistle had 

 spread, and it became increasingly 

 difficult to run a mowing machine 

 through the "nail-heads," as one man 

 called them. From the level grain 

 land it spread to the foothills thirty 

 miles away, and still further, the seed 

 being carried by birds, in the wool of 

 sheep and in the winds and rain. The 

 overflowed land suffers the most. 

 The seeds are carried down to it by 

 the rivers, and in these rich soils the 

 thistle often grows to a height of 6 

 or 8 feet and forms an impenetrable 

 jungle. 



The ordinary hoeing method of 

 eradication was reported to be in- 

 effectual, as the "root is a very de- 

 termined root," and the thistle will 

 adapt itself to the land — that is, lie 

 on the ground like a burr clover and 

 blossom and seed itself there. It can 

 be plowed under periodically until it 

 will finally disappear in highly cul- 

 tivated fruit orchards, but it still re- 

 tains its hold in fence corners and 

 along the roadsides. One orchardist 

 reported that he had removed all of 

 his fencing in order to plow the this- 

 tle under, but it was only a tempor- 

 ary relief, as it still flourished in un- 

 tilled fields and rocky foothills; oth- 

 ers, that it had no effect on crops, as 

 its growth is now confined to out-of- 

 the-way places. A wool grower dis- 

 covered that a herd of sheep will 

 stamp out the thistle. They crop it 

 down as fast as the tender shoots 

 appear, so that it is not allowed to 

 become hard and unfit for fodder, or 

 to go to seed. 



But all who own farms in Northern 

 California are not wool growers, es- 

 pecially on land that is adapted to 

 nuts and fruit. 



And so the fight is on, and like 

 other kinds of warfare, had its in- 

 ception in money-making projects. 

 A man of large holdings naturally 

 opposes the eradication of thistle 

 through individual effort, because it 

 "would cost more than the land is 

 worth." On the other hand, a man of 

 small, intensively-cultivated holdings 

 would be able to control the pest on 

 his own land were it not foV the 

 seeds constantly supplied from the 

 neglected fields of some absentee 

 landlord. But all agree that it is go- 

 ing to be a man's job totally to eradi- 

 cate the thistle, the large land-owner 

 naturally advocating State appropri- 

 ations to check its inroads; the small 

 land owner objecting to such pater- 

 nalism because of the increased tax- 

 ation to those who are already cop- 

 ing more or less successfully with 

 the situation. 



Meanwhile, from one-half to three- 

 fourths of Butte county's honey crop, 

 averaging about 60 tons, is gathered 

 from this pest, now said to be grow- 

 ing on two-thirds of the county's 

 area. Should the thistle continue to 

 spread, in spite of legislative appro 

 priations, in defiance of the State 

 University and of the Horticultural 

 Commission, to say nothing of exist 

 ing laws. Northern California will 

 be compelled to "eat honey" or 

 starve. There will be little else to 

 eat, if the pro-eradication faction is 

 to be taken seriously. 



