316 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



corn the heartsease formerly grew and gave 

 us our fall crop. Now the almost universal 

 custom of fall plowing destroys the hearts- 

 ease in the stubble, and a better cultivation 

 keeps it out of the corn fields. The old rail 

 fences, with their corners filled, often with 

 honey bearing plants, have disappeared. 

 The wire fence which has taken its place 

 readily allows the weeds of the highway to 

 enter the field, hence the highway must be 

 kept free from weeds. 



Swamps and low places have been drained 

 and almost the last remnant of the indige- 

 nous honey plants swept away. 



To offset this increasing tendency we can 

 only try to induce the farmer to raise some- 

 thing that will produce honey. The princi- 

 pal crops that seem adapted to this purpose 

 are alfalfa, alsike and buckwheat. Alfalfa 

 is at present confined to a few of the western 

 states, though some authorities claim that it 

 may be made profitable over at least a third 

 of the U. S. Those who have tried it in this 

 locality have invariably met with complete 

 failure. Alsike and buckwheat are profit- 

 able in some localities but not in all. They 

 do not seem to be here. I have never cared 

 to have buckwheat planted in my neighbor- 

 hood, because whenever buckwheat yields 

 honey, heartsease, belonging to the same 

 family, yields honey in greater abundance 

 and of better quality. The most we can do 

 in regard to such crops is to see that they 

 have a fair trial in the neighborhood. It 

 will not pay to offer inducements for their 

 cultivation, and even the farmer bee keeper 

 will not be justified in raising a crop that is 

 not profitable aside from the honey that may 

 be obtained from it. 



Well, what are we going to do about it ? 

 I do not believe that bee keeping has ceased 

 to be profitable except in some localities, 

 though I do believe that it must be less 

 profitable than in the past. I think that it 

 is only by specialism that the most may be 

 made of it, and yet I could not advise a poor 

 man to undertake the business of Ijee keej)- 

 ing as a speciality unless he has a thorough 

 knowledge of the Ijusiness and is the owner 

 of an apiary in first class shape. Perhaps 

 you will say if he has these he ought not to 

 be called poor, but unless he has something 

 more than these to fall back on it would not 

 V>e wise for him to start in bee keeping as a 

 specialty. 



Much may be done to avoid poor seasons 

 by a careful selection of locality. Every 



season impresses on me more strongly the 

 great difference there is in localities. One 

 locality may be unprofitable and another 

 only a few miles away a very good one. 

 This variation is true as to both quantity 

 and quality of honey. In one of my apiaries 

 the average was thirty pounds of extracted 

 honey to the colony, two-thirds of which 

 was light colored honey, mostly from sweet 

 clover. In another nine miles away only 

 five pounds of comb honey per colony was 

 secured, and this nearly all honey dew, of 

 the darkest and rankest description — much 

 woi-se than the honey dew gathered in the 

 other apiaries. At the home apiary, midway 

 between these the results were a medium 

 between the two. It did not seem to me 

 that a pound of surplus was gathered from 

 white clover in any of these apiaries. Less 

 than fifteen miles from any of them there 

 was a fair yield of white honey, largely 

 from white clover, and with little or no 

 honey dew. 



By a system of out-apiaries located as far 

 as may be under varying conditions of envi- 

 ronment, much may be done to guard against 

 the effects of the poor seasons, and if these 

 apiaries are capable of being easily trans- 

 ported to other localities where the condi- 

 tions may be more favorable, the apiarist 

 is prepared to do all that may be done in 

 the way of securing a honey crop. If he gets 

 but a small amount of honey then let him 

 bend all his energies to making the most of 

 it. Let him put his honey into the most 

 salable condition possible and let him de- 

 velop evei'y home market to the fullest pos- 

 sible extent. He will have time to do this 

 now, and the market so developed will stay 

 by him and will be valuable when the time 

 comes that he has more honey to sell. Let 

 him buy from others so as to hold every bit 

 of this market, at the same time getting 

 fair returns for the time and money so in- 

 vested. 



Although there may not l)e any immediate 

 returns from it, the apiarist may use a poor 

 season very profitably in getting his apiary 

 in the best possible condition to secure honey 

 when it does come. Let him remodel or 

 throw out all defective appliances or imple- 

 ments, melt up or otherwise dispose of all 

 crooked or drone combs, Italianize his apiary, 

 replace all poor queens, and do many other 

 things which he may not have time or oppor- 

 tunity to do when honey is more abundant. 



