76 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' RE'^ZE 



la Europe are seen the same wonderful 

 changes. Beautiful lakes, 300 years ago, 

 are now meadows and arable land, and ttie 

 waterfall has diminished. 



The Icelanders assert that their country 

 was much warmer 1,000 years ago than it is 

 now. 



Among the petrifactions and fossil re 

 mains of the far North is everything to show 

 that the brightness and beauty of Elen were 

 OQce there, but those days are buried deeply 

 in the ever-growing past. 



The water of the earth is disappearing, 

 and the burning-up process is slowly but 

 surely under way, thus looking forward to a 

 time when all life shall retire from the plan- 

 et. It is my candid opinion that the fire 

 of drought is what will work the terrible 

 changes of the future." 



I believe that all things of organized mat- 

 ter have a beginning and an end. Childhood, 

 middle age, old age, and dissolution follow 

 one another. There is reason to believe 

 that our planet has passed its season of 

 growth and is in the stage of decline. I be- 

 lieve this globe has existed for millions of 

 years and will endure for millions more. I 

 believe that most of the theories in the bible 

 and in the traditions of even savage people 

 have some foundation in fact and are the 

 faint glimmering of great truths. I suspect 

 that the earth is not going to be consumed 

 but is now being slowly consumed : honey, 

 then, will not be more plentiful in the future 

 than in the past. It will be less easily pro- 

 duced than in past ages. The same with all 

 kind of grains, fruits and vegetables used 

 for the support of animal life. The only 

 thing we have to offset these continually in- 

 creasing unfavorable conditions is the in- 

 creasing skill of man in productive power. 

 Soloman says the "Wise man forseeth the 

 the evil and avoideth it." The successful 

 honey producer of the future, then, will 

 have to depend more and more upon mind- 

 giving, intelligent managment. I notice 

 that the rainfall in the newer northern set- 

 tlements in Minnesota is greater than in the 

 older parts. I know from reports that bet- 

 ter honey crops prevail in the damper re- 

 gions. I also know that more surplus was 

 secured near the small lakes in the southern 

 and central parts of our State. Now, friends, 

 do not let the rather gloomy forcaste of 

 this article discourage you. Everything is 

 good that helps us to discover truth. The 

 difficulties, natural, social and industrial, 

 that now confront, not only honey produ- 

 cers, but all producers, are very great, and 

 I have written this article expressly to help 

 us to forsee the evils and avoid them. In 



this article I has^e dealt with natural forces 

 that effect honey production, in the next I 

 will treat of price as a future factor in the 

 apiarist's battle for bread and raiment. 

 FoBESTviLLE, Minn. Jan. 2.'), 1896. 



[ I know that astronomers tell us that 

 planets havi; their birth, and" rise flourish 

 and decay " the same as all things else. We 

 are told that the moon is now a "dead" 

 planet, with no water upon its surface, and 

 that the time will sometime come when the 

 earth will reach the same state. All this is 

 so far in the dim and misty future that we 

 need not worry ourselves about it. While I 

 am not in a position to prove whether the 

 supply of water is becoming less, I know 

 there is a great sufficiency at present, the 

 only trouble being in the uneven distribu- 

 tion, and for this I think man is partly to 

 blame. The change from good to poor 

 seasons, however, has been too sudden to be 

 accounted for on the ground that the water 

 of the earth is " soaking in. " That drouth, 

 not only at the time of bloom, but perhaps 

 months previous, has played havoc with our 

 honey yiel Is is, in all probability, true, but 

 there is yet water enough, the trouble is its 

 unequal distribution. The cutting away of 

 forests and the construction of drains, have 

 been blamed for this state of affairs, and 

 probibly have increased the frequency of 

 drouths, but I doubt if any one knows just 

 ?{;/('/ drouth comes to a certain locality one 

 sea=(on and not the next. Irrigation would 

 he a remedy, but is too expensive to use for 

 raising honey alone. I have hopes that me- 

 teorological changes will again bring good 

 yields of honey to those localities possessing 

 the necessary honey plants — Ed ] 



Notes From Foreign Bee Journals. 



F. L. THOMPSON. 



The Bee-Keepers' Recobd. — The follow- 

 ing record-breaker proves the Egyptian bee 

 to be either a great advantage or a great 

 nuisance. A correspondent in Egypt 

 counted 208 young queens in one colony 

 hatched at the time of swarming. The 

 old colony contained 200 cells still un- 

 hatched. " I then counted all cells " he says 

 "sealed or vacated, and they actually totted 

 up to more than (lOO ! ! In view of this nice 

 condition of things, I considered it about 

 time to look at the other hives ; but after 



