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148 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



"While the demonstration was in 

 progress many questions were asked, 

 during- which Mr. Root explained that, 

 after the bees have been thoroughly- 

 subdued by the pan-shaking method 

 they may be united with other bees; 

 and that, if queenless, a queen could 

 be introduced to them without diffi- 

 culty. In fact, he explained that this 

 method of getting bees under control 

 could be used in practical work in the 

 yard, many times, to great advantage. 



The president then called upon Prof. 

 E. F. Phillips of the Agricultural Bu- 

 reau, Washington, D. C, who gave 

 an address*" on "Bee-Keeping in Ha- 

 waii." 



This paper was also to have been 



illustrated with stereopticon views, but 



owing to the reason previously men- 



' tioned, the views were not given until 



Wednesday evening. 



Prof. Phillips' address is as follows: 



BEE-KEEPING IN HAWAII. 



Bee-Keeping on the Hawaiian 

 Islands is one of the minor industries, 

 which is being conducted with profit. 

 As in all other places, this business 

 can never become a leading industry 

 from its very nature, but there is rea- 

 son to believe that there is yet room 

 for considerable expansion. The modi- 

 fied methods made necessary by a 

 tropical climate and other conditions 

 of a local character, present some new 

 phases of the keeping of bees, and, 

 in view of the fact that these modifica- 

 tions will be of interest to bee keepers 

 on the mainland, as well as to those in 

 Hawaii, it may not be out of place to 

 give a brief account of what I was 

 able to observe personally and to 

 learn from others in the four weeks 

 spent on the islands in making an api- 

 cultural survey. ' 



The bee keepers of Hawaii were or- 

 ganized into an active and efficient as- 

 sociation about two years ago. By 

 united effort this organization has ac- 

 complished much that is of great value 

 to the industry. When the question 

 of marketing their honey under the 

 regulations of the Food and Drug Act 

 o'f 1906 arose, they sent a representa- 

 tive to Washington to present their 

 case. In this and many other ways 

 the bee men have shown themselves 

 to be alert and progressive in looking 

 after their best interests. 



Methods of Management. 



At the present time bee-keeping is 

 largely in the hands of four corpora- 

 tions, they owning and operating at 

 least four-flfths of all the bees on the 

 islands. These companies are all man- 

 aged by American citizens, but there 

 are a number of smaller apiaries, some 

 of which are owned by Japanese. The 

 last named apiaries are usually not so 

 well kept nor are they so productive. 

 The total number of colonies at present 

 is probably about fifteen thousand, and 

 the annual output of honey, which is 

 mostly shipped to the mainland or to 

 Europe, is probably about nine hundred 

 tons. The keeping of bees by corpora- 

 tions, as opposed to individual owner- 

 ship, is something which is rarely ob- 

 served elsewhere. Being located a con- 

 siderable distance from the market and 

 the expense of supplies and shipping 

 being high, it has seemed desirable to 

 the bee-keepers to organize companies 

 so that they can make large shipments. 

 There is also on the Hawaiian Islands 

 a tendency, to a marked degree, to in- 

 corporate all industries, and doubtless 

 this common method of conducting 

 business has induced the bee keepers to 

 adopt it. With this system it is possi- 

 ble for one skilled manager to, oversee 

 the manipulation of several thousand 

 colonies, the actual manipulation being 

 done in most cases by the Japanese 

 helpers; in this way the cost of main- 

 tenance of the apiaries is reduced very 

 considerably. Since the price obtained 

 'for Hawaiian honey is still rather low, 

 it is, of course, necessary to reduce ex- 

 pense in every way possible. 



The buying of "bee rights," as it is 

 practiced in Hawaii, is something prac- 

 tically unheard of elsewhere, and would 

 certainly appear to a mainland bee 

 keeper as a new and strange procedure. 

 The nearest approach to it is the rent- 

 ing of locations for outyards, which 

 pan usually not insure no competition. 

 This would not be possible were it not 

 for the fact that most of the available- 

 agricultural land on the islands is held 

 in large tracts, mostly as sugar cane 

 plantations and ranches. Arrangements 

 -are made with the manager of a planta- 

 tion for locations for apiaries and the 

 bee-keeper agrees to pay a certain 

 amount for the use of the land and for 

 the honey removed from these apiaries. 

 Frequently this is in the form of an 

 agreement to pay a certain sum for 

 each ton of honey removed from the 

 plantation, but at times it is a fixed 



