Coloraao's lioney-Producing Industry. 



By D. W. Working. 



DHE honey-bee is not the smallest animal that works for 

 man, though it is the smallest which can be said to be 

 truly domesticated and to work under direct personal 



management. It is the only domesticated insect. And 



what a ^vonderful worker the honey-bee is! The "honey-bee" is 

 proverbial, and is useful in more ways than one — is more than a 

 maker of the choicest of sweets. 



It is an old story that red clover seed could not be raised in 

 Australia till bumble-bees were imported to aid in the fertilization 

 of the blossoms. It is not so well understood that in Colorado we 

 could not raise alfalfa seed without the help of the honey-bee. And 

 comparatively few of our fruit-growers realize 

 the importance of the work of the bees in fer- 

 tilizing their fruit blossoms. " Be sure," writes 

 M. B. Waite in the concluding paragraph of 

 an article in the Year Book of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture for J 898, 

 "that there are sufficient bees in the neighbor- 

 hood, or at least within two or three miles, to 

 properly fertilize the blossoms. When possible, 

 endeavor to favor the bees by selecting shel- 

 tered situations for the orchard or by planting 

 wind-breaks." And Mr. Waite was not writ- 

 ing as a bee-keeper, but from the standpoint of 

 the fruit-grower. 



So the reader is reminded — bluntly enough, 

 it may seem — that the money value of the 

 honey-bee to Colorado is not measured by the 

 market price of the honey and beeswax pro- 

 duced. Every orchard is debtor to the honey- 

 bee; every berry patch and flower garden 

 owes him something. The alfalfa fields, with 

 their purple blooms that yield the nectar for 

 the best and sweetest and whitest honey, get as much as they give. 

 Wherever he goes, the bee pays his way if given an honest bee's fair 

 chance. No loafer or shirk is he, but a worker of the workers. 

 Though he gives due respect to his queen, he is no sycophant at the 



MISS SUSIE R. COOK, Littleton. 



A Member of the J^eception 



Committee. 



