33 
Winter Work for Fruit Growers 
The opinion many farmers have of the 
way fruit growers spend their time during 
the Winter months is really interesting, 
judging from the many things recommend¬ 
ed to keep them employed, some even 
seeming to believe the health of many is 
in danger from lack of exercise. At least 
they must be considered an idle lot during 
part, of the year, according to some things 
printed and written. The fruit growers 
of some sections may be more lucky than 
here in the Hudson Valley. With us, 
however, any man working whenever 
weather will permit, with all available 
competent help (if he has any consider¬ 
able amount of fruit), considers himself 
a lucky man if he is abreast, of his work 
when conditions will allow spraying and 
cultivation to begin. 
I could point out a number of our best 
growers all through this section who have 
not been able to get over their entire 
planting with pruning, Winter protection 
against vermin, etc., any single year in 
the past ten. and as a direct result have 
sometimes sustained more loss in a single 
JShe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Sometimes bees are lost in Winter be¬ 
cause the owners neglect to keep the en¬ 
trance free from ice. No harm is done 
from a covering of snow, even if the hives 
are completely hidden, but if the snow 
begins to melt and then freezes on the en¬ 
trance board, there is danger that the bees 
will be smothered. E. I. fakrington. 
Now 
•nagsiHH 
■Hi FREE 
fM's 
Good Prospects in Bee-keeping 
I find the bee men very confident of 
the future of the market. At a meeting 
of them in Buffalo last month one of 
them said in an address that he was not 
selling any bees, as they were worth more 
than ordinary purchasers were willing to 
pay for them. lie would not look at .$10 
for a hive, and intimated that even $25 
was not too much for what he called a 
“good” hive. As that seemed to be the 
views of all present it behooves all farm¬ 
ers to go to looking after their bees. It 
was held that high-grade extracted honey 
ought to sell at 30 cents a pound to the 
raiser. Much stress was placed on a 
package that looked well. One speaker 
at 00 per cent on appearance anyway. 
yV s 
mam 
dr 
£ 
A Straw Carpet to Protect the Bees 
Winter than could be made up by keeping 
stock or doing other work as a side line 
in five. 
If one were to start out any day in 
Spring and ask every fruit grower through 
our section if he has started his spraying, 
or some other job that should essentially 
be done just then, and about nine times 
out of ten you will get an answer some¬ 
thing like this: “No. I am not quite 
ready yet. I don’t know just why, either. 
We have been at it every minute it. was 
fit to be out (and let me say right here 
they generally think it fit to be out when 
many would not), but somehow we are 
not quite ready. We must sure get at it. 
however, tomorrow or next day.” 
We have certainly had the most favor¬ 
able Fall for work I have ever known ; 
plowing December 23 and 24, yet in my 
own case, when asked a few days ago if 
pretty well caught up. my answer was: 
“If the good weather would hold yet for a 
couple of months I believe I would be in 
pretty good shape for AY inter, and no 
trouble to find others who feel the same 
way. 
The truth is our fruit growers through 
this section are not Winter feeding stock 
or taking up other side lines for Winter 
occupation, simply because with the help 
available they are not able to do what 
ought to be done in connection with their 
business of fruit growing. 
Columbia Co.. N. Y. wm. hotat.ing. 
at 90 per cent on appearance, any way. ! 
lie reported having paid 12 cents for an 
ounce of honey at a restaurant in Buffalo 
that day. 
Farmers find it hard to give the time 
to their bees that is needed to make them 
do anything. A farmer friend of mine 
has a number of colonies and used to get 
money out of them when he looked after 
them, but now, with so little help, he 
lets them take care of themselves and 
gets next to nothing out of them. He 
has a theory that they help the garden, 
where he keeps them. The family is fond 
of red peppers, and the plants are ob¬ 
tained from a raiser of them in a village 
some miles away. The raiser has no bees 
and gets few or no peppers, but. the 
farmer with bees raises immense crops of 
them every year. 1 planted some lately 
in a city garden, where bees are hardly 
known, and I got no crop whatever. 
Someone ought to work out the problem 
of bees fertilizing this or that crop, as 
the clover bumble-bee problem has been 
solved, and let us know what crops are 
especially benefited by honey-bees. 
Buffalo, N. Y. J. w. c. 
When Bees Fly in Winter 
It often happens that many bees are 
lost in the late Winter as a result of be¬ 
ing chilled when they take a cleansing 
[light on a warm day. If the bees alight 
on the snow, as scores of them are sure 
to do, they will quickly become torpid 
and never get back to their hives. This 
loss can be prevented to a large extent by 
covering the snow in trout of the hives 
with a thin layer of straw, hay or litter 
from the henhouse. If this covering ex¬ 
tends 10 feet in front of the hives, enough 
space will be covered. The bees alighting 
on this material will escape being chilled 
and will fly again. It is usually the mid¬ 
dle of January or the first of February 
before this plau need be put into use. 
After that time the bees are sure to come 
out in great numbers whenever the weath¬ 
er gets warm. 
SVlake it 
a Victory Harvest 
With the coining of Victory American farmers must p ro- TjtHal l 
duce the biggest crops ever and big crops mean many 
extra dollars in profit for the grower. He will get high _____ 
prices and help will be plentiful. There must be no Slacker afcf■ *.* 71~ 
Acres,” no crop failure, if human effort can prevent it. 
As They Gra 
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DREERS1919 
GARDEN BOOK 
I S AN encyclopedia of all things pertain¬ 
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garden tools. Four splendid color plates 
reproducing some of Drccr’s specialties in veg¬ 
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HENRY A. DREER 
714-716 Chestnut St. 
Philadelphia. Pa. 
A LFALFA 
Ada We specialize in be 
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Feeds and Feeding, by Henry.$2.50 
Manual of Milk Products, by Stock¬ 
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Milk Testing, by Publow.00 
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SWEET 
CLOVER 
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GUIDE 
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