Part 3

It is often difficult for the beekeeper to know whether his bee cellar is giving the best results, for he may not have been able to determine from reading or the observation of other cellars whether it is satisfactory. The writers, therefore, have attempted below to give a few measures which the beekeeper may apply to his apiary and his cellar, so that he may be able to decide whether his methods of cellar wintering should be improved.

(1) During the winter a thermometer inserted in the entrance of the hive should show a temperature of at least 52° F.

(2) There should never be any condensed moisture on the covers of the hives, and certainly never any on the bottoms.

(3) While, the cellar should be kept dark at all times, if a candle is held at the entrance of a hive at the end of January it should be several seconds before any of the bees break cluster. Frequently the cellar doors may be opened in March without disturbing the bees.

(4) There should never be many dead bees on the bottom of the hives. The live bees should be able to push them out as they die during the winter. The bees thus carried out will be found on the cellar floor just below the entrances. If there are bees all over the floor, it shows that these bees have flown from the hives--an indication of poor wintering.

(5) The bees should be quiet during the late winter. Noise at this time indicates that the bees are disturbed by an accumulation of feces, caused by low temperatures or poor food.

(6) If the bees were in good condition in the fall and have been wintered well, the loss during the winter will never be more than one-sixth of the total population of the hive. Such a loss is excessive, however, and in a well-wintered colony it may be as low as a hundred bees. This probably depends to a large extent on the age of the bees which go into winter, and if the temperature is right and the stores good there will be almost no loss of vigorous bees.

(7) The bees should not leave the hive while they are being carried from the cellar. If they do, it indicates that they are excited by an accumulation of feces.

(8) Before removal from the cellar there should be no spotting of the hives from dysentery. There may be a little spotting after the bees have had a free flight outside, but if this is small in amount it does not indicate a serious condition.

(9) When the bees are taken from the cellar there should be no moldy combs, for the cellar at the right temperature will be too dry for the growth of molds.

(10) There should be no brood when the colonies are taken from the cellar. Brood-rearing in the cellar is proof that the cellar is too cold or that the food used by the bees is inferior.

(11) Enough brood should be in each colony at the opening of the main honey-flow to fill completely 12 Langstroth frames.

(12) The population of the hive should not decrease appreciably after the bees are removed from the cellar. Such a condition, known as spring dwindling, is an indication of poor wintering. For three weeks after the hives are set out no new bees will be emerging, but the loss of bees during this time should be so small as not to be noticeable.

THE PRESIDENT TO THE FARMERS OF AMERICA.

[Extracts from President Wilson's message to the Farmers' Conference at Urbana, Ill., January 31, 1918.]

The forces that fight for freedom, the freedom of men all over the world as well as our own, depend upon us in an extraordinary and unexpected degree for sustenance, for the supply of the materials by which men are to live and to fight, and it will be our glory when the war is over that we have supplied those materials and supplied them abundantly, and it will be all the more glory because in supplying them we have made our supreme effort and sacrifice.

In the field of agriculture we have agencies and instrumentalities, fortunately, such as no other government in the world can show. The Department of Agriculture is undoubtedly the greatest practical and scientific agricultural organization in the world. Its total annual budget of $46,000,000 has been increased during the last four years more than 72 per cent. It has a staff of 18,000, including a large number, of highly trained experts, and alongside of it stands the unique land grant colleges, which are without example elsewhere, and the 69 State and Federal experiment stations. These colleges and experiment stations have a total endowment of plant and equipment of $172,000,000 and an income of more than $35,000,000 with 10,271 teachers, a resident student body of 125,000, and a vast additional number receiving instructions at their homes. County agents, joint officers of the Department of Agriculture and of the colleges, are everywhere cooperating with the farmers and assisting them. The number of extension workers under the Smith-Lever Act and under the recent emergency legislation has grown to 5,500 men and women working regularly in the various communities and taking to the farmer the latest scientific and practical information. Alongside these great public agencies stand the very effective voluntary organizations among the farmers themselves which are more and more learning the best methods of cooperation and the best methods of putting to practical use the assistance derived from governmental sources. The banking legislation of the last two or three years has given the farmers access to the great lendable capital of the country, and it has become the duty both of the men in charge of the Federal Reserve Banking System and of the Farm Loan Banking System to see to it that the farmers obtain the credit, both short term and long term, to which they are entitled not only, but which it is imperatively necessary should be extended to them if the present tasks of the country are to be adequately performed. Both by direct purchase of nitrates and by the establishment of plants to produce nitrates, the Government is doing its utmost to assist in the problem of fertilization. The Department of Agriculture and other agencies are actively assisting the farmers to locate, safeguard, and secure at cost an adequate supply of sound seed.

The farmers of this country are as efficient as any other farmers in the world. They do not produce more per acre than the farmers in Europe. It is not necessary that they should do so. It would perhaps be bad economy for them to attempt it. But they do produce by two to three or four times more per man, per unit of labor and capital, than the farmers of any European country. They are more alert and use more labor-saving devices than any other farmers in the world. And their response to the demands of the present emergency has been in every way remarkable. Last spring their planting exceeded by 12,000,000 acres the largest planting of any previous year, and the yields from the crops were record-breaking yields. In the fall of 1917 a wheat acreage of 42,170,000 was planted, which was 1,000,000 larger than for any preceding year, 3,000,000 greater than the next largest, and 7,000,000 greater than the preceding five-year average.

But I ought to say to you that it is not only necessary that these achievements should be repeated, but that they should be exceeded. I know what this advice involves. It involves not only labor but sacrifice, the painstaking application of every bit of scientific knowledge and every tested practice that is available. It means the utmost economy, even to the point where the pinch comes. It means the kind of concentration and self-sacrifice which is involved in the field of battle itself, where the object always looms greater than the individual. And yet the Government will help and help in every way that it is possible.

It was farmers from whom came the first shots at Lexington, that set aflame the Revolution that made America free. I hope and believe that the farmers of America will willingly and conspicuously stand by to win this war also. The toil, the intelligence, the energy, the foresight, the self-sacrifice, and devotion of the farmers of America will, I believe, bring to a triumphant conclusion this great last war for the emancipation of men from the control of arbitrary government and the selfishness of class legislation and control, and then, when the end has come, we may look each other in the face and be glad that we are Americans and have had the privilege to play such a part.

THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE.

[Extracts from addresses.]

The next great factor to enlist for the betterment of Agriculture and rural life in this Nation is the business man of the town and the city. He has not always been alive to his obligations. He has contented himself, in too many instances, with plans to secure profit in agricultural trade, instead of sympathetically and eagerly planning constructive assistance. This duty, pressing in peace time, is of the most urgent and impelling character in this crisis; and I appeal to the bankers and business men to see that they omit no effort to familiarize themselves with the agencies serving to aid the farmers and to promote wise plans to secure the necessary results.

D. F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture.

In the interest of our national development at all times and in the interest of war efficiency just now our agriculture must be well maintained. It should be remembered that the agricultural unit is a small unit. There are 6,000,000 farms in this country, each an individual unit. It is to the interest of persons who do not live on farms, even more than to the interest of those who do live on farms, that production shall be kept up. This means that all people, not farmers alone, but those who live in cities as well as the farmers, are interested in experimental and educational activities along agricultural lines as conducted by the Federal Government and the States. These efforts should be liberally supported.

R. A. Pearson, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.

In a time like this no man has a moral right, whatever his fortune may he, to employ another man to render any service of mere comfort or convenience. When the finest young men of the United States are in France digging ditches, sawing lumber, laying rails, and playing with death, and when the finest young women of the United States are scrubbing floors in hospitals, it is a sin that almost approaches the unpardonable offense against civilization for any man or women in the United States to engage in a wasteful or unnecessary service.

Clarence Ousley, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.

* * * * *

Transcriber Note