VOL. LVII.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., JUNE 21, 1902.
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WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE  HONEY BEE
TO THE FARMER?
Give Experience in the  Production and Ssle of
Honey.
1st Premium.—The way of the honey bee
is very mysterious unto those that have
not studied them. I say them, for there
are three distinct characters in each colony
—the queen the drone and the worker. The
que***-! is the female, the drone the male,
and the worker is the bee that produces
the wax and builds it into cells for the
reception of the honey and the pollen and
i hen gathers them. The queen and drone
disdain manual labor, but replenish the
colony with bees. While it may be a
hard thing to prove or demonstrate, it is
generally admitted that the bee has much
to do in the fertilization of the blossoms
of our fruit, berries, vines, etc., for they
all have sexes and must be fertilized to
produce fruit. Who can watch a colonv
of bees on a bright, sunny morning, as
they depart from and enter into their hive,
loaded with the golden of elixir to be stowed
for present and future use during the
dreary days of winter. Is their industry
of no value to the farmer and the rest of
humanity? If some of the drones of the
human colony were extinguished, as the
instinct of the worker bee teaches them to
extinguish their drones when they are
no longer needed, we should have fewer
drones in the human colony to support.
And there is a large lesson to be learned
from the busy bee. First their activity
and persevenance; then their mechanical
instinct building their comb and cells in
conformity to mechanical laws. Where is
the man, woman or child that cannot draw
valuable lessons from the little busy bee?
Then keep one colony at least in your
yard as an example to the rising generation, for they are no sluggards. The
commercial value of the honey bee in
central Indiana is getting to be limited.
As our land has been brought under cultivation the wild flower has disappeared,
and we have not yet succeeded in raising
special crops for the production of honey
on our farm lands, for the honey crop depends as much on the season* as the farm
crops. If we have the right kind of
weather during the apple bloom, bees
gather much honey, but if it is cold and
rainy, they get but little. When the thermometer is below 55, flowers secret very
little honey, and if the weather is damp
and cold the bee must stay in the house
to keep the brood warm, for they have
no coal stoves. I have kept some bees for
40 years and would advise all farmers and
people in suburbs to keep a few colonies
to supply the home with honey, for it is
certainly the most delicious sweet that
comes on the table. I can look to the
time when I was a boy and sat at my
father's table with that hot soda biscuit
in my hand, spread with the golden butter
that mother made and dripping with that
ambrosial sweet the bee had gathered from
the flowers and placed in the hive that
father had prepared for them, and wish
myself there again. But I have endured
tho vicissitudes of time for over three
score and ten years, and if I had that biscuit to-day it is doubtful if I should relish
it as I did then. The bee does not make
honey—it gathers it—so you must depend
< n the bloom for the flavor of your honey,
with a little acid from the bee. My experience with bees in 40 years has been
varied,  but  I seldom  failed  to get some
honey. My best year was the summer of
1880. I had 18 colonies in the spring,
and started in the next winter with 35
from the increase, and a cash sale of bees
and honey of over $300. But, alas! The
next spring I had not a single colony left
of 111,*35. The trouble was a dysentery. They
were like the animal we call man. They
took too much fermented fluid from the
grape, apple, etc., not of choice, as man
does, but their industry compelled them to
work and they took what was left, to their
eternal destruction. Oh man, when wilt
thou learn a lesson? This honey was
gathered mostly from white clover. The
think those bees were like humans in one
think those bees werel ike humans in one
thing; that is, they started in to eat the
bad honey before it could spoil, but it
got the better of them. Well, some one
asks, did you stop raising bees? No sir!
In the spring a colony came hovering over
the bee yard and my wife rang the bell—
for me, not for the bees—and when I got
to the house she had opened one of those
hives that was full of honey, and the
bees were in it at work cleaning out dead
bees. I bought another colony or two,
and was in the bee business again. lf
my oflice was not quite so high above
terra firma I should most certainly now
own a colony of bees for the instructive
lessons that I might get. Now, let me say
to the honey buyer that the seller may
put off bad honey in the comb, for all
comb honey is not good. It depends on
what it has been gathered from. But you
can depend, when you buy comb honey,
that the bees have made the comb ami
have put the honey in it and man has
not. I.  N.  C.
Marion Co.
Premiums of $1, 75 cents and 50 cents
are given for the first, second and third
best articles for the Experience Department each week. Manuscript should be
sent direct to the Indiana Farmer Company and should reach us one week before
date of publication.
Topics for discussion in future numbers
of the Farmer are as follows:
No. 329, June 28—Tell how to grow
raspberries and blackberries. Are they
profitable market crops?
No. 330, July S.-^Tell about some of the
leaks that are mov. common in farming
and how they can beill voided.
No. 331, July 12.—Tell how to put out
a ten-acre fruit orchard. State kind of
soil, varieties of fruit, treatment, etc.
No. 332, July 19.—Give experience with
corn harvesters and corn shredders. Should
they be more generally used? ■
No. 333, July 26.—Give experience in
raising horses for farm use and for the
market.     What type is most profirti^le?
The  Value   of a Thorough  Knowlege of
the Crops we Raise. .
Editors Indiana Farmer:
For every- reason that lipids.
of commercial undertakings rriaSfc ' *1
least one for the study of agriculturaiun
dertakings. In fact the man who attempts to deal with growing things will
find himself confronted with problems
which the manufacturer or commercial
man never thought of. We can be no
more successful in the cultivation of
plants without a thorough understanding
of their natural requirements than we
can be successful in conducting any business enterprise without having first made
ourselves familiar with the principles underlying the business. In fact the man
who  deals  with  natural  elements  has  a
larger problem on his hands than he who
has to do only with the products of natural elements.
If we would be successful in the culture
of Indian corn we must first know what
the   plant   requires   in   the   way   of   food,
water, cultivation and climatic conditions.
Two of these  lessons  are early  learned,
viz:—the fact that plenty of water must
le had, and that the sun must be generous
in  supplying  heat.      We  do  not  always
stop to think just why water is so necessary.     If we did give more attention to
this thought we should be surprised perhaps to find that the plant performs all
its functions of growth, either directly or
indirectly  by  the  aid  of  water  aud  the
sun's light and heat.      No food  can  be
supplied in a form available to the plant
without   first   being   broken    down     and
brought   into   solution   by   the   action   of
water.     After the small particles of rock
and  vegetable  matter    are'broken  down
ind  have  passed  into solution  they  enter
the  small rootlets  of the  plant  and  are
carried along in the    stream    until    they
have  pasted     all  growing    parts  of  the
plant and nourishment has been taken out
with which the tissues of the plant    are
built up.     This    stream  of    water  ulso
serves to keep the cells expanded and in
growing condition.     When wo have come
to understand  fully the  structure of the
plant we shall see the importance of carefully guarding all the conditions which influence  its  growth.      Cultivation  of  the
soil   will   have  a   new   significance   when
looked at from this view point; and the
fact that there is only about half enough
rainfall  in  the  state  of  Indiana  to  pro-
auee maximum crops will  also  make  us
want to understand better the growth of
plants, that we may increase in all possible
ways their development. Thus if we have
a working idea of the extent of the root
systems of crops, know whether they are
plants     that   get     food   readily,     know
whether they demand large quantities of
a particular element in the soil—in short
if we know something of what the plant
Is  and  what it demands as well  as  the
means for supplying its demand—we can
work intelligently.     In production, therefore,  of  natural  products,  constant  care
and  thought  are  absolutely  necessary.
But the value of this knowledge of our
fi.rm plants does not end with their production. It enters very largely into the
disposition that is to be made of them
Our study and knowledge should follow
the circle from production to consumtion
and final return to the soil. In other
words our working knowledge must be a
thorough one.
In the crops we raise then, we should
remember that the soil and its cultivation
should be such that the plant may have
food, moisture, and air, and that it may
also be able to make the best possible use
of the heat of the sun. Tho more nearly
these conditions are supplied the more
ne\rly will the plant be able to develop
perfectly and the better satisfied will the
•T   *T<cer be with his efforts.
F.   S.   Johnston
i'urilue  University,   Lafayette,   Ind.
leave- the surrounding land unplowed. If
the roots are broken new sprouts will
come up. If it is wished to destroy a
grove of these trees it would be wise to
cut and make posts of them. Leave the
land in grass and pasture closely with
sheep or goats. If any sprouts get the
start of the sheep they should be cut. If
this is kept up for a few years the roots
will all die.
The sand bur belongs to the grass family and spreads very readily, as the seed
pods are in the form of a bur and adhere
very easily to the hairs of almost any animal. The only pratctical way of disposing of them is to pull and burn every
plant found. They should not be carried far, as the seeds drop off very readily. The same thing should be done to
all other kinds of burs.
The plants that are giving the most
trouble in this part of the state are vines,
such as morning glories and gopher vines.
The common morning glories can be killed
by carefully cutting off all plants with the
hoe that the cultivator docs not kill. The
gopher attachment will keep the vines
iu subjection while cultivation is going
on, but they should be cut all summer and
not allowed to go to seed. If the land
can In* grazed with sheep there is no better remedy than allowing them to keep
the vines down for a few seasons. In
fact they will gradually kill them out.
The wild carrot spreads very rapidly,
and is a very hard plant to get rid of
when once well set. Perhaps it is not
well known to some of your readers. It
resembles the tame carrot in general appearance, though the root is much smaller.
The flowers are white and in clusters at
the top of the stem. The seed when mature are covered with a rough coat that
adhcrs to animate very readily and are
thus rapidly spread. It is of but little
use to cut these plants. The only practical thing to do is to pull up every one
before it goes to seed, or burn them if they
have seeded. It will pay any one to keep
his farm free from weeds and it can be
done only by the utmost care and watchfulness. J. H. Bone.
Minglewood Farm.
•Weeds.
Editors Indiana  Farmer:
The destruction of noxious plants is a
matter of much importance to a farmer,
and every one should see to it that his
own farm is kept clean and encourage his
neighbor to do the same.
I consider the honey locust one of our
most valuable trees. The wood is very
durable in the ground or elsewhere. To
keep the tree from spreading it is best to
BIG YIELDS OF WHEAT.
At one of the experiment stations wheat
was tested in plots, under various modes
of cultivation, and it was found that when
the seeds were carefully selected, planted
in rows, and cultivated with hand implements, the yield was at the rate of 60
bushels per acre, and a case on record iu
England where a farmer planted wheat
in rows one foot apart, the grains six
inches apart in the rows, cultivating between the rows, and using hoes between
the plants, securing 100 bushels of wheat
per acre, which case, however is an exception. The English field was covered
six inches with manure, which was well
worked iuto the soil, the season also being favorable. In Belgium it is not unusual to grow 60 bushels of wheat per
acre. The land is made rich, fertilizers
are used liberally, and close cultivation is
given. While it is not often that our
farmers exceed 35 bushels per acre, yet
the experiments made demonstrate what is
possible to accomplish with fertile soils
and better methods of cultivation.—Ex.
The United States Weather Bureau employs more than 1,400 trained officials at
180 stations.
There are in this country about 200,000
miles of railway, or about 40 per cent of
the world's mileage.