Sharp But Sincere.-Here is some plain talk from a private letter, showing the influence on one member's mind of the efforts of the Exchange in straight-forward, honest, earnest Cooperation:

"I am glad the Exchange is making progress, and the more I see of the way it has been treated by its members, the more I am for it. What a haven it has been to those who could not even get a bid on their honey from private buyers!-yet the much-abused Ex-change gently put out its protecting wing to hover the delinquents and incidentally poured the 60 per cent in their purses to keep the wolf from the door, and the mortgage off the block. I had no faith in it whatever during the first year, and think a wrong policy was pursued in that year, but now I believe in the new manager and all of the attempts for the good of the organization under him. I cannot regard those fellows that deliberately sold their orange honey to outsiders and turned the alfalfa into the Exchange, as anything but plain crooks, or at least men without the sense of honor that is possessed by an honest man. Personally, if I get stung I take my medicine, and do not quail from my contract."

SCHUCKL & COMPANY 149-151 Suffolk House, Laurence Pountney Hill, London, E. C. 4. California Honey Producers' Cooperative Exchange, Los Angeles, Calif.

Dear Sirs: We are in receipt of your letter of the 11th ultimo, and while Australian honey does not in the ordinary way enter into competition with California, Jamaica honey does, because the better grades of the latter honey are used for bottling purposes, the same as California honey.

We had in our salesroom yesterday a gentleman who is considered the largest honey buyer in the United Kingdom, and he informed us that today if he were to give an order for five tons of honey, he would forget about honey for many weeks to come, whereas when there was a demand for honey we have on several occasions sold him 1,000 cases of California honey at a time. This will give you an idea of the change in conditions. If we see any signs of a demand springing up, we shall not fail to get into touch with you. Yours faithfully,

J. H. Pearson, Mgr.

Tobacco manufacturers are using 'more and more honey each year, judging from the sales.

PROFESSOR BENTON IN THE SOUTH AGAIN.

of an

ONTARIO.-Announcement important addition to the faculty of the Chaffey College of Agriculture was made last week. The new member is Prof. Ralph Benton, formerly instructor in the agricultural department of the University of California. Mr. eBnton will specialize in bee culture, giving instruction and having complete supervision of the bees and apiaries of the Chaffey farm. He is a thorough bee student and has had much practical experience. The bee course at Chaffey was organized chiefly for the benefit of the former service or Federal Board men who are attending the school, there now being 112 such men enrolled. A special course in bee culture is also to be given, in all probability at the summer session of the University of California, which is to be held this year in Ontario, instead of at Davis, as in the past, and many of the men now attending school here will take advantage of this sum

mer course.

A TRAINING CENTER FOR APIARY HELPERS.

On March 28th, there will be opened a twelve weeks' training course in bee husbandry for ex-service men at the Chaffey Junior College of Agriculture at Ontario. This will supply a long-felt need in the initial training of men who in time will become available to serve as apiary managers and competent apiary assistants. At the end of this twelve weeks' course a number of men will be released for placement training in the apiaries of the state for the summer months.

This initial twelve weeks' course will be followed by a six weeks' course during June and July primarily to train teachers of agriculture, and to teach bee husbandry in the several high schools of the state.

Address all communications concerning the work of either of the courses or the securing of trained apiary helpers for the summer months to Ralph Benton, Chaffey Junior College of Agriculture, Ontario, California, where Mr. Benton will have his temporary headquarters for Southern California during the months of April, May, June, and July.

Say Bees In City Public Nuisance.(Walla Walla, Wahs., March 8.)-The commissioner of public safety was petitioned today to keep bees out of the city limits on the ground that they were a public nuisance.

C. E. Millspaugh, Gen. Mgr.
State Board of Directors,

Gentlemen: Did it ever occur to you that most housewives, especially in the cities where kitchen help is scarce, are not inclined to cook or bake any more than they have to? and when we talk about hotcakes, biscuits or waffles you lose sight of the fact that these have to be made first before the honey, in which we are so deeply interested, has much of a chance to be used.

Now your attention is called to these facts for the purpose of placing our honey on the tables in a "cooked package" and ready to eat. How can this be done? My laboratory is much smaller than the ones used by Kellogg's, Beechnut and like concerns, so I believe that by placing this matter before them in this manner, we can get an article composed of one-third or more honey-candied or otherwise-together with meal of some kind, and you will certainly see a very popular breakfast food, or the making of a dairy lunch, which for food value, real merits and price can withstand all objections, and not depend for the greater part upon whether mother feels like making hot biscuits, etc.

Believing this idea of deep concern to yourselves and members, especially with present market conditions, I trust you will give it your careful and thoughtful attention, as it may prove a measure able to bring back twentycent honey.

You are aware of the fact that advertising, no matter how extensive, can never be as attractive as when you have something really new to announce. Otherwise it is slow work talking honey without putting a little salt in it.

With best wishes and always the desire to help, I beg to remain

LESTER BAMBERBER.

Riverside, California, March 14, 1921.

Chas. C. Orr, Secretary,

Dear Mr. Orr: Your favor to hand, and I am pleased to note that my idea was thought worth printing in our paper. You will later be advised by our local secretary that at our last meeting a resolution was passed asking your board to use this means, if possible, to sell the large per cent of honey still on hand, and to use any other channel that can be worked out.

These are not ordinary times, and as Mr. Millspaugh is at present on the ground, it seems an opportune time to have him take this matter up without delay. If your board fails to make an advance of five cents on orange honey this year, I fear it will be the last year of the Exchange, and I believe there is little time to be wasted in the matter. I doubt very much if any bank will carry the load as stated above, unless every effort is made to move the crop of 1920, and certain results are obtained. Placing my letter in the Co-operator is to my mind the same as "received and filed" with no action taken.

Perhaps I did not make myself clear in my last letter, and to further impress on your mind that times have changed, I will repeat that before honey has even a chance to get on the biscuit, hotcake or waffle (as we are advertising with heavy expense) they have all got to be "cooked."

Now my thoughts run along the line of having some of the larger advertising factories, such as Kellegg's or the National Biscuit Company, take up this matter of getting up something new, which, when advertised, will receive the welcome that I look forward to. What to eat is always a problem for the cook, and by using the proper mixture it may be possible to place on the table a food consisting of at least onethird honey and a meal to which the honey is added, much the same as cheese is a product of milk. This is work for the baker, perhaps, but the problem must be solved and without delay.

The sooner we are free and independent of the influence of the sugar market, and have our honey used in other ways than merely the sweet factor, the safer the situation will be. We cannot today deny the fact that sugar rules and controls our market absolutely and cannot be avoided under present conditions. Relying on honey as a spread is slow work, so if the idea can be worked out that our package, much the same as a pound of butter, will be sold ready to cut into proper portions and served ready to eat, it will no

doubt cause our crop of honey to sell without delay and at a fair price.

Candied honey may also be used in this way, as it is favored by a great many people who cannot eat honey straight and so have to add other foodstuffs and perhaps salt also.

It may be possible that Mr. Millspaugh will be able to see this carried out before he returns, and that the Exchange will retain the title to the product, especially as the dairy-lunch and quick-meal places are on the increase, and this would add to their popularity.

Hoping that you will not consider me too insistent, and with my earnest support, I beg to remain,

Yours truly,

LESTER BAMBERGER.

All Alike.-When our bee-laws are again modified by action of the legislature, particular attention should be given to making a uniform rate of assessment on colonies of bees. At present it is as much of a 66 go as you please" as our county inspection laws. A colony of bees ought to be worth as much in one county as another.

Investigators of the United States Bureau of Markets, in connection with the work in the enforcement of the standard container act, have given careful attention to the strength and quality of the material used in the manufacture of baskets, cases, cans, etc., for the shipment of ruits and vegetables. They have been insistent in advocating the making of more substantial containers.

The American Honey Producers' League held its first annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, Feb. 15-16-17th. The league is an outgrowth of associations such as ours, and hopes to do for the beekeepers nationally what we have done locally. The league through its committees has been able to have honey placed in the tariff bill which will probably be passed in the early summer. The tariff proposed is between forty and sixty cents a gallon. The league also started a national advertising campaign and has $6000 pledged.-Texas Honey Producer.

The California cooperative associations all hold that the basic principle of co-operation is to bind the member to sell all his product through the association for a term of years. A penalty contract must be signed before one becomes a member. The questionnaire shows that we marketed the vast majority of our honey through our association without a contract. We believe that Texas is the best exemplar of co-operation after all.—Texas Honey Producer.

Yes, but the Texas association is a stock-issuing corporation. When a man has spare money invested in dividendpaying stock he is quite rikely to patronize that organization.

QUEENS AND QUEEN-BREEDING.

By P. C. Chadwick.

The object sought by the beekeeper is to secure a queen of great egg-laying ability, from which a bee of exceptionally energetic disposition in securing nectar is desired. Ordinarily a queen is considered by the average beekeeper to be an egg-laying machine that is allowed to run until it stops of its own accord, without regard to the time or conditions under which it may be expected to operate efficiently. But the limitations of a queen bee are just as pronounced as that in reproduction of any other animal.

If a queen is confined to the limits of an eight-frame hive she may be expected to keep it well stocked with eggs; that is, she will keep it stocked to a point sufficient for a hive of its size for several seasons. If removed from the eight-frame hive and given unlimited area the second season, she would never reach the peak of production that she could have reached had she been surrounded by the conditions last mentioned during her first year. In other words, a queen must reach her ful capacity during the first year if it is ever reached. There may be a greater development of eggs the second sason than the first, providing conditions are more favorable the second season and the egg-layings powers are not greatly depleted during the first, but even at that we may never expect such a high peak to be reached as might have been reached during the first sea

son.

On the other hand, let us take for instance the queen that is raised and introduced during the late summer after the height of the season is passed. She comes forth in the spring with all of her vigor and lays to her full capacity if stimulated by the proper conditions. If given all the room in which to lay that she can use she develops a colony of from 60 to 90 thousand bces and maintains this number for a period of six weeks. At the end of that period she has passed her best and will never againing her colony up to so great a number. She might possibly remain at the head of the colony for two or three more seasons, but it is not at all likely that she would, besides there would be less action all of the time until she was utterly worthless. If a young queen were introduced in early spring and attained the same height of laying she would be fully as useless at the end of the season.

The beekeeper is wise to the fact that if a colony does not come up to the proper standard the fault must be

with the queen, and he should be just as wise to the fact that a queen that has produced as many bees in two or three months as would ordinary be produced in an eight-frame hive in that many years, is a poor dependence for another season, and should be replaced by a young, vigorous queen, for use the next season.

Beekeepers have a prejudice as to the size, shape and color of a queen, some claiming that certain types are superior to other types. Only a close study and minute observation of the individual types can reveal the best in egg-laying ability. This after all is what the beekeeper seeks.

The great difficulty in breeding up a line of bees is to be able to control the drone mating, which in most localities is next to impossible. If the drones of the apiary can be controlled, which is very often done, it would still be difficult to mate a virgin from a select mother to the drone from another select mother, with any degree of certainty.

Canada seems to be leading us in such experiments at the present time, but I see no reason why this matter could not be arranged to an absolute certainty in parts of the San Joaquin valley, where there are an abundance of wild flowers for miles in the spring, but nothing in the line of flora that would sustain a colony during the remainder of the year. The work of linebreeding and select drone mating should be taken up by the government, as the average beekeeper or queen breeder has neither time or means to devote to such a development.

I hope to see this matter taken up by the government through Dr. Phillips or some other equally as thorough an authority, in the not very distant future, for there is great opportunity in this field.

A strain of bees could no doubt be developed in this manner that would quickly take its place at the head of all other strans, for after all, the strain is only the reflection of the ability of the breeder.

There are some other observations I have made from which I have formed 'definite conclusions as to the actions of queen bees and their proper development. A queen that is removed from a hive and mailed in an ordinary mailing cage, while she is in the height of her greatest egg-laying activity, receives a shock from which she will never fully recover. The chance of injury in handling is also much greater. A queen that has just begun to lay and is mailed before coming into full development is able to resume her full activity after

having passed through the mails and been introduced into another colony. It is also preferable to never handle a queen with the hands. I believe a large part of my success is due to the fact that I trap my queens into the mailing cage instead of picking them up and jamming them head-first through a small hole. It is also my opinion that much of the injury attributed to the mails, is in reality due to the caging with the use of the fingers. Few people have a sense of touch delicate enough to be able to handle these little creatures without injury.

Riverside, Feb. 18, 1921. To the General Manager:

Some of our members are at this time showing great anxiety as to what is going to be the outcome of our 1920 crop and wondering if same will be disposed of at all, and at what price, and also if we shall realize any more than the actual advance given us at the time of storage.

The writer, for one, however, does not worry at all in that direction, as he feels that we have most efficient men at our head and they are now and at all times leaving no stone unturned and no good method untried to move our product at a reasonable figure. We have got to face the music sooner or later and take a figure that honey will move it. And as our manager and staff cannot do it all, it needs and will take all of us to do our share-nobody must hold back. Forward movement is now what will count. Solid front "co-operation," but if we cannot give our actual personal support, we can at least give our officers assurance that we are in full accord with their efforts. We must all understand that it is now or never, to hold what we have so far gained.

We have established a brand, a name and a reputation, and it is up to us to instruct and allow our management to take enough of our money to maintain them.

I think such an amount as can be spared should be put into judicious advertising to get our brands more in the eye of the public than ever before.

For I am going to tell you that just as soon as this business depression lifts, buying is going to commence in all directions and at this very moment we nerd not as members worry but what our honey will move, and that in good shape, and probably be in demand, as we hear stocks are low and all in the producers' hands at present.

We get our bees ready for a flow; let us all get the public ready for the market conditions that are bound to follow

this "drag" and give our management credit for the past and assurance that at this time we are behind them in what they do for us.

"Advertise, yes advertise, If you want a good business. Advertise and keep it,

If you have a good business.
Advertise and keep it!

Get that?"

If we dispose of our crop within the year, that is all we can expect to do. I, for one, see fit to make it last through the year, thereby having it before the public at all times.

Also, your advance on the coming crop will fit in fine even if the last is not quite all cleaned up.

I am taking up your valuable time but feel like I must say a word along this line at this time and hope to have you feel that we are right with you and can cheerfully await the silver lining that must come from back of this dark cloud now over us.

Very respectfully yours,

JAMES MOORE.

Back Again.-The tide has turned and we are being offered beeswax from Germany. It is quoted as low as 14 cents in London, while California white sags honey is offered there at 102 cents per pound.

The reason for shipment of German wax to America is, primarily, the disruption of the Greek church-the state church of Russia-through Bolshevik influences. This church consumed enormous quantities of wax in its religious ceremonies, most of which was supplied by importation through Germany. This consumption being now practically ended, the next best market is America, owing to the favorable rate of exchange.

Eucalyptus range in winter is a good thing, if you live far enough inland. We know a beekeeper living near the coast, who was obliged to move his bees a long distance inland to save them from extermination. The rate of loss from cold winds on the coast was greater than the brood-rearing capacity of the colonies.

The crop outlook close along the coast is very poor, and in places not much better inland. Many colonies are due to perish from starvation after mid

summer.

Keep the dry combs over the bees until cool fall weather sets in. This will save the labor and expense of fumigating them.