The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-02-13
MORE BEES
VALLEYS NEED
INSECTS ARE AID IN P0LLENlZATl0N
All Orchards Should Have Few Hives
of Honey Gatherers Product
Sells for High Price

| Go to your grocer and propose the
purchase of gallon Of honey When
he announces the price Of that product.
/ $500. you are made to realize that the
busy little bee Is very we'll paid for
/ his charming task of slipping sweets
/ from perfumed flowers.
/ But those who suggest more bees for
/ the Hood River Valley never have
/ thought for the profit 10 be derived
from their labors IN gathering honey.
| Their minds turn to that annual dream
/ season OF the year, when the valley,
appearing, from the vantage point of
some eminence on the edge, like 10
great bowl, its bottom tinted bv the
new green of apple foliage and the
/ delicate white and pink of myrlads of
| blossoms. They think Of the need of
bees to scatter the pollen from bloom
TO bloom. For the bee is not merely
an agent in the alchemy of nature for
taking from each flower its miniature
drop of sweet liquid and turning it into
grape sugar, to be preserved as a food
and eonfection for man, but he fills
niche in the scheme of things in that
he aids the plants and the trees in that
greatest OF all tasks of Nature that
of reproduction. In a final analysis,
this spre aiding of fertilization and the
prevention of barrenness may be the
real work of the bee, while that of
honey gathering is Just a side line
The sweet has been placed in the
flower Just to lure him in the true
work that the Great Mother has meant
for him to pursue.
Thus orchardists who realize the
value OF the bee to their industry
would go SO far as to pension their
hives, making an appropriation for
buying sugar during the winter
months. Even though they We're never
permitted to rob a hive of a single
quart of honey, they will tell you that
the bees are need to fill apple boxes
at the time Of the fall harvest. There.
fore, they will argue, every orchard
tract, if its owner would harvest a
large crop from evenly loaded trees,
should have its allotment Of bee hives.
For the past several years II. +.
Davidson, owner of large orchard
tracts in the Valley has arrived here
annually from New York at Just about
blossom time. And every year, after
his first visits over the orchard dis
triets, he has made the suggestion that
the valley NEEDED more bees.
| From time to time the representa-
tives of the Hood River Experiment
Station have made suggestions for in
creased apiaries. However, it is true
that some have advanced the argument
that bees might prove more destruc-
tive than helpful, in that they not only
spread life-giving pollen but that they
carry the infection of blight and other
diseases as well. Bot the vel, sir
that all mortals breathe carries death
dealing germs. This argument against
bees is only one for the complete Grad
ication Of all the diseases that menace
the growth Of healthy apple trees.
But getting back to the first para
graph above. Those figures honey
selling for $500 per gallon seem to
offer possibilities to the enterprising
rancher and orchardist Cut the price
by huge percentage and even then
the apiarst, bee farming on a com
mercial basis, it seems, might realize
no mean profits from his time and
labor.
Horticulture is as interesting, al
most, as any pursuit one can follow
But raising bees is more allurlng, once
the bee man gets started on his way.
Merely becoming acquainted with the
habits of the queen of the hive, the
drones ana the working iocks offers
an opportunity in study. 1t is a study
in thrift and romance at the same
time, Even though YOU do not expect
to start an apiary. get some of the
bulletins Of the Oregon Agricultural
College or the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture and read some
thing about the bee. Before you have
finished you will find that he is a kind
of wizard and almost indispensable to
successful horticulture.
And to those who might have an
inclination for commercial honey pro
duction, let 1t be said that the broad
ranges on either hand of the Hood
River Valley. the great expanses of
burnt-over forest and logged off land
not only offer fattenng grass for sheep
and cattle but there too, thrive bios
soming plants. which are rich in nee
tarines. The tireweed, which springs
up over the burnt-over areas is one Of
the richest honey producing plants
known. The wild pea vines, fat-pro-
ducing for animals, also bear flowers
of sweetness. When the towering
S plants of the lower attitudes begin to
fail, these nectar bearing flowers OF
e the forest start their luxuriant growth.
Because of the graduated altitude, 4
series of honey pastures are offered
= from Junetime until the storms Of the
equinoctial period lay up the first snow
storm on the mountains. Thus bee
y fancier might begin the season in the
y Lower Valley with but a single section
on his hive and end it in September
? with that hive grown. with added
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