THE APIAEY. 



343 



HOW TO WINTER. 



This is the subject, of course, of paramount importance to the apiarist, as 

 this is the rock ou which some of even the most successful have recently split. 

 Yet I come fearlessly to consider this question, as from all the multitude of dis- 

 asters I see no occasion for discouragement. If the problem of successful 'Vfin- 

 tering has not been solved already, it surely will be, and that speedily. So im- 

 portant an interest was never yet vanquished by misfortune, and there is no 

 reason to think that history is now going to be reversed. Even the worst aspect 

 of the case, in favor of which there is no proof, and but few suggestions even, 

 that these calamities are the euects of an epidemic, would be all ^wwerless to 

 dishearten men trained to reason from elfect to cause. Even an epidemic — 

 which would by no means skij) by the largest, finest apiaries, owned and con- 

 trolled by the v>'isest, most careful, and most thoughtful, as has been the case 

 in the vauters of our late discontent — would surely yield to man's invention. 



what then is 



THE CAUSE? 



Epidemic then, being set aside as no factor in the solution, to v/hat shall we 

 ascribe such wide-spread reverses. I fully believe, ajid to no branch of this sub- 

 ject have I given more tliought, study, and observation, that all the losses may 

 be traced either to unwholesome food, failure in late breeding of the previous 

 year, extremes of temperature, or to protracted cold with excessive dampness. 

 I know from actual and v/ide-spread observation, that the severe loss of 1870 

 and 1871 wa^ attended in this part of Michigan witii unsuitable honey in the 

 hive. Tlie previous autumn was nnprecedentedly dry. Flowers were rare, and 

 storing was largely from insect secretion, and the stores unwholesome, I tasted 



