ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES^ ASSOCIATION. 157 



those fogs and cold winds flow back about ten miles from the lake and 

 they interfere tremendously with the — no, not with the secretion of 

 the nectar, particularly, but with the work of the bees. It keeps them 

 in on days when a few miles further back they are working probably; 

 under those foggy conditions or when there are those cold winds from 

 the lake they are in the hive. There is a bee-keeper up there who came 

 from Chicago a few years ago, a Norwegian, whose wife had learned 

 something about bee-keeping in the old country, and they w^ent up 

 there and they built up in a few years to 150 colonies, and he said: 

 " Ever since we have left what we call small bee-keeping we have average 

 100 pounds per colony." Now I think he included in that probably 

 some of the aster honey, though I don't know. This person happens 

 to live right in the center of the worst aster-infected area of upper 

 Michigan. 



You don't have to go up against this aster proposition every 

 spring, because it is limited as to the area in which it grows, although 

 where it does grow it grows with a vengeance; there is lots and lots of it. 



Now they have a system of road-building up there by which the 

 Cleveland Iron Company and a few more of those big companies that 

 own a good share of the upper peninsula pay the bill and the common 

 people enjoy the roads, and they are getting a series of roads over the 

 upper peninsula that are great. I certainly was surprised, I thought I 

 was going back in the wilderness when I went to the upper peninsula, 

 but I certainly had the scales removed from my eyes on that. There 

 are good roads. They don't need to float something that will bring in 

 as many thousand dollars as they need to put the roads through, 

 because it is the big corporations that run the iron and copper and 

 timber business of the upper peninsula, there are whole counties that 

 are practically owned by these corporations, and they are paying the 

 bills and the people are getting the roads, excellent roads. 



A Member. — Are there any smelters there? 



Mr. Kindig. — There are smelters there, but fortunately there is 

 no bee-keeping territory within range of the smelters. Marquette 

 County contains a large part of the smelters, and it is very rocky, and 

 no one is going to locate in that sort of a place to keep bees. 



A Member. — Mr. President, I would like to ask Mr. Kindig 

 what time the fire-wood and raspberry springs up after a fire. For 

 instance, if there is a fire runs through there this summer, when could 

 you expect a bee-keeping pasture? 



Mr. Kindig. — The fire-weed will be there next summer. The 

 raspberry only comes on after some little time. Bee-keepers are at a 

 loss to explain these things. Here will be a territory without a sign 

 of a fire-weed anywhere, virtually none. It is burned off this fall, 

 and next spring it comes up all over with fire- weed. The explanation 

 given is that the fire-weed seed has such a hard shell that the fire going 

 there cracks the shell and it germinates the next spring. (Laughter.) 

 I don't know what it is. , That is what they say. 



A Member. — That produces the first year, unlike the raspberry? 



Mr. Kindig. — Yes. It is an herb, willow herb is another name 

 for it. 



A Member. — Is it a biennial? 



