ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



93 



, invested, as in bee-keeping rightly 

 conducted, not even banking excepted 

 (and I speak advisedly), and it is a 

 great surprise to me, as well as a dis- 

 appointment, that bee-keeping is not 

 made one of the leading studies in the 

 Agricultural Department of our state 

 university, instead of not being taught 

 at all in a systematical, practical way. 

 Quite a number of the other state uni- 

 versities have established a course in 

 bee-keeping, and are teaching it in a 

 systematical, practical way, and the 

 great State of Illinois ought to be a 

 leader instead of a follower in things 

 which are for the progress and up- 

 building of the commonwealth. 



And now, my friends, I must close, 

 and I thank you for your considerate 

 attention. If you have any questions 

 that you would like to ask me about 

 bees or bee-keeping or the possible 

 profits to be made therefrom, I will an- 

 swer to the best of my ability. 



Mr. Sanders — ^Will bees work close 

 / to their hives in preference to going a 

 distance for their food? I considered 

 that question before I put bees in my 

 orchard. I used to notice that when 

 the apricot trees bloomed, or the early 

 cherry trees were blooming, before 

 there was much bloom elsewhere, the 

 trees would be literally full of bees, 

 but when it came to the blooming of 

 the pear trees and the apple trees, 

 which were to be found blooming in 

 every door-yard, there was scarcely a 

 bee to be found in the orchard. This 

 made me conclude that they were find- 

 ing all the blossoms they wanted close 

 at home, and, that being true, I would 

 get little benefit from the work of the 

 bees in my orchard, unless I got some 

 bees of my own. 



Mr. Baxter — Remember that the 

 ^ Italian bee will travel as much as five 

 miles, if necessary, to procure nectar, 

 but it is not profitable for them to 

 travel more than a couple of miles; 

 and, if the bees are so scarce in my 

 locality that they do not cover every- 

 thing in a mile and a half, there are 

 not bees enough to cover the terri- 

 tory, but in some portions of Illinois, 

 take it in Hancock County, in my 

 home city, there are too many bees; 

 they cannot find nectar enough to 

 make a crop, except in extraordinary 

 seasons like the past year. This spring 

 I had one of the best pear crops in the 

 city; the trees were breaking down 

 with KeifEer pears, while those three- 



quarters of a mile away had prac- 

 tically nothing. In one of my apple 

 orchards, about half a mile east of 

 where I reside, or where my apiary is, 

 all the north side of the apple trees 

 were just loaded with fruit, while there 

 was hardly anything on the south side, 

 simply because the bees struck that 

 part of the tree first and visited those 

 flowers, or else they did not get on the 

 other side, the rain drove them back 

 again. That has been noticed time 

 and again. Take it with the plum; I 

 have wild goose plums every year. 

 One of my neighbors that lives in the 

 fore part of town hardly ever has any, 

 although they have their varieties 

 planted near by where the bees could 

 visit from one tree to another and 

 carry the pollen from one tree to the 

 other, but without those precautions 

 you cannot raise Keiffer pears and you 

 cannot raise wild goose plums and 

 many others. We have a great many 

 different kinds of fruit; we do not 

 know how many of them are self- 

 sterile, and some more or less so. 

 Among our apples we have a great 

 many such, and it behooves us to find 

 out these things and remedy them in 

 one way or another. 



Mr. Baxter then illustrated his method 

 of extracting honey from the combs, 

 and exhibited the combs used in his 

 apiary and extracting frame. 



.Mr. McElvain — ^What is the difference 

 in price of the extracted honey and 

 comb honey? 



Mr. Baxter — Extracted honey, whole- 

 sale, is usually from 7 to 9 cents a 

 pound, where comb honey would be 

 from 12 to 15. You can usually pro- 

 duce twice as much extracted honey as 

 you can comb honey, if you know your 

 business, work your bees right. We 

 never destroy these combs; as soon 

 as they are extracted put them back 

 in, the hive and fill them right up 

 again. To make comb honey they 

 have got to take the time to build the 

 comb, and you have to use the ma- 

 terial to make the wax, which is honey, 

 and it takes from 12 to 20 pounds of 

 honey digested, going through a cer- 

 tain process in their body, to make a 

 pound of beeswax. You see the great 

 cost in the amount of honey, to say 

 nothing of the great cost of labor and 

 time lost in producing comb honey. 



Question — May I ask the process of 

 extracting the honey? 



