ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION". 



105 



when'^it^comes out at the bottom, it is 

 almost strong vinegar. 



We let our barrel of vinegar 2-3 full, 

 set in a warm place and in the course of 

 two or three or four months it makes 

 pretty good vinegar. The better care you 

 take of it, the better vinegar it will b 

 The making of good wines has been suc- 

 cessful only by great care. 



Mr. Wheeler — Do you use out door 

 atmosphere? 



Mr. Dadant— We keep it in some warm 

 place in the house; a warm cellar is a 

 good place. 



The President — Have you tried yeast 

 for the alcoholic fermentation? 



Mr. Dadant — We generally have fruit 

 juice; yeast is all right. In regard to fer- 

 mentation of wine: When I was in France 

 they told me they made any kind of wine 

 by getting the bacteria from the wine that 

 they preferred to have. They could 

 imitate any kind of wine, by getting the 

 bacteria and putting it in the mead. 



Question — Why is it necessary to pub- 

 lish all bee-keepers' journals at the same 

 time of the month? 



The President— Mr. Dadant, will you 

 answer that? 



Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, that ques- 

 tion^ was raised by Dr. Miller. Dr. Miller 

 took up the matter with three bee journals. 

 The trouble was, who would pubhsh on 

 the 15th of the month? Nobody wanted 

 to. The idea is, to the man who doesn't 

 know about it that it looks as though the 

 bee Journal was behind the time, publish- 

 ing on the loth, and it would seem to 

 throW; a little slur on it if it is not pubhshed 

 promptly on the first. Some man sug- 

 gested this morning we should publish on 

 the 15th of the previous month. I do not 

 like to buy an automobile in 1918 of 1917 

 style; in 1918 I want to buy a 1918 auto- 

 mobile. 



A Member — Why does any one want it 

 published the 15th? 



Mr. Dadant — ^The bee-keepers say, "We 

 get all our bee-keeper Journals at once. " 

 There would be one advantage, if there is 

 something new between the first and the 

 fifteenth there would be more chance of 

 getting it, they claim; I would like to have 

 the ideas of the bee-keepers. 



Mr. Kannenberg — I think it is a good 

 thing to have them on the first; if one 

 prints the same as the other we can easily 

 see and look at that one and it would be 

 all the same. 



Mr. Dadant — Then you would know 

 who was playing the second fiddle. 



The President — Is there any demand 

 among the bee-keepers present for a journal 

 to be pubhshed on the 15th? 



Mr. Wheeler — I put that question. The 

 thought was never brought to mj^ mind 

 until this morning. The question was 

 asked: "Why do you suppose it is we 

 caimot have one journal the middle of the 

 month?" I wanted to hear what Mr. 

 Dadant had to say. There is one thing 

 that struck me as favorable, that is, the 

 time of honey flow, the season people were 

 busy with bees, if we got a report the middle 

 of the month, we would not have to wait 

 a whole month, as to what the prospects 

 were, what was going on. 



Question — Which is the best, natural 

 swarming or artificial swarming? 



Mr. Bull — The main difference is, 

 natural swarming takes seven days a 

 a week while artificial takes only one. 



The President — I know it would be a 

 pretty difficult matter to handle bees in 

 out yards if you let them swarm naturally, 

 it might be all right if a man had few 

 colonies, where he could watch them and 

 did not have anything else to do. 



Question — Does it pay to raise queens 

 every year? 



Mr. Bull — Mr. France claims that it 

 does; his way of controlling swarming is to 

 go through the colonies at the time of 

 swarming season, kill all the queens that 

 are there and let them re-queen, or give 

 them a queen. He gave an address on 

 this a year or two ago: "The Value of 

 Young Queens, by N. E. France. " 



The President — There are queens and 

 queens; queens that you buy and queens 

 that you raise. If you breed from the 

 best, use the strongest and most vigorous 

 stock, your queens will last more than one 

 year. If you buj"^ your queens or raise 

 them in a haphazard way, your queens 

 will not last so long. Queens that are 

 purchased are shipped a long distance in 

 the mail and I think to some extent are 

 injured. Queen breeders are not as care- 

 ful as they should be in the selection of 

 the best stock. They get hurried to fill 

 orders and send out queens that probably 

 would not be shipped if they were not 

 hurried to ship orders. 



Mr. Wheeler — ^What would you consider 

 as essential in selecting queens to send if 

 you were a queen breeder? 



The President — ^Vigor of colony; ^olor 

 would have some weight; honey gathering 

 qualities would probably be the strongest 

 point. 



A few years ago I purchased a superior 

 queen from Mr. J. P. Moore of Kentucky 

 and raised a number from that one and 



