Jan. 31, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



75 



ing- after us to get our honey, and I think we will increase 

 the demand. I have been selling honey very cheap— I 

 won't tell you how cheap ; I have been selling it very cheap, 

 and some people said to me, " You are selling honey too 

 cheap; you are killing the market." I said. Which would 

 you ratlier I would do ? You know if I send my honey to 

 Denver I will have to compete with you ? Do you want me 

 to sell at home, or sell in Denver ? I say the question 

 comes to this point, if I have a crop of 30,000 pounds for 

 sale, and enough to make the total crop right around a lit- 

 tle village of 2,000 population — making the total crop 50,- 

 000, is that community going to consume SO,Oi)0 pounds of 

 honey at 10 cents a pound when they can buy granulated 

 sugar at S'2 or sis cents a pound and make a splendid table 

 syrup ? No, sir, they will not. Mr. Abbott is catering to 

 fancy table trade ; Mr. Moore is doing the same thing. 

 Let them put up glass packages, if they want to, for people 

 who are willing to buy fancy goods ; let a panic come, and 

 there comes a time when you can't sell to that trade; but 

 the family buys every day in the year ; they want it all the 

 time, whether times are good or bad. The family trade is 

 best to depend upon. I said to our Denver people. If I put 

 my honey on the market at 8, 9 and 10 cents a pound, as 

 j'ou want me to, the result will be the people are going to 

 buy the sugar and leave the honey with me ; then I have 

 got to ship it. What will I do ? Send it down to George 

 W. York, of Chicago? If I ship in less than car-lots it 

 costs me 97 cents a hundred pounds to get it here, and I pay 

 freight on the package — barrels or whatever it is. Mr. 

 York would probably want to pay six cents there for it, or 

 seven in Chicago ; my package costs me '4 of a cent ; how 

 much money have I left for that honey ? If I ship to the 

 general market it will net me, less freights, commissions 

 and package, about 3 to 4 cents ; and I said to the Denver 

 bee-keeper. Would you rather I would ship my honey and 

 get 4 cents a pound, or sell it at home for 6 cents a pound 

 and keep it at home ? I am tending to my own business, I 

 am not bothering you ; when you can get more right at 

 home than you can sell, don't put it on the market to com- 

 pete with other people who haven't the local market, or 

 can't get it. (Applause). 



Continued next week.) 



Report of the California Association. 



BY O. L. -\BBOTT. 



The members of the California Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion met at Selnia, Fresno Co., Jan. 7th, and elected a board 

 of directors, consisting of the following members : Dr. J. 

 P. Johnson, J. W. Paine, J. S. Crowder, B. D. Vanderburgh, 

 and C. M. Davis. 



The following were elected as officers for the ensuing 

 j-ear : President, Dr. J. P. Johnson : 1st vice-president, J. 

 S. Crowder ; 2d vice-president, C. M. Davis ; secretary. 

 Prof. C. S. Taylor, Jr.: corresponding secretary, O. L. Ab- 

 bott, of Selma ; and treasurer, J. W. Paine. 



Pres. Johnson read the annual report, showing among 

 other things that the directors had purchast a car-load of 

 cans and a car-load of cases at a saving to its members ; 

 that the Association had received and sold 118,732 pounds of 

 extracted honey at 6 cents a pound ; and that it had manu- 

 factured the wa.x into foundation for its members at a low 

 cost per pound. The members showed their appreciation 

 by a vote of thanks, and by re-electing the old board. Mr. 

 Grimes was unable to serve as director another year, so Mr. 

 Davis was elected to fill his place. 



A committee consisting of J. H. P. Stephens, Prof. C. 

 S. Taylor, Jr., and O. L. Abbott, was appointed to revise 

 the constitution and by-laws, and report at the next meet- 

 ing. 



The meeting adjourned to the first Monday in February. 

 O. ti. Abbott, Cor. Sec. 



Fresno Co., Calif., Jan. 8. 



The Chicago Convention Picture is a fine one. It is 

 nearly 8x10 inches in size, mounted on heavy cardboard 

 10x12 inches. It is, we believe, the largest group of bee- 

 keepers ever taken in one picture. It is sent, postpaid, for 

 75 cents ; or we can send the American Bee Journal one 

 year and the picture — both for SI. 60. It would be a nice 

 picture to frame. We have not counted them, but think 

 there are nearly 200 bee-keepers shown. ^n czj 



^ Tlie Afterthouglit. ^' | 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



"drones" at the world's convention. 



The world's bee-conventton, as reported by Mr. Dadant, 

 page 8, was quite an affair, even if it didn't amount to 

 many bushels of beans to be stored in the elevator where 

 we keep all our knowledge. It is something, however, to be 

 informed that colonies with many drones store 5)4 percent 

 less honey than colonies with few. (This was only one 

 trial involving but 10 hives.) For you know that things 

 imported from far are worth more than home-made articles. 

 Interesting to see that some foreign opinion thinks S>2 per- 

 cent not enough advantage to proscribe the drones on. 

 Let me state the drone's strongest case, as it looks to me : 

 When a young queen flies, if she comes within sight of 10 

 drones there is a sort of selection—the one that gets ready 

 first is the mate— and that one is presumably the bcsf one 

 in the lot, the one that will transmit the most vigor. Now 

 if she comes in sight of a hundred drones there is still se- 

 lection, chance good for the best one out of the hundred be- 

 ing the parent. And to be sure of the queen's being seen 

 by a hundred drones whenever and wherever she may fly, 

 there needs to be lots of them. (Incidentally, I may remark 

 that this consideration makes me very apathetic about the 

 search for some way to control mating. We can not equal 

 nature's selection if we had control, because we can not see 

 which drone is the best.) 



There is another thing not always thought of. If 

 drones are few there is little or no drone-comb in the brood- 

 chamber. This is not necessarily so, but practically it will 

 generally be the case. With no drone-comb below we must 

 expect more of it built in the sections. (Wish I knew more 

 positively about this.) But why care how much drone-comb 

 there is in the sections ? I am not sure on this point, either, 

 but presumably the drone size requires so much longer an 

 arch of capping that it does not lend itself so well to that 

 beautiful and beyond-all-praise style of finish in capping 

 which is one of the important things that we want to work 

 towards. When bees do the best their art admits of, even 

 dark-colored honey looks temptingly white — almost too 

 dainty to touch with a handkerchief — the honey itself not 

 being seen at any point. 



COMBS of honey for WINTERING. 



Mr. Aikin, usually reliable, seems to me to be getting, 

 for once at least, into the doubtful regions where he says, 

 page 821, that four solid combs of honey are better to win- 

 ter bees on than the same honey in eight combs. I believe 

 I would choose the latter of the two— with a preference for 

 six combs, with a generous space on four of them in which 

 the cells were either empty or only half full. It certainly 

 looks as tho bees were not quite satisfied with their position 

 on sealed honey. And such a solid slab of comb, with one 

 edge of it nearly down to 32 degrees — we can hardly see 

 how it can help being a needless extracter of animal heat. 



NO U. S. HONEY At THE PARIS EXPOSITION. 



Not a pound of United States honey at the French Ex- 

 position I Doubtless the gazing public did not cry for the 

 lack of it— still, neither the fact itself nor that consider- 

 ation puts us in a swing-your-hat frame of mind. Suitable 

 thing to put in our smokers and smoke it. Page 822, (1900). 



CONDITION WHEN COLONIES BUILD UP R.iPIDLY. 



"Workers with full sacs most of the time." Yes, sir; 

 that's it, Mr. Aikin. That is the exact and definite condi- 

 tion under which a colony of bees builds up rapidly. A lit- 

 tle money (or honey) in general circulation better than 

 much carried by a few individuals, or lying in bank. It's 

 all well to say "honey coming in," it's all well to say 

 "plenty of stores on hand," it's all well to say "feed;" 

 but if either of these exists where half the workers are on 

 moderate rations, and not handling honey themselves, 

 things will continue to go slow. At odd jobs, from time to 

 time, let us have the terms of our talk brought to terms of 

 precision, instead of so much allowing of them to "He 

 around loose." Page 7. 



