388 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 20, 1901. 



Convention Proceedings. | 



(Continued from pag'e 378.) 



Report of the Minnesota Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



KV DU. I,. I). I.KUNAHI). 



SECOND DAY — Afternoon Session. 



Mr. Corbett. of the Dairy and Food Commission, talked 

 of the work done by that Commission in the State. Of 150 

 samples of honey examined in two years, 25 percent has 

 been found to be adulterated. Four dealers have been prose- 

 cuted for selling adulterated honey, and fined to the amount 

 of $ij5. The following letter in regard to the matter, was 

 read : 

 Hon. .J. P. West— 



My Dear Sir: — Pursuant to your request to Major Bowler, I send 

 you the following: names of those who have been convicted and fined 

 for selling adulterated honey this year : 



Sahmauss & Zeigler, Duluth, Feb. 33, 1900 $\h 



Die A. Berer. '■ March 13, " 15 



Mallough & Son, " '■ 15, " 15 



The second named was lined for selling imitation honey. 

 Yours very truly. 



Mat a. Grin'dall, 

 Sienographer Dairy and Fovd Vovimiadon. 



Miss Moeser then gave a talk on cooking and canning 

 with honey. 



The advisability of having a Minnesota honey exhibit at 

 the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, was next discussed, 

 and Dr. E. K. Jaques was appointed to take charge of the 

 matter for the Association. 



The following paper by G. H. Pond, was then read : 



DISPOSING OF THE HONEY CROP TO THE BEST 

 ADVANTAGE. 



In considering this subject we must first decide whether 

 we want to get the most for our honey regardless of the time 

 required ; or, is our time worth so much that it is best to sell 

 our honey the easiest and quickest way? If we come to the 

 latter decision the bee-keepers of Minnesota have an excel- 

 lent outlet for their honey through the commission merchants 

 of Minneapolis and St. Paul ; and I think we can obtain bet- 

 ter prices for our honey through them, than do those who 

 ship to the large Eastern cities. 



But perhaps most of us will decide that our time is not 

 worth so much that we feel warranted in following this plan, 

 and if by spending more time in disposing of our crop we 

 can get a better price, we would better do so. Now I do not 

 propose to advance a theory, but to give a few facts from 

 experience, and as I have had no experience in producing or 

 selling comb honey, I shall dwell only on disposing of 

 extracted honey. 



Honey is an article that people in general do not buy 

 unless it is brought to their notice, so, in order to sell, it is 

 necessary for us to put it up in a very attractive way, and 

 then bring it to the notice of the people as much as possible. 

 In peddling honey among farmers I have found that the 

 oftener I go, the more I can sell ; and this rule holds good 

 wherever I have sold honey. " Keep going" is a good motto 

 for any one who would sell honey. 



A satisfied customer nearly always tells a friend or two, 

 and shows them the honey, and in this way the business is 

 extended, so that the more one sells the more he can sell. 



I have learned by experience not to try to induce people 

 to buy more honey than they wish at one time, because some- 

 times when they buy too much it candies, or gets in an untidy 

 condition otherwise, and thus they get set against it. It is 

 strange how many people there are (who ought to know bet- 

 ter), who think that when honey candies it is spoiled. For 

 example, I have supplied a certain hotel with honey for two 

 or three years and they take over lOU pounds at a time, 

 getting it three or four times a year, and I supposed they knew 

 how to care for candied honey. But this fall their kitchen- 

 man told me that the last honey I brought them was not good, 

 and on examining it I found that all that ailed it was that it 

 was candied. A new kitchen-man had been employed and he 

 did not understand about it. 



In selling honey put up in glass packages to retail grocers, 

 I find that if the honey candies on their hands their sales of 



it about come to a standstill. And aUhuugh I tell them that 

 heating will restore it to a licjuid form, and they say that they 

 will try it. I do not remember that a single one of them ever 

 did. So I have found that the best way is for me to exchange 

 it for honey freshly put up, and take the candied home and 

 reliquefy it myself. 



To sum it up, then, the most important points in dispos- 

 ing of our honey crop to the best advantage are : 



1st. Produce a first-class quality of honey. 



2d. Put it up in as attractive form as possible. 



yd. Bring it to the notice of customers constantly. 



4th. Keep your customers satisfied. G. H. Pond. 



Next, a paper was read by Dr. Mary McCoy, on 

 BEE=KEEPINQ NEAR DULUTH. 



Years ago I became interested in the bloom in and about 

 Duluth, as a possible profitable field for the support of the 

 honey-bee. The spring season of Duluth is always about 

 three weeks later than that of the southern part of the State, 

 our earliest bloom being the dandelion, which is an abundant 

 producer of pollen and some very bitter honey that is 

 claimed to be very stimulative. We have some fruit-bloom — 

 apples, cherries and plums — but there are not enough trees, 

 all told, to make a fair-sized orchard. I do not think that 

 basswood is indigenous to the c^iuntry about Duluth, and there 

 are but very few trees planted in and about the city. Until 

 the past summer buttercups have been very plentiful, and 

 have always ushered in the white clover which formerly liter- 

 ally carpeted the whole surrounding country, as well as the 

 vacant lots, squares and parks of this city. Wherever a fire 

 sweeps the country Nature attempts to cover the charred and 

 blackened foliage with a profusion of the fragrant white 

 clover bloom, and as Duluth has only recently been reclaimed 

 from a wilderness, and fire has been one of the reclaiming 

 agents, it has had plenty of barren spaces to beautify. 



There are a few other wild flowers, such as the wild straw- 

 berry, the wild cherry, and the wild rose, which all help very 

 materially, and I could not help noticing how heavily the wild 

 cherry-tree bore which grew near where the bees were placed. 



In the early fall the fireweed puts in an appearance and 

 the honey stored from it is as fine as that from the white 

 clover. 



The weather is cool enough here so that the bees do not 

 care to hang outside of the hive, and the first summer we 

 kept them they did not loaf more than one or two days. The 

 past summer was a little warmer, and they loafed a little in 

 the middle of the day, but their loafing is not to be compared 

 with what I have seen of it in the Michigan apiaries. 



We have had no experience with any bee-diseases in 

 Duluth, and have had no spring dwindling. I do not think 

 the bee-moth inhabits Duluth, or, if it does, perhaps the bees 

 (like the people of our city) are too wide awake to let it get a 

 foothold. Suffice it is to say that since the first summer that 

 we purchased the bees we have discovered none of the moth- 

 larva\ We know nothing about foul brood ; it is a disease 

 that has not yet gotten into our part of the State. 1 don't 

 think there ever has been any In this section, and I hope 

 there never will be. 



There are about 10 people in and about Duluth that keep 

 bees. One family has kept them over 20 years. I asked the 

 head of this family — she is a widow — if it paid, and she 

 replied, " Well, I've paid ofi: the mortgage on the farm, sent 

 the children through high school, and one through business 

 college, and built a kitchen on the house, and all I've had to 

 do it with has been my 09 colonies of bees." So she has found 

 it profitable. 



We have been keeping bees for about four years, starting 

 with two colonies. White clover began to blossom about May 

 15, the spring being unusually warm and early, and as we 

 had plenty of rain throughout the summer, and the frost was 

 late in appearing, our honey season lasted till September. 

 That year we increased to six colonies, and secured ITS 

 pounds of beautiful white clover comb honey, which was sell- 

 ing in Duluth at that time at 1 5 cents per pound. The next 

 summer the yield was fair, but as the bees were five miles 

 from our home they did not get the attention they should have 

 had, although we increased to 12 colonies, and secured about 

 3U0 pounds of honey. We had scarcely any snow last win- 

 ter [1899-1900], and the white clover was badly winter- 

 killed, so much so that we thought for a while that we would 

 have none at all ; but if clover was scarce, the price of honey 

 was high, so we did not do so badly, after all. We sold one 

 colony to a friend, and with the honey which we sold and ate, 

 we figured that our debit and credit sides have come out about 

 even. We discouraged swarming all we could the past sum- 



