1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



13 



sufficient and a sweater was welcome. 



At Springfield, the meeting was held 

 in the yard of Mrs. A. A. Packard, a 

 very pleasant lady beekeeper. The 

 president, Mr. O. M. Smith, spoke of 

 this association being composed mainly 

 of small producers and amateurs, many 

 of them horticulturists. It is in that 

 section of country that many bees are 

 reared for the use of florists and gard- 

 eners, especially for the hot-house 

 cucumber growing. Another lady bee- 

 keeper, Mrs. A. H. McCarter, had a 

 very interesting essay on " Helping the 

 Beekeeper." 



Among things exhibited at this meet- 

 ing, Mr. X. A. Reed displayed candy in 

 paper plates. The candy is poured into 

 them while hot. It is a very good 

 method for easy handling. 



As the next meeting was to be, the 

 following day, at Dalton, near Pitts- 

 field, Mass., Dr. Gates and I started as 

 early in the evening as we could, to 

 travel the distance, about 70 miles. \Ve 

 passed through "Jacob's Ladder" in 

 the winding roads of the Berkshire 

 hills, gentle slopes up immense timber- 

 covered hills and down again on the 

 other sid*. We passed through Lenox, 

 a small village surrounded with the 

 summer homes of numerous million- 

 aires, all fine estates. We arrived at 

 Pittsfield quite late, about 9 p.m. 



The next morning, it was but a short 

 run to Dalton, to the Berkshire County 

 Field Meet on the estate of ex-Senator 

 W. M. Crane. The renowned Crane 

 linen bond paper is made here and we 

 spent a half hour or so visiting the 

 factory. 



The bee-meeting had been arranged 

 byMr. H. C. Schmeiske, head gardner 

 and beekeeper tor the Crane estate. 

 Mrs. Crane was present with a few 

 friends during a part of the meeting 

 and very graciously tendered to us the 

 freedom of the grounds. 



Although President Musgrove and 

 Mr. Ralph Ely gave very entertaining 

 talks, the success of this meeting was 

 due especially to the energy of Mr. 

 Schmeiske, who, though small in stat- 

 ure, has a very large heart and wonder- 

 ful energy. 



At the apiaries of Flintstone farm 



belonging to F. G. Crane and Harry 

 Hume, I saw very white comb honey 

 in sections and learned that much of it 

 is produced from wild thyme, which 

 blooms from Aug. 1 until frost. Dr. 

 Gates assured me that the honey of the 

 Berkshire hills compares favorably 

 with that of any other spot in the 

 United States. 



I must hurry on. Still I will linger 

 long enough to speak of a statement of 

 Latham, which I have not yet men- 

 tioned and which we discussed to some 

 extent at this meeting. Latham asserts 

 that, in combat between a laying queen 

 and a virgin, the virgin is al-ways the 

 winner, because of her greater agility. 

 Dr. Gates says this is not always so and 

 that he knows of instances where the 

 fertile queen won. How is this ? 



At 5:00 p.m. we left for Albany, 36 

 miles away, for we had another meet- 

 ing to attend the following day, Aug. 

 11, at Altamont. The weather was ex- 



ceedingly cool, and the north wind 

 blew a strong breeze among those 

 Berkshire hills. It was lucky for me 

 that I had a light sweater to wear. We 

 found the main road closed at different 

 spots, owing to repairs, and the de- 

 tours caused us to travel oh miles in- 

 stead of the 3fJ. We were caught in a 

 hard shower. But a good top to the 

 auto and the water-proof roads on 

 which we traveled made the shower in- 

 significant. 



We reached the Hudson river at 

 Rensselaer, and crossed to Albany at 

 7:30, at dusk. 



Altamont. The meeting of the East- 

 ern New York Beekeepers at the api- 

 ary of W. D. Wright, president of that 

 Association, had an attendance of some 

 50 beekeepers. It was called to order 

 by Mr. Davenport, its industrious sec- 

 retary. Here is the center of the large 

 honey production of the East, for they 

 have white and alsike clover, sweet 



THE CRANE ESTATE. 



MRS CRANE TENDERED TO THE BEEKEEPERS2THE 

 FREEDOM OF THE GROUNDS 



THE CRANE ESTATE WHERE THE BERKSHIRE BEEKEEPERS- 

 WAS HELD 



MEETING 



clover, many wild blossoms and im- 

 mense fields of buckwheat for fall pas- 

 ture. Only 10 miles away was the home 

 of the famous Alexander, who kept as 

 many as 700 colonies in a single apiary. 

 His son still continues the business 

 and attended the meeting. I also met 

 N. D. West, of queen-cell protector 

 fame, a very expert beekeeper, and in- 

 spector Chas. Stewart, another well- 

 known inspector, and dozens of other 

 large producers. There were 16 to 18 

 ladies present, a fair number, although 

 this record was to be beaten at the 

 Adirondack meeting, where half of the 

 attendance were ladies. 



The bees were working very strongly, 

 at the Wright apiary. Mr. Wright has 

 a very simple way to increase the en- 

 trance and ventilating opportunities of 

 the strong colonies. He simply draws 

 the hive forward on its bottom-board 

 until it projects beyond it four or five 

 inches, more or less, according to re- 

 quirements. 



Mr. West stated having had a surplus 

 of 1300 pounds of dandelion honey, 

 one year, and that it granulated very 

 readily. Mr. Stewart spoke of fruit 



