American T^ee Jonrnal 



FIG. 3.-NUMBER ONE. (NATIONAL RULES. 



doing quite a lot of thinking as to the 

 probable results in wintering at this 

 same yard, but we are not losing any 

 sleep over it. 



Judging by past reports of this 

 honey, it will give us no surprise if the 

 the loss should be heavy, particularly 

 as the bees had no late fall flight. .At 

 date of writing (Jan. 12) the bees win- 

 tering on this honey are "dead to the 

 world "to outward appearances, as all 

 are completely covered with snow. 

 This I learn from other sources, as the 

 bees are 100 miles away, and we have 

 not seen them since earlv in Novem- 



ber, and do not e.xpect to see them be- 

 fore Easter. 



Importing Queens 



Regarding losses in queens when 

 shipped from Europe (page 18 of Jan- 

 uary issue), my two attempts to get 

 queens direct from Carniola, proved a 

 failure, the queens being dead in the 

 first case, and in the next nearly all 

 workers were dead, and the queens so 

 weak that they never rallied. In the 

 first shipment, all had died of starva- 

 tion as the bees were dry and not a 

 vestige of food left. 



Convention ^ Proceedings 



grape sugar by the bees, through the 

 secretions of their salivary glands, 

 taxes their vitality to such an extent as 

 to wear them out promptly. This is 

 not the first time that sugar feeding 

 has been disapproved. The venerable 

 editor of the " Bulletin " published by 

 the Swiss Association, Mr. Gubler ; 

 Dr. Heberle, the German scientist, on 

 page 347 of our October number ; Dr. 

 Carton, the noted French physician 

 on page 128 of our April number; in 

 fact, a host of capable writers and 

 scientists have described the exhaust- 

 ing effect of sugar feeding and have 

 sounded a note of warning. However, 

 very few of our beekeepers use sugar 

 syrup for feed in other cases than 

 those of absolute necessity. 



Professor Bartholomew gave out the 

 statement of scientific experiences con- 

 cerning the iiroportion of sugar and 

 water that will make a syrup which 

 neither ferments nor crystallizes by 

 standing. This syrup is made by dilut- 

 ing 8.50 grams of sugar in .500 grams of 

 hot water. In other words, it is a pro- 

 portion, by weight, of 85 of sugar to 50 

 of water, or a little over 1^4 to 1. 



A visit among the buildings of the 

 University of Minnesota, both at the 

 Farm and the headquarters, is sufficient 

 to convince the visitor that this State 

 is keeping in the head ranks for educa- 

 tion. Those of our European friends 

 who think America is only a vast 

 country of untold resources, but not of 

 science, should visit these immense 

 colleges, with their numerous build- 

 ings and libraries, so quickly erected 

 in plains erewhile inhabited only by 

 redskin savages, now tenanted by en- 

 quiring and active students gathered 

 from all parts of the civilized world. ^ 



Prof. Fr.\n-cis t.^ger. 



When we asked Prof. Jager for his 

 photograph to be published in this 

 issue jointly with a report of the Min- 

 nesota State meeting, he first demurred, 

 saying : " No one man up here has 



The Minnesota Meeting 



The Minnesota meeting took place 

 Dec. 2 and 3, 1914, at the University 

 Farm, between Minneapolis and St. 

 Paul. It was attended by about 1-50, 

 who represented all classes of bee- 

 keepers, scientists, practical honey pro- 

 ducers and beginners. 



As at the Iowa meeting of November 

 last, a number of addresses by learned 

 professors gave an insight into the 

 possibilities of progress through new 

 discoveries. 



Apiculture is most liberally sustained 

 by the University, and this is due to 

 the able arguments of Prof. Jager, who 

 has the Chair of Apiculture and has 

 devoted all his energy to the task. He 

 has succeeded in obtaining sufficient 

 funds for the rearing of choice Italian 

 queens to be sold by the State, at the 

 reduced price of 25 cents each, to the 

 honey producers of Minnesota. But as 

 they do not expect to be able to reai 

 over 3000 of these queens the first sea- 

 son, each applicant is limited to 12 

 queens. This is practical work worthy 



of being commended to other State 

 institutions. 



Among the most interesting addres- 

 ses were those by Prof. Jager himself, 

 Prof. Bartholomew, of Iowa, on the 

 "Law of Mendel " as applied to bees, 

 the report of J. A. Holmberg, inspector, 

 and a number of valuable essays by 

 practical beekeepers such as L. D. 

 Leonard, C. F. Greening, C. D. Blaker, 

 etc. 



The possibility (if success in artificial 

 fertilization of queen bees was cau- 

 tiously hinted at by Prof. Jager. Those 

 interested in this matter are referred 

 to page 720 of "Science," Nov. 13, 

 1914. On so perplexing a subject upon 

 which numerous failures have been re- 

 corded, we are not astonished that the 

 experimenters wish to go slowly and 

 be very guarded in their statements un- 

 til success is achieved. 



Both Professors Bartholomew and 

 Jager warned the beekeepers against 

 the excessive feeding of sugar syrup 

 for winter stores, and especially of too 

 thick syrup. Professor Jager held that 

 the transforming of cane sugar into 



Prof Francis Jager, of Minnesota 



