May 14, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



309 



Report of Vermont Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



BV M. l". CKAM, SKC. 



The meeting of the Vermont Bee-Keepers' Association 

 was held at South Hero, Jan. 28, 1903. It was a joint meet- 

 ing with the Horticultural Society, they holding their meet- 

 ing the day before, and the last evening there was a joint 

 discussion between the two societies. 



The bee-keepers' meeting was opened with a song by 

 Prof. W. N. Phelps, entitled, " Good Old Summertime;" 

 prayer was offered by Mr. Story ; the minutes of the last 

 meeting were read and approved, and the following com- 

 mittees were then appointed : 



On Nominations — V. V. Blackmer and R. H. Holmes. 



On Resolutions — M. F. Cram and H. L. Leonard. 



REQUEENING .\ND OTHER MATTERS. 



R. H. Holmes begged leave to digress from his subject 

 a little at the beginning. Grand Isle Count}' is a great 

 place for fruit-growers and bee-keepers. The best bees are 

 what we want for the fertilization of fruit. The islands 

 are long enough for any bee, but not wide enough for large 

 apiaries, but every fruit-grower should keep a few colonies 

 of bees for the fertilization of fruit. 



Some young man should keep on hand all the bee-sup- 

 plies, so that any one can go there and get them. 



Beginners should not buy high-priced bees, but should 

 requeen later, if thought best. When a queen becomes 

 worthless the apiarist should destroy it and give the colony 

 another queen, or brood from which to rear one. The bet- 

 ter way would be to buy a queen of some good, reliable 

 breeder. Beginners should not get more than two colonies 

 to start with, but should procure one or two standard books 

 on apiculture. 



Mr. Brodie, who is in the employ of the Canadian gov- 

 ernment, gave a talk on the " Spraying of Fruit-Trees." He 

 said trees should be sprayed before the blossom is open, and 

 again soon after the blossoms fall, but never while in bloom. 

 The water would injure the fruit, even if there were no 

 arsenoids in it. 



V.iLUE OF BEES TO THE FRUIT-GROWER. 



"Of what value are the bees to the fruit-grower ?" 



Mr. Leonard said that the bees carry pollen from one 

 blossom to another, thereby causing the fruit to set. He 

 also said that small bees helped some in this work, but 

 honey-bees did the best of all. Trees have been covered, 

 thereby excluding the bees, but such trees produce no per- 

 fect fruit. 



Mr. Cram spoke of the value of bees in raising buck- 

 wheat. The more honey you get the more grain you get. 

 One man in Virginia thought he could get rich raising pear- 

 trees. He set out a large number of Bartlett pear-trees. 

 He got no pears, for the reason that his pears were all of 

 one variety. He sold out to another man who tried it, but 

 with the same result. He sold to a man who set out another 

 variety of pear-trees, thereby obtaining a cross-fertilization 

 of the two kinds by means of the bees, and obtained an 

 abundance of fruit. He said he had a plum-tree which had 

 never borne any fruit, with the exception of a few scrubs. 

 Last spring he broke a branch from another tree and hung 

 it in that one, and obtained an abundance of fruit. 



The Italian bees are the best fertilizers for clover, while 

 the black bees are the best for buckwheat. 



SHAKEN SWARMS— SAINFOIN— COMB FOUNDATION. 



Mr. Blackmer said he preferred to let bees swarm nat- 

 urally. 



Prof. Shutt— On the Experimental Farm at Ottawa, 

 Canada, John Fixter, the man who runs the station, said 

 sainfoin was a very good plant for honey. Prof. Shutt said 

 he had tried several experiments to see if bees would injure 

 fruit, but he had never known bees to injure sound fruit. 



In his remarks about foundation he said if we use very 

 thin foundation the bees have to manufacture wax. If it is 

 too thick it leaves a " fish-bone ;" the medium-weight foun- 

 ation being the best. 



Unripe honey had done some damage to the market. 

 Extracted honey had been known to absorb IS to 20 percent 



of water, and usually had IS percent when taken from the 

 bees. Honey sV.ould be kept dry and warm. 



The afternoon session opened by two recitations from 

 C. W. ScarQ', one entitled, '• His Uncle Hi's Sunshine Fac- 

 tory," and the other, " When I Get Rich," both of which 

 were very entertaining. 



The secretary's and treasurer's reports were read and 

 approved. 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Another year has rolled around since last we met to talk 

 over together our mutual interests as bee-keepers, our hopes 

 and fears, our progress and our failures. 



The past season in northern New England was quite 

 unusual. Not since 1872 have we had such a rainy summer, 

 and even that unusual summer was less cold than the past 

 season, and yet, notwithstanding the cold and wet, the bees, 

 as a rule in northern New England, have done well, having- 

 stored enough for winter, and surplus sufficient to repay 

 their master for his timely care and attention. 



We are in many respects highly favored here in Ver- 

 mont, so far as concerns the health and vigor of our bees. 

 While in most of our Northern States foul brood has been 

 and is still doing great harm to bee-keeping interests, our 

 State, so far as I know, is entirely free from this dread dis- 

 ease. It is true that what is known as " pickled brood " has 

 made its appearance, but, so far, has done far less harm 

 than was feared when it first appeared. 



For the best grades of honey the price has ruled higher 

 the past few months than for several years past. While 

 this may be in part owing to light crops in other sections, 

 there is reason to believe that the general prosperity of the 

 country has much to do with it. 



There is also a growing demand for honey as a whole- 

 some and delicious article of food, in many families where 

 it was in the not distant past unknown. 



A few years ago it was almost unknown in the grocery 

 trade. To-day no well-equipped grocery store is without it. 

 There appears also to be an intelligent and growing demand 

 for extracted honey, and I have noted with some satisfac- 

 tion that our Vermont extracted honey sells higher than 

 any other in our larger cities. We might perhaps have ex- 

 pected this while Vermont comb honey is preferred to any 

 other brand. 



There has been, I am sure, some advance the past year 

 in the improvement of our stock. Recent study has shown 

 very conclusively that there is as much difference in a given 

 number of colonies of bees as regards their productiveness 

 as there is in the same number of dairy cows. Our best api- 

 arists are taking advantage of this fact, and breeding from 

 their most productive stock. And while we can not, as yet, 

 control the mating of our queens as with other domestic 

 animals, I believe we can improve our bees quite as fast by 

 rearing our queens from selected stock. 



While we have no reason to complain or take a pessi- 

 mistic view of the future, yet there are some things we may 

 as well frankly admit as not altogether hopeful. The noble 

 linden trees— the pride of our forests— are fast disappearing 

 before the ax of the lumberman. We feel quite sure that 

 the new growth does not nearly make good that cut down 

 from year to year. Whether alsike clover, which has be- 

 come fully naturalized in our Champlain valley, will make 

 the loss of basswood good, it is yet too early to decide. I 

 believe it will go a long way towards it. It winters much 

 better than white clover, and, when sufficiently wet, comes 

 up in old meadows, along the roadside, and in unlooked-for 

 places, as well as in well-tilled fields where the seed has 

 been sown by the hand of man. I have no doubt that dur- 

 ing the past season there were several thousand acresof 

 this clover within range of ray bees, to say nothing of white 

 clover and other honey-yielding plants. 



Much may be done, however, to retain our basswood 

 forests. I know one extensive bee-keeper who has pur- 

 chased a large block of land near his home that he may 

 control the growth of basswood now standing, as well as 

 the young trees that come up freely and mature rapidly 

 when protected by larger trees. This will furnish basswood 

 bloom as well as wood and limber for untold time. 



The production of alfalfa honey in more than a half 

 doze-J of our Western States, is a fact that must be reckoned 

 with. In a recent business trip through Nebraska, Wyom- 

 ing, Idaho, Utah and Colorado. I was surprised at the rapid 

 strides that are being made in the cultivation of this val- 

 uable forage-plant. 



The Rocky Mountains may be to-day considered as one 

 vast cattle-pasture, while the valleys, where water can be 

 had, are covered with alfalfa. More than this, east of this 

 grand range of mountains, is a broad belt too dry for corn 



