310 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 14, 1903. 



or grain or Eastern grasses where this dry-weather clover 

 seems to thrive most luxuriantly. And I hardly need to add 

 that it furnishes food for bees as well as for cattle and 

 sheep. Already alfalfa honey is more abundant than the 

 far-famed white sage of California. The population of 

 these alfalfa States is sparse, and most of the honey comes 

 East in car-load lots. A few years since, I went to a large 

 dealer in one of our New England cities, hoping to sell him 

 my entire crop. Although early in the season, I found him 

 stacking up a car-load of honey from Colorado, which he 

 had bought. Suffice to say I did not sell my own. 



Alfalfa honey, both comb and extracted, is beautiful to 

 look at ; as white or whiter than our best basswood honey, 

 with a flavor, to my mind, much inferior to our clover or 

 basswood. It granulates quickly, which may account for 

 its being regarded with less favor than Eastern honey, and 

 selling for a less price. I do not, therefore, believe it can 

 compete with our comb honey. It may be ditferent with 

 extracted honey. 



During the last two or three years a renewed interest 

 has sprung up in bee-keeping in Cuba, and many bee-keep- 

 ers have gone to that wonderful island to engage in their 

 favorite pursuit, and are building up apiaries with marvel- 

 ous productiveness. What the results will be no one can 

 tell. The honey is probably not equal to our Northern 

 honey. The great bulk of it is extracted or " strained," and 

 finds a market on the other side of the broad Atlantic. But 

 the Yankee bee-keeper in Cuba is not satisfied with two 

 cents a pound for his honey, although produced in great 

 abundance, and already he is shipping comb honey to New 

 York. Upon his success in this venture will depend in some 

 measure the future price of honey during the latter part of 

 winter, at least. How well we may be able to meet this in- 

 flux of honey from Cuba and the far West, is a question for 

 our consideration and most careful solution. One way I 

 will at this time suggest, is the opening up of new markets, 

 or increasing the demand where it is already known. In 

 1860 the New York market was broken down by what was 

 then considered an enormous amount of honey — 20,000 

 pounds. To-day that market will take hundreds of thous- 

 ands of pounds of honey without a thought of being over- 

 stocked. 



There is, I believe, a good and growing demand for ex- 

 tracted honey for table use, and this should be encouraged, 

 as honey in this form is of almost as great value as food as 

 butter at half its cost in the open markets. 



During the past season I have made some experiments 

 in securing white combs, or, rather, in preventing travel- 

 stains, with fairly good success. The past season has been 

 bad for the staining of combs, and yet, with a large num- 

 ber, I was able entirely to prevent it, or greatly reduce it, 

 by the use of a properly constructed honey-board. I dis- 

 liked to use or try even this remedy, fearing it would reduce 

 the amount of surplus, but I have not found any serious 

 objection. 



My experience, the past year, with bleaching combs 

 somewhat stained, has been quite satisfactory, thereby 

 placing some six or seven thousand combs into the first 

 grade, that otherwise would properly have been placed in a 

 grade below. 



1 am also well pleased to state at this time that I am 

 quite satisfied with the plain section and fences, giving 

 bees free passage-ways around the edges of sections, as well 

 as through the fences from one to another. 



During the last few months some considerable space, 

 in some of our bee-papers, has been given to the discussion 

 of brushed swarms, or, more properly, forced swarms, for 

 the purpose of preventing natural swarms. From my ex- 

 perience along this line I am led to believe that it at least 

 promises well. Having practiced it to some extent for many 

 years, I believe it is of much value in yards of bees that we 

 can not visit more than once a week ; that it will to a large 

 extent control swarming, and at the same time give us a 

 fair yield of honey. J. E. Crane. 



Mr. Leonard wished to know whether sunshine would 

 bleach combs without the use of sulphur. Mr. Crane said 

 it could, but not as easily, nor is it as practical as with 

 sulphur and common light. 



A BEE-KBEPEk'S TKADE-MAKK — OTHER SUBJECTS. 



Mr. Leonard said that a bee-keeper certainly should if 

 he is an honest and practical man. The Government should 

 make people mark their honey, and all other produce. 

 Honey should not be faced, but should all be alike in the 

 same case. 



Mr. Crane would store honey in a chamber; high tem- 

 perature is the best place in which to store. 



How best to destroy queen-cells ? Cut them out with a 

 knife. 



What is the cost of a queen-bee ? From three to five 

 dollars. 



How shall we treat the new swarm so it will be less 

 likely to start for Canada ? Hive it in a clean hive, put in 

 foundation or drawn comb, if you have it, or a frame of 

 brood from some other swarm, and without queen-cells, is 

 better still. Remove to a shady place as soon as hived ; the 

 farther from the place where they clustered the better. 



A committee appointed one year ago to see if the bee- 

 keepers and horticulturists would unite, reported it not 

 practical. 



V. V. Blackmer gave an interesting account of his six 

 years' experience in bee-keeping in Florida. How the first 

 winter he was there the big freeze came which wiped out 

 thousands of acres of orange-groves, and killed nearly all 

 of the honey-producing plants, and for the last eight years 

 the bees have hardly made a living over the greater part of 

 that State. 



A vote of thanks was tendered the Canadian friends for 

 their help in this convention. 



Mr. Crane gave a talk on " Improving the Honey-Bee." 



The committee on nominations reported the following : 

 President, O. J. Lowrev ; Secretary, V. V. Blackmer, of 

 Orwell ; Treasurer, H. L. Leonard ; Vice-Presidents : for 

 Addison Co., G. C. Spencer; Orange Co., M. F. Cram; 

 Rutland Co., V.N.Forbes; Lamoille Co., E. K. Seaver ; 

 and Chittenden Co., C. M. Rice. 



The committee on resolutions made the following report : 



"We, the members of the Vermont Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, do hereby tender our most sincere thanks to the 

 people of South Hero for the very cordial reception they 

 have given us, and for their baunteous provisions for the 

 inner, as well as the spiritual and social, man. 



" We would also thank our visitors from over the Cana- 

 dian line for the insight they gave us into the doings of 

 their Government — in our as well as kindred pursuits. 



" Also to Prof. L. R. Jones for his address, and to the 

 railroad companies who granted reduced rates to the con- 

 vention." M. F. Cram, / 

 H. L. Lbon.\rd, \ 



Com. 



Contributed Articles. \ 



No. 3. 



Scientific Queen-Rearing " 

 Combines All. 



Book 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I HAVE waited since writing what I did on page 569 of 

 the American Bee Journal for 1902, for the " smoke of bat- 

 tle " to clear a little on the queen-rearing subject, to see 

 just what would be brought out in this matter. Many good 

 things have been said, and many valuable ideas brought to 

 light, the same being somewhat mixed with extravagant 

 assertions, and, in some instances, rather immoderate lan- 

 guage. For the good ideas and valuable things brought 

 out, all ought to be extremely thankful. I believe that I, 

 for one, have been much profited by this discussion, and 

 wish here and now to thank those who have spent their 

 time and talent in writing up this matter for the readers of 

 the " oldest bee-paper in the world." 



Then I see that some errors have crept into the minds 

 of some, one of which is that Dr. Miller and others seem to 

 think that Doolittle fully endorsed the "umbilical cord" 

 idea, advanced by Dr. Gallup. This was not my intention, 

 for I never claimed to know what the attachment was that I 

 found holding the imago queen to the royal jelly. I had al- 

 ways supposed that it was Nature's means to keep the im- 

 mature queen from resting on her head while she was being 

 perfected in the cell, until I read the opinion of Dr. Gallup, 

 and I am quite inclined to that opinion still. What I did 

 intend to show was, that if there was any virtue in that 

 " missing link " matter, such virtue was always present 

 where queens were reared by the plan given in " Scientific 

 Queen-Rearing;" and that Dr. Gallup was mistaken in 



