66 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



tain advance to consumers of wax and honey and 

 products of which they are a pait, the adjustment 

 to new conditions which the change in rates im- 

 plies, and the doubtful utility of the tariff itself 

 to accomplish the desired results, I would most 

 respectfully record my vote against any raise in 

 rates. 



Those who advocate a higher tariff ostensibly 

 for the purpose of excluding diseased honey and 

 wax are open to suspicion, inasmuch as theexclu- 

 sion of unwholesome and dangerous substances 

 may easily be controlled in our imports without 

 a tariff; and, like beneficiaries of tarif? in general, 

 they wish to conceal their intentions under the 

 cloak of public welfare. They keep our eyes on 

 the dangerous germs of foul brood while they qui- 

 etly abstract from the public 5 cts. on wax and 2 

 on honey, and this, too, while we are trying to 

 get the people to consider our honey a desirable, 

 cheap, and wholesome food. 



Ann Arbor, Mich., Dec. 3. E. G. Mann. 



MEETING OF THE CHICAGO NORTHWESTERN BEE- 

 KEEPERS* ASSOCIATION. 



An exceedingly interesting meeting of the 

 Northwestern Bee-keepers' Association was held 

 at the Briggs House parlors, Chicago, Dec 2 and 

 3. '1 his association represents territory in Indi- 

 ana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. It was 

 largely attended by the bee-keepers of Cook 

 Co., of which there are upward of a thousand in 

 the county and three hundred inside the city lim- 

 its of Chicago. 



On the subject of the control of the price of 

 honey, many deprecated the practice of selling 

 the crops at whatever price might be offered. 

 One man told of the sale to a Wisconsin grocer 

 of a large amount of the finest kind of white- 

 clover honey for 10 cts. a pound. The plan of 

 communities of bee-keepers organizing to con- 

 trol prices in their vicinity was advocated. One 

 bee-keeper told how he and two others had made 

 and kept an understanding as to prices, and how 

 each, year after year, had disposed of the crops 

 without any undue sacrifice. Another member 

 told of the sale of 50,000 lbs. of honey in one 

 town. There had been a distribution of not less 

 than 2 lbs. per capita at fair prices. 



Mr. Whitney, of Evanston, said that there 

 never would be any great improvement in this 

 matter until the bee-keepers of the country are 

 brought into the associations, induced to attend 

 the meetings, and constantly take and read a 

 bee-paper, so that they may be enlightened as to 

 profit-making in the industry. Ignorance was 

 thought to be at the very root of such matters, 

 and this ignorance must be cleared away by the 

 work of the men and women who are woiking 

 members of associations and readers of bee liter- 

 ature. The crying need is to get the apiarists, 

 or, rather, men and women who are bungling 

 the business, to get into the bee-keepers' fold. 



The meeting voted, through a resolution, to 

 ask the legislature of Illinois to pass a law to 

 govern the conduct of apiaries to the end that 

 dreaded disease may be prevented, cured, or en 

 tirely wiped out. 



The care of colonies in winter was discussed. 

 Some of the men who have built commodious 

 houses in the suburbs, and have an abundance 

 of basement room heated by furnaces, are mak- 



ing use of such wintering places, the temperature 

 being closely regulated. Many of the old bee- 

 men are still keeping their bees outside, making 

 use of leaves in one of the supers, and leaves to 

 bank up to keep the bees warm and dry. Some 

 of the city bee-keepers are already making use 

 of cement for hive-stands. Cement blocks set 

 flat and solid on the ground are now in use. 

 Ravenswood, 111. J L. Graff. 



WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE LOUD HUMMING 

 OF ONE COLONY IN THE CELLAR.' 



A few days ago I went down cellar to see how 

 the bees were getting along, and, to my surprise, 

 I heard a loud humming in one of the hives. 

 The entrance was covered with wire cloth so the 

 bees could not get out. I carried the hive out of 

 the cellar so that the other bees, which were very 

 quiet, would not be disturbed, and placed it in an 

 out-building, and there it stands, with the bees 

 still trying to get out. 



The colony is about as heavy as when I car- 

 ried it down cellar, and I think the hive contains 

 plenty of honey. The whole thing weighs some- 

 thing like 45 lbs. Every thing is nice and dry 

 about the hive, and I surely don't know what's 

 the matter. 



The cellar is very dry, and the temperature is 

 about 50 or 55. O. E. Sundry. 



Zumbrota, Minn., Dec. 26. 



[Some colonies will bear being shut in a bee- 

 cellar with wire cloth over the entrance, and 

 others will not. In the average cellar it is our 

 opinion that it is far better to leave the entrances 

 open just as they are used during summer. If 

 you had removeH the wire cloth from the colony 

 that made the loud humming the bees would have 

 subsided, probably. Under the circumstances 

 we would advise you to remove it at once, no 

 matter where you keep the bees. — Ed.] 



SEALED COVERS VS. ABSORBENT CUSHIONS. 



Why do you recommend sealed wooden cov- 

 ers over the frames, with packing above, for win- 

 tering, while Mr. C. P. Dadant holds exactly 

 the opposite view, viz , that absorbing cushions 

 should be used .' See his article in last issue of 

 the American Bee Journal. W. F. Cox. 



Garden City, Mo., Dec. 12. 



[We recommend sealed covers to the average 

 bee-keeper because such persons will secure 

 better results than with absorbing cushions. 

 While Mr. Dadant may be able to do better 

 without the sealed covers, it is our opinion that 

 bee-keepers as a rule will do better by having the 

 t-^p of the hive sealed, and covered with warm 

 packing We have worked both schemes at our 

 yard here at Medina; and while some years the 

 absorbing cushions gave the better results, yet 

 year in and year out the sealed cover comes out 

 ahead. — Ed.] 



ALSIKE AND RED CLOVER NOT KILLED BY 

 DROUTH, BUT WHITE MAY BE AFFECTED. 



We had a bad season after the first of July, 

 for there was no rain from the first of July until 

 the middle of October — about one hundred days. 

 We are having some rain, but the ground is 

 wet only six or eight inches deep. I thought 



