February, lfll4. 



American l^ee Journal 



He called attention to the securing of 

 an inspection law and better premiums 

 at the fair, the past year. He advocated 

 a better system of crop distribution, 

 and avoiding the use of anything but 

 new containers for honey. He urged 

 co-operation in honey sales, increased 

 education in beekeeping, and the pub- 

 ishing of crop reports. 



Our venerable friend and active 

 worker, Eugene Secor, of Forest City, 

 delivered a very interesting address on 

 " How We May Increase the Consump- 

 tion of Honey." He called attention 

 to the fact that only about a pound of 

 honey per capita is consumed in the 

 United States, while there is a con- 

 sumption of 172 pounds of meat and 

 some 70 pounds of sugar. His conclu- 

 sion was that honey should be more 

 largely advertised and more largely 

 produced. 



Mr. J. W. Jarnagin spoke of bee-cul- 

 ture as one of the side-lines on the 

 farm, and mentioned the usefulness of 

 the bee in fertilizing plants. He quoted 

 Mr. Gill, one of the largest producers 

 in the VVest, in testimony of the fact 

 that the farmers of the irrigated re- 

 gions are glad to secure apiaries on 

 their land to fertilize the blossoms of 

 both their fruit and their field crops. 

 The discussions following this address 

 brought out the fact that some Iowa 

 orchardists have offered inducements 

 to beekeepers to place apiaries within 

 their orchards. 



An essay of J. L. Strong, on selling 

 honey directly to the consumer was 

 very interesting. Mr. Strong is one of 

 the oldest beekeepers in America, hav- 

 ing been a practical apiarist ever since 

 the honey extractor was invented. He 

 told of his early experiences and of the 

 difficulty of selling fine extracted honey 

 when the consumers were used only to 

 the strained honey of bee-hunters and 

 box-hive beekeepers. Pure clover 

 honey was then very much mistrusted. 

 The discussion which followed brought 

 about a mention of the harm done to 

 the beekeeping interests by the endless 

 repetition of the fake story of manu- 

 factured comb honey, which is still be- 

 lieved by tens of thousands in spite of 

 its utter impossibility. 



A number of officials from the State 

 College at Ames were present, and 

 urged that a meeting of the association 

 be held in that city. Mr. Bartholomew 

 stated that the college was to institute 

 a short course in bee-culture, with 

 about 30 lectures and some practical 

 work. A committee was appointed to 

 take steps to secure some permanent 

 establishment of this kind and an ex- 

 perimental apiary at the college. It 

 was finally decided by vote to hold the 

 next annual meeting at Ames, and sec- 

 tional meetings and beekeepers' picnics 

 in different places during the summer. 

 The election of oflicers which took 

 place on the second day resulted in the 

 re-election of the same men : Presi- 

 dent, Frank C. Pellett ; Secretary, S. 

 VV. Snyder; Treasurer, C. H. True. 

 Surely, no better men could be secured. 

 To the efforts and good management 

 of these oflicers is certainly due a por- 

 tion of the success which attended the 

 meeting. 



The president was selected to repre- 

 sent the association at the meeting of 

 the National in February. 



A very important paper was read, on 

 sweet clover, by Mr. Coverdale, and 

 the discussion that followed brought 

 out a number of useful points. It ap- 

 pears that the farmers of the country 

 have entirely changed in their attitude 

 towards this honey-plant, and instead 

 of considering it as a noxious weed, 

 are now growing it as a forage-plant, 

 and also to reclaim abandoned and 

 worthless land, upon which Mr. Cover- 

 dale assured that it grows to a height 

 of 5 feet. This apiarist grows the 

 sweet clover for hay. He cuts it in 

 October of the first year and secures 

 quite a crop from this first harvest. In 

 the second year he cuts it as soon as it 

 reaches a height of 23 to 24 inches, tak- 

 ing care not to mow it too low, leaving 

 a joint or two of the stem above the 

 ground. If cut too low or too late it 

 is often killed. In about a month from 

 the first cutting it is again ready to cut, 

 unless wanted for seed. When sowing 

 it for the first time, the ground in 

 which it is to be grown may be inocu- 

 lated with the bacteria by simply soak- 

 ing the seed in a liquid made of com- 

 mon glue diluted with finely powdered 

 dirt shaken from the roots of old sweet- 

 clover plants. The seed is spread upon 

 a floor, and the mixture poured upon 

 it, and it is shoveled over until every 

 seed has a light coat of this mixture. It 

 takes only a few gallons of the mixture 

 to inoculate a large quantity of seed. 

 About 20 pounds of seed is used to the 

 acre. When the clover is cut for its 

 seed, they use an ordinary binder ma- 

 chine. There is a great demand every- 

 where for the sweet clover at present. 



A member having stated that his 

 stock would not eat sweet clover, and 

 having asked how he could induce 

 them to eat it, a dozen or more pro- 

 tested that cattle, as well as horses, 

 could be induced to eat it very readily, 

 by simply feeding nothing else to them 



and that they soon learn to prefer it to 

 other fodder. But care should be taken 

 to harvest it at the proper time. 



Interesting papers were given by Mr. 

 True, Hamlin B. Miller, Dr. Bonney, 

 W. P. Southworth, B. A. Aldrich, J. W. 

 Bittenbender, E. G. Brown J. W. Stine, 

 Prof. Kennedy, of Ames, and others. 



Mr. Huber Root, who came in lieu of 

 his brother E. R., detained at home by 

 sickness, gave a history of the methods 

 for extracting honey and a display of 

 the most modern implements. He es- 

 timated that the honev crop of the 

 United States was around 200,000,000 

 pounds, about 150,000,000 of which is 

 extracted honey. He deprecated the 

 use of the capping-melter for out- 

 yards, as it gives considerable trouble 

 to get it ready, and often damages the 

 honey in heating. He recommended 

 the use of power to run the honey ex- 

 tractor. 



Mr. E. G. Brown, in his talk on the 

 cure of foul brood, gave a variation of 

 the McEvoy method, devised by the 

 well-known apiarist, Thomas Chantry, 

 who now resides in Utah. It consists 

 in hiving the bees upon strips of foun- 

 dation and one dry comb. It is held 

 that the bees at once desposit the 

 honey which they hold in their sacs 

 into that dry comb. This being re- 

 moved promptly, there is no necessity 

 of again transferring the bees. As this 

 is a short method, it is worthy of trial, 

 especially where the disease is of mild 

 nature. 



It is impossible to give in this short 

 report more than a glimpse of some of 

 the valuable things we heard. We leave 

 out many good points. The beekeep- 

 ers of Iowa have much to gain from 

 these meetings, and we bespeak for the 

 Ames convention a very great success. 

 We will give due notice of it in these 

 columns a month or so ahead of time. — 

 The Euitor. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. Wilder. Cordele. Ga, 



A Little Discouraged 



MR. WILDKR:— 1 spf that you 

 have secured a big crop of honey. 

 My honey crop for the last tu'o sea- 

 sons has been a complete failure. 

 Surrounding beekeepers have also 

 tailed. 1 tried to produce honey in 

 sections last season and failed and I 

 tried to produce chunk honey in shal- 

 low frames and failed. I used full 

 sheets of foundation and the supers 

 at the close of the season were about 

 as clear of honey as when 1 put them 

 on. We had very little swanuine; but 

 onr bees were very strona; ;ind we 

 only have GO or 70 colonies in this lo- 

 cation. Our honey plants are fruit 

 and poplar trees and lilaokberry in 

 the si)ring and cotton during summer. 

 This may be a poor location but it is 

 as good as there is within fifty miles. 

 If this si'ction is not good for bees 



I don't want to continue, and if I'm 

 not right 1 want to get right. If you 

 fan suggest anything that would help 

 me I will appreciate it. 



Starr, S. C. S. A. H.\ll. 



ANSWKR:— 1 am almost at a loss 

 to suggest anything in your case. If 

 bees have done well in your section 

 up to two years ago you have evident- 

 ly been up against a failure of nectar 

 owing to weather conditions. Such is 

 very often the case. You have some 

 good honey plants and your location 

 has hardly I'un out so far as a bee 

 pasture is concerned. As early as 

 l)0ssible in the spring 1 would put In 

 some of both Caucasian and Italian 

 queens and note results. 'I'liis is not 

 bad policy in good locations, and it is 

 even better in poor ones. There are 

 many locations in the sontli where 

 bees will not enter supers very much 



