March, 1914. 



Ame rican "Be e JoornalJ 



8b 



keeping, as it would not only help 

 check the ravages of foul brood, but it 

 would increase the output of honey on 

 account of the added number of colo- 

 nies in movable-frame hives. 



A great deal of discussion was pro- 

 voked on the general subjects of 

 " Wintering Bees " and the " Market- 

 ing of Honey." 



The following officers were elected 

 for the ensuing year: T. J. Ayers, 

 president ; W. B. Romine, vice-presi- 

 dent; J. M. Buchanan, secretarv-treas- 

 urer. Mr. J. S. Ward and J. M. Bu- 

 chanan were elected delegates to the 

 National meeting in St. Louis. 



South Dakota Convention Meets 



The convention of the South Dakota 

 Beekeepers' Association was held at 

 Vermilion Jan, 21, 1914, and was a most 

 successful meeting. 



The following program was carried 

 out, each number being freely dis- 

 cussed by the members present, and 



good feeling prevailed : 



" Bees on the farm," by Geo. F. 

 Webster, of Sioux Falls. 



" Experiences and expenses of mark- 

 eting honey," by W. P. Southworth, of 

 Sioux City. 



"Producing big crops of comb hon- 

 ey," by F. A. Dahl, of Gayville. 



" Feeding sweet clover green and 

 dry to stock." by T. M. Goddard. 



"Treating foul brood," by Dr. E. A. 

 Morgan. 



"Does it pay to keep bees ?" by Pres. 

 R. A. Morgan. 



'' Extracted honey," Wintering bees," 

 " Split sections," " Chaff hives," etc., 

 were discussed. 



It was decided to hold a picnic next 

 summer at either Vermilion or Gay- 

 ville ; time and place to be decided by 

 the president and secretary. 



The next annual convention is to be 

 at Vermilion early in December. 



By a unanimous vote, the present 

 officers were re-elected. R. A. Morgan, 

 of Vermilion, president, and L. A. 

 Syverud, of Canton, secretary and 

 treasurer. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



Our Visit in Burgundy 



BY C. P. DAUANT. 



THE PART of our trip which I am 

 about to describe has already been 

 mentioned in the September num- 

 ber. But there is plenty left to tell. 

 We reached the home of the presi- 



the good taste and courtesy of our host, 

 when we inform him that a life-size 

 crayon portrait of my father had been 

 installed in the bed-room which we 

 were to occupy. All our needs and the 

 least of our desires were anticipated 

 with similar foresight and urbanity. 



It rained, the day following our ar- 

 rival, and the projected bee excursions 

 had to be postponed. We spent the 

 time in discussing bee-culture. Before 

 leaving home, I had prepared a mem- 

 orandum book, with printed questions 

 and blanks for the replies. This con- 

 tained a hundred pages, and was neatly 

 bound in leather. It proved very use- 

 ful, but not so useful as I could have 

 made it, had I known beforehand the 



possible result of my investigations. 

 For instance, I had wished to enquire 

 into the advisability of making worker 

 comb foundation with larger cells than 

 are now made, because one of the 

 French writers has for some years 

 strenuously maintained that the natural 

 comb of the worker bee is larger than 

 commonly asserted, and that still 

 larger cells could be made; that the 

 bees produced in those larger cells are 

 of larger size. I enquired into this 

 question wherever I went, thinking 

 that there might be something of value 

 in it. The result was entirely negative. 

 All that my enquiries secured was evi- 

 dence that there is irregularity in the 

 cells of the honey-bee, which we al- 

 ready knew, and that larger cells have 

 little or no influence on the size of the 

 workers. In some instances where 

 cells are too far in excess of the 

 worker size, drone eggs are laid in 

 them. The standard worker cells have 

 been variously estimated at 854, 838 

 (which is the figure arrived at by Mr. 

 Langstroth) down to 73(3, to the square 

 decimeter. We will refer again to this 

 question later, for I obtained a number 

 of expressions of opinion. Our host 

 was prompt in saying that this matter 

 had no importance, since even if larger 

 bees could be produced, they would re- 

 quire more room, the number of them 

 would therefore be less and the crop 

 result the same. 



We spent the time between showers 

 in the fine park of which we give ad- 

 ditional views in this number. They 

 are all the work of our host himself, 

 who is a splendid amateur photog- 

 rapher. We gathered mushrooms by 

 the basketful, edible mushrooms which 

 are very plentiful. We also gathered 

 snails. We had never tasted of snails, 

 and were rather prejudiced. But those 

 shell snails are not any worse looking 

 than oysters. They are eaten roasted 

 in the shell, with a nice dressing and 

 taste very good. 



The following two days were spent 

 visiting apiaries by the dozen. Get- 

 ting up at 5 o'clock in the morning we 

 went to Beaune, 30 miles away, in a 

 spring wagon similar to the English 

 dog-cart. They make those vehicles 



Mr. Champion, of France. 



dent of the Burgundy Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation, Mr. Champion, on July 23, 

 just one month after leaving home. .\ 

 most hearty reception was awaiting us. 

 The reader may have a slight- idea of 



On the Banks of the Saone at Gergy. France. 



