AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



695 



made exceptional progress on the north 

 German plains, as for example, at the 

 mouths of the Ems, the Weser and the 

 Elbe, and especially in that portion 

 which to-day is included in the prov- 

 ince of Hanover, and the adjoining 

 lands, where endless areas, covered with 

 Erica vulgaris^ and, here and there 

 buckwheat, offered to the bees a good 

 autumn harvest. Here bees were kept, 

 and are still kept to-day, in the round, 

 bell-shaped straw hives. The method 

 followed is a very rational one. The 

 colonies, through feeding, are urged to 

 give off numerous natural swarms, and 



C. J. H. ORAVENHORST. 



if, for example, 50 colonies increase to 

 150, of these 100 are sulphured in the 

 fall. In good years for honey these yield 

 about 3,700 pounds of honey and 50 

 pounds of wax. These returns are ob- 

 tained mainly by following the migra- 

 tory system. Even though in many 

 other localities in Germany bees were 

 kept in straw hives, this is of little mo- 

 ment. Box and log hives have nearly 

 disappeared. Housing bees in living 

 trees is no longer followed. 



Apiculture in Germany did not again 

 receive a general impulse until Dr. 

 Dzierzon canpe forward in 1847 with his 

 invention of the movable-comb hive, 

 which appeared in the bee-journal 

 founded in Eichstaedt, Bavaria, estab- 

 lished not long before this by Andreas 

 Schmidt. At first he had powerful op- 

 ponents, among whom was Von Ber- 

 lepsch. But when the latter, with bag 

 and baggage, went over into Dzierzou's 



camp, and other prominent bee-keepers 

 followed him, the new system gained 

 ground constantly, especially after the 

 invention of comb foundation and that 

 of the honey extractor were added, and 

 the itinerant convention of the German 

 and Austro-Hungarian bee-keepers came 

 into existence. The first one of these 

 conventions was heid in Arnstadt in 

 1850, and the 39th in September of this 

 year in Vienna. These conventions are 

 always accompanied by apiarian exhibi- 

 tions. The apiarian societies which are 

 scattered all over Germany have had the 

 greatest influence upon the spread and 

 elevation of apiculture. We have in the 

 first place the separate societies, which 

 are made up of members of a given 

 locality. These societies meet monthly, 

 half-yearly or yearly. A number of 

 these societies form, in the several lands 

 or provinces of a State, so-called central 

 associations. Nearly all of the central 

 associations, that of the kingdoms of 

 Bavaria and Wurtemberg excepted, have 

 banded themselves together to form a 

 German Central Association, which thus 

 numbers about 20,000 to 30,000 mem- 

 bers. The German Central Association, 

 by the side of the German-Austro-Hun- 

 garian Itinerant Association, but inde- 

 pendently, holds every two years a great 

 convention, with an exhibition. The 

 last one was held in 1893, in Heidel- 

 berg. All of the separate central asso- 

 ciations receive subventions from the 

 State. The Mark Association, for ex- 

 ample, to which I belong, and which is 

 composed of 83 separate individual so- 

 cieties, having about 1,680 members, 

 receives yearly about $300. Other so- 

 cieties receive more, and others less. 



Every member of an association re- 

 ceives at a reduced rate, the oflScial or- 

 gan of the society. The Hannoverian 

 " Centralblatt," organ of the Hanover 

 Central Association, is most widely dis- 

 tributed among the members of societies, 

 the editions being 13,000 numbers. It 

 appears monthly, and costs to members 

 of the society 24 cents yearly. In addi- 

 tion to these olBcial organs, numerous 

 other bee-journals are published. Be- 

 sides these journals — there are about 16 

 of them — besides the multitude of other 

 apiarian publications which are poured 

 forth annually, and aside from the activity 

 of the societies, the so-called bee-keepers' 

 schools work for the elevation of apicul- 

 ture, as, for example, the bee-keepers' 

 school under the protectorate of the 

 Archduchess of Baden, which is located 

 at Eberbach on the Neckar, where sev- 

 eral courses are given every summer, 

 many ladies also attending ; and also the 



