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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



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 MR.. R. I^. XAYI^OR. BOII^ED DOIJVN. 



BY KEV. W. F. CLARKE. 



I notice that no reports from the Michigan Experimental Apiary have appeared 

 in the American Bee Journal since May 31, 1894. This does not greatly surprise 

 me, for most of what has been published since is so overloaded with figures as to 

 bewilder the ordinary reader. But why should not a brief statement be given of the 

 results arrived at ? The publication of the reports in full is rendered less necessary 

 by the appearance of a special bulletin issued by the Michigan State Agricultural 

 College, giving a detailed statement of the experiments for a year. I presume simi- 

 lar bulletins will appear annually. Pending their publication, why not boil down 

 each report as it comes out, and give the essence of it ? Suppose I constitute myself 

 cook, and try my hand at this boiling-down process ? 



SxjGAK POK Winter Stores. — This is the first of the topics that have been re- 

 ported on since May 31. In the fall of 1893, Mr. Taylor selected 24 colonies for 

 cellar-wintering, as nearly equal in all respects as possible, one-half of which were 

 to be fed sugar syrup for winter stores, and the other half to be fed with honey for 

 the same purpose. The necessary feeding was done the last of September. The 

 amount of stores consumed was very small, but the important point brought out was 

 the economy of feeding sugar stores instead of honey. The average consumption of 

 sugar was but 3J< pounds from the 15th of November until the first days of April, 

 while that of honey was 6% pounds, or nearly twice as much. 



Si'RiNG Protection and Stimulative Feeding.— This report is very difficult to 

 boil down, being almost all figures, and must have cost a large amount of labor and 

 patience. The results can be given almost in Mr. Taylor's own words. They were 

 a great surprise to him. While he had long been doubtful whether spring packing 

 and stimulative feeding repaid the work and expense, he fully believed there was 

 considerable advantage in them. But he found that in every way in which com- 

 parison can be made, the unpacked colonies had the advantage both in increase of 

 strength and in weight. It should be said also that out of 13 two-story hives packed 

 there was a loss of four colonies against none among those not packed, while of the 

 one-story hives the loss among the packed ones was more than twice as great as 

 among the unpacked ones. For stimulative feeding it is to be said that it showed a 

 very trifling advantage in three cases, and was at a disadvantage in a fourth case. 

 The history of these hives, packed and unpacked, fed and unfed, is continued 

 through the season in a subsequent report, which embodies a mass of figures almost 

 as puzzling as logarithms. The season was not favorable, and the continued experi- 



