816 AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



have learned the most of what little I know about bee-keeping. I like to read it. 

 It admonishes me from week to week to keep an eye on my bees, so that I am less 

 apt to neglect them. Although bee-keeping in this locality is not profitable — at 

 least it has not been with me, the last four or five years — I still want to keep bees. 

 The year just past has been the worst of all for me. The dry season, which com- 

 menced very early last summer, dried up the white clover — the only source from 

 which we can expect any surplus in this locality, except it be from fruit-bloom. The 

 drouth continued until near the last of September, thus giving the bees very little 

 chance for laying in their winter stores. 1 fed a barrel of sugar to 20 colonies. I 

 have but 6 colonies that did not need to be fed. 



New Philadelphia, O., Nov. 26. 



THE SEASON OF 1894, AND RESULTS. 



BY S. B. SMITH. 



As I am confined to the house, and some of the time to my bed, with rheuma- 

 tism, I think it is a good time to write of my success with bees the past season. I 

 also need a little honey to sweeten me while I endure the severe pain to which I am 

 subjected. 



We have had a remarkable year. In the spring it was wet, cold and backward. 

 Bees were taken from their winter quarters very early on account of a warm spell, 

 but afterwards we had a cold spell, and a few colonies died. After the cold, wet 

 spell it was very warm and dry for three months, with an average of 85 per cent, 

 of sunshine during the time. Farmers were discouraged, and so were bee-men. 

 But when the season came for gathering in the crops, farmers found that they had 

 been blessed beyond their expectations, and all apiarists say that bees have seldom, 

 if ever, gathered more honey than they have this year. 



The season for gathering honey is too short here for bees to gather a large sur- 

 plus. My old colonies stored from 50 to 60 lbs. to a colony in one-pound sections, 

 besides each sending ofif one prime swarm. Some of the swarms that issued did 

 not store any surplus honey, and others stored 25 to 30 pounds each. 



I have customers that take nearly all the honey I have to sell at 18 and 20 

 cents per pound, and we do the same with butter. During the summer, butter sells 

 here in the market for 8 and 10 cents per pound, but we have customers in the city 

 that take all we can make at 20 cents per pound. 



Our apiary and dairy is run on a small scale, but we take all the profits our- 

 selves. We have no use for the honey and butter middleman. 



I put my bees into winter quarters the first day of December, and they had a 

 good flight the day before ; if they had been out, they would have had another flight 

 yesterday. All of my colonies' are in prime condition, with plenty of honey for a 

 long winter, and they may need it before another honey season, for when we have 

 such mild Novembers and Decembers as we have this year, we are apt to have late 

 springs. 



My bees are Italians ; they are good honey-gatherers, and I am well satisfied 

 with them, but from what I read in the American Bee Journal I think I would like 

 a colony of Carnlolans, but it might prove a poor investment. 



I was awarded the 1st and 2nd premiums on honey, and 2nd on butter at our 

 County Fair last fall. We always try to have the best, and always find a good mar- 

 Ijet. Keeville, Minn., Dec, 8. 



