Oct. 4, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL. 



629 



Contributed Articlesa | 



A Wisconsin Bee-Kee.pcr and His Apiaries. 



I SEND herewith a view of a part of my Monroe apiary, 

 and also one of the larffer yard at Browntown, the next 

 station on the railroad 8 miles west. In reference to ray 

 bee-keeping-, I will say I became interested in bees while 

 working- for the railroad company as agent at Prairie du 

 Sac, Wis., about 18 years ago. It was from the veteran 

 bee-keeper, J. J. Ochsner, that I purchast my first colony of 

 bees. Like the Ochsners, my business has been principally 

 the production of comb honey, but always producing more 

 or less extracted along with it. 



Soon after making my beginning in bee-keeping, we 

 removed to Browntown, Green Co. There were only a few 

 colonies of bees on the field, all of which I purchast, as the 

 owners took but little interest in them. But after several 

 years had elapst, and I had succeeded in building up a good 

 paying apiary, then a number of people on the field discov- 

 ered that beekeeping was just the business they wanted, 

 and, as a result, I have had to contend with an overstockt 

 locality; but I have this much to claim, I never started an 

 apiary on another's field, and don't think I ever will. It is 

 unnecessary. If I can't buy out the occupant, there are un- 

 occupied fields. 



After pursuing the business at Browntown for 12 years, 

 I purchast a block of land in the residence portion of the 

 county seat of Green county, on which I built a family res- 

 idence. I bought out the only apiary then in the city, one 

 that had been establisht for 25 years, thus making this my 

 headquarters. We have at this time something over 200 

 colonies, the greater part of which are at Browntown. We 

 use the 8 frame dovetailed and the 8-frame Grimm-Lang- 

 stroth hives, and practice tiering up for extracted honey, 

 and the Heddon method of hiving swarms. All queens are 

 dipt at the beginning of each season. Our percentage of 

 colonies workt for comb honey that cast swarms are low ; 

 this year, with a fair crop from white clover, only 25 to 30 

 percent. Colonies workt for extracted honey rarely cast 

 swarms ; there was not a single one in the Browntown yard 

 this season, and only one here. 



I wish to say a word or two about our county here in 

 Southern Wisconsin. We hear lots of bragging about Cal- 

 ifornia and other places said to be much more desirable, but 

 I have known a number of people to leave this locality for 

 California, and, after a few months, come back disgusted 

 with the dry, dusty counties they had gone to. Our coun- 

 try is fair for bees ; there may be other places better, but 

 certainly there are many worse. But in all that goes to 

 make up a truly fruitful country, this 

 excels. By this, I mean, a country that 

 produces in great abundance corn, rye, 

 oats, potatoes, vegetables, fruit, honey, 

 and especially milk, butter and cheese. 

 Truly it is a land flowing with milk 

 and honey, and it is not subject to fail- 

 ures. We always have some paying 

 crops if others are short. I love my 

 native State of Wisconsin ; I love her 

 hills and valleys, her streams and lakes 

 of clear water, and I love her people. 

 They are a healthy, industrious class 

 of people, for our climate tends to pro- 

 duce such a type. 



In regard to the honey sources of my 

 immediate field I will say : This is a 

 natural white clover country, and this, 

 supplemented by more or lessalsike,we 

 consider our main source. Basswood, 

 which is not nearly so plentiful as 

 formerly, occasionally gives us a crop, 

 but it is an uncertain yielder. This 

 season, with a good prospect in view, 

 ■we had only 3 or 4 days of a flow from 

 it. Heavy storms followed by hot, sul- 

 try days cut it short. (Jutsideof these 

 we sometimes get nice crops of light 

 amber fall honey along the creek bot- 

 toms, from heartsease and various yel- 



low flowers. Willows, dandelions and fruit-bloom in spring 

 make it almost unnecessary ever to feed. 



Wisconsin bee-keepers are just foolish enough to be- 

 lieve that our white clover and basswood honey is not ex- 

 celled in quality by honey that is produced beyond the Miss- 

 issippi, or in any other country. The proof of the pud- 

 ding is in the eating. I just got an order for a shipment of 

 comb honey to go to Nebraska, the purchaser saying he 

 could buy honey out there at I'a to 4 cents per pound 

 cheaper; but it didn't have the Wisconsin flavor. 



But after all I have said, I want all other people to 

 think just as much of their part of the country and its ad- 

 vantages as I do of mine. 



It is unnecessary for me to inform the Bee Journal man 

 that the " old reliable " American Bee Journal " stands in " 

 with Wisconsin bee-keepers; his subscription list shows 

 that, as I discovered on my travels among the people. Long 

 may it continue to be the practical, helpful paper it is ; and 

 long may its editor have life and strength to work for the 

 best interests of bee-keepers as few men have workt. 



Green Co., Wis. Harry Lathrop. 



Letter No. 2 From Wr. C. P. Dadant, Now in France. 



NvoN, France, Aug. 27, 1900. 



DEAR MR. YORK :— After having visited the home of 

 my childhood, I left for the south with the intention of 

 stopping on my way in the village that my grandfather 

 inhabited years ago. He was a country doctor, and his 

 children and grandchildren used to gather at his home dur- 

 ing vacation every summer. This was 40 years ago. But 

 he has since died, and the old uncle, his brother-in-law, v?ho 

 was mayor of the village, has also died ; the old mansion 

 has been sold to a villager, who transformed the fine fruit 

 and flower garden, and the terraces, into vegetable gardens 

 and potato patches, so that all the romance has disappeared, 

 especially as the house has not been kept up, and is in a 

 greatly dilapidated condition. But I roamed about the 

 village, made my name known, and we were soon at home 

 among a dozen families who claimed intimate acquaintance, 

 and in some cases remote relationship, with our family. 



We remained but two days, but I had occasion to ascer- 

 tain that here also the only progressive bee-culture to be 

 found is in the hands of the school-teacher, who devotes his 

 spare hours to a small apiary of movable-l'rame hives. 



A short trip to the forest on top of the neighboring 

 mountain, convinced me that the flora of the country is 

 much richer than that of Illinois, during the months of 

 July and August, for there are hundreds of difl'erent wild 

 blossoms visited by the bees during those months. The 

 climate is neither so hot nor so dry as ours, and everything 

 keeps green usually during the warmest weather. In many 

 regards things remind me of northern Wisconsin, but they 

 have an early spring and a milder winter. 



We then proceeded to Macon by way of Dijon, along the 



A Carrier in BIr. Lathrop" s Home Bee-Yard, in Green Co., Wis. 



