Nov. 29, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



761 



the public taste is educated, as it has been in respect to 

 other foods, there will be a demand for g^ood, delicately 

 flavored honey, and glucose sold as a substitute for it will 

 be a thing of the past. Thus. Wm. Cowan. 



Pres. Root This is a most valuable paper, but it is a 

 little too technical for most of us, I imagine. As our time is 

 spent this morning, I think we would better hurry on with 

 the program. If there is no objection I will do so. Before 

 taking up the balance of the program, I wish to name the 

 committees I was to name yesterday. 



The Committee on Resolutions. — R. L. Taylor, Kev. 

 E. T. Abbott, and O. L. Hershiser. 



CoMMiTTKK ON Score Cards. — N. E. France, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, F. Wilcox, R. C. Aikin, and O. L. Hershiser. 



These committees will be prepared to report the first 

 thing this evening. 



(Continued next week.) 



Contributed Articles. | 



No. 6.— Interesting Notes on European Travel. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



BEFORE I describe my visit at Nyon, it may be well for 

 me to tell the readers how we originally became ac- 

 quainted with the editor of the Revue Internationale. 

 This is a bit of retrospective history on European bee- 

 culture. 



When we came to America in 1863, my father, who was 

 then 46 years of age, had for ma:ny years kept bees in 

 Europe for pleasure, but had never made a business of bee- 

 keeping. Within two or three years, with the help of the 

 works of Langstroth and Ouinby, he ascertained what a 

 great step forward was being made in this country, and he 

 endeavored to give his native land the benefit of what he 

 had learned by sending articles on the movable-frame hives 

 to L'Apiculteur, publisht at Paris, and which was the sec- 

 ond oldest periodical publication in the world, the oldest 

 being the Bienenzeitung. But the editor of E'Apiculteur, 

 Mr. H. Hamet, happened to be a man who was satisfied, in 

 his own mind, that no progress could be made in the par- 

 ticular lines that he controlled, and he systematically 

 fought everything new in bee-culture. He called the mov- 

 able-frame hive a " puppet-show box," and the honey-ex- 

 tractor " a useless toy." He resolutely closed the pages of 

 his magazine against any attempt at introducing progress. 



But my father was not to be put off, and began to write 

 articles for the various French agricultural papers. After 

 some seven or eight years of controversy, public opinion 

 began to form, in spite of Hamet, in favor of the American 

 movable-frame hives, and several imitators came to the 

 rescue. It was then that Mr. Bertrandestablisht the maga- 

 zine now known as the " International Review," and wrote 

 to my fa er, asking for his collaboration. His request had 

 hardly b^^en mailed when he received a proffer 

 of help from him. The fight for progress was 

 then well establisht on Swiss soil, and it was not 

 long till American views on bee-culture were 

 generally accepted by French speaking bee- 

 keepers. Even the old Apiculteur, after the death 

 of Hamet, was reluctantly compelled to accept 

 the progress accomplisht. 



Since that time Mr. Bertrand has publisht 

 one of the most popular books on bee-culture, 

 the " Conduite du Rucher " — the Conduct of the 

 Apiary — which was translated into several lan- 

 guages. He has also been the editor of the 

 French edition of Langstroth. Thus for 22 years 

 past we have been in constant communication 

 with him, and I may truly say that when we 

 found ourselves in his house we felt absolutely 

 " at home." 



The Swiss " chalet," which is seen every- 

 where in Switzerland, from the top of the high- 

 est pastures to the foot of the hills, on the lake 

 shores, makes a very pretty picture. Up in the 

 mountains, the coarse shingles that form those 

 long-eaved roofs, are not only nailed down to 

 the rafters, but they are also covered with large 



stones to prevent the high winds, that whirl around the 

 peaks, from tearing them off. 



The mountain chalet is used not only as a dwelling for 

 the herdsmen, but as a milk-house, and in many cases as a 

 shelter for the cattle during the storms. The chalets on 

 the lake shores are, on the contrary, very ornamental vil- 

 las, with all the comforts of civilization. The view given 

 here is of the one inhabited by Mr. Bertrand, and, tho very 

 attractive, is not to be compared with the view obtained 

 from the windows of that same house. Imagine yourself 

 looking out on a pretty park adorned with flower-beds, run- 

 ning streams of clear water, two small ponds with water- 

 lilies of different colors, small groves of trees on either 

 side ; beyond the blue waters of the lake, three miles wide, 

 a number of villages scattered on the far-away hills, an 

 amphitheater of mountains in the rear, and, still further 

 back, 60 miles away, but seemingly close at hand, the 

 snowy summit of Mont Blanc, white in the morning, pink 

 at sunset, and of a bluish shade at dusk. Walking thru this 

 little park you discover, in a remote corner on the right, a 

 couple dozen hives of bees, hidden among the trees, and a 

 small bee-house with the usual implements of the experi- 

 menting apiarist. On the left is a small river emptying into 

 the lake, with a nice little row-boat harbored in its mouth. 



In that little park Mr. Bertrand has gathered together a 

 wonderful collection of foreign plants and trees, especially, 

 of course, honey-producers. Here I saw an old acquaint- 

 ance, the Chapman honey-plant (Echinops spherocephalus), 

 which made such a stir among our bee-men at one time. 

 Mr. B. narrated to me his experience with that plant. He 

 had noted its attractiveness for the bees long before we did 

 on this side of the Atlantic, and had cultivated it exten- 

 sively enough to ascertain that its value to the bee-keeper 

 was only apparent. When the demand began for it in 

 America. Mr. D. A. Jones, of Canada, offered SfS.OO per 

 ounce for the seed. Upon this. Mr. B. harvested some four 

 pounds of it and sent it to Mr. Jones with his compliments. 

 Mr. Bertrand says that a number of plants have, like this, 

 a great attraction for the bee that are not honey-yielders. 



He showed me another, the Eryngium giganteum, on 

 which the bees are forever working while it blooms, but 

 without results. This was tested by marking some of the 

 bees with flour. The same bee was seen to work about the 

 same bunch of these flowers for five consecutive hours with- 

 out any apparent result. He nicknamed the plant, "The- 

 bar-room of the honey-bee," because the more they sip the 

 dryer they are. Luckily it does laot make them tipsy, but 

 wears them out, which is nearly as bad. There are prob- 

 ably a number of plants which ought to be placed in the 

 same category, plants whose fragrance evidently attracts 

 them without furnishing any returns for their pains, ex- 

 cept, perhaps, the pleasure of sipping an infinitesimal drop 

 of nectar, which serves only to keep them at work trying 

 for more. Perhaps there are times or locations when the 

 honey-yield of these plants is greater. One thing is very 

 evident, the same blossoms do not furnish honey in like 

 quantity in different countries, tho it may be ever so com- 

 mon. For instance, the white clover, which is one of our 

 best crops, is of no value in Switzerland, if I believe the 

 authority of the most practical apiarists there, including 

 Mr. Bertrand himself, who has had several hundred colo- 

 nies in different apiaries and at different altitudes. He 



T/ie Chalcl or Home ojMr. Bertrand. 



