THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



599 



premiums in the Apiarian Depart- 

 ment, the liberal sum of $230, besides 

 silver ami bronze medals. 



The exliibition of honey and sup- 

 plies, already very tine, will, it is ex- 

 pected, be largely supplemented next 

 week by new arrivals, and a detail of 

 the more important features of this 

 department can be better given at a 

 later date. This report may there- 

 fore be litly closed with the announce- 

 ment, " more anon." 



For the American Bee .loumal. 



Eastern Indiana Convention. 



Various apiarian supplies were ex- 

 hibited, besides samples of honey 

 from various kinds of honey-plants, 

 and some honey-vinegar. 



The meeting then adjourned until 

 April, 188G. 



M. G. Eeynolds, Sec. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Controversies, Swarming, etc. 



a. C. UKEINElt. 



The Eastern Indiana Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at Bichmond, lud., 

 on Sept. 3, 1885, President Johnson 

 occupying the chair. 



Mr. Jonas Scholl, President of the 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association, being 

 present, was called for, and favored 

 the members with some very interest- 

 ing remarks as to the objects of the 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, and cor- 

 dially invited tlie members to visit 

 the Slate meeting in January, 1886. 



The following officers were chosen 

 for the ensuing year : President, Dr. 

 C. N. ISlount, Ilagerstown ; Vice- 

 I'resident, Dr. L. C. Johnson, Foun- 

 tain City ; Treasurer, E. Parker ; and 

 Secretary, M. G. Reynolds, Will- 

 iamsburg. 



Among the numerous questions 

 discussed was, " Does it pay to use 

 comb foundation in the brood-cham- 

 ber V" All favored its use. Mr. 

 Johnson had tried comb foundation 

 eight square feet to the pound, in 

 wired frames, and had as nice combs 

 from such as he ever saw. 



The wintering question was dis- 

 cussed at length. "How much and 

 what kind of food is best for winter- 

 ing bees y" was asked, and answered 

 as follows : Mr. Reynolds gives his 

 bees 25 pounds of honey per colony, if 

 he has it, if not, syrup made of coffee 

 A sugar ; he does iiot remove the pol- 

 len. Mr. Scholl gives at least 25 

 pounds, and wants them to have 

 plenty of pollen. He stated that he 

 wintered his bees, 50 to 100 colonies, 

 successfully for the past ten years on 

 the summer stands, in double-walled 

 hives, on natural stores— honey and 

 polhin. Messrs. Johnson, Parker, 

 Replogle and Steddom, all favored 

 natural stores for bees in winter. 



It was decided that during the 

 month of September was the best 

 time to feed bees for winter, but not 

 to feed in too large quantities. Seven 

 frames in the brood-chamber in win- 

 ter was considered best. The ma- 

 jority favored the continuance of 

 brood-rearing until the end of Sep- 

 tember. 



Those present represented 408 colo- 

 nies, spring count, and 726 at present; 

 average number of pounds of honey 

 per colony, so far, 26. 



The members from Union and Fay- 

 ette counties, of Ind., and Preble 

 county, of Ohio, reported no honey 

 this year in their localities. The 

 largest yield from a single colony re- 

 ported by those present, was 1-50 

 pounds of comb honey, and another, 

 190 pounds of extracted honey. 



The " hint " to correspondents,^on 

 page 547, is the expression of my 

 mind exactly. Lately a good share of 

 the contributions to the Bee Jour- 

 nal have seemed too much like an 

 effort to see who could strike the 

 most vital blow at the opponent's 

 feelings. This is not right; let us 

 converse in a friendly, good-natured 

 manner, but leave the stinging for the 

 bees. 



On page 540, Mr. Chas. Mitchell has 

 undoubtedly made a little mistake in 

 stating his case. He says: "Every 

 fifth colony, hived on the Heddon 

 plan, has cast a second swarm this 

 year." Are we to understand that 

 his first swarms have swarmed twice V 

 I speak of this because I have worked 

 part of my bees on that plan this sea- 

 son, and intended to give the results 

 later on ; besides, my experience is so 

 different from Mr. M's that I wished 

 to have the matter understood aright. 



I cannot endorse Mr. Fox's sug- 

 gestions on page 523 ; the reply made 

 by the Editor is also my view of the 

 matter. If our investment in the 

 shape of fees and assessments gives 

 us the benefit of honestly securing 

 our daily bread, in the way we choose 

 unmolested, I shall feel amply paid 

 for the outlay. 



Cold and rainy weather has made 

 the taking off of the last surplus al- 

 most impossible ; for weeks I have 

 been patiently waiting for a warm 

 spell to make the handling of bees 

 practicable. 



Naples,K5 N. Y., Sept. 8, 1885. 



Country Gentleman. 



Poisonous Honey. 



M. D. 



A recent case which happened in 

 South Carolina of the poisoning of 

 several persons by honey supposed to 

 have been gathered from the yellow 

 jasmine {Oelsemium sempervirens), is 

 well worthy of note by bee-keepers, 

 and others who may be concerned. 

 The facts are as follows : A quantity 

 of honey was procured in May last by 

 a family living in Branchville, S. C. 

 A boy eleven years old was the first 

 in the family to eat some of this 

 honey. In an hour afterward the 

 child became giddy and staggered as 

 he .walked, and could not see. He 

 was affected with general lassitude 

 and slight nausea. In two hours he 

 was seized with convulsions and died. 

 The honey was given to a negro 

 woman, who gave it to her children. 

 In one hour two of these children 

 died, after an attack of dizziness. 



blindness and nausea. Several other 

 persons who ate of the honey were 

 made sick in a similar manner, but 

 vomited, and so escaped fatal results. 

 This circumstance has given rise to 

 some discussion among bee-keepers 

 as to the cause of the poisoning. The 

 locality of Branchville is one in which 

 the yellow jasmine grows abundantly, 

 and flowered the present year in 

 March, which was later than usual. 

 The question is, was the poison which 

 caused the death of these children 

 derived from the plant in question V 



Gelsemium sempervirens, or the yel- 

 low jessamine, or jasmine, is a plant 

 of a highly poisonous character. It 

 is a vine which bears a pretty, yellow, 

 trumpet-shaped flower which has a 

 fragrant odor, but it is not related to 

 the true jasmine. It is a member of 

 the natural order, Loganiece. It is a 

 popular vermifuge in the South, and 

 is a most active medicine, used in a 

 variety of cases, and when taken in 

 large doses is virulently poisonous. A 

 well-known physician in Virginia was 

 accidentally poisoned by taking an ex- 

 cessive dose of the extract. Its ef- 

 fects are to depress the nervous sys- 

 tem and the action of the heart, 

 greatly reducing the arterial circula- 

 tion, and causing paralysis of the 

 muscles of the eyelids, of the optic 

 nerve, and general loss of muscular 

 power, with nausea resulting from 

 the depression of the circulation, and 

 general prostration. The ne~i'vous 

 debility ends in convulsive contrac- 

 tions of the muscles, and this im- 

 mediately precedes death. The pa- 

 tient is insensible from the nervous 

 paralysis during the later symptoms. 

 The medicine acts very rapidly, and 

 in half an hour its full effects begin 

 to be felt. Two to three grains of 

 the powdered root, or two to three 

 drops of the extract or tincture, is a 

 dose, and forty drops is fatal to an 

 adult. One of its effects when given 

 in proper doses is to remove rigidity 

 of the OS uteri, and it might therefore 

 be given to cows in cases of retention 

 of the tcBtal envelopes with good ef- 

 fect. Twenty grains of the powdered 

 root, given every two hours, would no 

 doubt have a useful effect in such 

 cases. But this is a digression from 

 the point in view. 



The question is, was this honey 

 made poisonous by the gelsemium ? I 

 think there is no doubt of it. The 

 active poisonous principle resides in 

 the flowers equally with the root. 

 Indeed, the scent even of these 

 flowers will produce nausea,headache, 

 dizziness of vision, and trembling, in 

 some persons. The nectar of the 

 flowers is a concentrated extract of 

 the plant, and undoubtedly contains 

 the poisonous principle. The symp- 

 toms exhibited by the children who 

 died, are precisely those produced by 

 an over-dose of the powdered root, or 

 the extract, and are different from 

 those of any other drug, or any min- 

 eral poison'. The abundance of the 

 plant in the locality is strong circum- 

 stantial evidence, and so is the season 

 in which the honey was stored. No 

 other poisonous plant of this charac- 

 ter blooms so early in the year, and 

 there is no evidence whatever that 



