256 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Various subjects referring to the 

 handling of bees, etc., were fully dis- 

 cussed. 



On motion, the President was in- 

 structed to call a meeting on Prof. 

 Cook's arrival. 



Tuesday's session. 



The report of committee on semi- 

 annual meeting — "Honey Day" — was 

 received and approved. Longmont was 

 chosen as the place to hold the same on 

 Wednesday, Sept. 28, 1892. 



The subject, " The cost of producing 

 honey," was then fully discussed as 

 follows : 



H. L. Rauchfuss — It will cost about 8 

 cents per pound after making a careful 

 estimate, figuring a man's time at $50 

 per month, on 100 colonies of bees. 



J. B. Adams — Honey in my apiary the 

 past year has cost me 103^ cents per 

 pound. 



F. O. Blair — "We have to do the best 

 we can ; farmers are always claiming to 

 lose money, yet they live and, prosper; 

 I believe bee-keeping can be made to 

 pay. 



R. C. Aiken — Bee-keepers hardly ever 

 know what it does cost to produce 

 honey ; the estimate by Mr. Rauchfuss 

 is about right. 



E. B. Porter — Mr. Aiken and Mr. 

 Rauchfuss are too high, the total cost 

 should not be over 4 cents per pound. 



L. Booth — It has been stated that the 

 average yield per colony, through the 

 State, for 1891, was 60 pounds; this I 

 think too high ; 50 pounds is about the 

 average. 



W. L. Porter— The average for 1890 

 was 67 pounds; for 1891 about 35 

 pounds per colony. 



R. C. Aiken stated that he had hand- 

 led 165 colonies alone, and they aver- 

 aged 150 pounds of honey per colony. 



The next subject that came up for 

 discussion was : "Are apicultural pur- 

 suits adapted to ladies?" and brought 

 responses from the following: Mrs. 

 Booth, Mrs. Rhodes, F. 0. Blair, J. M. 

 Clark, V. Dcvinnoy, J. B. Adams, R. H. 

 Rhodes, L. Booth, and E. B. Porter. It 

 was the general opinion that women 

 were well adapted to the business. 



The subject of our semi-annual meet- 

 ing was again discussed. 



L. Booth, L. Brock, W. L. Porter and 

 Dr. Shaw favored Denver as the place 

 for the meeting. 



By vote it was again decided that 

 " Honey Day " should be held at Long- 

 mont. 



Adjourned to 1 p.m. 



ProsBCCt of a fiooJ f Mte-Clover Crop. 



A. N. BRAPER. 



The prospects for white clover honey 

 for the coming season are good. In fact,if 

 my theory is correct, the prospects were 

 never better at this time of the year. I 

 see on page 194 Mr. Dibbern claims that 

 the prospects are good, but does not give 

 his reasons. 



First, I will say that here there was 

 no white clover honey last year, to any 

 amount. Now, why was it so? And 

 why is it that I look for so heavy a yield 

 the coming Summer ? Two years ago I 

 had a very good crop of honey from 

 white clover, and the plants undoubtedly 

 yielded a good crop of seed. Last sea- 

 son a close examination failed to find 

 any white clover seed whatever. 



The weather was so dry in the Fall of 

 1890 that the seed of white clover did 

 not even sprout, and what old clover 

 lived over was so thoroughly exhausted, 

 that it yielded neither honey nor seed ; 

 but last Spring the clover seed that had 

 laid on and in the ground with too little 

 moisture to cause it to sprout all Winter, 

 came up with the favorable conditions 

 of Spring. It got a good start before 

 the drouths of July and August came. 

 The rains during the last of August re- 

 vived it, and gave it another start. 

 Being young and vigorous, it withstood 

 the severe drouth of September, Octo- 

 ber and November in good condition. 

 Now I do not think that the heavy 

 snows have done it any harm. It un- 

 doubtedly kept the ground from freez- 

 ing very deep, and it kept it from con- 

 tinually freezing and thawing during the 

 extreme cold weather. Freezing hard 

 one night, and thawing out the next 

 day, where it is kept up for two or three 

 weeks in February and March, is what 

 hurts clover, or wheat either. To got a 

 good crop of honey or wheat, either, we 

 need plenty of rain during April and 

 May. 



If there has been lots of snow and 

 rain during the Winter, it takes less 

 rain in April or May to keep the soil in 

 good growing condition. I do not be- 

 lieve, if we had had ever so much more 

 snow last Winter than we have had this 

 Winter, that it would have made any 

 difference in the yield last season, either 

 in wheat or honey, as our yield of wheat 

 was extra good last season. The wheat 

 did not get a very good start in the Fall 

 before, and neither did it last Fall. 



Never in the history of thi.s country 

 has the Mississippi been so low as it was 



