Feb. 2, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



" The appointment of a committee on co-operation was 

 objected to, and the president named a committee with the 

 understanding- that it is a separate org-anization, and not a 

 part of the Minnesota Bee-Keepers' Association." 



The avowed objects of this committee were to investi- 

 gate the subject of honey-prices, with a view to their better- 

 ment by means of co-operation, and to obtain, if possible, a 

 reduced scale of prices on apiarian requisites. 



At the proper time the chairman of the Co-operation 

 Committee made his report, but the president ruled that, on 

 the showing of the minutes read and approved, the commit- 

 tee had no standing, and their report could not be heard. 

 On this rule being^ objected to, it was sustained by a vote of 

 the convention. 



Shortly after their appointment it seemed that the Co- 

 operation Committee was being opposed, and in order to 

 ascertain its status, the chairman wrote to the secretary 

 of the Association, asking for a copy of the minutes of the 

 1903 meeting referring to the appointment of his committee. 

 The secretary wrote as follows: "The only reference in 

 the minutes of the annual meeting to the Committee on Co- 

 operation appears to be the following : ' A connnittee on 

 ■organization was appointed as follows '. Then follow the 

 names and addresses." 



As there was thus a considerable difference between the 

 actual minutes and those read at the present meeting, W. 

 K. Ansell moved an amendment of the minutes to make 

 them agree with the notes taken at the 1903 meeting. By 

 arrangement, consideration of this motion was deferred till 

 a later stage in the proceedings. 



Meantime, an amendment of Article II of the Constitu- 

 tion, notice of which had been mailed to all members, was 

 proposed by Mr. Ansell, and seconded by F. A. Gray. Arti- 

 cle II says : " The object of this Association shall be the 

 promotion of scientific bee-culture by forming a strong 

 band of union amongst bee-keepers ". 



As proposed, the article would read: "The object of 

 this Association shall be the promotion of scientific bee- 

 culture, and oj the general interests of bee-keepers, by form- 

 ing ", etc. 



Mr. Ansell said : " This amendment would seem neces- 

 sary from the action of the Executive Committee in deci- 

 ding that co-operation is inconsistent with the objects of the 

 Association, which, according to Article II, are of a purely 

 scientific nature. It even seems necessary in order to 

 legalize our present program, where such papers as ' Poul- 

 try as an Adjunct to Bee-Keeping ', ' Insuring Bees ', 

 ' Selling Honey Through Grocers ', ' Honey Exhibit at 

 the State Fair", etc., find place. The Committee on Co- 

 operation has gone to considerable pains and expense, and 

 has succeeded in making arrangements with a certain 

 manufacturer of supplies for prices ranging from 25 to 30 

 percent less than the retail prices of some others. And now 

 we are told that the Association can have nothing to do 

 with cooperation, because co-operation is not ' scientific 

 bee-culture '. I hold that an association of this sort, what- 

 •ever it is nominally, is not in practice a purely scientific 

 society, and that it should be able to initiate any sort of 

 work which is in the general interests of its members. In 

 other words, it is to legalize its past and present action that 

 this amendment is sought, and not to revolutionize its 

 character." 



Messrs. F. A. Gray, S. lyindersmith, Wm. McEwen, H. 

 V. Poore, and Mrs. J. B. Thompson, and others, spoke in 

 favor of the amendment. Dr. Jaques, Wm. Russell, Rev. 

 J. H. Kimball, and others, spoke in opposition. 



After Scott Lamont had pointed out that the amend- 

 ment, if carried, would entail an expense of $25, both mo- 

 tions for the amendments, respectively of the minutes and 

 of the Constitution, on being put to the meeting, were lost. 



A Member. 



Honey as a Health-Food. — This is a 16-page honey- 

 pamphlet intended to help increase the demand for honey. 

 The first part of it contains a short article on " Honey as 

 Food ", written by Dr. C. C. Miller. It tells where to keep 

 honey, how to liquefy it, etc. The last part is devoted to 

 " Honey-Cooking Recipes " and " Remedies Using Honey ". 

 It should be widely circulated by those selling honey. The 

 more the people are educated on the value and uses of honey 

 the more honey they will buy. 



Prices, prepaid — Sample copy for a two-cent stamp ; 50 

 copies for 70 cts.; 100 for SI. 25 : 250 for $2.25 ; 500 for $4.00 ; 

 or 1000 for $7.50. Your business card printed free at the 

 bottom of the front page on all orders for 100 or more copies. 

 isend all orders to the office of the American Bee Journal. 



®ur:*5t5ter 

 BccKcepcrs 



=\ 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Cords of Helpfulness — Influence of Locality. 



J 



Dear Miss Wilson : — Please accept my personal thanks 

 for your most welcome and appreciated card of New Year's 

 greeting to our bee-keeping sisters. The cordial, appre- 

 ciative, encouraging words of good cheer struck a respon- 

 sive chord in our hearts. I'm sure all who read your words 

 felt in very truth that it would be a treat indeed to meet 

 face to face with our chieftainess, and clasp hands and 

 have a good old-fashioned chat with these ladies, who, dur- 

 ing the past year, have helped to make our corner of the 

 American Bee Journal so very interesting and helpful. 



This is a great age in which we are living. I suppose 

 there has never been a time when the individual, as an in- 

 dividual, was of so much account, or received so many helps 

 to make life seem worth living. It is an age when the 

 brotherhood of man is accepted as a fact, and acted upon in 

 its deepest, most affectionate, and sympathetic sense as 

 never before. Many cords are stretched out to draw us — 

 even the most isolated — into a close, familiar touch with 

 each other, and the great work of regeneration steadily goes 

 on about us. 



One of these cords is this department of ours, in which 

 we catch glimpses of each other's lives and interests and 

 experiences, as we would in no other way. We, who are in 

 the heat of the battle, know so well what our sisters' vic- 

 tories mean, and at what a price they are bought. And as 

 we read, words of praise and encouragement spring unbid- 

 den to our lips, and if they sometimes fail in expression at 

 the pen-point, it is only because life is too strenuous and its 

 duties too arduous to allow the time. I have thought, after 

 reading suggestive points in some of our sisters' letters, 

 that it would be a good plan to write on a convenient pad 

 the comment or question it gives rise to, and when a leisure 

 hour comes to " talk it out ". It seems as though this 

 would be a good scheme, one which most of us may adopt, 

 and one that would be helpful and encouraging to you. 



Another cord is the photographs of those whose writ- 

 ings and advice have helped us over many hard spots. It 

 is very pleasant to know how they look. It brings them 

 very near, and our personal interest and liking receives a 

 decided impetus. Though we know that, like our genial Dr. 

 Miller, they are "younger and better looking " than the 

 cuts show, we view their pictured faces with complacency, 

 and feel proud of so nice-looking, intelligent, and refined a 

 body of representative apiarists. 



I have felt that in caring for our bees we do not suffi- 

 ciently take into consideration the locality. We frequently 

 read of work being done in yards which would not be prac- 

 ticable in our own. There is a great variety of climate in 

 American apiaries, and it seems as if we do not always get 

 as much benefit from advice, instruction, and our bees as 

 we would could our atmospheric and climatic scale be our 

 guide. It is quite a help to know where our writers live, 

 and what kind of weather they have to adapt their apiaries 

 to. In one respect I find myself out of harmony with many 

 of our bee-yards. It is in regard to our fall work. Prac- 

 tically we have thus far in our work been unable to do any 

 of the manipulating for winter that others find so important. 

 Our yard is situated near the north end of Lake Cham- 

 plain, about 8 miles from the Canada line. Our supers are 

 on for the buckwheat bloom until the frost kills it and most 

 other bloom, and from then until snow flies there is an 

 an almost unbroken sequence of leaden skies above us, and 

 high, cold winds over us, which sweep down from the Adi- 

 rondacks or over the lake from the mountains of Vermont. 

 The temperature is very changeable, a drop of 40 degrees in 

 an hour being quite a common occurrence. As a rule, we 

 have to hustle off our supers with chilly fingers, the honey 

 out of the combs before it congeals, and make the hives 

 warm and tight in a hurry. 



There is scarcely a single day after that till the follow- 

 ing spring when it is safe to open the hives and make any 

 examination as to the condition of the interior. If it is 

 attempted more harm than good follows, as great risks are 



