I Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter) 

 Published Vfeekly at 91.00 a ¥ear by Ceorge W^. York & Co., 334 Dearborn St. 



QBORQB W. YORK, Bdltor 



CHICAGO, ILL, SEPTEMBER 28, 1905 



VoL XLV— No, 39 



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(Sbitortal Hotes ^ Comments 



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Why Do the Bees Get No Honey ? 



An experienced bee-keeper wrote thus to a 

 honey-dealer : 



■' Why did I not get a crop of honey? I don't 

 know; it was not too wet nor too dry; all I 

 know is that I don't know.'' 



The dealer sent the card to Dr. Miller, pre- 

 sumably for reply. Dr. Miller has forwarded 

 the card to this office without even the for- 

 mality of saying, " I don't know ;'' and from 

 the date of the card he must have held it a 

 sufficient time to do some wrestling over the 

 question. 



Why is it that there are times when plenty 

 of bloom is in sight, rain falls seasonably, 

 and all conditions point to a big harvest, and 

 yet the harvest is lacking* This year, in 

 northern Illinois, white clover was abundant, 

 at least in parts; the bees did good work on 

 it up to the latter part of July, and then the 

 flow seemed to cease rather abruptly, although 

 clover continued to bloom as abundantly as 

 before, and the weather was all that could be 

 desired. Why was the nectar lacking? 



If any one has the right answer to the ques- 

 tion, he will confer a favor by forwarding it 

 without delay to this office. 



Black Bees Championed 



According to D, M. M., in the British Bee 

 Journal, black bees excel in 17 specific points, 

 some of which are: They begin brood-rear- 

 ing earlier than foreign races, and keep it up 

 later; take more readily to supers, and stay 

 in them later; produce more heat than a like 

 number of other races; can breed early with 

 a smaller force of bees; store surplus with a 

 smaller force ; send more foragers abroad out 

 of every thousand bees. 



D. M. M. is a prominent writer of good 

 reputation, and it would be interesting to 

 know whether others have come to the same 

 conclusions, or whether Scotch prejudice may 

 have something to do in the case. One state- 

 ment may at least be questioned : 



" A large proportion of Canadian bees, as 

 well as those of a great part of the United 



States, are blacks, or have black blood in their 

 veins, while many large apiarists even there 

 claim still that they are the best bees." 



Can any one give the names of five large 

 apiarists in the United States who claim that 

 blacks are best? (.'an any one give the name 

 of one such? 



National Convention Program 



We have received the following from the 

 Secretary : 



FBOOBA.M rOB THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



The National Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 hold its annual convention at the Revere 

 House, corner of Clark and Michigan streets, 

 in Chicago, during the Fat Stock Show, when 

 exceedingly low rates may be secured on the 

 railroads. The dates for the meeting are Dec. 

 5, 6 and 7. Rates at the hotel are 7.5 cents for 

 a room alone, or 50 cents each, where two 

 occupy the same room. Meals are extra, or 

 they may be secured at near-by restaurants. 

 The program is as follows: 



FIRST DAY— TuKSDAT. 

 Evening Session— 7:30 p.m. 

 Wax-Rendering Methods and their Faults — 

 O. L. Hershiser, Buffalo, N. Y. 



Can the Tariff on Comb Honey be Tinkered 

 to the Advantage of the United States Bee- 

 Keeperl— Hildreth i\: Segelken, New York. 



SECOND DAY— Wedkesdat. 

 Morning Session- 9:30 a.m. 



How Many Bees Shall a Man Keep? — E. D. 

 Townsend, Remus, Mich. 



Short Cuts in Bee-Keeping — M. A. Gill, 

 Longmont, Colo. 



Question- Box. 



Afternoon Session — 2:00 p.m. 



The Control of Increase — L. Stachelhausen, 

 Converse, Tex. 



Migratory Bee-Ki-f'ping — R. F. Holtermann, 

 Branttord, Canada. 



Question-Box. 



Evening .-^e-sion- 7:30 P.M. 



Contagious Diseases Among Bees and How 

 to Distinguish Thera— Or. Wm. R. Howard, 

 Ft. Worth, Tex. 



Experimental Apiculture — Dr.E. F. Phillips, 

 Washington, D. C. 



THIRD DAY— Teursdat. 

 Morning Session— 9:30 a.m. 



The Honey-Producers' League— Can it Help 

 Bee-Keepers?— R. L. Taylor, Lapeer, Mich. 



The Business End of Bee-Keeping— N. E. 

 France, Platteville, Wis. 



Question-Box. 



Afternoon Session- 2:00 p.m. 



In What Way Can Bee-Keepers Secure their 

 Supplies at Lower Pricesi — W. H. Putnam, 

 River Falls, Wis. 



How the Producer and Dealer May Advance 

 their Mutual Interests— Fred W. Muth, Cin- 

 cinnati, Ohio. 



Question-Box. 



Evening Session — 7:30 p.m. 



What Have We to Hope for from the Non- 

 Swarming Hive!— L. A. Aspinwall, Jackson, 

 Mich. 



Poultry Keeping for the Bee-Keeper— 

 Emerson T. Abbott, St Joseph, Mo. 



W. /. Hutchinson, Her. 



It is none too early for bee-keepers to begin 

 to prepare now for attending the National 

 convention the first week in December. 



Profits of Sugar-Feeding? 



The following paragraph appears in the 

 American Bee-Keeper : 



In reviewing the report of the last meeting 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Association, at- 

 tention was arrested by comments on the 

 feeding of sugar for producing honey. Some 

 earnest men in their efforts to show that the 

 possibilities were overdrawn compared with 

 the prices of sugar and of honey, saying that 

 with sugar at 6 cents and honey at 5 cents 

 obviously there could be no profit to induce 

 the practice. In their zeal they quite over- 

 looked the fact that the 6 cents' worth of 

 sugar makes :i pounds of feeding syrup and 2 

 pounds when stored and thickened. Sixty-six 

 percent gross profit is quite a temptation to a 

 good many men, andwbena 3-cent-per-pound 

 stored syrup can be sold for 15 cents, there is 

 temptation enough to warrant a lot of strong 

 preaching against the feeding of any syrup 

 for any purpose except prevention of absolute 

 starvation. 



The fight against the feeding of sugar for 

 any purpose j ;cept prevention of absolute 

 starvation is .i commendable one. And if "a 

 3-centperp'juu(l stored syrup can be sold for 

 15 cents " i would there not in that case be -400 

 percent gross iirofit instead of 66?), there is 

 certainly warrant for strong preaching, and 

 perhaps som'-thing besides preaching, to dis- 

 courage auy ii:ch practice. 



But is no', he picture of what can be don e 



