THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



43 



Mr. Hall said that the price of honey 

 was beyoDd the control of the large 

 dealers. He never sold his honey less 

 than 12i cents wholesale, and 15 cents 

 retail, the purchaser paying for the 

 package. This year he was obliged 

 to cut down to 9.i cents at the door in 

 order to compete with a party who 

 peddled honey for 10 cents, taking pay 

 in potatoes, etc. ; but after the party 

 sold out he placed it at 10 cents. Par- 

 ties who will go wild with the honey 

 should be treated with contempt, as 

 they can neither be controlled or edu- 

 cated. 



Mr. Will Ellis said, that the great 

 cause of the fall in prices is that the 

 producers instead of the consumers 

 manage to cut prices by competition. 



Mr. Pierce said that he put up his 

 honey in as inviting a manner as pos- 

 sible, and tried to hold the prices at a 

 fair standard. 



Mr. Locke then showed ajar having 

 upon it a label " Thurber's best white 

 comb honey, from H. K. c& F. B. Thur- 

 ber & Co., New York." The jar had 

 a glass cover which was so grained 

 that it was impossible to read through 

 it, and upon removal of this was found 

 a notice explaining the contents of 

 the jar which was in all probability 

 placed there for the purpose of satis- 

 fying the law. He claimed that the 

 jar contained adulterated honey, and 

 that the label was an evident misrep- 

 resentation of the contents of the jar. 



As Mr. N. E. Dodge of Fredonia, 

 N. Y., had handed in the question 

 " How and when shall we market our 

 extracted honey?" bearing on the same 

 subject, it was agreed to consider it 

 in connection therewith. 



It was moved by Mr. Peet and sec- 

 onded by Mr. Hall : 



Besolved, That this convention rec- 

 ommend to beekeepers the desirable- 

 ness of taking more pains in placing 

 their honey on the market in the most 

 attractive manner, both extracted and 

 comb honey, and attaching their names 

 thereto, and that they discountenance 

 all efforts to bear down the market by 

 slovenly beekeepers and dealers who 

 adulterate it. 



Mr. L. C. Root considered the point 

 made by Mr. Newman regarding rail- 

 road rates on honey as well taken, and 

 thought that it would be well to ap- 

 point a committee as suggested. 



After some talk it was decided to 

 make the vice presidents of the asso- 

 ciation a committee to consult with 

 the railroad authorities regarding 

 rates. 



The meeting then adjourned and as- 

 sembled on the front steps of the City 

 Hall, where the group was photo- 

 graphed. 



FOURTH SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 2 p. M., Mr. L. C. Eoot in the chair; 

 and at the suggestion of the committee 

 on programmes, reports from the vice 

 presidents were read as follows : O. O. 

 Poppleton, Iowa, Dr. J. P. H. Brown, 

 Georgia, and W. S. Hart, Florida. Mr. 

 W. F. Clark then read his paper on 

 "Wintering Bees." He claimed that 

 at present there was no safe and relia- 

 ble method of wintering bees, and that 

 we are bee-learners ; while every other 

 branch of beekeeping has made won- 

 derful progress during the last twenty 

 years, wintering has been at a stand- 

 still. We should pay more attention 

 to the hibernation of bees as, if bees 

 are well provided with shelter and 

 food and can hibei-nate, they will win- 

 ter well. He asserted that if we were 

 to give bees a domicile impervious at 

 the top, having side walls, so that the 

 frost will not strike through and con- 

 dense vapor inside, give them food and 

 supply a perpendicular air column be- 

 neath, we shall solve the winter prob- 

 lem. The great desideratum is pure 

 air and plenty of it in a receptacle not 

 too large for them to regulate the 

 temperature. The bees generate their 

 own heat, and if it is wasted they 

 must consume too much food and then 

 they become distended with faeces and 

 cannot sink into perfect quiet which is 

 their normal condition in winter. 



Mr. Clark described a hive -stand, a 

 model of which he exhibited. It was 

 so constructed as to give the bees a 

 vertical air-shaft under the hive. He 

 requested each beekeeper present to 

 give his method a trial with at least 

 one colony of bees the coming winter. 



Quite a spirited discussion followed 

 the reading of this paper. Mr. Isham 

 asked Mr. Clark if he had ever put his 

 theory into practice and admitted that 

 he had not, but was going to try it this 

 winter. 



Mr. Ira Barber gave his plan of win- 

 tering as given on page 60, Vol. II, 

 " Am. Api." He also stated that he 

 thought that if bees are fed on coffee 

 A sugar or one kind of food, they 

 will keep quiet ; but if they have two 

 or more kinds or a change of food 

 there is a stimulating change produced 

 in the bees which arouses them to their 

 detriment. Sugar food is by all means 

 the best. Allow the bees about twenty- 



