523 



termine success or failure. Who that has had 

 to cut away for the third lime patches of drone 

 comb, persistently built where it was not 

 wanted, or who has after a few days of neg- 

 lect found thousands of partly matured drones 

 worse than useless in his hives, but will hail 

 with delight the advent of foundation ? 



I cannot recommend the use of foundation 

 for comb honey except as narrow starters, for 

 while it is true that it may be worked down 

 thin under favorable circumstances, it is 

 equally true that " bone " is often found in the 

 middle to the great injury of its market value. 

 I have found no trouble with the flat-bottom 

 comb, but with me bees do not take so kindly 

 to that style as the naturally-shaped-cell 

 foundation. Natural starters are preferable 

 where they can be had. Some experiments 

 were made with whole sheets of flat-bottom 

 foundation with a view to their use as starters; 

 but even in crowded colonies many remained 

 untouched. 



Thinking that some offensive material 

 might have been used on the rolls, I wrote to 

 the manufacturer and was assured to the con- 

 trary. I hope we shall hear from other mem- 

 bers as to this new and really beautiful pro- 

 duction introduced so recently. With many 

 regrets that I am unable to be with you at this 

 meeting, caused as it is by my strong desire to 

 help redeem my state, by adoption, of the stigma 

 of repudiation at the coming election, I wish 

 to be with you heart and soul for the advance- 

 ment of enlightened apiculture, and enclose 

 my membership fee, $1.00, for 1880. 



Charlottesville, Va. J. W. Porter. 



D. A. Jones had bought the second 

 comb foundation mill that was made, 

 and he still had the same one in use. 



Messrs. Cook, Godfrey, Winslow, 

 Schofleld, King, and others expressed 

 entire satisfaction in the use of comb 

 foundation. 



Adjourned till 9 a. m. 



THURSDAY— Morning Session. 



The Convention convened at 9 a. m., 

 President Newman in the chair. The 

 first business being the selection of the 

 place for the next meeting ; after some 

 discussion Cincinnati was selected by a 

 large majority, the time for holding 

 that meeting being left with the Exec- 

 tive Committee. 



On motion of W. F. Clarke, it was 



Resolved, That the Chicago daily papers be pre- 

 sented with a vote of thanks for the very full report 

 of our daily proceedings. Carried. 



President Newman presented to each 

 of the reporters a box of choice comb 

 honey. This was greeted with general 

 applause. 



A. J. King, of New York, was called 

 upon to state his experience with so- 

 called Cyprian bees. He stated that 

 he is not certain whether they are pure 



Cyprians or not. His bees are better 

 than either the Italian or the common 

 variety. 



Prof. Cook said that if any pure Cyp- 

 rians could be found in this country 

 Mr. Julius Hoffman had them. . 



Prof. Cook exhibited and described 

 a botanical collection of plants adapted 

 to furnishing nectar to bees. His fa- 

 vorite plant was the Bokhara melilot, 

 or sweet clover. A large number of 

 other plants were exhibited. 



A paper was then read by the Secre- 

 tary on 



A National Apiary and Queen Rearint; 

 Establishment. 



When your Executive Committee requested 

 me to write a brief essay to be read before 

 your Convention, they were desirous that 

 questions should rather be opened, and not 

 exhausted ; but thoroughly discussed by 

 your distinguished assembly. I shall, there- 

 fore, make my remarks very brief. The 

 title of my sketch is so suggestive, in my 

 opinion, that it is unnecessary for me to 

 propose in detail any plan of operation. I 

 shall, therefore, only draw a few out lines, 

 and leave the matter to the consideration of 

 the distinguished gentlemen in Convention 

 assembled. 



My opinion is, that such an establishment 

 would pay large dividends, and add greatly 

 to the reputation aud dignity of American 

 enterprise in this direction, recognizing 

 the fact that even now the learned apiarists 

 of Europe are "looking for more light" 

 from America, the time will soon come (if 

 it has not already) when the United States, 

 through the combined efforts and enter- 

 prise of our bee-keepers, will be the most 

 reliable and leading mart of the world in 

 all that pertains to bee-culture. 



Suppose you were to appoint a committee 

 in every State to solicit subscriptions for a 

 National Apiary and Queen-Kearing Estab- 

 lishment, shares in the enterprise to be 

 $5.00 each, redeemable the second year, after 

 organization (to a limited extent) in goods 

 from the establishment at the option of 

 shareholders ; say 25 States were repre- 

 sented, by 40 shareholders each, making in 

 all $5,000, expended as follows : 



200 acres of land, at $5.00 per acre $1,000 



2 tenement houses for workmen, at $300. 000 



1 dwelling house for Superintendent — 800 



1 apiary or bee-house 100 



1 work-shop 150 



1 stable 50 



215 colonies of bees in hives, at $4.00 800 



6 months' salary of 2 men, at $35.00 420 



t> months' salary of Sup't, at $05.00 390 



Material for new hives, queens, etc — 330 



Expenses of locating and organization 300 



$5,000 



As regards the price of land, I am in- 

 formed that first-class timber land can be 

 bought at the present time along the line of 

 the C. S. K. li., which is now fast being 

 completed between Cincinnati, Ohio and 

 Chattanooga, Tenn., at from $2.00 to $5.00 per 

 acre, which would prove as profitable for 

 the purpose as high priced land in any sec- 

 tion of country. The timber alone on the 

 land I mention, if utilized, would more than 

 pay for the cost of land. The location for 



