;o 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



winds, the better. To carry out 

 this idea still further, I am exper- 

 imenting with a liive that is only 

 seven inches deep, with nothing 

 but a honey-board, and the top, a 

 board one inch thick, when the cases 

 are removed in winter. This hive 

 faces south and I elevated the back 

 end bj' setting it on a <^ shaped 

 stand, to an angle of about 45 de- 

 grees, so it will get the direct ray 

 of the sun on top. It is my theory 

 that this will give them a good 

 warming up inside, on clear mod- 

 erate da3's, and enable the bees to 

 shift from one coinb to another, 

 get supplies within reach, etc. It 

 will probably be necessary to shade 

 them, should the sun come out 

 warm, after a light snow towards 

 spring. It may be, however, as 

 there will likely be a number of 

 days that they can fly out, and as 

 they have been warmed up so of- 

 ten, that they will not be so 

 anxious to get out. My only fear 

 now is that the winter will not be 

 severe enough to make the lest of 

 much value. I shall keep experi- 

 menting on this hive till I find out 

 if there is anything in this idea or 

 not. 1 believe it will be quite a 

 help in rapidly breeding up in early 

 spring to turn the hives up to the 

 sun as indicated, before the honey 

 cases are put on ; after that I would 

 place the hives nearly level. I 

 think the sections are usually filled 

 nicer when the hives are not tilted 

 up much. 

 Milan, Ills. 



For the American Ajnculturist. 



THE PRODUCTION AND 

 HALE OF HONEY. 



J. A. Buchanan. 



It has been said by so many of 

 our ablest writers that more than 



twice the amount of honey is pro- 

 duced now than was obtained twenty 

 or thirty years ago, one might, 

 without due consideration, be led 

 to think this true ; but this is not 

 the case, 



I am aware of the fact that more 

 than twice as much honey finds its 

 way into the towns and cities than 

 did many years ago, and just here 

 lies the secret of all the trouble 

 about the overstocked market. 



Man}' years ago there could be 

 found at almost every farm house 

 enough bees kept to supply the 

 family with all the honey needed. 

 Tiiis was as it should be ; in fact, 

 there is still no good reason why 

 every farmer should not keep 

 enough bees to supply his table 

 abundantly throughout the year 

 with one of tlie most health-giving 

 foods that have been so abundantly 

 provided for man. 



That farm is incomplete where 

 bees are not to be found among the 

 live stock kept. Ever}' good pro- 

 gressive agricultural bee journal has 

 its columns of information on the 

 art of beekeeping, which, if read 

 and put into practice would enable 

 the intelligent husbandman to care 

 for a few colonies of bees success- 

 fully. But it is a fact that the art of 

 beekeeping has grown to be a stran- 

 ger to him, and now the majority of 

 farmers buy what honey thej^ con- 

 sume. In most cases, however, 

 they do without, more for the rea- 

 son that it is not to be had con- 

 veniently. 



Here is an unsupplied market 

 which would consume, if supplied, 

 great quantities of honey, relieve 

 the overstocked cities of the sur- 

 plus that the specialists in honey 

 production have caused by the 

 foolishness of shipping all their 

 product to these commercial cen- 

 tres, while their home market goes 

 unsupplied, or if supplied at all, it 

 is by honey brought there b}'^ com- 

 mission men and dealers at so high 



