THE AM E RICA y APICULTURIST. 



209 



Su tl^e gtititJtger. 



The season and how it turned out. 



I must afkiiowiod^'o tliiit I have Ixmmi 

 beaten, and Ixadly too, by the wcatlier 

 since Aiisinst :.'5. Sneh uiuisiial, eoUl, 

 rainy, cloudy weatlier never was before 

 known. Of course it was not. Every- 

 body says so and what everybody says 

 must be true. First it rained and then it 

 rained ajraiu and tiept on raining, tlien it 

 tried f o clear u)!, Init it only got ready to 

 rain again, and continued to I'ain until one 

 night a killing frost struck all of New 

 England, and that little spell of winter 

 seemed to l)ring al)out just the right con- 

 dition for more rain and so down it came 

 in torrents, another freeze and tlun another 

 deluge; in fact, I do not think it will 

 stop raining this fall. It has rained for two 

 days past, and now. October 1 7, it is trying 

 to clear up, and the h.irder old Sol tries to 

 stick his nose through the clouds, the 

 more it seems to look like rain again. 

 Well, let it rain, who cares? The golden- 

 rod and all other fall flowers are gone; 

 queen-rearing and queen-shipping for the 

 season has passed by. So let it rain. 



Well, let me tell you it rained from Aug- 

 ust 25 to October 17 with every indication 

 of a continuation for an indefinite period. 



I reallj' believe some good to beekeepers 

 ■will be the result of so much moisture. The 

 white clover, which must get well rooted 

 one season before it can l)looni, is in splen- 

 did condition and in areat abundance. The 

 outlook for a crop of honey in the season 

 of 1889 is unusuallj' good in nearly all the 

 northern states. 



Late in August all my hives were solid 

 full of bees and ready for the fall harvest, 

 but the harvest came not. The fields and 

 roadsides were covered with golden rod 

 and other fall flowers, yet it all went and 

 not a bee realized the amount of hard work 

 he had lost f)n account of the unfavorable 

 weather. Well, this beautiful spell of 

 weather cost me the loss of two hundred 

 and fifty queens. I also had to pay -SGO 

 for sugar to feed my colonies for winter. 

 The queens had but tAvo favorable days 

 after .August 2."j for a flight, and not a bee, 

 except on those two daj's, dared to poke 

 its nose out of the hive to get a suifl' of 

 the fall bloom. 



AV. Z. Hutchinson, editor of "Tiik Bkk- 



KKKricus'llKViKWi'Ms on the sick li^t again. 

 I do not wontler at it, as most oC those who 

 have started hee-papers have been pretty 

 sick till! first few years. There is no doulit in 

 my iiiiiul that IJro. H. will l)e a good deal 

 sicker before he gets rich at pul)lisirnig a 

 bee-journal, notwithstanding the fact tliat 

 Bro. M. is editor, compositor, printer's 

 devil and all. 



Will each one of the subscribers and 

 readers of the Apicultuiust take the 

 trouble to inform his beekeeping neighbor 

 that he can get the Api from October 1, 

 1888, to January 1, 181)0, for seventy-five 

 cents? Please do so and I will tell yon all 

 what efl'ect it has upon our sul)scription 

 list. Do not forget to do it, will you? 



A correction. 

 The article on "foul brood" on page 

 187 credited to James A. Clark should be 

 credited to James A. Gi'eeu of Daytou, 

 Ohio. 



Our experience at a fair. 



The Bay State Agricultural Society 

 of Massachusetts held a fair at Spring- 

 field, Mass., from October 4 to Octo- 

 ber II, inclusive. The premiums of- 

 fered for best exhibit of bees, etc., were 

 as follows : 



Italian bees m observatory hive, $5 

 Frame of queen cells, . . 5 

 Comb honey, . . . .5 



Extracted honey, ... 5 

 Beeswax, . . . . . 5 

 Best movable- comb hive with im- 

 pleinents of the apiary, . 5 



As to bees regard to be had to qual- 

 ity of queens and bees ; as to honey 

 the quality and style of package to be 

 considered. 



The manager of the Apiculturist 

 had a special invitation to make a dis- 

 play at the fair, which was accepted, and 

 everything the list called for except fall 

 honey was exhibited. 



The premium on queen cells, on bees- 

 wax and best hive and display of apia- 

 rian implements were given us, but 

 three other five dollar premiums should 

 have been awarded us as will be seen 

 below. We exhibited two observatory 

 hives of bees and as there were no others 

 of the kind there, we could see no good 

 reason why the ten dollars should have 

 been given to the person to whom it 

 was awarded. Mr. Samuel Cushman of 

 Pawtucket, R. [., was the judge. Al- 



