154 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[Jan., 



a neighbor woman, who knit mittens to get the 

 money to buy a stock of bees, and got from them 

 the first year 100 pounds of honey. 



It is often asked will the prairies always pro- 

 duce flowers to supply the bees with honey. She 

 said as the prairie flowers were destroyed, and 

 gave way, the clover and other honey flowers 

 come iu to take their places, and thought it 

 would always be profitable to keep bees ou the 

 prairies. Men might fail, but women who knit 

 mittens, to buy bees, get so interested that they 

 will always make it a success. Thought it could 

 be made a success and was desirable at all su- 

 burban homes, and in the cities, even on the 

 housetops a few can be kept with pleasure and 

 profit. 



Mr. Hosmer was called. He said he had no- 

 thing particular to say, but that he was very 

 much interested iu hearing the subject of loss 

 and gain discussed. Thought it as profitable as 

 to raise butter and milk, and it would be as good 

 an argument against stock raising, to say, it 

 would not be profitable for everybody to keep 

 cows, as it was against bee-keeping, to say it 

 was not profitable for everybody to keep bees. 



M. L. Dunlap. What proportion of the popu- 

 lation of Chicago, which contains one seventh of 

 the people of Illinois, do you suppose have a 

 supply of honey? 



Mr. Hosmer. Not one in one thousand. 



Mr. Dunlap. How many see it once a year? 



Mr. Hosmer. One family in a hundred. 



Mr. Dunlap. All these are to be supplied. 

 We heve been told for years, that apples would 

 be so plenty, that there would be no sale for 

 them, but we see them selling for $3 per barrel 

 to-day. Ten cents a pound used to be the price 

 of honey, now you are insulted if you are offered 

 less than 80 cents for it. If the beekeepers of 

 the country can increase the business, until the 

 masses get all they can use, there will be tons 

 used where there are pounds now, and the com- 

 mon use will keep it at a remunerative price, 

 and we can even send it out of the country, to 

 supply our friend Clarke and his fellow-Brit- 

 ishers over in Canada. Plant basswood, plant 

 orchards, sow Alsike clover and other honey pro- 

 ducing plants, and we can make the honey, and 

 there need be no fears, that it will not always 

 sell at a good price. 



Br. Lucas. Speaking of promised success, 

 it would require information and attention. 

 Honey was not hanging on every bush, and every 

 one's bees did not succeed, for all were not intel- 

 ligently managed. To keep bees successfully, 

 it was necessary to go at it in earnest, and keep 

 at it until success was accomplished. Some 

 were deterred for fear of getting stung. He ad- 

 vised such to protect themselves with masks 

 and gloves. Few families in the Northwest 

 had a supply of honey, and its use would not be 

 general over the country, when farmers had to 

 buy it. He did not have it, when it required an 

 outlay of $20 or $80 a year to get it, but since 

 he had got to producing it, with his own bees, it 

 was hard to tell how much his family used. He 

 had not the least fear that the business would 

 ever be overdone, or that more honey could be 

 I roduced than use could be found for. 



Mr. Zimmerman of Ohio, thought there could 

 be but little difference of opinion as to the desir- 

 ableness of raising honey on every farm, and at 

 all suburban homes, and that we were all inter- 

 ested in instructing all how to succeed— as to 

 what plants were needed to supply the defici- 

 ency iu natural resources, in addition to the 

 plants named, he would mention catnip as yield- 

 ing abundance of honey for a long time, and he 

 would remind beekeepers that ten Italians re- 

 sorted to red clover to one black bee. 



A J. Pope of la., moved that the discussion of 

 this subject close, and that the question be de- 

 clared answered in the affirmative, which was 

 carried unanimously. 



The unfinished topic of the morning was 

 taken up, which was Mr. Quinby's first question, 

 it was laid on the table, when the president read 

 Mr. Quinby's second question as follows : 



" What caused the disastrous losses of last winter, 

 and how may the repetition of that sad experience 

 be avoided in future? 



For sometime after the question was stated, 

 no member offered to speak ; at length 



President Clarke said, it had been suggested by 

 a lady on the left, that he had forestalled the 

 discussion of this subject by the rendering of the 

 verdict of the coroner's jury, "Died by the visi- 

 tation of God," but he hoped no one would be 

 deterred from an expression of opinion on that 

 account. 



Mr. Dunlap of Illinois said, he was astonished 

 that there was not half a dozen members striving 

 for the floor as soon as the question was called, 

 as it was a question we know nothing about, and 

 we are always able to discus such questions 

 learnedly. 



A member. Was it not the long, cold winter? 



Mr. Zimmerman, Ohio, said, that old bees and 

 long, cold winters were causes of dysentery. He 

 tried the experiment of letting some of his bees, 

 that were affected, fly out in a room that was 

 warmed. He saved them, while others that 

 were not permitted to leave the hive, all died. 

 Was again trying the experiment. 



Mr. Hoogland of Pa. Could not tell the cause. 

 He wintered his bees last winter in three ways ; 

 in a cellar, out doors and in a house. They were 

 all about alike in mortality. He feed some sy- 

 rup, and lost them, ah hough it was said, that 

 bei s feed on syrup would not have the desease. 

 Had on a former occasion put away a swarm 

 without comb or honey, and fed them pure ho- 

 ney, and had them to increase in numbers, build 

 comb and come out strong in the spring, Gave 

 them no water. He stated that he lost $1100 

 worth of bees last winter, but it was the only 

 Bull Run defeat he had ever met wjth as a bee- 

 keeper. He could give no light on the subject as 

 to its cause or cure. 



Mr. Hosmer. Thought Mr. Zimmerman told 

 the cause. He would rajlier undertake to winter 

 old oxen or cows than old bees. Young bees 

 were the best to winter well. He last winter 

 put away 30 very small colonies with less than 

 half a pint in each, and wintered all — he might 

 as well say he lost no bees. He had some die, 

 but they were queenless and he did not expect 

 them to survive. You cannot .winter bees well 



