Aug. 2, 1906 



663 



American Dee Journal 



Dr. Miller — I would like to ask whether Mr. Hershiser 

 has made an offer for Mr. Miller's slumgum, 



Mr. Hershiser — I never received any offer from him, 

 and never had any correspondence with him. Nevertheless, 

 I would like to try some of his slumgum. 



Mr. Acklin — Instead of putting the sticky cappings into 

 the solar wax-extractor, we moisten them with as little water 

 as possible, and strain them and drain them every night, 

 and that seems to give a sweetened water of the right con- 

 sistency for vinegar. I think the vinegar is the best that 

 can be put on the table. 



Dr. Miller — Right in that line I had cappings down in the 

 cellar and they were what you would call pretty dry cap- 

 pings. But the moisture of the cellar will be attracted to 

 them, and if you let them stay long enough there, you will 

 find that you will get just about every particle of honey 

 that is there. The longer it stays the longer it keeps drip- 

 ping and attracting fresh moisture to it ; and you will get it for 

 vinegar or any use you want to make of it. 



Mr. Holtermann — I have not much experience of value 

 in connection with extracting wax, but I would feel like 

 endorsing what Mr. Hershiser has said. The question came 

 up, of the solar wax-extractor, and as far as cappings are 

 concerned, I consider it very valuable, but it has one de- 

 fect, and that is the constant turning to the sun; and for 

 some years I have had a thought which I believe can be 

 made practicable, and that is, to arrange to have some sim- 

 ple clockword device by means of which that extractor will, 

 upon a pivot, turn itself towards the sun during the day, 

 and will need no looking after in that direction. 



Mr. Hatch — I don't change my wax-extractor more than 

 twice during the year. You must have a different kind of 

 sun in Canada from what we have here ! My extractor is 

 3 feet by 4. 



Mr. Baxter — The cellar will have to be very damp to 

 get vinegar that way. I have about 10 barrels of cappings 

 in my cellar now. Some of it I washed last winter, and 

 when I got within a foot of the bottom of the barrel it was 

 a solid mass of cappings and candied honey. The only way to 

 get it all is to wash it. 



Dr. Miller — That mass of cappings will be held there 

 and the moisture can't get to it. With a smaller quantity 

 there is plenty of chance for the moisture to get all through it. 



Pres. Dadant — We would not depend on the moisture 

 in the cellar to moisten our cappings ; we want to wash 

 them thoroughly first. 



Mr. McEvoy — I had nearly 400 pounds of honey from 

 cappings burned as black as buckwheat. I can make use of 

 that. I have a long capping tank, but, for all that, there is a 

 lot of honey that melts down, and it is too dark to be good 

 honey, so I save it up till spring and thin it with water, 

 and between fruit-bloom and clover I feed the bees with it. 



Mr. Frank — I would like to ask Mr. Hershiser a few 

 questions. It is labor-saving that I have been seeking for 

 as much as anything, and I thought 1 had found perfection 

 in the solar extractor. Now for extracting or rendering 

 wax from cappings, would you think, considering the labor 

 you are saving, that your device would be profitable ? 



Mr. Hershiser — I used to use a solar extractor, but of 

 late years, since I have been using the wax-press, I discon- 

 tinued its use. I don't know whether that is a wise thing 

 to do or not. It doesn't take very much trouble to get 

 all the wax out of the cappings with your press. Of course, 

 where you use the sun you save that much fuel. I save labor 

 in reference to the cappings by using my press, from my 

 standpoint. 



Mr. McEvoy — You lose the honey in that case. 



Mr. Hershiser — I don't know. I put my cappings out a 

 great many times and let the bees carry away the honey. 

 Last year I washed the cappings and got about half a barrel 

 of nice sweetened water, and I tried to make vinegar out of 

 it and it is in the cellar yet, and it doesn't seem much like 

 vinegar. 



Pres. Dadant — The experience of each man is different 

 in different locations. There is a difference between the sun 

 of Utah and Canada. 



Mr. Wilcox — 1 have a sun extractor 3 feet by 7, and I 

 save a vast amount of honey from it. My broken combs 

 and wasted honey of every kind go in there, and by drawing 

 it out before it gets too hot it is fit to market, especially 

 that market you will find among wholesale bakers. You can 

 sell scorched honey there at any time, because they must 



necessarily heat it in baking, and do. The amount of honey 

 you save in melting up the cappings is quite an item. 



Second Day — Evening Session. 



At 7 :30 p. m. the convention was called to order by 

 Pres. Dadant. 



The Secretary stated that Dr. Howard had written to 

 him that owing to pressure of business, and so on, he was 

 not able either to come to the convention or prepare a paper. 



Pres. Dadant then called on Dr. E. F. Phillips, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, to read his paper on, 



EXPERIMENTAL APICULTURE 



It will be well, in the beginning, to find out what the 

 title "Experimental Apiculture" means, for it may be that 

 the thought which first comes to the mind of most persons 

 on hearing these two words is, after all, not what is ex- 

 pressed. When the Secretary of this Association wrote, ask- 

 ing for a talk on this subject, I had only a vague idea as to 

 what I ought to say, but, on thinking it over, this indefinite 

 idea was changed into one more definite, and I came to the 

 conclusion that some ordinary views are incorrect concern- 

 ing the terms of this subject. 



First, let us consider what apiculture is. It is at once 

 answered that, apiculture is bee-keeping. That is true ; but 

 all kinds of bee-keeping are not included under the term 

 apiculture. Our fathers owned bees and every fall gave 

 "sulphur treatment" to every skep of bees that would prob- 

 ably not winter. Was that apiculture? 



A better definition would be that apiculture is beekeep- 

 ing with improved methods, which enable man to get the 

 results of the labor of the bees with the least expenditure 

 of labor, and the least loss of bees. That is nearer correct, 

 but there are one or two popular fallacies which, I think, 

 need correction. 



It is a common thing in the current bee-keeping journals 

 and standard books on apiculture to see some special method 

 upheld on the ground that it is "Nature's way," and one of 

 the most common criticisms of new methods is that they are 

 "contrary to Nature." Let us examine this form of criti- 

 cism. "Nature's way" for bees to live is in hollow trees or 

 caves ; there are no movable frames, no sections, no supers to 

 be added ; queens are never introduced, honey is never ex- 

 tracted, the brood is never shifted, and queens are never 

 shipped. Do we then keep bees according to "Nature's way?" 

 Most decidedly not. Modern apiculture is, and should be, 

 made up largely of methods and practices which are very 

 decidedly different from those of natural environments. 



But it may be answered that these things make no differ- 

 ence, for only such things are done as are easily overcome 

 by the bees, and, in all the essentials, we still allow the bees 

 to act according to their instincts. We are now approaching 

 the true conception. It may as well be recognized at once 

 that apiculture is the economic keeping of bees in such a 

 way that the greatest benefit to man may be derived from 

 them, and only such deviations are made from natural meth- 

 ods as can be overcome by the flexibility of the instincts of 

 the bees. We are justified in going just as far as we pos- 

 sibly can from natural methods if necessary, if in so doing 

 we do not overreach the limitations of the instinct. 



Care must be exercised, then, in trying new ideas in 

 apiculture, that we do not weaken the vitality of the bees 

 or lessen their productiveness; but, on the other hand, by 

 years of experience it has been shown that man has in many 

 cases made conditions actually better for the bees by wise 

 deviations from nature. I argue, then, that there is no 

 justfication in this everlasting harping after "Nature's way," 

 but we should have done with this idea, long ago discarded 

 in most other lines of breeding, and settle down to improve 

 on Nature, as wan has done, and is doing, every day and in 

 all fields of labor in this pushing age. 



Let us, then, define apiculture as the science which 

 takes into account the habits and adaptions of the instincts 

 of the honey-bee so that by deviations from Nature man may 

 increase the productiveness of these instincts for his own 

 good. 



So much for apiculture; it is now time to find out what 

 is meant by "Experimental Apiculture." 



An experiment is a "trial or special observation made to 

 confirm or disprove something doubtful, or an act or opera- 

 tion undertaken in order to discover some unknown prin- 

 ciple or effect, or to test, establish, or illustrate some sug- 



