its hospitality and the invitation sent 

 to the members to visit the State Insti- 

 tutions, and also for the free use of the 

 court room ; to Erastus Weeks for his 

 disinterested labors in arranging for 

 hospitable entertainment. 



Bee-Keeping in Northern Michigan. 



The reports of two members of the 

 committee appointed at the last meet- 

 ing regarding Northern Michigan as a 

 location for bees were then read : 



Mr. President.— In regard to bee- 

 keeping in Northern Michigan, my own 

 observation do not extend much north 

 of this county (Montcalm). There are 

 good locations in this county for bee- 

 keeping, and a number have made quite 

 a success of it. It has been very dry 

 here this summer, so of course, bees 

 did not do very well. Some increased 

 in the ratio of from one to three. 

 Where they increased that much, I 

 think there are many colonies that did 

 not store enough honey, and that they 

 are too weak to winter well. 



One man told me that he started, last 

 spring with 18 colonies, 1 of them was 

 queenless. He obtained 1,500 lbs. of 

 extracted honey and increased to 60. I 

 have a report from N. S. Graham, Esq., 

 living on the north line of Osceola Co., 

 just south of the belt of pine, skirting 

 Clam river. He thinks that section is 

 admirably adapted to apiculture, and 

 that Italian bees will do well there. 

 For pasturage there is maple, basswood, 

 alder, raspberries, kanker-wood, fire- 

 weed, and other wild flowers in great 

 abundance. They gather a large quan- 

 tity of honey from the fire-weed, which 

 extends for miles. Where the pine has 

 been cut the low marshy land is covered 

 with flowers that bloom till late in the 

 fall. He thinks bees do best there in 

 the fall. They increase so fast that they 

 will soon have more bees than pasturage, 

 and they will have to divide into dif- 

 ferent apiaries. It is a fine farming 

 country and honey plants may be raised 

 if necessary. On'e year ago last spring, 

 he started with one strong colony and 

 another weak one : he increased to nine 

 strong ones. This summer each 

 one swarmed three times and now their 

 hives are full of honey for winter. He 

 thinks if there is a failure anywhere, it 

 will be in wintering. But if they are 

 properly prepared and given the right 

 care, they can be wintered as well as in 

 other localities. He winters in a dry 

 cellar ; has a pipe running through the 

 floor, connected with stove pipe above. 



We winter ours on summer stands in 

 boxes packed with wheat chaff ; but to 

 make a success of bee-keeping, in 

 northern Michigan as well as elsewhere, 



one must know what to do, and do it at 

 the proper time. 



I regret that I cannot be with you at 

 the meeting. I hope you will have a 

 very interesting time. 



Lawrence C. Lincoln. 



Mr. Geo. E. Steele, of Elk Rapids,. 

 Mich., reported as follows : 



Mr. President,— At the last meet- 

 ing of the Association in Grand Rap- 

 ids, Messrs. L. C. Lincoln, of Green- 

 ville, Henry Palmer, of Hart, and my- 

 self, were appointed a committee to 

 gather facts as to the probabilities of 

 Northern Michigan for honey produc- 

 tion. Just what is meant by " Northern 

 Michigan " is not certain, but if Mont- 

 calm and Oceana counties are not far 

 enough north, surely Antrim county 

 must be. The earliest settlements in 

 this region bordering Grand Traverse 

 and Little Traverse Bays, were made at 

 Little Traverse, Charlevoix, Old Mis- 

 sion, Elk Rapids, Northport and Tra- 

 verse City, consequently it is in the vi- 

 cinity of these villiages that we must 

 look for the earliest importations of 

 bees; and should expect them to be 

 foremost in providing cultivated forage 

 plants. We are not informed as to the 

 first bees kept in that region, but the 

 last 10 years would certainly include 

 most of them ; even now they are rare 

 tenants on our most cultivated farms. 

 Farmers would as often think of bring- 

 ing home from town a pound of candy 

 for their children than a pound of 

 delicious honey. Honey, you know, is 

 only for sick folks to take medicine in ! 

 Candy is made in Chicago of sugar, 

 flour and poison, and is brought a long 

 ways, and we often prize things accord- 

 ing to the number of miles they have 

 traveled. 



On inquiring of two persons who were 

 probably the first to keep bees here, I 

 find that after two seasons of reason- 

 able success in box hives, the country 

 then being almost a wilderness, one put 

 his bees in a cellar to winter, when the 

 cellar was half full of water; in the 

 spring his bees proved to be poor sail- 

 ors and gave up the ghost ; the other 

 tried wintering out or doors with no 

 kind of packing or absorbents ; the snow 

 that winter was three feet deep, ice 

 filled the entrances, and the bees went 

 to another clime. 



In most cases where a hive of bees 

 has been obtained, they have been left 

 to care for themselves ; the farmer being 

 too much "drove" with work, as he 

 thought, to care for them except in 

 swarming time ; and always laying down 

 the axiom that u bees are dangerous 

 things." 



