through all discouragements are doingabout 

 as well as any departments of farming. It 

 is the same with our bee-keeping interests. 

 It is not always advantageous to have a large 

 number of persons go into any kind of pur- 

 suit. Crops sold at low figures create a de- 

 mand from those who, before the low prices 

 came, had no idea they could buy these 

 products. It is precisely the same with 

 honey, the tow price caused it to be bought 

 by every class of people ; they found that 

 honey could be got cheaper than before, and 

 acquired a taste for'it, and hence it enlarges 

 our field of consumption. Though honey 

 does not sell at so large a price as formerly, 

 •we sell a great deal more of it. 1 do not 

 think we need to be alarmed and want to go 

 out of the business if we are already well 

 established in it. 



L. H. Scudder— The competition of Cali- 

 fornia honey has been spoken of. I have 

 no fears on that point. I am acquainted with 

 a party living there who produced 52,000 

 lbs. of honey. He got SI, 500 for the year's 

 work, and has quite a large interest there. 

 In 1879 lie got no honey, but paid out $500, 

 and has only $1,000 as his profits for 3 years. 

 It does not seem possible to me that we need 

 fear California honey. It does not really 

 injure our market ; it was our own immense 

 surplus that created the glut of the market. 

 I remember well when we got 30 cents a 

 pound for our honey, but we only had a 

 small crop. What do high prices amount 

 to with nothing to sell? We made more last 

 year with low prices than we did before, for 

 we had a large crop, and sold it, too. There 

 are not as many bee-keepers now by at least 

 one-half as there was 1 year ago. Every 

 poor year cuts off as many or more heads 

 than a good year will produce. 1 have been 

 at it a good while, and am willing to try it 

 longer and make success a surety. 



S. Bittenbender— We sold honey in Iowa 

 at 15 cents. The grocers got some Califor- 

 nia honey, but had to sell it at IS cents to be 

 profitable, and could not sell it till our Iowa 

 honey was all gone. I believe we can pro- 

 duce honey by providing pasturage as 

 cheaply as they can raise it in California. 



Mrs. L. Harrison — We sold none of our 

 honey less than 20 cents, and from that to 

 23 and 24 cents, and sold at home ; our cus- 

 tomers came to us, we do not have to hunt 

 for them. 



O. CI ute — Our foreign markets are reliev- 

 ing us of our large crop of honey ; we are 

 exporting great quantities, and we have the 

 markets of a whole world. California does 

 not have good honey years very often ; con- 

 sequently we do not have their honey to 

 compete with only now and then. 



Jas. A. Simpson — A few years ago I took 

 the position that we would have to sell our 

 honey as cheap as syrups in order to dis- 

 pose of it. Honey is yet a new thing ; it is 

 not in demand like staple groceries. When 

 I first began to have extracted honey by the 

 barrel, my neighbors said it could not be 

 honey ; he gets too much of it, he makes it 

 of sugar. Honey has got to work its way 

 into use. I wrote to Pennsylvania to see if 

 1 could sell a barrel of honey, and was 

 laughed at. A barrel of honey ! I hope for 

 a law in regard to the adulteration of food. 

 Honey is a luxury. Hard times are over, we 



are told. This will help us. We are some 

 like the Irishman rolling down hill on a 

 log; his companion yelled to him, "Stick 

 to it Jaimie, ye're on top every other time." 



C. P. Dadant— In regard to the sale of 

 honey for the present year, there need be 

 no alarm, for there lias been a very greatloss 

 of bees in Europe. With few bees, and a 

 small crop there last year and the present 

 one, there will be little honey in our way. 



L. H. Scudder— I notice our sales of ex- 

 tracted honey in Europe arcon the increase. 

 The markets of the world are nearly bare 

 of honey at this time. 



Relative merits of Italian and black bees. 



Dr. H. J. Scoles— I have had a little expe- 

 rience with both, and prefer the Italians, 

 especially in a poor year for honey. They 

 are more peaceable, of course, and keep 

 their hives more free of moth. Blacks we 

 have to help, the Italians take care of them- 

 selves, usually. 



S. J. McKinney— I am a black-bee man in 

 a small way. I began with blacks ; was 

 very successful that year; my colonies sent 

 out heavy swarms, I divided some, and lost 

 by it. We have had all the honey we wanted 

 to eat, and I will not make any report till 

 we have more than we can eat at home. 



Thos. Dunu— I got Italian queens from 

 Messrs. Dadant and Simpson. My Italians 

 gave me a surplus, my blacks hardly lived. 



S. Bittenbender— I would prefer the Ital- 

 ians, but I believe too much is claimed for 

 them ; they have been bred up by judicious 

 selections of the • best and most prolific 

 queens, while the blacksthave been bred 

 down, we might say, Who takes the pains 

 to select and breed from the best black 

 queens? I believe the Italians will run 

 down the same way if neglected. The Ital- 

 ians need watching more than the blacks. 

 Keep your black colonies strong and they 

 will take care of the moth, too. As to blacks 

 running off of the combs, 1 do not eare 

 where my bees travel to, if they do well 

 otherwise. In looking through a hive of 

 blacks we can see the combs much better 

 than in an Italian colony. The blacks will 

 come in on the home stretch equal to the 

 Italians. 1 believe the blacks can carry as 

 much as the Italians, but they want better- 

 wages. I admit that the Italians will work 

 better on a short crop. 1 have 00 colonies 

 of bees. 



E. D. Godfrey— Italians consume more 

 honey in rearing brood, which is one reason 

 why thev are apt to get short of stores. 



S. J. McKinney— I have seen statements 

 that one bee carries in a teaspoonful of 

 honey during a season. If you reckon up 

 what the whole colony will get, it will not 

 amount to 200 or 300 lbs. per hive, as some 



Question : Do Italians get honey from red 

 clover? 



H F. Putnam— I keep both Italian and 

 black, and do not think either of them get 

 honey from red clover. 



Jas. A. Simpson— I have no queens tor 

 sale. I think too much has been said on 

 the superiority of the Italian bees, and think 

 blacks could be bred up to as high a grade 

 as any Italian. For extracting the blacks 

 are away ahead, You cannot brush the 



