more loss from those facing north or north- 

 east than those facing south or southeast. 



L. H. Scudder— Perhaps you would not if 

 in an open country, as I am. 



O. Clute— I had a long talk with Mr. Jones, 

 of Beeton, Out.; he thinks the much less 

 amount of honey consumed in the cellar 

 would more than pay for all expense of 

 building and moving. He found that bees 

 in a cellar use 7 to 8 lbs. per hive less than 

 those wintered out. 



L. H. Scudder— The past winter is no cri- 

 terion to go by in wintering out or in. Take 

 the winter of 1873 or 1874 ; if your bees did 

 not freeze in such a winter they never will. 



E. D. Godfrey— I wanted to show Mr. 

 Scudder that in Michigan, the old strong- 

 hold of indoor wintering, over one-half are 

 now wintering outdoors. Bee-keepers are 

 changing, and I think in 5 years the great 

 bulk of bees will be kept the year round in 

 the double-walled hive. 



O. Clute— We had a very cold winter a 

 year or two ago. We must compare various 

 ways, and adopt that plan that proves, on 

 the whole, to be the most successful. 



C. P. Dadant— A good many have noplace 

 to put their bees away for the winter ; three- 

 fifths of our own bees were wintered out 

 because we had no place for them. 



Jas. A. Simpson— We all know bees form 

 a compact cluster in cold weather, and if 

 the cold is long continued will starve right 

 there, being unable to leave the cluster for 

 more food. During the winter of 1873 and 1874 

 the thermometer ran below zero for several 

 weeks, and we had colony after colony per- 

 ish with an abundance of honey in the hive, 

 and think the chaff hive would not have 

 kept them. 



Question by E. Child : What is the proper 

 temperature of a cellar? 



Dadant and Putnam— Above 40° and be- 

 low 48*. 



Adjourned at 5 p. m. to meet again at 7:30 

 to listen to a lecture from the Rev. O. Clute, 

 of Iowa City, Iowa. 



Mr. Clute chose for his subject a topic 

 that would interest all alike, " Marriage and 

 the Home." The seats were all occupied, 

 and the marked attention of the audience 

 gave evidence of their deep interest in the 

 speaker and the subject. Mr. Clute is a 

 thorough scholar ; his language is easy and 

 well chosen, and he uses no superfluous 

 or unintelligible terms. 



Morning Session—April 30. 



Which will produce the best results in 

 surplus honey, an 8 or 10-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive f 



T. G. McGaw— I have always used the 10- 

 frame hive, but think the 8-frame the best 

 for comb honey. 



Mrs. L. Harrison— We think we get the 

 most honey from the 8-frame hive ; nearly 

 all of ours are of that kind. We sometimes 

 winter in 10-frame hives, but change in the 

 spring. Nearly all the Wisconsin bee-keep- 

 ers use the 8-frame hive. 



Jas. A. Simpson— Are not the outside 

 combs of an 8-frame hive filled with honey 

 to the exclusion of the queen? 



T. G. McGaw— They will fill those frames 



late in the season to a great extent. Smaller 

 hives will swarm the most. 



C. P. Dadant— Bees bring in pollen in the 

 spring constantly, if only 8 frames are used 

 where will they put it? The consequence 

 is the hive is crowded, and the bees swarm 

 much more without corresponding results 

 in comb honey. We think a hive above the 

 average size better than one below the av- 

 erage. Quinby calculates 2,000 square 

 inches, which is about a 10-frame Langstroth 

 hive. We would prefer 10 frames or more. 



L. H. Scudder— I am in favor of the 10- 

 frame hive. Never found they were too 

 large for comb honey. To keep down in- 

 crease, I find we need to use a good large 

 hive and keep them well shaded. To get 

 increase, of course we must use a small 

 hive. It certainly takes the bees longer to 

 fill a large hive, but I have had it done in 5 

 days. A man near me is using a hive as 

 small as 8 inches square. He gets an abun- 

 dance of swarms, but no honey. 



The following essay was then read by Mr. 

 L. H. Scudder : 



How to Make Our Chosen Avocation Reasona- 

 bly Profitable. 



This subject has cost us much thought 

 and investigation, and still the problem re- 

 mains unsolved. Various schemes have 

 been tried by which we hoped to realize 

 good prices for our products, but, we must 

 confess that while at times the prices were 

 remunerative, in the main they have been 

 very unsatisfactory, and still the tendency 

 of the honey market is not in favor of the 

 producer. The problem which demands 

 our careful and earnest consideration is, 

 how can we command good and uniform 

 prices for our surplus honey? This, to-day, 

 is the question of more vital importance to 

 us than all other questions combined ; for, 

 upon a proper solution of it, depends our 

 very existence as apiarists. 



I will briefly glance at the past to show 

 why I believe we must adopt a different 

 method of disposing of crops. With the ad- 

 vent of scientific bee culture in this coun- 

 try) an advanced price was readily obtained 

 on the products of the apiary, not that the 

 public discovered that honey was any more 

 palatable or wholesome, but that it was 

 thrown on the market In a more attractive 

 shape. No sooner was this discovered than 

 a strong rivalry was engendered, which has 

 culminated in flooding the market with 

 honey in neat clean packages, until the most 

 fastidious customer cannot fail to be pleased. 

 Now it is very clear that sales cannot here- 

 after be made because of superior style 

 of package or finer appearing honey, there- 

 fore it seems reasonably certain that a gen- 

 eral system of marketing must be adopted. 

 How can this be best accomplished'.' It was 

 suggested at the National Convention in 

 Chicago that producers could in a great 

 measure control the market by concentrat- 

 ting the honey trade ; that is, by selecting 

 one or two good firms in each of the great 

 cities to handle our products for us. II. A. 

 Burch, in the April number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, favors a similar plan. 



1 take it that these parties mean a selec- 

 tion of firms who will receive our crops and 

 sell them on commission. If that is what 



