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My bees have gathered no surplus. If 

 they gather enough from fall flowers to 

 winter on, it is all I expect. My neigh- 

 bor, who has between 100 and 200 colo- 

 nies, says he will not have 500 lbs. of 

 houey. W. N. Holmes. 



Wyoming, Iowa, Aug. 3, 1880. 



Bees have gathered but little surplus 

 honey. It has been so dry since July 

 20 that they have not done much. In- 

 crease is plenty. W. L. French. 



Martinsburg, Mo., July 26, 1880. 



We had a profusion of white clover 

 bloom during June and the early part of 

 July. Bees did not work on it with 

 great animation, owing, I suppose, to 

 meagre secretion of nectar. The honey 

 crop will not exceed 25 lbs. of extracted, 

 nor 10 lbs. of comb honey to the colony. 

 I do not expect surplus from fall (low- 

 ers. I have no buckwheat. My bees 

 are in good condition. G. Green. 



Mt. Lookout, O., Aug. 6, 1880. 



The honey crop is a total failure. 

 Aug. 5th — Goldenrodin bloom, and bees 

 carrying out brood for want of food. 

 Aug. 7th — A little honey. Aug. 8th— 

 Quite a flow of clear, light honey. The 

 prospects for fall honey are good. The 

 lilies that grow in the river are in bloom 

 now, but I have never been able to as- 

 certain whether they yield honey. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111., Aug. 9, 1880. 



I have taken no surplus and have not 

 divided, except a few that I broke up 

 for nuclei, and I have not had a swarm 

 to my knowledge. They have had good 

 attention, wanting for nothing but nec- 

 tar, of which we had but a few days to 

 amount to anything. This they have 

 used up for breeding. Unless we have 

 an immediate change we shall be com- 

 pelled to say, " The harvest is past," and 

 our bees are not saved. I have about 

 75 colonies, large and small, about 55 

 being in fair condition; 35 of them are 

 bright Italians; 31 of these I bought 

 last spring for $200. My expenses were 

 heavy for hives and supplies, which I 

 have on hand, as I had no use for them 

 this year. I am a little discouraged, 

 but shall stick to it as long as there is a 

 bee and sugar to. feed. My Italians will 

 work when the others will not. My in- 

 tention was to do away with the blacks, 

 but I guess they will save me the trouble 

 by doing away with themselves. The 

 yield is not more than 34 of a crop. I 

 wish the Bee Journal, success. 



Bartlett Z. Smith. 



Tuscola, 111., Aug. 9, 1880. 



The honey crop in this section will not 

 exceed }± that of last year. White clo- 

 ver was a total failure ; basswood lasted 

 but about 3 or 4 days. No fall crop is 

 expected. Bees are in good condition, 

 and are now doing well. 



C. B. Woodman. 



Farmington, Wis., Aug. 8, 1880. 



I had 132 colonies in the fall of 1879 : 

 38 were wintered in the cellar, and 91 on 

 the summer stands. Of those out of 

 doors l lost 2 by desertion ; of those in 

 the cellar, 1 was destroyed by mice, and 

 5 by desertion after they were put out 

 on the summer stands, giving 124 as my 

 working force this summer. Of these 

 20 were run for box honey, and I have 

 taken so far 105 lbs., and will perhaps 

 take off enough more to make 7 lbs. per 

 colony. I run 104 colonies for extracted 

 honey ; they yielded5, 166 lbs. — very near 

 50 lbs. per colony. I extracted up to 

 July 14, when the basswood gave out. 

 Some of those last extracted may have 

 to be fed a little, but I cannot tell posi- 

 tively, as they are gathering a little 

 buckwheat honey ; the prospect is, they 

 will gather enough to winter on. I re- 

 ceived 60 swarms this year, making 1S7 

 this fall. In the spring of 1879 I let 38 

 colonies out on shares ; this year they 

 gave me 819 lbs. extracted as my share, 

 making in all 6,090 lbs. of honey, of 

 which only 105 lbs. is comb. If the bees 

 gather enough this fall to winter on, I 

 shall call it good for this year. My bees 

 wereneverin better condition than now. 

 I had to feed 1,500 lbs, of honey this 

 spring, continuing it up to fruit bloom ; 

 feeding so heavily produced a great 

 many bees, so by June 5 (the usual time 

 clover blossoms) my hives were crowded 

 with bees ready for work. But alas ! 

 there was no clover to speak of, and 

 what little there was yielded no honey. 

 Bees worked on everything that had 

 any sweet in it until basswood blos- 

 somed ; that gave them 15 days' work. 

 We had several rainy days in the har- 

 vest, which lessened the crop some. 

 We took out all the honey (which was 

 as dark as poor molasses) just before 

 basswood blossomed, to have the combs 

 perfectly empty and clean for the white 

 honey. Two extractings of basswood 

 and we were done. All around here 

 the white clover was killed out, but the 

 ground is well stocked with clover now 

 that has come up from the seed. The 

 prospect is good for next year's clover, 

 if the winter is favorable ; but should 

 it be killed again next winter, and no 

 seed this year, it will be a long time be- 

 fore we shall see our usual amount of 

 clover honey. E. France. 



Platteville, Wis., Aug. 9, 1880. 



