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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



chaff hives, and what I can gather from 

 bee-keepers in the surrounding country, 

 there will be a far greater loss of bees 

 than there was in 1891, by one-half. 

 There has not been a day that bees 

 could fly since the forepart of Novem- 

 ber, and I have already an applicant for 

 bees by the pound to fill total losses 

 from the severe winter, their bees hav- 

 ing frozen. 



I left a few colonies of bees out just to 

 see how they would winter, and, to use 

 the language of Dr. Miller, " I see'd." 

 All perished, even in chaff hives, and, 

 from all reports, bees that are wintered 

 out-doors on the summer stands will be 

 a total loss in this part. Those in re- 

 positories are wintering well so far. 

 This being March 6th, most of the snow 

 that fell during the winter is still on the 

 ground, but as luck would have it, the 

 ground is very little frozen, and as soon 

 as the snow goes off it will have a ten- 

 dency to vegetation, 



THE HONEY PKOPHET AND PKOPHECIE8. 



After carefully reading Mr. Wilson's 

 explanation of his prophesy last year, I 

 notice he refers me back to his former 

 article. He wrote that if he were con- 

 venient to Jackson county, Iowa, he 

 would move his bees there. If my in- 

 former is correct, the honey-flow from 

 linden and white clover was as light, if 

 not lighter, than in adjoining counties, 

 and far behind this locality. He refers 

 to the report of Gleanings for 1892, and 

 that they say the average has been bet- 

 ter this year than for the last five years. 

 I cannot see whereon Qleanings bases 

 that opinion. If so, where is the honey? 

 Not on the market, nor has it been, nor 

 is it in the hands of the producer. Cali- 

 fornia has not the honey she has had for 

 the last five years, nor any other State, 

 even Ohio, the home of Gleanings. 



Mr. Wilson tries to make the readers 

 of the Bee Journal believe that it 

 rained more in the eastern than in the 

 western part of Iowa. It did not, and 

 when it ceased in the western, it also 

 ceased in the eastern part, excepting 

 showers now and then, and the loss of 

 bees was fully as large in this part as it 

 was in eastern Iowa. 



Mr. Wilson says I am no better bee- 

 keeper than the average. I don't claim 

 to be, nor I don't claim to tell what kind 

 of a corn-crop the people of Iowa are 

 going to raise, nor the cotton or gruber 

 crop Tennessee will raise, before the 

 seed is planted. It is true that I re- 

 ported my bees in good condition, and 

 tried to give the true cause of loss in 

 these parts, by bee-keepers not having 



their bees properly ventilated. I found 

 that where the apiary was located with 

 surroundings to protect the hives from 

 wind circulating around them, there 

 was the greatest loss, and, before the 

 general rains ceased, nearly every col- 

 ony I had was pretty weak, as well as 

 those of my neighbors. 



Mr. Wilson said that the honey-flow 

 would be more general than last year, 

 and still holds to that belief, and says, 

 "Who says it is not so?" I do, and I 

 believe every person in the land inter- 

 ested in honey knows that in the year 

 1892 the honey product of the United 

 States was the shortest it had been for 

 the past five years, and if Mr. Wilson 

 had watched the different reports that 

 were published in the papers, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, he would not 

 have made that statement. 



He also says that most of my honey 

 was produced from fall flowers, and not 

 from linden and white clover, as was his 

 prediction. Three-fourths or more of 

 my honey was from white clover and 

 linden, and if we had had the fall flow 

 last year that we had in 1891, the crop 

 would have been immense. I wonder if 

 Mr. Wilson has any recollection of writ- 

 ing to me, on June 29, 1892, that he 

 was interested in my travels through 

 those parts of our State, etc., and ^aid 

 he would give me a better chance to 

 prove him a false prophet ; and also said 

 that southwest of my county (meaning 

 Carroll, but I live in Guthrie county), 

 southeastern part of Crawford, and a 

 very small portion northeast of Shelby 

 and northwest of Audubon had a better 

 flow of nectar than any other part 

 around or adjoining it. 



Now if his above prediction is based 

 on linden and white clover, he has pre- 

 dicted for a country where that article 

 is very scarce, and where the country is 

 new. Linden does not grow on the 

 prairies in Iowa, but along the streams 

 of water where in these parts the crop 

 was short in that direction. As for the 

 fall flow, they were visited by growing 

 showers and heavy rains in August, 

 which caused the fall flowers to produce 

 nectar, and they had a better fall flow 

 than we had in this location. Now, I 

 will leave that prediction to the readers 

 of the Bee Journal, through which he 

 requested me to answer his predictions. 

 I will say that he has jumped to conclu- 

 sions without any basis ; first, by stat- 

 ing how much honey I got, and from 

 what source; and second, by quoting 

 from Gleanings as proof that the honey- 

 flow was better than it had been for five 

 years instead of taking the reports of 



