THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



255 



extracted lioney, and increased to thirty- 

 nine stocks nearly all full. 



The prospect now is that the bees will 

 continue to gather honey until sometime 

 after frost. I may yet make a few swarms 

 and extract a considerable amount of 

 honey. 



The best three honey-plants in this sec- 

 tion are: white clover, bass-wood and 

 buckwiieat. White clover blossoms from 

 May till after frost, but does not secrete 

 much honey after the tirst of July. B;iss- 

 wood blossoms about the first of July and 

 lasts about two weeks. Buckwheat blos- 

 soms from the last of July, generally, until 

 the first frost. T. W. Livingston. 



Washington Co., Iowa, Sept. 7, 1875. 



Mr. Editor: — This is my report:— 1st. 

 Increase four to one ; commenced in the 

 spring with sixteen, increased to sixt3'-five 

 stocks. Honey, nearly 500 lbs of box honey. 

 This was done previous to August 20th, at 

 which time we had a frost which killed 

 the corn and buckwheat, and second crop 

 of white clover, just as they began to yield 

 houeJ^ Three swarmed two or three days 

 before the frost, wliich will have to be fed, 

 as there has been no honey since. Some 

 pollen has been gathered. 



2d. No prospect for any more honey this 

 year. 



3d. Wild raspberry blossoms, white 

 clover and bass-wood are all in abundance 

 this year. Bass-wood gave honey only 

 about three days, instead of fifteen or 

 twenty day. 



4th. Being a stranger here I cannot tell 

 the commencement of a yield of honey, 

 nor what plants produce it. 



I am greatly interested in bees, and the 

 success I have had with them during the 

 past two years have given me over four 

 hundred per cent, on the capital invested. 

 Last year I sold twenty-seven stocks, and 

 this year ten stocks. I have been very 

 successful in my manner of wintering 

 my bees. The upper ventilation has been 

 run to the extreme. It may answer for 

 very strong stocks, but for weak ones or 

 medium it is death. I give but little, and 

 that only in proportion to the strength of 

 stock, and my cellar is ventilated by a 

 stove pipe inserted in my sitting-room. 

 The stove-pipe is four feet above the floor, 

 with a damper to close or open at will, 

 and the pipe extends down through the 

 floor to within fifteen inchesof the t)ottom 

 of cellar. This makes it as pure and 

 sweet as an upper room. My thermome- 

 ter in the cellar is kept from 85 to 45 de- 

 grees above zero, and those wlio can win- 

 ter well, can make bees pay. In this sec- 

 tion I predict a great loss of bees, for two 

 reasons: first, want of stores, and second, 

 lack of young bees, raised this fall, to live 

 late enough in the spring to supply the 

 loss. David Bkokaw. 



Clark Co., Wis., Oct. 2, 1875. 



De.\r Editor. — Our bees have not done 

 as well as usual. On account of the cold 

 weather, bass-wood yielded but little 

 honey, and white clover did but a trifle 

 better. 



Some of my neighbors claimed to have 

 Italian bees, but as I had seen many at 

 exhibitions, I did not think them pure, so 

 I sent to Barnum & Peyton for six full 

 colonies of Italians, and these proved to 

 be the only ones here of pure stock. 

 These colonies were put up so well that 

 they would have carried to China without 

 damage. In the wliole six (udonies I 

 failed to find an impure bee, and, of course, 

 I was well pleased with them. My main 

 trouble thus far has been to winter well. 

 A sure and safe plan of wintering would 

 be a boon, indeed. Geo. T. Burgkss. 



Luckuow, Ont., Oct. 5, 1875. 



■ I will give my report on bees. ♦ I started 

 last spring with six swarms. I increased 

 to nineteen; lost three by running away, 

 and three I doubled with others. I took 

 300tt)S. of box-])oney. Our main depend- 

 ence is white clover, bass-wood and buck- 

 wheat or golden-rod. 



C. S. Wellman. 

 Bremer Co., Iowa, Sept. 17, 1875. 



In answer to questions, we report as 

 follows: 1. No surplus honey. Increased 

 from 78 to 101 swarms. 



2. There is no prospect for surplus 

 honey; but enough to keep bees busy 

 during the winter for their own consump- 

 tion. 



3. White sage, buckbush or berberry, 

 sumach. 



4. White sage blooms in April. The 

 berberry blooms several times during the 

 summer. It is now in blossom in our 

 canon for the fourth time since April. 

 Sumach generally begins with August, 

 and lasts a mouth or more. Our rauche 

 is within the frost-stricken belt ffrost of 

 April 5th), which accounts for the poor 

 return. 



Brunk & Bruck. 

 Los Angeles, Cal., Sept. 17, 1875. 



Last fall and winter proved veiy disas- 

 trous to many of the apiaries in this 

 State. More tlian two-thirds of my bees 

 died. Others have had about the same 

 amount of " bad luck " ; the fates in the form 

 of the drouth and grasshoppers, have been 

 against us. But since the middle of June 

 bees have been doing well; swarms have 

 been frequent this fall, and a good average 

 of honey per colony has been procured. 

 The pasturage this fall has been sufficient 

 for almost an unlimited number of col- 

 onies. Crops are good, and everything 

 indicates a rapid recovery of the country 

 from its past reverses. 



If, from the calamities of the past, we 



