1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



several varieties scattered over Europe, Asia and America, all 

 of which are poisonous. The poisonous extract is known as 

 " conla ;" the dose of which, in medicine, is from one-fourth 

 to one-sixteenth of a grain, and causes a burning sensation, 

 as in the young man's case. As to its poisoning qualities, it 

 is reported that one drop in the eye of a rabbit caused death 

 in nine minutes, while three drops in the eye of. a strong cat 

 killed it in IKj minutes.* Either this or the water hemlock 

 (cowbane) was probably what was used by the Greeks to 

 poison with, as in the case of Socrates. 



Now, why i.s this called wild parsnip ? Simply because of 

 its similarity to a parsnip, both in root and top, when it is full 

 grown and the parsnip has gone to seed. But there is a great 

 difTcrence, both in smell and looks, when a person once knows 

 them. The hemlock blossom is white, and in this country 

 grows only in the sloughs, while the parsnip blossom is yellow, 

 and is usually found only around where there has been a gar- 

 den. Besides, there is quite a difference in the leaves, stalks 

 and roots, but 1 cannot give a correct description of them now. 



Adams Co., Iowa. 



Report of the Vermont Bee-Keepers' 



tiOH. 



Conveo- 



BV M. F. CRAM. 



The 2'_'nd annual convention of the Vermont Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association was held at Vergenues, Jan. 21. and 22, 18'J7. 

 The meeting was called to order by Pres. H. W. Scott, prayer 

 offered by H. L. Leonard, and then the Secretary's report was 

 read and adopted, after which the following committees were 

 appointed by the chairman : 



Committee on Resolutions — M. F. Cram, D. D. Howe and 

 H. L. Leonard. 



Committee on Nomination — G. H. Fassett, W. G. Larra- 

 bes and G. C. Spencer. 



The report of the Treasurer showed the financial standing 

 of the association to be in good order, a small sum of money 

 being on hand. 



The attendance was fair, but not as large as it would 

 have been if some of the best working members had not been 

 detained at home by sickness, but those that were present 

 took a lively interest in the discussions that followed. First 

 wa^ the 



CARE OF BROOD-COMBS, 



V hich was opened by W. G. Larrabee, who had had consider- 

 able trouble in keeping motJS from comb when not in use. 

 Some fumigated with sulphur, some with tobacco, some recom- 

 mended hanging them one inch apart on a rack ; while all 

 conceded that the best place was with the bees. 



PRODUCING COMB HONEY VS. EXTRACTED. 



In the absence of J. E. Crane, who was detained by sick- 

 ness, Pres. H. W. Scott was called upon to give his experience 

 In producing honey, both comb and extracted. He uses full 

 sheets of foundation in production of extracted honey; puts on 

 top stories without excluders, as soon as the bees get strong, 

 and usually the queen will occupy two or three frames; some- 

 times he puts one frame of brood in the upper story. Mr. 

 Fassett uses combs for extracted honey. Mr. Larrabee thinks 

 that extracted honey pays as well as comb honey. 



HONT.Y PRODUCTIOX IN CALIFORNIA. 



Mrs. W. Wilson, of California, gave a very interesting 

 talk on the production of honey in California. She showed 

 that she had the one thing needful for a bee-keeper, that is, 

 pluck, as she bought five colonies and lost three in moving 

 them home. Then she increast to 100, and lost all but two 

 with foul brood. She had built up a reputation for fine qual- 

 ity of honey ; having sold all she had to spare to a city dealer, 

 he bought of some others, but its having no reputation it 

 would not sell, so he induced her to exchange with him what 

 she had saved for her own use, and in setting out a little of 

 this honey for the bees to clean up they contracted foul brood. 

 This shows that no bee-keeper should feed honey without thor- 



oughly boiling it, unless he knows the source from which it 

 came. She afterwards increast to a handsome apiary, and pro- 

 duced honey with profit. 



We then listened to singing by M. A. Everest, who, by the 

 way, is quite a poet, and he gave all the members present a 

 collection of songs which he had composed. 



INSTRUCTING RAILROAD EMl'LOVEES — FOUL BROOD. 



The question was askt, "Shall we ask the railroad com- 

 panies to instruct their employees to handle comb honey as 

 they would eggs?" The result of the discussion will be found 

 in the report of the committee on resolutions. 



QuES. — "Has any one had any trouble with foul brood? 

 If so, what shall we do to cure the disease." No one reported 

 a case of genuine foul brood in Vermont. 



At the evening session the subject of 



MARKETING HONEY 



was opened by W. G. Larrabee, followed by M. F. Cram, M. 

 A. Everest, D. D. Howe and Mrs. W. Wilson. Mrs. Wil- 

 son claimed that in Los Angeles, Cal, a firm bad mixt glucose 

 with extracted honey and shipt it East, and sold it for pure 

 honey. 



WORK AT THE EXPERIMENT APIARY. 



Next came a report of experimental work done at the api- 

 ary at the Experiment Station, and was' opened by D. D. Howe. 

 The weather being very favorable, spring feeding did not 

 amount to much, as the bees steadily gained without feeding. 

 Mr. Howe said that the experiment of feeding back he did not 

 wish to report, as he thought it was not properly done. One 

 experiment was feeding sugar syrup to the bees to see if they 

 added anything to it, or chemically changed it. It was fed 

 back again, three different times in succession. Sample No. 1 

 was the clear sugar syrup. No's. 2, o and 4 was the sugar 

 syrup after extracting in their respective order as numbered. 

 The analysis was preformed by Prof. J. L. Hills, Director and 

 Chemist of the Experiment Station, and the percentages are 

 as follows : 



Moisture 21.00% 



Ash .02 



Aciditv as formic acid .016 



Suci-ose 63.48 



Dextrose .19 



Polar.bel'ore iris plus G4 42 plus 11.00 plus 12.50 plus 13.8 



Polar, after iris —19.80 —16.00 —15.40 —15.50 



Specific gravity 1.3202 1.370 1.38G7 1.4C02 



Here is what Mr. Hills says of the analysis: "No. 1 is 

 apparently sugar syrup ; No's 2, 3 and 4 do not differ enough 

 to say so. The acidity increases slightly as the numbers in- 

 crease, hut the amount of sucrose or cane sugar, and dextrose, 

 or levulose, is essentially the same in them all. All three 

 would be clast by the chemist not acquainted with their origin 

 as honey's adulterated with cane-sugar." 



At this point there was a recitation by M. F. Cram, and a 

 song by Mr. Everest. 



BEES AND FRUIT — SPRAYING FRUIT. 



QuES. — "Do bees ever puncture grapes or injure any fruit 

 that the skins have not been previously broken ?" Ans.— No. 



QuES. — " Does spraying fruit-trees while in bloom pre- 

 vent the fruits from being stung? or, in other words, pre- 

 vent the fruit from having green, hard spots running from 

 the rind toward the core ?" Ans. — No, by all present. 



At the morning sesion of the second day, the committee 

 on nominations recommended that the old board of officers be 

 elected. But Mr. Lowrey, refusing to serve as secretary, M. 

 F. Cram was elected. 



The following were selected as the committee on experi- 

 mental work: — O. J. Lowrey, M. F. Cram and R. H. Holmes. 



The committee on resolutions reported as follows: 



Resolved, That the thanks of the Vermont bee-keepers 

 be tendered Mr. M. A. Everest for the hospitable manner in 

 which he has entertained the members during the session. 



Resolved. That the members of the Association tender 

 their thanks to the Central Vermont & Rutland Railroad Co. 

 for reduced rates during the session. 



Resolved, That we highly appreciate the interest shown 

 by the Board of Control and Directors of the Vermont Exper- 

 imental Station, as well as the labor performed by the Chem- 

 ist and Farm Superintendent in the work of the apiary. 



Resolved, That the members of the Vermont Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association highly approve of the Act past by the last 

 Legislature, to prevent the spraying of fruit-trees while 

 in bloom, it being very beneficial to the interests of the bee- 

 keepers and fruit-growers of Vermont. 



Resolved, That the members of the Vermont Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association think it best to ask the railroad officials to no- 



