April .?, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



J<V>V)iV>^i<V>iV>VJ^»^J«VJ<Vll&J&J^liV><^M 



Convention Proceedings, f 



The Chicago Convention. 



Report of the Semi-Annual Convention of the 



Chicag-o Bee-Keepers' Association, Held 



Dec. 5, 1901. 



ItV A SIIOKTIIANI) UKI'OHTER. 



Tlio ooiivi'ntion was called to order by Pres. fieorpi' \V. 

 York, at Ui:;iU a. m., after which T. K. llogRe oti'ered prayer. 



I'ros. York — As president of the Chicago Associa- 

 tion, I am delif^hted to liiid so tnany lifiro to hcigin with. We 

 will now listen to the reading of the minutes of the last meet- 

 tn;;, and also the financial report. W<^ will do all the busin<'.ss 

 up lirst, or at least most of it, l)eforo we start on tlie ((uestions. 



Sec. Moore thoii read the minut(!S, and also the financial 

 statement, both of wliich were approved. 



Pres. York — It affords me much pleasure to introduce to 

 the audience Dr. C. C. Miller. 



Dr. Miller — How do you do, audience ? 



Pres. Vork — I also want to introduce Mr. C. P. Dadant. 



Mr. Dadant — Mr. President, I am a little bit ashamed. 



Pres. York — You needn't be ashamed ; you are good look- 

 ing. 



Mr. Dadant — I will be doing lots of talking anyway, so I 

 will say nothing just now. 



Pres. York — Mr. Green and Mr. Clarke will now distribute 

 the paper slips for questions. Write one question on a slip 

 and they will be passed at different times so we will have 

 enough to go on with. You will have a chance to ask all the 

 questions you wish before we get through. I would like to 

 say a word about the membership while you are writing the 

 questions. Our dues are $1.00 a year, which dollar pays not 

 only your membership for the Chicago Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, but also the dues in the National Association. 1 would 

 like to have every one become a member of the Chicago Hee- 

 Keepers' Association. I hope you will be very prompt about 

 writing questions, so that we will have them to go on with. 

 Dr. Miller, I know, is .just aching to talk. 



Dr. Milhir — I do want to say one word. I want to congrat- 

 ulate this Association on the plan of having the time not 

 taken up with a lot of long speeches and papers. 



Pres. York — Doctor, I think you had better sit down again. 



Dr. Miller — Will you please keep still until I am done? 

 Years ago, the pace was set in this very city by the old North- 

 western, of having programs that were not programs in the 

 ordinary sense of the term, and I believe now it is getting to 

 be the common custom in all of the bee-keepers' meetings to 

 have the time taken up largely in discussion. You know how 

 it is ; two bee-keepers get together, and the first thing they 

 begin to talk about bees. They don't need any program. If 

 I should happen to meet Mr. Dadant (that Frenchman, who 

 got away, and came into this country in spite of all I could do) 

 — if I should meet him, we wouldn't stop to discuss whether 

 Franco or America is the best country, but we would begin to 

 talk bees, and in this convention, by talking bees and having 

 questions here and there, the time is put in profitably, and I 

 don't know any reason why this Chicago ]{ee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation should not become a power; it is, I believe, and there 

 is no reason why we should not have exactly the same meet- 

 ings here as in the old Northwestern, and they were fine meet- 

 ings, too, and I do know you can have a fine meeting here 

 to-day. 



Pres. York — I have just been looking over the questions, 

 and have a lot of good ones. We will begin with an easy one. 

 Listen to this: 



"WHICH IS THE BEST HONEY?" 



Dr. Miller — Bees' honey ! 



Sec. Moore — That question I am asked every day, and my 

 answer uniformly is this : It is the honey that you like the 

 best, that you are used to. and that is in California one kind, 

 in Ohio one kind, and in Cuba another, and go on and give 

 them the names of honey in those localities. You may think 

 this is a very unimportant matter, but it isn't. It is clearly a 

 case of what we are used to. There is no best honey. For 

 the candy-maker one kind, for the cake-baker another kind, 

 for the detective another kind, and the tailor another kind. 

 I should say alfalfa. Take a vote. 



Pros. Vork — How many ihink basswood tin; best? (inc. 



I'res. York — Tliose who il ink whito clover iho best raise 

 your hands ? KIght. 



I'res. Vork — How many think alfalfa Ih the bi!St ? Three. 



Pres. ^'ork — How many tliiuk sweet clover Is the lieut 

 honey ? Twelve. 



Pres.. York — How many tliink buckwheat \n the best 

 honey ? 



M. M. Italdridge — Huckwhc at is the best honey for some. 



I'res. ^■ork — How many think the California sage Is the 

 best honey ? One. 



Pres. Vork — How many think orange-blossom honey Ih 

 the best ? Two. 



(Voice from audience) — ISest there, but there isn't much 

 of it. 



Pres. York — How many know what alfalfa honey Is, and 

 have tasted it? Thirteen. 



.1. A. Oreen — You didn't hit my case. Swi'et clover with 

 fall fiowers. I find that everybody who has tried It prefers a 

 small amount of aster with sweet clover. 



A Member — J.ust my experience ; same crop and same ex- 

 perience. 



Mr. Blunk— It suits this Ilawkeye best, too. 



Dr. Miller — I think there are two thing-i in the case. In 

 the first place there is, as the secretary has suggested, the 

 prejudice of familiarity : and, theti. you will see in the foreign 

 journals, or in journals here, some one comes out and says. 

 This is the best honey in the world. He honestly believes so. 

 That's what he is accustomed to; that's what he likes. There 

 are mixtures, sometimes, that are better than the pure article, 

 and that sometimes makes confusion about it. Sweet clover 

 was spoken of a while ago, and if there was any one honey 

 that seemed to be spoken of enthusiastically it was sweet clover. 

 I am not sure I know just exactly what the best sweet clover 

 honey is, but I have had some and I have used a good deal of 

 it, and had some 1 got for the pure article. If it was correct, 

 then I don't like sweet clover. I have gotten what I supposed 

 to be, and had good reason to believe was, a mixture of sweet 

 clover with white clover. I think if I should say what honey 

 I liked best of any I had e,v<>r sampled in my life, it would be 

 the white clover flavored with sweet clover. The sweet clover 

 alone, to me, has a disagreeable flavor and seems to me a little 

 like this ; You take the flavoring of vanilla and nearly every 

 one likes it; but you overdose it, and put too much in your 

 ice-cream — and it seems to me it is a little the same way with 

 sweet clover. It has too strong a flavor, and there will be 

 some that like it. I know people that like the taste of tobacco. 

 The majority of people, I think, would say that the pure 

 article of sweet clover isn't so good as if you have just enough 

 of the flavor, and then it is a fine article. If yon will allow 

 the comparison, for two or three years I ate it without know- 

 ing what it was, and 1 called it vanilla flavor, and I think it 

 was sweet clover. 



Pres. York — There may be some In the room who are not 

 bee-keepers, who misunderstand Dr. Miller when he said he 

 believed that a mixture might be better than the pure article. 

 He doesn't mean adulterated with glucose or syrup. 



Dr. Miller — Not in the same way I would say pure Dur- 

 ham stock. 



Chas. Clarke — As regards sweet clover honey, when it is 

 properly ripened it loses all that taste that the Doctor speaks 

 about. I think we will have some here this evening, possibly, in 

 which you cannot find any of that taste, and I think it is a good 

 deal the fault of the apiarist in taking the sweet clover honey 

 right from the super, packing it and sending it to market. It 

 has the taste you speak of, and it loses it when it has ripened 

 thoroughly for six weeks. Sweet clover honey then will- 

 hold every customer it goes to. in place of white or alfalfa, or 

 any basswood or other honey : but there are so few that 

 seem to care about the reputation of sweet clover honey, and 

 ship it right to market and get rid of it, thequicker the better. 

 1 never have lost a sweet clover honey customer. I never sell 

 any comb honey until it has been thoroughly ripened, for si.'i 

 weeks or three months, and when you go into a room with 

 three or four thousand pounds taken right off from the hives, I 

 can't descrilje the smell, and in two or three weeks it will lose 

 that and get the beautiful aroma of honey; but I think the 

 alfalfa is really the cause of having so much trouble with 

 adulterated honey on account of its very light flavor. 



Dr. Miller — It is only fair to sweet clover for me to say, 

 that in the samples I have tasted and eaten — and I have done 

 it quite largely — that the taste seemed to me just as has been 

 described — that it was raw, and not fully ripened, and it may 

 be that I liave not eaten any thoroughly ripened, extracted sweet 

 clover honey, and if any one could give me a sample I would 

 be very glad to sample some that was thoroughly ripened. 



