1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



i9i 



NORTH AND SOUTH AT MEET- 

 INGS 



On August 14, the editor started 

 for the Wisconsin bee chautauqua, 

 which was to be held at Chippewa 

 Falls during that week. His trip was 

 by the way of St. Paul. At the ar- 

 rival in that city on Monday morn- 

 ing, he found Professor Francis Jager 

 with Mr. P. J. Doll awaiting him at 

 the station, and he was entertained in 

 the way which makes Father Jager so 

 popular among our beekeepers. A 

 visit at the apiary grounds of the 

 State University was followed with a 

 banquet where ten beekeepers were 

 present, including the writer. Then 

 an auto trip was made to the apiary 

 of Professor Jager, situated beyond 

 Lake Minnetonka. There we had the 

 pleasure of seeing colonies of import- 

 ed Carniolan bees. One of these was 

 opened without any smoke whatever, 

 frames lifted, the bees shaken off, 

 without a single bee showing anger. 

 Those pure Carniolans are c .rtainly 

 peaceable. Were it not for the diffi- 

 culty of keeping them pure and the 

 almost impossibility of ascertaining a 

 small amount of mixture of other 

 races, they would certainly be desir- 

 able, for their gentleness at least. The 

 Italians may equal them, but do not 

 excel them in this. 



The field meet, at Chippewa Falls, 

 was unsurpassed for the location of 

 it, at any meeting anywhere. It was 

 held in an open auditorium in the 

 park adjoining the city, which is lo- 

 cated in a \evy picturesque situation. 



A lengthy discussion was held con- 

 cerning the Wisconsin laws on honey 

 and the grading of honey. Mr. C. D. 

 Adams, of the Wisconsin Divsion of 

 Markets, brought attention to the fact 

 that much apparently ripe honey 

 weighs under 12 pounds to the gal- 

 lon, varying from 11 pounds 1^ 

 ounces to 11 pounds 14 ounces. If 

 this is correct, it might be necessary 

 to lower the legal minimum weight to 

 a trifle less than 12 pounds. Some 

 honey may be in perfectly good con- 

 dition and keep well at a little less 

 than 12 pounds to the gallon. Many 

 people judge of the density of honey 

 by its greater or less fluidity when a 

 glass jar of it is inverted. But at- 

 tention was called to the faT that in 

 hot weather, the density is appar- 

 ently much lowered and the honey ap- 

 pears thinner. 



A. C. F. Bartz, one of the lemain- 

 ing beekeepers of the "old guard," 

 gave an interesting talk on the indus- 

 try in general, calling attention to the 

 fact that no other industry of farming 

 can boast of producing two c-ops on 

 one plant; on clover or alfalfa hay 

 and honey; honey and fruit on peach 

 trees or apple trees, at the same time, 

 making beekeeping a desirable indus- 

 try. 



A beekeeper showed a steam un- 

 capping knife of his own invention, 

 in which the steam returned to the 

 kettle instead of condensing and its 

 water mixing with the extracted 

 honey. 



The annual or "Hubam" sweet clo- 

 ver was much praised by Mr. E. R. 

 Root, who had just visited some of 

 the most extensive producers of this 



clover. It is said to produce stems 

 and bloom very quickly, gi-owing 

 sometimes at the rate of a foot per 

 week, reaching in 3 months a growth 

 which is not attained by the biennial 

 in less than 21 months. This clover 

 may be distinguished from the bien- 

 nial, while it is growing, by the fact 

 that the biennial shows where the 

 stem of the previous year has died 

 back during the winter, while the an- 

 nual has a perfectly straight stem. So 

 any beekeeper may be able to distin- 

 guish one from the other by this sign. 



Dr. E. F. Phillips, of Washington, 

 gave a very interesting talk on the 

 causes of honey yield, giving cool 

 nights and warm days as the ideal 

 weather for honey. He also stated 

 that "the slower the yield of honey 

 in a plant, the darker the comparative 

 color of its honey, because of the 

 greater amount of gum contained in 

 slowly-produced flows of nectar." 



The C. C. Miller Memorial Fund re- 

 ceived a boost at the Wisconsin meet- 

 ing. We had just received informa- 

 tion of a $100 subscription to that 

 fund by the beekeepers of one of our 

 smallest States, Connecticut, at the 

 Storrs meeting, under the urging of 

 Allen Latham and Dr. Phillips. Dr. 

 Phillips also spoke at the Wisconsin 

 meeting, with much warmth, concern- 

 ing the debt that the average bee- 

 keeper owes to Dr. Miller, the world 

 over, since few, if any, of us can say 

 that they did not learn anything from 

 him. In far away countries they are 

 subscribing to this fund, which should 

 reach a sufficient sum to return at 

 least $100 in a perpetual income for 

 a Beekeeping Scholarship ci- Bee- 

 keepers' Library, somewhere in his 

 native country, the United States. It 

 is evidently going to come, for the 

 beekeepers are awakening. 



From Chippewa Falls, on the 18th, 

 the editor went to Carbondale 111., a 

 jump of 7 degrees of latitude, or over 

 600 miles from north to south. Need- 

 less to say that the same clothes were 

 unsuitable, for while it was cool and 

 pleasant in northern Wisconsin, it 

 was hot in southern Illinois. 



The meeting at Carbondal?, gotten 

 up by some enthusiastic members of 

 the Southern Illinois Beekeepers As- 

 sociation, was well attended, but 

 mainly by beginners. We must com- 

 mend the eff'orts of Messrs. F. M. 

 Caldwell and J. R. Wooldridge, the 

 President and Secretary of that asso- 

 ciation, for their eff'ective work. If 

 each association of beekeepers had 

 such live officers, there would be 

 much more interest taken in beekeep- 

 ing and methods of honey selling. 



In addition to the last "Letter," 

 volume 3, No. 8, Mr. Kelty has pub- 

 lished a Bulletin of 16 pages, No. 107, 

 on "Diseases of Bees in Michigan." It 

 is replete with needed information, 

 for those who have not read the offi- 

 cial bulletins from Washington, or 

 the late ditions of our text books. 



Every year, something new is 

 learned, and the only way to keep in- 

 formed is to read up. 



Michigan Work 



The practice of publishing an occa- 

 sional "Beekeepers 'Letter," followed 

 by the Extension Division at East 

 Lansing, begun by B. F. Kindig, is 

 still kept up. The last letter was sent 

 out by R. H. Kelty, the Secretai-y of 

 the State Association. It contains 

 valuable information. Similar let- 

 ters should be published by different 

 States, for the bee magazines cannot 

 enter into details for each State, in 

 the way that may be followed by the 

 State officials. 



Death of F. W. L. Sladen 



It i.s with deep regret that we an- 

 nounce the death, by drowning, of 

 this gentleman, on September 10. It 

 was at Duck Island, which we under- 

 stand is in Lake Huron, where he was 

 conducting some special research 

 work in beekeeping. Mr. Sladen was 

 Dominion Apiarist. We will give fur- 

 ther mention of his work. 



Food Waste in Feeding 



Professor Wilson, of Wisconsin, 

 found that for every 30 pounds of 

 syrup fed to the bees in the fall, less 

 than 18 pounds was stored by the 

 bees. The balance went into brood- 

 rearing and wax producing. We 

 know that in other seasons still more 

 is consumed for those two purposes. 

 Huber, when he fed his bees, in 

 Switzerland, said that the loss was so 

 great that it did not pay to feed at 

 one time more than they could con- 

 sume each day. This was not practi- 

 cal. But Huber was a scientv^t, a stu- 

 dent, an experimenter, and not a 

 practical honey producer. 



Honey From Shoestring Vine 



C. H. Wiley, of Harrisburg, III., re- 

 ports a large amount of honey gath- 

 ered from this plant, also called blue- 

 vine (Gonolobus laevis). He reports 

 two kinds, one with a white blossom, 

 the other with a bluish blossom. It 

 is a very noxious weed, which weighs 

 down the corn stalks and cannot oe 

 easily eradicated. It is fully de- 

 scribed by Pellett in "American 

 Honey Plants." 



Large Hives; 



Large Broodcha'mbers 



The large hive question looms up 

 evei-ywhere. Professor Jage;-, of the 

 Minnesota State Agricultural Farm, 

 affirms that within 15 years the shal- 

 low frame will have lost its popularity 

 and become obsolete. But the stand- 

 ard Langstroth frame is too well es- 

 tablished, in our opinion, to take a 

 back seat so soon, if ever it does. 



The Mystery of the Bees 



"Le Mystere des Abeilles:" Here 

 is a work very similar to that of Mae- 

 terlink "The Life of the Bee," by an- 

 other writer in the French language, 

 Eugene Evrard. As poetical as Mae- 

 terlink's book, this work has the ad- 

 vantage of being also practical and 

 almost strictly correct in its descrip- 

 tions. It is worth reading, and we 

 recommend it to those of our friends 

 who are masters of the French lan- 

 guage. The descriptions of the 

 "twenty different voices of the bees, 

 which describe their desires or their 

 lust, their hopes or their troubles, 

 their wisdom or their ardor" are 

 worthy of the pen of Huber. 



