1888 



GLEANINGS iN BEE CULTUliE. 



38S 



J. C. Capehart, St. Albans. S. W, 4-26. 



IV. As far as I can aseei'tain.lOO per cent wintered, d. (Jood 



WISCONSIN. 



George Grimm, Jefferson. S. E. 4-21. 



a. 99. b. 90. o. Cellar wintering, d. Good. 



Joshua Bull. Sc'vniuur. E. 6-7. 



a. a2 li 80 r JI.v bees wintered mostly upon summer 

 stands; all iitlirrs in'this locality wintered in cellars, so far as 

 my km )«if(ly;e extends, d. Good. 



E. France, Platteville. S. W. 5-1. 



a. 90. b. Aside from our own and Mr Willson's, 50 percent 

 are dead. c. About half each way. d. li"air, with good weather 



E. E. Tongue, Hillsborough. S. W. 4-30. 



a. 100. b. About 90 per cent. c. Cellar wintering, d. Good 



Frank McNay. Mauston. C. 5-1. 



a. 85. b. 75 or 80. c. Cellar preferred, d. Fair prospects. 



S. 1. Freeborn, Ithaca. S. W. 4-23. 



a. 90. b 90. c Cellar. Only moderate. White clover bad 

 ly killed out by drought . 



J. C. Sayles, Hartford. S. E. 5-5. 



a. 85. b. 75. c. Cellar wintering. The loss in chaff hives 

 was vei'y heavy last winter, d With favorable conditions, 

 we expect a good crop of honey. 



WYOMING TERRITORY. 



G. G. Mead. Ferris. S. 4-27. 



a. 10<1. b. No other bees in my locality, c. Summer stands 

 in-eferred. d. Prospects for honey crop good. Spring forwartl. 



Unfortunately Prof. Cook's report was 

 mislaid, and hence did not get in its regular 

 place. We give it below. 



MICHIGAN. 

 A. J. Cook, Lansing. S. C. 



a. .50 percent of our bees died. c. All wintered in new cellar 

 d Prospects for honey not veiy favoi'able. See page 408. 

 REPORT FROM ASSOCIATION. 



In the way of a summary we find by a lit 

 tie figuring that the report, averaged for 

 tlie entire United States, stands as follows : 

 (Question <(, 84 ; b, 67i ; to question c, 81 re- 

 port ; 41 of this number answer wintering 

 on summer stands ; 85 cellar wintering, and 

 5 about equally divided between the former 

 and latter; to question cZ, 62 reply. Of tliis 

 number, 36 report favorable ; 13 unfavora- 

 ble, and 14 moderate ; e, as nearly as we can 

 e.stimate, is about an average to what it Ims 

 been previous seasons ;/, from the nature 

 of the case, is very various ; though fruil- 

 bloom figures conspicuously. The reader, 

 in order to understand the svnnmary as giv- 

 en above, is requested to look at the ques- 

 tions at the head of this department. 



Now, then, there are several important 

 facts. Fact 1. Question h of this issue cor- 

 responds to question a of the Honey Statis- 

 tics in our issue of April 1. The average 

 loss for April 1 was 15 per cent, liut this 

 report included the whole of the United 

 States, South as well as North. Tlie aver- 

 aged percentage loss as called forth by ques- 

 tion b in this issue is 33 per cent. But why 

 the differenceV Observe that question b in 

 this issue calls for responses from only the 

 Northern and Middle States, while question 

 a, of April 1, included the whole South as 

 well as the rest of our country. If the 

 Southern States had been eliminated from 

 the domain of this latter question the per- 

 centage loss of the two reports would have 

 been very nearly the same, because it is a 

 poor bee-keeper wlio can not report 100 or 

 nearly that of his bees wintered in the 

 Southern States. 



Fact 2. Observe that scientific wintering 

 in the hands of expert bee-keepers, as com- 

 pared with the wintering of bee-keepers in 

 general (good, bad, and indifferent), stands 

 in the ratio of 84 to 67. 



Fact 3. Observe that two or three of the 

 most prominent and successful honey-pro- 

 ducers have been the heaviest losers of bees 



during the winter— C. C. Miller losing .55 

 per cent ; James Ileddon 33i per cent, and 

 A. J. Cook 50 per cent; Dr. II. Besse 89 per 

 cent. 



Fact 4. By referring to the tabulated rer 

 ports you will see tliat 15 (out of the 85 who 

 reported their own loss) wintered 100 per 

 cent of their bees ; 3. 99 per cent; 5, 95 per 

 cent; 12, 90 per cent; 7, 85 per cent. Now, 

 bear in mind that all of the percentage of 

 loss in answer to question (( represents ac^ta/ 

 personal losses ; the percentage of loss in 

 question b represents I'stirualcd losses for the 

 locality, because tlie reporters were not 

 able, in most cases, to give exact data. 



Fact 5. Observe that cellar wintering and 

 wintering on summer stands was in nearly 

 equal proportion— tlie ratio being 35 to 41. 

 Notice, also, in these States where severe 

 winter weather prevails, that celliir winter- 

 ing is preferred as a rule, although chaff 

 packing on summer stands has given excel- 

 lent results. A little further South winter- 

 ing on summer stands and cellar wintering 

 are about equally divided. Still further 

 South, outdoor wintering is given the pref- 

 erence. 



Fact 6. Observe that there are mure re- 

 ports making out the prospects good than 

 there are making them out poor — the ratio 

 being about three to one. 



Fact 7. The honey-fiow in those localities 

 v\ here nectar is being secreted is as good as 

 the average, taking it as a whole. 



QUESTION NO. 38 AGAIN RECON- 

 SIDERED. 



ANOTHKR OF OUR SOUTHKKN COnRE.SrONDENTS 

 REVIEWS THE SITUATION. 



0N page 298, Apr. 15, we find Question N... 3S re- 

 considered by L. Stacheltiausen, of Texas. 

 Lot us, in leturn, ask hini to reconsider 

 what he has written in that article about the 

 stores consumed by bees and the di&'orence 

 in their breeding- in warm and cold climates. 1 am 

 ready to admit, from the statements made in his 

 article, that what he says is true of that part of 

 Texas wherein he lives, or, for that matter, it is 

 probably true of any locality where there is a pro- 

 tracted drought of several months during summer, 

 bo it north, south, east, or west. We are all aware, 

 or should be, that long and protracted droughts cut 

 off brood-rearing in summer. How much of what 

 is known as the "South "is subject to such pro- 

 tracted droughts as Texas? Why, not more than 

 one-fourth of it. if that much; consequently the 

 answers as given to Question No. 48 are more cor- 

 rect for a larger portion of the South than his are- 

 much more so. 



T have never kept bees in a cold climate, but I 

 have kept them in the South, and observed them 

 about as clonely as any man, and I know the differ- 

 ence there is in the stores consumed here, even, in 

 a warm and a cold winter. The very fact that, " as 

 soon as pollen is coming in, breeding is .going on 

 rapidly," and no honey is being gathered, together 

 with the fact that a great amount of honey is con- 

 sumed, is why so much more stores are consumed 

 in a warm climate. There are but few States in 

 the South in which our bees do not gather pollen 



