1888 



GttlAi^INGS IN feE^ CULtUilE. 



a59 



have more than trebled their number of swarms, 

 but have not made a pound of surplus. I sell my 

 comb honey at 15 cents; extracted, 10 cents. My 

 Japanese buckwheat I got of you has been sown 

 three weeks and is now knee-high, and just beg-in- 

 ing- to bloom. I saw several bees at work on it this 

 morning-. S. L. Sherman. 



Oskaloosa, Iowa, July 23, 1888. 



700 LBS. FROM 26 colonies; honey selling at 



2.5 CENTS. 



The honey-harvest is about over, although the 

 bees are working some on wild carrot and white 

 clover. There was no basswood honey. The bees 

 did well for what time white clover was out, which 

 was not as early, uor did it last as long as former 

 years. From 2d colonics 1 received about 700 lbs. of 

 nice honey. Sections, as a general thing, are well 

 filled out. 1 do no extracting. There is very little 

 new honey offered for sale yet. What 1 have sold I 

 got 25 cents a box. 1 lb. Nearly all the honey this 

 year is from white clover. 



THE chapman honey-plant. 



One word for the Chapman honey-plant. I have 

 only nine plants, which are now coming in bloom. 

 I counted from 4 to 6 bees to a ball. I think one 

 acre of the plants would keep several colonies busy 

 for a while. Josiah Eastburn. 



Fallsington, Pa., July 23, 1888. 



THE season has BEEN GOOD. 



We have 16 stands. Some of them are in box hives 

 yet. We ha%'e taken about 50 or 60 lbs. of honey so 

 far, and some of the box hives contain over 100 lbs., 

 which we have no way to got at without tearing 

 them all up. We tilted one over this spring, and 

 took out quite a lot of honey and old comb. The 

 bees filled this up with new comb with a rush, and 

 then swarmed three times. I transferred one about 

 the last of June into a Simplicity, and they are do- 

 ing nicely. We got a stray swarm 4 seasons ago, 

 and we should have had 30 or 40 if we had kept them 

 all, not counting the increase of those we killed and 

 let escape. This season has been good so far, except 

 basswood, which did poorly. We got honey from 

 raspberries and blat^kberries, clover, milkweed, and 

 Virginia creeper during June and early July, and 

 goldenrod, wild cucumber, and many kinds of weeds 

 during the remainder of the season. The bees are 

 bringing in a great deal of pollen from corn at 

 present. We started with 8 this spring. 



Theo. B. Hendrickson. 



Springdale, Pa., July 23, 1888. 



good for imported STOCK. 



To-day I was down to Mr. C. Webber's apiary, 

 about 7 miles north-east of here. I find his apiary 

 in the best order of any in this locality. He has 240 

 colonies in all; 140 are new swarms, and all heavy. 

 They are all from im])orted queens, some from you 

 and some from Indiana, Georgia, and Florida. They 

 are all good workers. He is able to take off' 1000 lbs. 

 now, and will have 15,000 lbs. of comb honey this fall. 



Hillsborough, Wis., July 29, 1888. E. E. Tongue. 



a little more encouraging from MRS. AXTELL. 



We are trying to improve our bees during their 

 slack time from honey-gathering by raising many 

 young pure queens, from our best colonies of course. 

 We confidently expect a full crop, as all things seem 

 to point to an abundant crop of fall Howers. Buck- 

 wheat seldonj fails with us when all things seem so 

 favorable, so we are holding our colonies strong by 



feeding a little each day at home. The small colo- 

 nies (a few are small yet) and many strong ones are 

 not getting a good living at our home apiary. In 

 Timber apiary they are getting a little each day. 

 The rains are bringing on the buckwheat most 

 abundantly, and wild flowers also. The Chapman 

 honey-plant grows so tall, from six to ten feet, that 

 our heavy winds have broken it down badly— not 

 only made it lea:i over, but broken off the stalks. 

 But the sweet melissa is roaring with bees. 1 am 

 inclined to think it is ahead of the Chapman plant, 

 for this I<)calit3 . MRS. L. C. Axtell. 



Roeeville, 111., July 2.5, 1888. 



SO much honey THAT THE MARKET IS WELL NIGH 

 GLUTTED. 



I have one hive of bees that I have taken 104 lbs. 

 of nice section honey from up to date, and 1 feel 

 satisfied I can yet get ICO more. There is so much 

 honej' here that the market is well nigh glutted, but 

 no section honey near here but what I have. I get 

 12'/2 cts. for it. Extracted honey is worth 7 to 8 cts., 

 and bulk comb honey (just as cut out of the old box 

 gum) about the same as extracted. S. J. Foster. 



Granger, Tex., July 2.5, 1888. 



Your honey-market doesn't need to be 

 glutted. By referring to our last statistics 

 in regard to honey you will see that there 

 are plenty of chances of reducing this glut 

 in the market. 



l^EPei^i^^ DigC0ar(/i6iN^i. 



Nor A CELL OF HONEY ; GOING TO SELL OUT. 



CAN furnish you another discouraging report. 

 1 went into winter quarters with 75 stands of 

 liees— 50 old and 25 new. The new swarms all 

 died. Some lived till spring, and by the time 

 apple-blossoms came 1 have only 40 stands 

 alive. 1 never had as much trouble with my bees 

 robbing as i had this spring. 1 have not a single 

 pound of surplus yet— no white clover here to 

 speak of, that has bloomed. I have had only 3 

 swarms, which came out July 4, 15, 20. Last fall I 

 took off' a goodly number of crates with 1-lb. sec- 

 tions, some full and some partly filled with nice 

 comb. These I put away and kept in nice shape 

 till this spring, and put them on my hives juht as 1 

 took them off'; that is, the sections were never tak- 

 en out of the crates. 



As yet 1 can not see that the bees have stored any 

 honey in the cells, but they may now, for my buck- 

 wheat is now in bloom. Bees have done badly 

 here so far as I can hear— no honey, no swarms. 

 Atwood, III., July 23, 1888. J. W. C. Gray. 



ONLY 800 LBS. FROM 60 COIiONIES. 



Last season was considered very poor for honey 

 in this section; but from 60 stands, spring count, I 

 had 2500 lbs. white section honey, 50.) lbs. very fine 

 white e.vtracted. This season, from the same num- 

 ber, and well cared for, 800 lbs. section and extract- 

 ed will cover the white honey. I doubled down 

 June 10, from 90 to 60, very strong, and have done 

 all in mj- power to prevent increase. 



McLane, Pa , July 28, 1888. A. W. Harrison. 



Flowers have been abundant, and crops are ex- 

 cej>tionally good, but not one cell of honej- so far as 

 I know. Bees are mostly alive, carrying in pollen 



