GLKANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



jilcaii guilty — at least to some extent. I'roni 

 Mr. IClwood's staiuii>oiiit, t>r, in fact, from the 

 staiuli)oiiU of any hee-keeper in York State, 

 the s.-ast)!! had not been as i;ood as the last ; 

 but in other States I think it has been ver}- 

 nnioh better, if we except also the basswood- 

 jjrowing re.nions of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Min- 

 nesota. All throu<a;h York State I found that 

 clover had done very much better than it did 

 last year ; but the entire failure of basswood 

 very materially dro]:)])ed the jj^eneral average. 

 It is easy to see that those States that have 

 generally secured good cro])s from basswood, 

 owing to the absolute failure from that source, 

 have not had, comparatively speaking, as good 

 a crop as last year. But the great majority of 

 locations throughout our countrj' have given 

 far better averages, as basswood does not grow 

 in those places. 



This suggests a cjuesLiou : Suppose there 

 could be no question al)out it of honey-flow 

 being much better than for years past — would 

 it be wise to ])ublish the fact? or would it be 

 better to let the situation be known ? I must 

 confess that, so far as we are concerned, our 

 predictions for the future will be conservative 

 rather than otherwise. 



SHIPPING COMB HONEY. 



A GOOD deal of discussion took place at the 

 Buffalo meeting regarding the best methods 

 for shipping comb honey by freight. Several 

 took the ground that it was bad policy to put 

 cases of comb honey in a large protecting- 

 crate ; that the honey was more liable to be 

 broken in such crates than when piled loosely 

 in a car on straw. Others insisted just as 

 strenuously that they never had success in 

 shipping hone)- till they used these protecting- 

 crates. Among those who advocated putting 

 the cases in a car without the crate were Capt. 

 J. E. Hetherington, Dr. C. C. Miller, and quite 

 a number of others. These latter, /. e., those 

 who advocated the non-use of the crates, very 

 often ship in lar^e lots and in carloads ; when 

 the cases are piled up solidly in a car ( combs 

 piarallel to the rails) there is not very much 

 liability of the honey being broken. On the 

 other hand, when honey is shipped in small 

 lots, say in five or ten cases, it seems to go 

 better in a crate, especially if it is transferred. 

 But :Mr. S. A. Niver, of Groton, N. Y., made 

 the point that those heavy crates holding, say, 

 ten or twelve cases, are pretty sure to be han- 

 dled in York State on two-wheeled trucks. 

 The crates were put on them the long way ; 

 and as they are trundled from one car to an- 

 other the combs are jolted when held on at an 

 angle of 45 degrees, aiid the wrong way at 

 that, and this causes the breaking out when 

 they used crates. It was hard for me to recon- 

 cile that statement in view of the fact that we 

 had always had better success by using the 

 crates than when we did not use them. When 

 I went through York State I noticed that they 

 used two -wheeled trucks where we in the 

 central and western portion of the country use 

 four-wheeled ones. On the latter, crates hold- 

 ing ten or twelve cases would be handled just 

 as they should be — in a horizontal position. 



On two-wheeled trucks, these crates would be 

 trundled and bumped over the plank ])lat- 

 forms at an angle of 45 degrees, as explained. 



THE BIG BUFFAI,0 CONVENTION. 



1*11 !•; Buffalo convention, while perhaps not 

 the largest in point of numbers (and I do not 

 know but it miglit have Ijccn the largest also), 

 was one of the l)est conventions I ever attend- 

 ed. It certainly was a most representative 

 meeting. There were bee-keepers present 

 from California and tlie West, from Cuba, 

 from all over New England, from different 

 parts of the South, from every portion of 

 York State, and from all over Canada. There 

 was that extensive bee-keeper from California, 

 Mr. J. F. Mclntyre, who has 000 colonies all 

 in one apiary; and there was the editor of the 

 California Bee-keeper; that distinguished bee- 

 keeper, O. O. Poppleton, from Florida ; E. 

 Whitcomb, from Nebraska; l-'red L. Craycraft, 

 from Cuba. There was also present from New 

 York, Mr. W. L. Coggshall, who runs lo out- 

 apiaries aggregating something like 1000 colo- 

 nies; P. H. Elwood, having a similar number; 

 Capt. J. E. Hetherington; and — well, I don't 

 know how many more. Besides these bee- 

 keepers with their great i-anches, as we might 

 say, of bees, there were a good many more 

 who owned colonies aggregating anywhere 

 from 300 to oOO in number. Then there were 

 the professional men, and the bee-keepers 

 having anywhere from 10 to 100 colonies. 



The convention hall was pretty well filled 

 most of the time; and, barring a little passage 

 at arms at one of the sessions, every thing 

 passed off very pleasantl}'. 



One of the special features of this conven- 

 tion were some grand talks from Capt. J. E. 

 Hetherington, said to be the most extensive 

 bee-keeper in the world ; J. F. Mclntyre, of 

 California ; G. M. Doolittle, almost the un- 

 crowned king of the convention ; -' Fred L. 

 Craycraft, a bee-keeper who has achieved no 

 small distinction in Cuba. And then there 

 was plent}' of good-natured sparring between 

 Drs. Tilason and Miller ; Messrs. Abbott, of 

 Missouri, and Doolittle, of New Y'ork ; Hon. 

 E. Whitcomb, of Nebraska, and others whose 

 nanies do not come to mind just now. Wit 

 and humor, intermingled with song, spiced 

 the whole convention. 



No small prai.se is due to Mr. O. L. Her- 

 shiser, of Buffalo, for the beautiful room he 

 secured for iis in one of those sky-scraping 

 buildings, top floor, and the excellent enter- 

 tainment, in view of the great crowds in the 

 city on account of the G. A. R. encampment. 



Unfortunately, the convention had no re- 

 porter. The one who had been secured dis- 

 appointed us at the last ; and supposing the 

 report was being taken I took no notes; but I 

 am just conceited enough to believe I brought 

 home .some ideas, and I hope to sprinkle them 

 into our columns in the forthcoming issues, 

 as time and opportunity may suggest. 



♦Doolittle "brought down the house" a number of 

 times Vjy his happy speeches ; and later on a strong 

 effort was made to make him president, butjhe declin- 

 ed with thanks. 



