1150 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



Mr. Abbott insisted that bees did not freeze 

 to death if they had plenty of stores— that 

 they starved to death. Several took issue. 

 Instances were cited showing how bees seem- 

 ed to be stiff and cold, and yet when warmed 

 up in a living-room they would be as lively 

 as ever. Many seemed to think that the 

 cold weather caused the bees to consume too 

 much to keep warm, surcharging their in- 

 testines, and this in turn resulted in dysen- 

 tery in the spring. 



The matter of foul brood received a large 

 share of attention. The foul-brood law of 

 Illinois was not effective, because it did not 

 provide a penalty. An inspector might visit 

 an apiary, and if the owner of the bees was 

 disposed to carry out the instructions, well 

 and good. If not, nothing could be done. 

 There seemed to be a general feeling that 

 the law should be amended so as to give the 

 inspector power to carry out his orders. 

 With the idea of influencing legislation, the 

 Chicago-Northwestern joined the Illinois 

 State Bee-keepers' Association in a body, 

 thus greatly swelling the membership. The 

 two organizations, under the leadership of 

 the State Association, will doubtless make 

 a strong pull for a more effective law than 

 is now on the statute-books. General Man- 

 ager France was present, and gave an excel- 

 lent address on how to recognize foul brood 

 in its very early and later stages. Mr. 

 France being one of the lecturers sent out 

 by his own State to talk at farmers' insti- 

 tutes is a trained platform speaker. He has 

 a way of making all his arguments clear and 

 forcible. He is certainly a master of the 

 foul-brood subject. 



Prof. E. N. Eaton gave an address on the 

 general subject of honey, taking up some- 

 what the same line he did at the St. Louis 

 convention. Near the close of his address 

 he mentioned the fact that the Department 

 of Agriculture, through the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry, was asking for suggestions as to the 

 correct definition of honey. The definition 

 he gave was something like this: "The nec- 

 tar of fiowers or exudations of plants gather- 

 ed by the bees and stored in combs." He 

 went on to show that the bees inverted or 

 changed the nectar, making it into honey. 

 He would limit the definition to "nectar of 

 flowers transformed, and stored in the combs 

 by honey-bees." This raised considerable 

 discussion. Some said that their bees gath- 

 ered honey-dew some seasons more than 

 others. If the presence of honey-dew in 

 honey were to be classed as an adulterant, 

 then a good deal of their honey would be 

 classed as impure. Mr. N. E. France very 

 plainly stated that, if this definition were ac- 

 cepted, then he would have to go out of the 

 business; for last season a good part of his 

 crop had honey-dew in it, but not enough to 

 hurt its flavor; indeed, some of his customers 

 liked it. "Now, then," said he, "if honey 

 is hmited to the nectar of flowers only, my 

 honey is adulterated; and if analyzed I 

 should have to be fined and imprisoned for 

 selling adulterated goods." Considerable 

 feeling was aroused, and many of the bee- 



keepers expressed tht hope that the defini- 

 tion might be made broad enough to include 

 the exudation of plants, honey-dew, and nec- 

 tar of flowers. 



On the evening of the 30th some new stere- 

 opticon slides were thrown on the screen, il- 

 lustrating bee-keeping in its various phases, 

 and besides this a moving picture of a swarm 

 of bees was thrown on the screen. The pic- 

 tures represented the opening and closing of 

 hives, picking up handfuls of bees, hunting 

 for the queen, dumping swarms, and shook 

 swarming. Some bees were caught, and 

 confined between two pieces of glass, and 

 thrown on the screen. During the process 

 of catching, several of these lost their stings. 

 The way the bees pulled at the stings, stuck 

 out their tongues, etc., proved to be quite 

 interesting to the veterans as well as to the 

 beginners present. 



THE IMMENSITY OF THE BEE-KEEPING INDUS- 

 TRY AS A WHOLE. 



Elsewhere in this issue we produce some 

 photographic views of The A. I. Root Com- 

 pany's plant, taken during the last four or 

 five months, some before recent enlarge- 

 ments. It is, perhaps, well that the bee- 

 keepers of the country should know some- 

 thing of the immensity of the bee-keeping 

 industry, including not only the production 

 of honey itself, but the manufacture of sup- 

 plies for the same. Some time ago I made 

 an estimate, based on the exact knowledge* 

 of the number of sections that are made an- 

 nually, that the amount of honey produced, 

 both comb and extracted, would make a to- 

 tal aggregate of from 100 to 125 millions of 

 pounds, worth from 8 to 10 millions of dol- 

 lars. Very recently one of the editors of 

 one of our bee-papers figured out from some 

 government statistics that had then just 

 been issued that 6667 carloads of honey were 

 annually produced in the United States. It 

 is a little significant that my own figures, 

 arrived at from an entirely different source, 

 and in a different manner, should show that, 

 on a conservative estimate, there were 7000 

 carloads produced, or almost the same as 

 represented by the government statistics. 

 But it is reasonably certain that the above 

 estimates are, at the present time, away be- 

 low the actual mark, and that we should be 

 safe in figuring on a total output of 10,000 

 carloads. If we estimate 40 feet between 

 the bumpers of the cars this would make 

 one continuous train 75| miles long; but for 

 fear the average public would not believe 

 these figures we have put the estimate at 

 the very conservative figure of 50 miles. 

 The mere fact that apiculture is making 

 rapid strides in foreign countries— even more 

 rapid than it is in the United States— goes 

 to show that the little bee, in spite of its in- 

 significant size, is. like the Httle'Jap, mak- 

 ing its influence felt in the world. It thrives 

 in every climate except where there are arc- 

 tic snows to cut off all sources of nectar. 



* This was secured through Dr. Miller, who, several 

 years ago, wrote and secured the total output of sec- 

 tions from all the factories in the United States. 



