aLEAKlNGS IN BEE CULTURE 



reports from various sections of the State 

 and country, in order that the honey-pro- 

 ducers might know how prices would prob- 

 ably rule. Under present conditions the 

 small i^roducers set the price. Some plan 

 sliould be formulated by which these men- 

 can be brought into line. Again, we must 

 have organization. This should be so thor- 

 ough that there will be a spirit of co-opera- 

 lion and a general knowledge of conditions 

 of the season. So far the New York State 

 Association has kept aloof from the Nation- 

 al; but the time has now possibly come 

 wlien the State organization should affiliate 

 with it. The old prejudices of the past 

 sliould be allowed to die out. If mistakes 

 have been made they should be forgotten. 

 He would recommend that measures be tak- 

 en to get in touch with the National. 



During the afternoon the question " What 

 can be done to i3revent the variations in the 

 price of honey? " was introduced by Mr. S. 

 D. House, of Camillus, N. Y. Any one who 

 attended any one of the meetings of the bee- 

 keepers in New York could not help noting 

 that Mr. House is a live wire. He is an- 

 other one whose enthusiam is contagious. 

 Mr. House started a lively discussion. It 

 was not so much what he said as what he 

 drew out of others until everybody wanted 

 to talk. It is not the little beekeeper only, 

 said Mr. House, who is making the trouble 

 with the demoralization of prices. Some of 

 the large producers, who are not in close 

 touch with the organization or with each 

 other, will establish a price of their own 

 that will knock the bottom out of the mar- 

 ket. He believes we should have a commit- 

 tee of five to get out crop reports. Later 

 this question was thoroughly thrashed out, 

 in whidi it was shown that some members 

 were selling too low. It was decided that 

 prices could not be fixed at that time, but 

 that some scheme should be adopted to in- 

 sure a uniform scale of prices. This sub- 

 ject was thrashed over until it seemed there 

 would be no solution when Mr. Marks moved 

 that the whole matter be referred to the 

 committee on resolutions. This was agreed 

 to. 



This was followed by an address by Mr. 

 H. L. Case, of Canandaigua, N. Y., entitled, 

 " Is the capping-melter a necessity? If so, 

 what style is best?" Mr. Case somewhat 

 startled his hearers by saying, " I never saw 

 a capping-melter in my life. I am a pro- 

 ducer of comb honey, and therefore have no 

 use for such a contrivance." Then he paid 

 his respects to the secretary for assigning to 

 him a subject that he knew nothing about; 

 but now that he was on the program he was 

 going to say a few thing's relative to what 

 he had found useful. One of them was a 



little tin pocket that he attaches to the side 

 of the hive to hold the hive-record. These 

 records are made of pieces of common sec- 

 tion boxes. The pocket is so constructed 

 that it sheds water and protects the record 

 from the weather. He had also a scheme for 

 wiring frames that would do away with 

 drone comb. 



At the close of his brief address he was 

 followed by Mr. Baldrich, who went on to 

 describe that the capping-melter that he 

 uses is not a device for taking care of the 

 cappings as fast as they fall from the knife, 

 but to melt them after they are drained. The 

 device consists of a double water-jacketed 

 boiler that may be used on a common stove. 

 Mr. Irving Kenyon, secretary, uses some- 

 thing similar to this, and he has found it a 

 great convenience. Mr. House described a 

 machine he had seen at the A. I. Root Co.'s 

 l^lace, that melts the cappings as fast as 

 they fall from the knife. 



We next listened to an address from a 

 government man, Mr. Geo. S. Demuth, of 

 the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. 

 C, on the subject entitled " Some Critical 

 Periods in the Season's Management." There 

 are several things that might happen to a 

 colony of bees, and some of these are under 

 the control of the beekeeper. The source of 

 nectar and weather conditions, of course, 

 are entirely beyond the control of the bee- 

 man ; but there are other conditions which 

 the beekeeper may modify; and one of these 

 is the condition of the colony. Sometimes 

 we have all the conditions favorable, and 

 then we can secure a good crop. Then come 

 times when bees need to be fed. Scarcity of 

 stores may mean a loss of brood, of bees, 

 and the honey crop. Then there is the prob- 

 lem of keeping the forces together instead 

 of having them dissipated by unnecessary 

 swarming. This is more difficult to accom- 

 plish in the production of comb honey than 

 extracted. The question of when to put on 

 another super, and whether to place the 

 same under or above the one already on the 

 hive, is important. He believed that a great 

 many beekeepers do not give room fast 

 enough. Some err in giving it too fast. He 

 would impress the very great importance of 

 contentment in the family. 



At the close of this address Mr. S. D. 

 House spoke of this idea of " contentment," 

 saying that, in order to get the maximum 

 work out of a colony, there must be content- 

 ment and not uneasiness — a condition where 

 all hands seem to be busy with the single 

 object in view of gathering nectar from the 

 fields, and making a place to store it. He 

 also indorsed what Mr. Demuth said on the 

 subject of tiering up — that some do not give 

 room fast enough. The discussion naturally 



