GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



their ups and downs as beginners. Some 

 domestic touches are given all thru in such 

 a way as to give life and substance to the 

 serial. 



The departments of " Our Homes," 

 " Health ISTotes," and " Temperance," by A. 

 I. Root, appear as formerly. 



The discriminating reader will not fail to 

 notice the quality of the material of the new 

 Glp:anings. We feel that we have hardly 

 got into full action yet as a monthly; but 

 when we do we hope to give our readers 

 some pleasant surprises. 



Owing to the fact that the present month- 

 ly is larger than the former Gleanings, and 

 that we had only two weeks instead of a 

 month to get out this issue, we are a little 

 late. We hope the quality of the product 

 will more than make up for the slight delay. 



THE CONVENTION of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association for 1917 will be held 



at Madison, 



MEETING 



OF THE 



NATIONAL 



Wis., Feb. 6, 7 

 and 8. Both 

 President Jager 

 a n d Secretary 

 Millen have ambitious plans for a new 

 National. They are hard at work on a 

 program, and we may rest assured that no 

 stone will be left unturned to make this 

 meeting a big success. President Jager 

 and his secretary are live wires, and we 

 confidently expect this to be one of the best 

 conventions of the season. See Conven- 

 tion Notes for general i)rogram and speak- 

 ers. 



Madison is located in a territory where 

 there are large numbers of first-class bee- 

 keepers. Besides a large local attendance 

 there will doubtless be representatives from 

 other states. Gleanings urges every one 

 of its readers who can to be present at this 

 meeting. 



Let as many of us as possible be boosters 

 by atteiuling the next National meeting. 

 The editor of Gleanings will take his own 

 advice in this case — to help boost — by be- 

 ing iirosent on the 6th and 7th. 



AT THE IOWA convention Mr. Frank 

 Coverdale, of Delmar, la., made the state- 

 ment that 300 

 BEEKEEP- 

 ING AS AN 

 AVOCATION 



colonies of bees 

 would bring in 

 as large a reve- 

 nue as a 160- 

 acre farm, with a great deal less work, and 

 on a very much smaller investment. He 



went on to add that nothing gave him more 

 real pleasure than working with his bees. 



At the same convention Supt. A. T. 

 Hukill of the Waterloo schools gave ex- 

 pression to a similar sentiment by saying, 

 " No investment will yield so large a re- 

 turn as a colony of bees. * * * I 

 know of no occupation that brings one so 

 close to nature. It makes a better man." 



It will be remembered that Mr. Coverdale 

 is the man who put sweet clover on the 

 map of the United States — that is, he 

 demonstrated that it is a commercial suc- 

 cess for a farm alone, to say nothing about 

 bees. He grows about 800 acres of sweet 

 clover himself. He is one of the best 

 stock-raisers and beekeepers in all Iowa 

 if not in the United States. Sweet eloyer 

 works well with bees, and makes it possible 

 for him to get the very highest price in 

 the market for his honey and his stock. 

 Coverdale is successful in everything he 

 undertakes. 



THE VETERAN BEEKEEPER, ISix. J. 

 W. Bittenbender, of Knoxville, Tenn., at 



the Iowa con- 

 THE NET- vention spoke 



WEIGHT LAW on the demoral- 

 QUESTION ized condition of 



the comb-honey 

 market. He deplored the fact that there was 

 no uniform method of grading, and no uni- 

 form prices; that comb honey was quoted 

 all the way from $2.25 to $3.50 a case. 

 Tlie practical operation of the net-weight 

 law, he thought, had done more harm than 

 good, and that the law ought to be re- 

 vised. His remedy would be a new net- 

 weight law and a uniform system of grad- 

 ing that every one would adopt. 



When it comes to national legislation we 

 can wish and wish ; we can pass resolutions ; 

 but it is a difficult tiling to get congress, 

 one of the most unwieldy bodies in the 

 world, to do something really useful. While 

 Mr. Bittenbender has our symioathy, the 

 net-weight law is not so bad as it might 

 be. It has stopped the practice of mixing 

 different weights of sections in the cases. 

 It tends to a more uniform product on the 

 market. While it is lived up to by some, 

 those interested in its enforcement should 

 report all eases of law violations. 



THE REPORTS of the chain of conven- 

 tions held in December are given on page 

 56 under the head of "Just News." 



