THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



37 



with the hope that I may soon be 

 able to take advantage of their 

 kind invitation to spend a day with 

 them among the bees. 



An important feature of Mr. Al- 

 ley's book is an article entitled 

 " Management of the Apiary," 

 written by Mr. George W. House, 

 who resides near Syracuse, New 

 York. 



With an introduction from Mr. 

 Alley and Mr. Locke, I was cor- 

 dially welcomed by Mr. House and 

 his father, the latter a beekeeper 

 of some thirty years' experience. 

 Mr. G. W. House is the Secretary 

 of the Northeastern Beekeepers 

 Association, and thoroughly posted 

 in everything pertaining to ad- 

 vanced apiculture. The season in 

 northern New York has been very 

 late, cold rains and windy. Con- 

 sequently I found all his bees still 

 in their winter packings. He al- 

 lows the hives to remain in the 

 open field but packs all around the 

 hive with straw which etfectually 

 preserves them. Mr. House runs 

 some 300 to 400 stocks kept at va- 

 rious bee yards in a radius of ten 

 miles. His honey house was well 

 stored with labor-saving tools for 

 making hives and boxes, etc., etc. 

 Quite a number of boxes were al- 

 ready filled with foundation to run 

 on, as soon as the season opened. 

 We discussed the merits of va- 

 rious kinds of foundation, Mr. 

 House giving the preference to a 

 new make with heavy high side 

 walls, and very thin base to tlie 

 cells. 



So far north he does not approve 

 of the Lansstroth hive for work- 



ing as an all-the-y ear-round hive, 

 preferring a deeper and squarer 

 frame. The hive he runs seems to 

 me the embodiment of my own 

 ideas of a good harvesting and 

 wintering hive, capable of working 

 boxes in the body of the hive or on 

 the top as desired. A frame of 

 brood can readily be suspended in 

 the top stor}^ to entice the bees up 

 into the boxes, which to those desir- 

 ing to obtain box honey worked as 

 early as possible is a point well 

 worth knowing, and seldom if ever 

 fails. 



Mr. House's location is a good 

 one for bees, a constant suc- 

 cession of bloom from fruit trees 

 and shrubs. In addition plenty of 

 basswood all around that country. 

 I read him a letter I had lately 

 received from one of my friends in 

 France, a noted scientific beekeep- 

 er, wherein he states that although 

 he has hundreds of basswood trees 

 around his apiary he does not count 

 on them for a pound of hone}'. 

 The contrast is great to America 

 where basswood is a splendid 

 source of honey, and, as Mr. House 

 said, "■ hardly to be spared." 



Another beekeeper of note to 

 whom Mr. Locke gave me an intro- 

 duction is Mr. Julius Hoffman of 

 Fort Plain. When I visited him I 

 was unfortunate in not having bee 

 weather ; a cold rain storm de- 

 stroyed the hopes of a lovelj' fore- 

 noon, so I was deprived of the 

 pleasure of any very great fooling 

 around the hives, but what little I 

 saw of his bee yard was sufficient 

 to make me desire a visit in good 

 honey-gathering times. This gen- 



