THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



39 



whose occupants had certain days 

 for the family wash. 



The wet clothes hung up in the 

 gardens formed a delightful crawl- 

 ing ground for those bees sent out 

 in search of liquid refreshment. 

 They invariably left remembrances 

 behind them in the shape of cer- 

 tain well defined yellow marks, and 

 to the good housewife these were 

 so annoying, that complaints be- 

 came so strong and frequent, that 

 Mr. Soden had to rent his present 

 location, and remove the bees from 

 the vicinity of the moist attractions. 



I enquired particularly as to the 

 yield of hone}^ capable of being 

 obtained by him in that section of 

 northern New York. Of comb 

 honey in 1 lb. boxes, Mr. Soden 

 has harvested three and one-half 

 tons from one hundred and twenty 

 colonies. He finds the average in 

 general for Italians is 100 lbs. per 

 colony and for blacks 80 lbs. 



In 1882, the bad year, he had 

 one ton from 100 colonies and had 

 forty per cent increase as well. 



Double these figures would be a 

 fair quantity to allow if he went 

 in for extracted honey. 



His entire crop last year was 

 sold before it was taken off the 

 hives. 



Mr. Soden ha^ a complete bee 

 library, a honey house well stocked 

 with tools, and carefully arranged 

 for the storage of comb honey. 

 Having some Cyprian and Holy 

 Land colonies, he purposes care- 

 fully testing, their merits this year. 



The evening proving stormy and 

 wet, Mr. Soden induced me to stay 

 and accept the hospitality of his 



queen bee ; and amid torrents of 

 rain, his buggy safely conveyed me 

 to the depot, after a very interest- 

 ing visit. 



Nearer home I have visited Mr. 

 Dansen Baker of Clayraont, Del., 

 who runs some thirty-six colonies 

 and is a very successful apiarist. 

 From him I learned his observa- 

 tions upon the location for pollen 

 in the hive ; he having noticed that 

 when the combs run across the en- 

 trance (so called warm frames) the 

 pollen is stored close to the en- 

 trance, and the honey always in the 

 rear of the hiA'e. 



Running his hives accordingly, 

 he can always get boxes nicely 

 filled in the body of the hive, by 

 putting them at the rear end. 



In the course of my visits, I 

 introduced myself always as your 

 Vice President and extended an in- 

 vitation to our friends to join us in 

 our deliberations any meeting night 

 when they found themselves in 

 Philadelphia. 



I need hardly say that I know 

 you will endorse my action, and I 

 think that a vote of thanks will be 

 in order to those beekeepers who so 

 cordially extended courtesies and 

 hospitality to me on my recent tour. 



Philadelphia, June 13, 1883. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Editor of Am. Apiculturist : 



To-DAY I commenced my extract- 

 ing for the season and took up 

 some five hundred pounds of as 

 heav3^ honey as I ever saw, but as 

 there is considerable dark winter 



