THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



139 



February. lu March came a drought, 

 and the honey flow ceased almost en- 

 tirely. In May the bees began to 

 gather from the palmetto, bay and 

 mulberry, but the crop from the last- 

 named was very small. The bees 

 in the coast counties took large quan- 

 tities from the l)lack mangrove which 

 grows along the shore, and the roots 

 of which are covered at high water. 



Professor Cook, of Michigan, re- 

 ported that so far as he could learn, 

 Michigan had got only half a crop. 

 About 50 or 60 pounds per colony 

 would be a fair average, of which one- 

 third was comb honey. The season in 

 the early part of the year was very 

 rainy and very cold, but notwithstand- 

 ing this the bees were very busy. 



Mr. Jones — Have you many Cana- 

 dian thistles? 



Professor Cook — I am glad to say 

 we have very few. There was a 

 droughty fall, and it seemed there 

 could be no more honey, but still the 

 bees worked hard, and now, even 

 thougli the frost had come upon them, 

 the honey continued to come in. 



Mr. W. C. Pelhara, of Kentucky, re- 

 ported on behalf of his state. The 

 yield, he said, was much above the 

 average in the white clover region, 

 but in the mountainous region of the 

 state, it was rather above the average. 



Mr. Porter, of Colorado, reported 

 about an average yield, notwithstand- 

 ing that the spring was unfavorable. 

 About a hundred pounds to the colony 

 would be about the figure. A letter 

 was read from J. L. Peabody, of Col- 

 orado, reporting only half a crop. 

 They had snow in June, and frost in 

 July and August. The Rocky Moun- 

 tain bee plant had come along well in 

 the dry, sandy soil, and the bees got a 

 good harvest from it. 



Mr. C. r. Muth, of Ohio, reported 

 fully an average crop, partly from the 

 locust, but mainly from the white 

 clover. About 130 pounds per colony 

 would be an average. After clover 

 was over, the bees produced no more, 

 in fact, they lost stores. His own bees 

 had not stores enough to winter on, 

 but in the few bright days after the 

 recent frost, they had resumed work. 

 He was sorry to say that honey had 

 been forced upon the market in Cincin- 

 nati. He had been offered the best 

 clover honey at 8 cents, or 8i cents a 

 pound. He had advised the bee- 

 keepers to hold their stocks until the 

 prices got better. 



Mr. McKnight, of Owen Sound, 

 President of the Ontario Beekeepers' 

 Association, was called upon to report 

 for Ontario. He cordially welcomed 

 the representatives from a distance. 

 The Ontario Association had been in 

 existence only three years. He ex- 

 plained the system used by the Associ- 

 ation in securing statistics, which 

 was to send to members of the Asso- 

 ciation slips with questions regarding 

 the mortality of bees, increase, crop, 

 etc. This year 48 out of 84 members 

 reported. These reports showed a to- 

 tal yield of 211,112 pounds, an average 

 of 106 pounds per colony. The aver- 

 age yield for the three years was 66 

 pounds per colony. The season this 

 year was a strange one, the spring was 

 backward, but on the other hand, the 

 fall continued three weeks longer, 

 making up for that to some extent. 

 The principal sources of supply were 

 the white clover, basswood, and Can- 

 ada thistles. Among advanced bee- 

 keepers there was verj^ little outside 

 wintering. 



Mr. Vandervort, of Pennsylvania, 

 said he always found it hard to get re- 

 ports. When there was a bad season 

 beekeepers were too busy to report. 

 The early spring was favorable, but 

 later, the season was wet, and pre- 

 vented the bees from working. There 

 was only a half crop of honey, but a 

 fair average of increase. 



James D. Long, of Granby, supplied 

 the report from Quebec. There had 

 been a yield of fully 100 pounds per 

 colony. 



Rev. W. F. Clarke reported for 

 Manitoba. Before doing so, he de- 

 sired, as perhaps the only one from 

 Canada who had been present at the 

 foundation of the Association, to ex- 

 press the pleasure it gave him to 

 welcome the delegates to Canadian 

 soil. He had learned since leaving 

 that a few colonies of bees had been 

 kept in the old settlement of St. Boni- 

 face, but had not known anything of 

 them while there. He had seen only 

 one bee while there, a stray Italian 

 who had come from California in a 

 box of fruit. The old friend of the 

 Association, Mr. Wallb ridge, was now 

 Chief Justice of Manitoba, and resi- 

 dent in Winnipeg. He had had sev- 

 eral "conventions" with the Chief 

 Justice, and in company with him had 

 examined the flora of the country. 

 He had never seen such a magnificent 

 yield of white clover, and was sure the 

 bees would do well on it. Cliief Jus- 



