THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



117 



collect for the night after their day's 

 work is done.— G. L. Tinker. 



Probably because the honey was 

 lett on the hive for some time after 

 the capping is done. Fall honey, as a 

 rule, is capped darker than earlier 

 yields. The warmer the weather and 

 the sooner tl)e honey is removed after 

 being capped, the lighter the cappings 

 will be found.— J. E. Pond, Ju. 



There might be several reasons, the 

 most common one being that the cells 

 were filled too full. This is not likely 

 the trouble in your case, if your bees 

 are Germans, or have a dash of Ger- 

 man blood in them. — JamksHeddon. 



Certiiin strains of bees do this, and 

 I found last summer that even the 

 brown bees did such work when get- 

 ting honey from Alsike clover. I 

 never saw such work when honey was 

 coming in from bass wood or teasel, 

 no matter what kind of bees were 

 kept.— G. M. DooLiTTLE. 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the numher of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring- and fall, or fall and spring-, 

 as t lie time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 iocuted near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; ? south ; O* east ; 

 -*0 west: and this 6 northeast; ^ northwest: 

 o^ southeast; and 9 southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Tlie OriEiii of Honey, etc, 



DR. J. P. H. BROWN. 



(iuery. No. 1S9, involves so much of 

 the occult in vegetable chemistry and 

 physiology, that answers can only be 

 based on analogical reasoning. It 

 ■cannot for a moment be presumed 

 that the honey is in the ground ready 

 to be pumped up into the flower. 

 I'rof. Johnson, in his work on " How 

 -Croiis Grow." says : 



" The sap in all cases consists chiefly 

 of water. This liquid, as it is ab- 

 sorbed, brings in from the soil a small 

 proportion of certain saline matters — 

 the phosphates, sulphates, nitrates, 

 etc., of the alkalies and alkali-earths. 

 It finds in the plant itself its organic 

 ingredients. These may be derived 

 from matters stored in reserve during 

 a previous year, as in the spring, sap 

 of trees ; or may be newly formed, as 

 in summer growth. 



" The sugar of maple-sap, in spring, 

 is undoubtedly produced by the trans- 

 formation of starch which is found 

 abundantly in the wood in winter. 

 According to Hartig {Jour, fur Prakt. 

 c/i., .5, p. 217, 183-5), all deciduous trees 

 contain starch in their wood and yield 

 a sweet spring sap, while evergreens 

 contain little or no starch." 



This is, no doubt, the reason why 

 the flowersof evergreens yield compar- 

 atively little honey. The" Evonymus, a 

 beautiful evergreen that hedges the 

 walks of many a southern yard, often 

 blooms profusely, but its flowers are 

 rarely visited by honey-bees. Its 

 nectaries secrete a resinous matter 

 that emits a disagreeable odor, and 

 are visited by flies and other insects, 

 but by no bees. The deficiency of 

 starch in this plant would preclude 

 the formation of honey. 



That the constituent elements, as 

 well as the proximate elements of a 

 plant, vary in proportion by the char- 

 acter of the soil and the moisture 

 and condition of the atmosphere, is a 

 fact fully demonstrated. Fruits are 

 sweeter and better flavored in seasons 

 when there is oot too much rain, but 

 just enough to sustain the fruit to 

 full size and maturity. Melons grown 

 on low, moist lands, or in wet seasons, 

 contain less sugar than when grown 

 on uplands with not too much rain. 

 The same applies to the sweet-potato. 

 Sugar-cane always yields more sugar 

 and makes better syrup when the 

 season is not too wet. 



" Tlie soiS or the supplies of food, 

 manures included," observes Prof. 

 Johnson, " have thegreatest influence 

 in varying the proportions of the ash- 

 insredients of a plant." Sweet- 

 potatoes grown on sandy uplands 

 contain more sugar and starch than 

 those grown on flat, moist lands. My 

 e,xperience has been the same with 

 the Irish potato — those on uplands 

 being more mealy. The flavor of the 

 grape is very miich influenced by the 

 fertilizers used. Melons fertilized by 

 Peruvian guano are not as sweet nor 

 as fine in flavor as those grown with 

 stable manure. 



Therefore, if the production of 

 sugar in fruits and plants is so greatly 

 influenced by wet, moisture, atmos- 

 pheric conditions, and soil, we can 

 safely infer that the organs of the 

 flower that secrete the honey are 

 affected by the same causes. True, 

 the rationale is not well understood ; 

 but scientific investigation is destined 

 to make plain many operations in 

 nature that now seem to us inex- 

 plicable. 



Augusta,o+ Ga. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



CoiiTeiition at leailTille, Pa. 



The Northeastern Ohio and North- 

 western Pennsylvania Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at Meadville, Pa., 

 at 11 a.m., on .Jan. 20, President Mason 

 in the chair. 



The reports of the Secretary and 

 Treasurer were read and approved ; 

 the annual dues were by vote reduced 

 to 2.5 cents for the present year ; and 

 the name changed to " Northeastern 

 Ohio, Northern Pennsylvania, and 

 Western New York Bee-Keepers' 

 Association," and the Constitution 

 amended accordingly. 



In the afternoon President Mason 

 delivered the annual address, which 

 was replete with good ideas; D. H. 

 Lefever delivered an address of 



welcome, which was replied to by D. 

 Videto, in a happy manner. 



The election of otticers resulted as 

 follows : President, C. II. Coon, New 

 Lyme, O. ; Secretary, J. II. Wood- 

 worth, West Williamsfleld,0. ; Treas- 

 urer, Geo. Spitler, Mosiertown, Pa. ; 

 1st Vice-President, C. II. Wright, 

 Conneautville. The President was 

 instructed to appoint two vice-presi- 

 dents from each county represented. 



Andover, O., was chosen as the 

 next place of meeting. 



The first topic discussed was 

 " Spring Management of bees, pre- 

 vious to the honey-flow." U. E. 

 Dodge said that it was an important 

 subject, for upon the way we manage 

 at ttiis time depends the whole ques- 

 tion, as to profit. It is hard to tell 

 what to do, and how to manage, as 

 each colony differs from others, hence 

 the impossibility of laying down any 

 set rules. He winters his bees in a 

 cellar, aud is a firm believer in a 

 warm temperature; he keeps the room 

 in which his bees are wintered at a 

 temperature of from 55'^ to 60^ ; and 

 tries to keep his bees in the cellar 

 until soft maples blossom. If it gets 

 too warm he uses ice to keep down 

 the temperature ; he does not like to 

 set his bees out until warm weather ; 

 he uses absorbents on the top of the 

 bees (chaff and sawdust, mostly the 

 latter). When he puts his bees out, 

 if all right, he lets them alone ; if 

 weak, he feeds them and takes brood 

 from such colonies as can spare it, to 

 build up the weak ones. 



By request, Mr. Dodge gave a de- 

 scription of his cellar, which was, in 

 brief, as follows : A common cellar 

 under the house in which he lives ; 

 has a i-oom partitioned off in one 

 corner, directly under the sitting 

 room ; has sub-earth ventilation, but 

 has the pipe hut 3 feet under ground, 

 because the cellar was already built ; 

 if he had to do it again, would'put the 

 pipe near the bottom. He has a pipe 

 connected with the pipe in the 

 ground, which he has run some dis- 

 tance in ttie air, and in which he has 

 a valve with which to regulate the 

 temperature of the cellar ; he also has 

 a ventilating pipe extending from the 

 room in the cellar to the stove-pipe. 

 He has a large stove in his sitting- 

 room, directly over the bees, in which 

 there is a good fire continually ; has 

 never had ttie temperature fall below 

 42° in the coldest weather. He win- 

 ters So colonies in this room ; too 

 many, he thinks ; almost all his colo- 

 nies have brood before he sets them 

 out in the spring. He winters some 

 out-doors, because he does not like to 

 risk all in one place. His losses in 

 the cellar have never exceeded 11 or 

 12 per cent., often none ; while out- 

 doors they were at times 20 to 2o per 

 cent. He does not get as much honey 

 as he would if he hired some help in 

 the busy seasons, but it being almost 

 impossible to get the right kind of 

 help, he prefers to do with less honey. 



D. Videto said that no person 

 should expect 100 pounds of comb 

 honey unless all queens are prolific. 

 Drone combs must be removed ; you 

 want but tew drones. Very few of 

 his colonies came through the winter 



