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THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



in the sheet of burlap lying over the 

 frames, and bored with a >^-inch hole 

 right over the winter cluster, and 

 plunged the short end of the ther- 

 mometer through this hole into the 

 hive about 5 inches deep, so that the 

 longer end would lie Hat over the 

 frames. Over the thermometer I laid 

 4 sheets of wadding to keep the bees 

 warm, and then placed the cap on the 

 hive. 



The cap is roof -shaped, 6 inches 

 high on the sides, and moves very 

 easily. My hives are like iVIr. Da- 

 dant's, holding 13 or 14 of American 

 frames 12 inches deep, and standing 

 in a shed on the east side of my 

 smoke-house, so that the hives can 

 be worked from the rear ; in the front 

 I place bundles of corn-stalks to keep 

 rain and snow off, and between the 

 hives I pack dry wheat-straw, the 

 ends of the shed being closed with 

 boards. 



When I want to know if my bees 

 are comfortable or not, I enter the 

 shed by a door on one end, take off 

 the cap without a knock or jar, lift 

 the wadding, and the thermometer 

 lies before nie and shows, to my great 

 joy, without opening the hive or 

 molesting the bees, that the hees are 

 lu better circumstances than the birds 

 in the open air. On Jan. 12— the 

 coldest day— the thermometer showed 

 +70° in the inside of the hive, and 

 —22° in the open air ; on Feb. 5, in- 

 side, +41°, and outside, —4°. I live 

 in latitude 38° 8' north, and I shall not 

 take it as a personal Insult if the 

 thermometer of another observer in 

 a higher latitude shows another num- 

 ber of degrees, or if some one else 

 makes other conclusions than I do. 

 Until to-day the mercury never was 

 lower in the inside of the hive than 

 32°, and that only for two days, on 

 Feb. 16 and 17; and to find out if the 

 bees were sleeping or awake, in clos- 

 ing the cap one day, I let it down not 

 very carefully, and it gave a light jar, 

 and one hour after the thermometer 

 showed 2-' more. In finding that the 

 temperature changes almost every 

 day, and sometimes in opposition 

 with the outside air, i.e., when the 

 outside temperature lowered the in- 

 side temperature advanced, I con- 

 cluded that the bees must be in mo- 

 tion to create this warmth ; and be- 

 sides thiSj old naturalists and close 

 observers in the old and new worlds 

 told us long ago (see Langstroth's 

 Hive and Honey- Bee, page 335) that 

 they marked their bees in an ob- 

 servatory hive with different colors, 

 and in watching closely, they found 

 that the bees were moving in the 

 coldest weather; that those which 

 were on the outside of the cluster 

 could be seen in a few days on the in- 

 side. I never doubted these state- 

 ments, and therefore I did not open 

 my hive, and made no glass doors to 

 it. I desired only to find out the 

 temperature of the inside of the hive 

 for my own information and to satisfy 

 my curiosity. 



As given in the Bienen-Zeitung of 

 Nordlingen, for 188,5, page 245, at the 

 last meeting of the German- Austrian 

 Bee - Keepers' Society, at Liegnitz, 

 in Silesia, the Rev. Schoenfeld— the 



greatest scientific bee-keeper in Ger- 

 many — said: "We know as a cer- 

 tainty that bees in their winter cluster 

 are in a constant rotation, so that 

 bees which are today on the right or 

 left side, may be to-morrow in the 

 comfortable warmth in the centre ; 

 and others which hang to-day on the 

 lower part of the cluster, may be to- 

 morrow close by the honey-celis ; here 

 they fill their honey-sacs, then go 

 down and hide in a cell and have a 

 store for days ; it is not necessary for 

 them to go up very soon, and they are 

 so sheltered against hunger and cold." 

 Perhaps the climate in Germany is 

 different from ours, but the advocates 

 of hibernation should make the same 

 experiments ; mark their bees, plunge 

 one or more thermometers into their 

 observatory hives, and then they can 

 see if the bees are moving, asleep or 

 hibernating. To give all of my obser- 

 vations would require too great a 

 space, therefore I will give only the 

 highest and the lowest temperature 

 of the inside of the hive for each 

 month, commencing with Oct. 23, 

 1885, and taken at 8 a.m. It is as 

 follows : 



Inside OutRlde 

 temp. temp. 



Oct. 23, 1885, -1-87'- 4-44° highest. 



" 81, " -|-(;4° -1-40° lowest. 

 Nov. 7, " -f750 -1-63° highest. 



" 27, " -1-52" -1-31° lowest. 

 Dec. 1, " -1-56° -1-390 highest. 



" 11, " 4-46° -1-21° lowest. 

 Jan. 13, 1886, 4-81° -f 5° highest. 



" 31, " -I-.50O +48° lowest. 

 Feb. 10, " +60° +45° highest. 



" 16, " +323 4. 70 lowest. 



" 17, " +32° +16° lowest. 

 Fulda,? Ind., Feb. 25, 1886. 



Bead at the New York ConveDtlon. 



Tlie Apiciiltural Ontlook. 



L. C. ROOT. 



In my address at the last meeting 

 of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Society, held at Detroit, Mich., in 

 December last, I gave what seemed 

 to me to be some facts, and offered 

 some suggestions as to the future of 

 bee-keeping. 



Very close observation during the 

 sessions of that convention, as well as 

 careful study since that time, have 

 confirmed me in the conclusion that 

 many points in that essay were well 

 taken. I think that I may safely say 

 that no one point is more thoroughly 

 established by the experiences of all, 

 than that we need to bend our best 

 energies to the consideration of the 

 disposition of our products. We must 

 have 'a firmer, more certain, and a 

 larger demand for our honey. 



It seems to me that if any country 

 should represent the " Promised 

 Land," and " flow with milk and 

 honey," it is this land of ours ; and I 

 believe, that as milk and its products 

 are among the best and most desir- 

 able—yes, indispensable articles of 

 food, so surely will honey, in various 

 forms, become equally prominent as a 

 sweet. 



Already we begin to see that for 

 many purposes honey is found to be 



the cheapest sweet that can be used. 

 Mr. C. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 

 tells us that pork-packers, and others 

 who have been using cheap molasses 

 very largely, find that though honey 

 costs more per pound, it contains a 

 greater sweetening capacity and is 

 cheaper for their use. I am thoroughly 

 convinced that the value of honey as 

 a pure, wholesome, and natural arti- 

 cle of food is yet to become more fully 

 appreciated and understood. It is 

 purely a natural product, as entirely 

 so as milk, with which it has been 

 associated since Bible times, and the 

 day will come when manufactured 

 sweets cannot compete with it, as a 

 common article of food, and for 

 medicinal and manufacturing pur- 

 poses. 



The great question for us to con- 

 sider at this time is, in regard to the^ 

 best methods of securing as substan- 

 tial a market for our productions as 

 for other essential commodities. We 

 have stern facts before us, and we 

 must meet them fairly. Many are 

 looking to us as authority, as to the 

 desirability of engaging in bee-keep- 

 ing, and we should not fail to respond 

 to this inquiry. Is it not a fact be- 

 yond dispute that with the present 

 limited demand for honey, there is 

 already an over-production V The out- 

 look from all directions leads me to 

 the conclusion that bee-keepers must 

 at present be governed largely by the 

 demand for their products, in their 

 own locality. If you have no home 

 market at prices which will pay you 

 to produce honey, do not expect to 

 ship it to distant markets with better 

 results, while they are already over- 

 stocked. 



While there will always be a de- 

 mand for comb honey for table use, 

 the great bulk of our honey in the 

 future will be taken with the extrac- 

 tor, and be used for a greater variety 

 of purposes. We must reasonably 

 expect to compete with other sweets 

 in this direction. To do this we must 

 resort to methods which will enable 

 us to produce our honey much more 

 cheaply than we have yet been able to 

 do. We must be able to winter our 

 bees more successfully. In tliis item 

 alone, the saving would be very great. 

 If the present losses in wintering 

 could be avoided, and our colonies all 

 be populous at the beginning of spring 

 operations, we should reduce our ex- 

 penses one-halt, and treble the quan- 

 tity of honev obtained. But upon the 

 demands which are created for our 

 honey, will depend the future of bee- 

 keeping ; and to further this end, we 

 should bestow the most thorough 

 study and application. 



One great lack in our present 

 methods of marketing, is that those 

 who handle our honey are not thor- 

 oughly enough versed in bee-keeping 

 in all its branches. From careful ob- 

 servation I am satisfied that no one 

 thing contributes more to the success 

 of honey-dealers than the fact that 

 they have an extended knowledge of 

 bee-keeping, and are entirely alive to 

 its best interests. We need specialists 

 in this department of our business 

 who would command the support of 

 the general bee-keeping public, which 



