362 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



recommended by a large number of 

 the " ex^jerienced." Every feature 

 that is of any " intrinsic value " to 

 the great mass of bee-keepers, ex- 

 perienced or inexperienced, is con- 

 tained in it. 



New hives, or anything new for the 

 use of bee-keepers,' that is of value, 

 should be encouraged, but beginners 

 should beware lest they are driven 

 here and there until shipwrecked in 

 the beginning of an apicultural voy- 

 age by various recommendations of 

 new things; far better for them to 

 accept and act upon the advice that 

 comes from the experience of many 

 tried sailors on this line. Experi- 

 menters are a great blessing in apicul- 

 ture as well as in any other pursuit, 

 and yet the results of their labors 

 should be tried and recommei ded by 

 the experienced rather than by the 

 beginner ; for one is better prepare.d 

 for failure than the other, if such 

 should be the result. Change is all 

 well enough when it is made with 

 caution, but too niucli change is both 

 expensive and dangerous to our pur- 

 suit. 



Sussex, o. Wis. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Feeding Sugar Syrup to Bees, 



EUGENE SECOR. 



I am glad to see the Amekican 

 Bee .Iouknal, and many prominent 

 bee-keepers also, expressing them- 

 selves on what I have always thought 

 to be the right side of this question 

 of feeding. There is little use in bee- 

 keepers, i. e., honey jjroducers, trying 

 to quiet the public fear of adultera- 

 tion when any considerable number 

 of them practice feeding on a large 

 scale. If we cannot make bee-keep- 

 ing pay by utilizing only the nectar 

 provided by nature for this purpose, 

 I am certain that in the outcome we 

 shall not by supplying cane syrup to 

 winter our bees on. 



But many apiarists are not content 

 to feed merely enough for winter, but 

 supply it also in the spring, and some 

 of them in the summer, during a 

 cessation in the natural yield. Now, 

 I do not care how many professions 

 of honesty a man may make, I do 

 not believe that there is one living so 

 far above suspicion that if he feeds 

 his bees anything cheaper than honey, 

 but what some of his neighbors will 

 say that his honey was not gathered 

 by the bees ; and if they repeat the 

 story of his practices, a great many 

 people will cease to use honey, be- 

 cause, as yet, it is only a luxury, and 

 very few persons will buy, if they do 

 not believe it to be the actual dis- 

 tillation of flowers— something which 

 they can get in no other way. 



If the practice of feeding sugar for 

 the purpose of increasing tlie yield of 

 honey continues, the time will come, 

 when, by the increase of the product 

 and the decrease of consumption 

 through fears of being defrauded, 

 honey will be cheaper than sugar. 

 That time has nearly arrived now on 

 the east side of the Rockies, while on 



the west side it has actually been the 

 cheapest. In California I suppose 

 they never feed sugar, and no one 

 would ever expect to lind adulterated 

 honey there. 



In the Northern States the practice 

 is defended on the ))ollen theory 

 argument that pure cane-sugar is the 

 only safe winter food. If that is so, 

 this world has been running wrong 

 for a long time. If the Almighty ever 

 makes another planet which is to be 

 the home of honey-bees, some of these 

 nineteenth century discoverers ought 

 to be called to the council before the 

 job is undertaken 



When I am convinced that grass is 

 not the pro])er food for the cow, and 

 that the pig's nose was made for 

 ornan)ent and not to dig artichokes 

 with ; that hens ought to chew the 

 cud and sheep roost in the old apple- 

 tree, I may come to the conclusion 

 that God did not know what He was 

 about when lie provided honey as the 

 proper food for bees. 



But I do not wish to argue the pol- 

 len theory or any other theory. We 

 ought to produce only the pure article 

 of honey, and to convince people that 

 we are doing it, we must avoid the 

 appearance of evil. Suppose a few 

 colonies do die in winter because 

 they happen to have too much pollen, 

 or because we do not know enough to 

 regulate the temperature so that they 

 will not eat it ; or suppose the re- 

 mainder do not store quite so much 

 surplus honey because they have to 

 lay by enough to winter on; perhaps 

 what they do give us will bring just 

 as much money, because a scarcer 

 article. 



To illustrate : It requires a certain 

 number of bushels of wheat to feed 

 this world for a year. If a few mill- 

 ions less than the required amount 

 were produced in any one year, would 

 it not bring about as much money as 

 though the crop were twice what was 

 needed V But honey is a luxury, and 

 he will succeed best who produces the 

 nicest article and gets it to the con- 

 sumer with the least suspicion of 

 fraud about it. There are always 

 plenty of people who will buy such 

 luxuries and pay good prices for 

 them. 



Buying sugar by the barrel to feed 

 bees, and selling honey by the dray- 

 load is not for the best interest of the 

 industry, in my opinion. 



Forest City, 5 Iowa. 



Local Convention Directory. 



I88B. Time and place of Meetivo. 



July H.— Hill Cou?ity, at Peoria, Tex. 



H. A. Goodrich, Sec. Mas&ey, Tex. 



Aug. yi.— Stark County, at ('anton, O. 



Marlt Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Oct. 7.— Wl8. liBlte Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 



Kerd Zastrow, Sec, Millhome. Wis. 



Oct. IJ— 14.— North Aiuericitn, at IndianapoliR.Ind. 

 F. L. Dougherty, Sec, Indianapolis, Ind. 



Oct. ID, 20.— niini>i8 Central, at Mt. Sterling, Uis. 

 J. M. IlunibaUBh, Sec. Spring, Uis. 



Dec. 1, 2.— MichigHn Slate, at Ypsilanti, Mich. 



U. D. CuttiDK, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



1^" In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— KI). 



Honey as Food and Medicine. 



tS^ To create Honey Mai-ltets in every 

 village, town and city, wide-awake honey 

 producers Bhould get the Lenilets *' Why Eat 

 Honey" (only .lO cents per 100), or else the 

 pamphlets on "Honey as Food and Medicine," 

 and scatter thera plentifully, and the result 

 will he a demand for all of their crops at 

 remunerative prices. ** Honey as Food and 

 Medicine " are sold at the following prices : 



Sintfle copy, 5 cts. ; per doz., 40 cts. ; per 

 hundred, $2.50. Five hundred will he sent 

 postpaid lor $10.00; or 1,000 for $15,00. 

 On orders of 100 or more, we will print, if 

 desired, on the cover-page, "Presented by," 

 etc. (giving the name and address of the bee- 

 keeper who scatters them). 





Working on White Clover.— J. L. 



Strong, Clarinda, p Iowa, on May 31, 

 18SG, writes : 



Bees wintered well, and they now 

 gather honey from white clover, when 

 the sun shines hot. Unfortunately 

 we have had but few days of clear 

 weather since fruit bloom came out. 

 Last Saturday the gain was Z% 

 pounds in one colony on the scales. 

 Yesterday it was rainy, but to day 

 they are booming again, and I think 

 the increase will be better than it was 

 Saturday. 



Return of Swarms.— A. H. Lind, 

 Calumet Harbor.o+ Wis., on June 3, 

 lS8(i, writes : 



On May 17 one of my colonies cast 

 a swarm, but the bees soon returned 

 to the hive; on May 18 and 19 they 

 did the same thing ; on the 19th I put 

 on the sections and they did not 

 swarm again until May 23, but then 

 again returned to the hive. That day 

 I heard young queens. On the 24th 

 they swarmed with success. What 

 was wrong with that colony V 



[The queen was evidently from 

 some cause unable to go with the 

 bees, until the 24th, when a young 

 queen accompanied them. — Ed.] * 



Flattering Prospects.— Mr. E. M. 

 Coombs, Memphis,? Ind., on June 1, 

 1886, says : 



The prospect for honey is very 

 flattering. I have extracted about 60 

 pounds, and have had two good 

 swarms. I lost one on account of 

 being away from home. 



Paper Comb.— D. Brovra, Cuero,9 

 Texas, writes : 



In conversation with a gentleman 

 from Kentucky, the subject of bees 

 came up, and he said that he had a 

 cousin in Kentucky who had about 

 200 colonies of bees, who used arti- 

 ficial comb made from paper, and 



