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THE AMERICAJS BEE JOURNAL. 



For tlie American Bee Jourxkal. 



Tlie Iowa State Conyentlon, etc. 



O. CLUTE. 



President Poppleton, of the Iowa 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association, has 

 issued a call for the annual meeting 

 of the Iowa Association on the Fair 

 Grounds, in Des Moines, on Tuesday, 

 Sept. 7, at 2 p.m. The association, in 

 accordance with a plan suggested 

 several years ago, has procured a large 

 tent which will be put up on tlie Fair 

 Ground, and will be used for the 

 meetings, for the head-quarters of the 

 President and Secretary of the asso- 

 ciation, and for the convenience of 

 bee-keepers generally. 



All Iowa bee-keepers should make 

 an effort to be present at this meet- 

 ing. Matters of importance to all 

 will be discussed. Come prepared to 

 state your experiences. Tell us where 

 you have succeeded, and on what your 

 success was based. Tell where you 

 have failed, and what were the causes 

 of your failure. 



These meetings are open not only 

 to the bee-keepers of Iowa— bee- 

 keepers froQi all parts of the world 

 are welcome. All are heartily in- 

 vited. It is probable that some of the 

 bee-men can bring blankets with 

 them, and find a place to lodge in the 

 tent. 



The Iowa State Fair is in progress 

 from Sept. 3 to the 10th. For many 

 years this Fair has been a very large 

 and important one. This year the 

 Society has new grounds and new 

 buildings, all arranged and built in 

 accordance with the suggestions of 

 those who have had mucli experience 

 in Fairs. It is believed that when 

 the grounds and buildings are all 

 complete they will be equal to any- 

 thing, for the same purpose, in the 

 world. The new grounds and build- 

 ings are giving such an impulse to all 

 classes of exhibitors throughout the 

 West, that it seems probable the ex- 

 hibit in all departments this year will 

 be even better than in years just 

 passed. It will richly repay a visit. 



This has been a good year for bees, 

 in spite of the dry weather. The 

 honey crop is large in quantity, and 

 of very superior quality. The bee- 

 keepers of Iowa and adjacent States 

 should see to it that a very large and 

 instructive exhibit of bees, honey, 

 and implements is made. The State 

 Agricultural Society has offered gen- 

 erous premiums in the bee-depart- 

 ment, which are open to competition 

 from the whole world. Come, all of 

 yon, and bring your exhibits along. 



The Inter-State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation meets at St. Joseph, Mo., on 

 Sept. 1. This is the week of the St. 

 Joseph Exposition, which has become 

 famous for its size and excellence. It 

 also gives generous premiums in tlie 

 department of bees and honey, and 

 the exhibit in this department has 

 been for several years a good one. 

 Bee-keepers everywhere should bear 

 in mind this exhibit, and make a dis- 

 play at it. And they should not fail 

 to attend the meetings of the Inter- 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association. 



Parties desiring to see the list of 

 premiums offered in the department 

 of bees and honey at the Iowa State 

 Fair, can get a copy of the premium 

 list by addressing Hon. J. R. Shaffer, 

 Secretary of the State Agricultural 

 Society, Des Moines, Iowa. Those 

 wanting the St. Joseph list of pre- 

 miums can get it by addressing E. T. 

 Abbot, Secretary of the Inter-State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, St. Joseph, 

 Mo. 



Iowa City, o+ Iowa. 



iTor the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keepiiig in Cia, etc, 



A. W. OSBURN. 



Ii affords me much pleasure to read 

 the reports of a bountiful honey crop 

 nearly throughout the United States, 

 for the efforts of the bee-keeper is 

 none too well paid at best. With us 

 the outlook is not so bright. For the 

 last three mouths we have been feed- 

 ing our bees, and shall have to con- 

 tinue to feed for at least three and 

 one-half months longer. The good 

 reports that have been made from 

 time to time from this Island have 

 been the aggregate amount of honey 

 from the country, not from any one 

 apiary or locality, which, in the poor- 

 est season, would make quite a re- 

 spectable showing, forthe reason that 

 it seldom happens that the eastern 

 end of the Island fails to produce a 

 tolerably fair crop of honey, as in that 

 locality are large tracts of woodland, 

 swamps, low lands, creeks and rivers, 

 and this is where the bulk of the bees 

 of Cuba are kept. There is more rain 

 there than in the western end of the 

 Island. Then these forests and 

 swamps (some of them at least) are 

 little more than a matted mass of 

 bell-flower vines, which is the best 

 honey plant of Cuba. 



Again, these low lands are in the 

 interior, removed from the influence 

 of the coast winds that sweep along 

 the country near the ocean in the 

 winter months, making the secretion 

 of honey an impossibility, for several 

 days at a time. Yet it is not so hard 

 for an American to choose between 

 these two localities, the one near to 

 Havana and the coast, or removed 

 from both. In the former he has 

 protection of life and property, and 

 the chance of securing an average 

 crop of honey (or what would be 

 called an average crop for most 

 countries); while in the latter, with 

 the almost iiositive assurance of a big 

 yield of honey, he is removed from 

 the protection that the country near 

 Havana affords ; compelled to live in 

 a very thinly settled country, away 

 from society, a long ways from ship- 

 ping points, with transportation to 

 and from his apiary the most difficult, 

 owing, in the main, to the bad roads, 

 which, in Cuba in the rainy season, 

 are almost impassable, and then only 

 by an oxcart, with from 2 to 4 yoke 

 of oxen on a cart to draw 2 casks of 

 honey. 



We are located 10 or 12 miles west 

 of Havana, on as good a road as Illi- 



nois or New York can produce ; and 

 in a thickly settled country, free from 

 all the annoyances of life in the in- 

 terior of Cuba. 



I send a hearty welcome to the new 

 members of the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union, and a word of encourage- 

 ment to the old ones, that they may 

 never flag in their efforts and deter- 

 mination to protect the rights of bee- 

 keepers. 



Cuba, W. I. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Feeiiiig Siiar to Bees, 



W. Z. HUTCHINSOIT. 



What grand, good times we do have 

 in the columns of the " old reliable " 

 American Bee Journal ! How I 

 do enjoy these apicultural discussions; 

 especially when so conducted that, 

 when the battle is over, each combat- 

 ant stands higher in the estimation of 

 his opponent. This " sugar feeding " 

 controversy promises to be of that 

 character. I shall try to be fair and 

 courteous, and I think that my oppo- 

 nents will be. 



Although probably unintentional 

 on the part of Mr. Wright (page 472), 

 I think that his quotation from my 

 letter on page 411, does not fairly 

 represent the meaning that I in- 

 tended to convey. He says: "Mr. 

 Hutchinson claims that ' when bees 

 are undisturbed by man's reason, they 

 meet an untimely fate.' " Beg par- 

 don, Mr. W., I did not make such a 

 claim. I said, in substance, that the 

 opposing of sugar feeding upon the 

 grounds that itwas " against nature " 

 was ridiculous ; then I said (now let 

 me give the whole sentence from which 

 Mr. W. quoted) : " Did bees never 

 perish when left to ' their own sweet 

 will ' in all things, this argument 

 would be more forcible ; but tvhen un- 

 disturbed by man's reason, the bees meet 

 an untimely fate, it is evident that 

 nature has made a mistake some- 

 where." (I have italicized the part 

 that Mr. W. attempted to quote.) 

 Does not Mr. AV. see that I did not 

 claim broadly that " when bees are 

 undisturbed by man's reason, they 

 meet an untimely fate ?" 



The point is just this: We have 

 been repeatedly informed that honey 

 and pollen is the na{(«'oifood of bees ; 

 it is •' according to nature " that they 

 should live and thrive under its con- 

 sumption ; that it was the height of 

 folly to say that death lurked in 

 nature's food. Some bee-keepers very 

 foolishly (V) neglect to clip the wings 

 of their queens, and, as a consequence, 

 a swarm occasionally hies away to a 

 forest home of its own choosing— to a 

 home furnished by nature— it stores 

 natural food and leads a natural life 

 until— it dies of diarrhea during some 

 " disastrous winter." Nature made a 

 mistake. Is it any more inconsistent 

 to say that the mistake lay in the food 

 she furnished, than that it lay in 

 some of her other furnishings ? 



Mr. Hill asks : " Who has fed 

 cane-sugar since the foundation of 

 the world in order to keep the race 



