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THE AMElllCAISl BEE JOURNAL. 



white clover, seems greatly to augment 

 the June honey crop. 2. By the super- 

 iority of golclenrod anions our fall flowers. 

 These plants give much excellent honey. 



I would add tliat, in my opinion, no one 

 thing is more worthy the attention of bee- 

 keepers than this matter of honey-plants. 

 Ilow often r.aspberry or Alsike clover 

 make the honey harvest which otherwise 

 would be nothing, or nearly so, quite sat- 

 isfactory. May it not be that we could 

 every year be sure of a crop, if we had 

 plants like the Rocky Mountain bee- 

 plant, or possibly the Chapman honey- 

 plant, which, despite drouth or rains or 

 cool day--, would still secrete nectar in 

 quantity ? I doubt if any subject con- 

 nected with bee-keeping is more worthy 

 of attention. 



PENNSYLVANIA— From A. Todd. 



The spring opened in Pennsylvania 

 with every prospect of a good yield of 

 honey, but wet -.veather set in and con- 

 tinued with intermissions in such man- 

 ner as to completely upset the anticipa- 

 tions of early spring. A short crop of 

 honey is the result, as far as my knowl- 

 edge reaches. The autumn lias been 

 more favorable, and bees will go into 

 winter quarters in good condition. The 

 consumption of honey is decidedly on the 

 increase by the masses, forming the popu- 

 lation of the city of Philadelphia, and on 

 the whole; preference seems to be given 

 to extracted honey. 



I have to report the opening of a public 

 apiary in the Zoological Gai-deiis of this 

 city (the first I think in the United States). 

 Myself or a friend has, during each week, 

 opened hives, explained bee-lite, etc., to 

 crowds of interested men, women and 

 children. A photograph of this apiary 

 will be mailed you herewith. 



The use of honey iu manufactures has 

 occupied my attention, and honey candies, 

 honey ice-cream, honey lemonade, and 

 honey ginger ale, have been made and sold 

 this season with a most gratifying result. 



QUEBEC— From H. F. Hunt. 

 The past season has been under the 

 average. The winter was comparatively 

 mild with a good deal of rain during Feb- 

 ruary. Spring opened early and warm; 

 the months of May, June and July, how- 

 ever, were dry, and the nights rather cool, 

 which interfered greatly with the secre- 

 tion of nectar in tlie clovers and linden. 

 Some bee-keepers report that they did not 

 extract a pound of honey, bees having 

 gatliered just sufiicient "to carrj; them 

 throuah the winter. The average of losses 

 in winter appears to be 34 per cent., and 

 of the crop gathered,!? pounds per colony, 

 spring count. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



St JoscDli, Mo., Bee ani Honey Sliow , 



.J. W. GRAHAM. 



The apiarian display at the Inter- 

 State Exposition, at St. Joseph, Mo. , 

 about Sept. 1, 18SG, was the finest ever 

 held in the State. There were twenty 

 exhibitors in the apiarian department, 

 each striving to display not only his 

 goods, but his ingenuity and skill in 

 making them appear attractive. 



Of bees, there were Carniolans, 

 Syrians and Italians (imported and 

 home-bred), as Une as the linest. 

 There were 18 observatory hives ; and 

 the Kretchmer, Shuck, Armstrong 

 and Heddon invertible hives. Tliere 

 were honey extractors, knives and 

 foundation mills. 



There was comb honey in crates, 

 cases, and fancy forms ; extracted 



honey in a variety of tin and glass 

 vessels, arranged for the light to shine 

 through the glass, giving it a trans- 

 parency not always attained ; and a 

 very neat display of wax moulded in 

 the shape of pears, looking so natural 

 that the judges passed them, thinking 

 they were natural fr nit. 



The ladies had the honey-cakes, 

 and there were some 6ne displays of 

 honey-producing plants, and several 

 displays of apicultural literature num- 

 bering over twenty bound volumes 

 each, besides samples of bee-papers. 



But there was one general wish ex- 

 pressed, and that was that the Editor 

 of the American Bee Journal was 

 here to see how his " child " had 

 grown. Many will remember that in 

 1881 Mr. Thomas G. Newman paid us 

 a visit, when this department was in 

 its infancy, and by a series of lectures 

 laid the foundation of our present 

 apicultural structure, of which we to- 

 day feel so proud ; and no effort will 

 be spared next fall to have him here 

 to enjoy, with us, the fruits of our 

 joint labors. 



Agency, -o Mo. 



The following is another account 

 which was sent without signature : 



Having been attracted to the St. 

 Joseph, Mo., Inter-State Exposition, 

 by the liberal premiums offered in the 

 apiarian department, aggregating 

 over S250, 1 desire to note the wide 

 awake, progressive spirit manifested 

 by the officers and directors of this 

 Exposition, as I expected that such 

 liberal premiums would bring out a 

 fine display of everything appertain- 

 ing to this industry. 



I was astonished at the "prodig- 

 ious " display, the neat and attractive 

 arrangement by the many exhibitors 

 of products of their respective api- 

 aries, and the various implements 

 used by them. 



I will venture the assertion, how- 

 ever, that a finer exhibit was never 

 made on this continent ; and further, 

 that no directors of any State, county 

 or international association ever of- 

 fered more liberal premiums, or pro- 

 vided for the requirements of exhibi- 

 tors to as great an extent as did the 

 officers of the St. Joseph Inter-State 

 Exposition on this occasion. Noth- 

 ing was asked of them (except space) 

 that they did not grant. The number 

 of exhibitors and their large displays 

 was so far in excess of what was ex- 

 pected that a very considerable amount 

 of honey was not unpacked. It was 

 impossible to provide space to exhibit 

 all that was intended for exhibition. 

 Exhibitors from Illinois, Iowa, Ne- 

 braska, Kansas, Texas and Missouri 

 were there with honey, both comb 

 and extracted, in great abundance in 

 very neat, attractive, and tasty pack- 

 ages. The comb honey was in half- 

 pound, pound, and two-pound sec- 

 tions ; nearly all in neat and hand- 

 some crates. There was on exhibi- 

 tion some few " caps" (starch or shoe 

 boxes) taken from the old log gum. 

 The extracted honey was in glass and 

 tin pails, in bottles and jars of beau- 

 tiful designs, holding from a half to 

 three pounds ; iu kegs and tin cans 

 holding from 2-") to 100 pounds. 



There was an elegant display of 

 beeswax in a large number of dif- 

 ferent designs. Twelve entries were 

 made for premiums on the best all- 

 purpose hive, each of different de- 

 sign or pattern, showing that all bee- 

 keepers are not as yet convinced that 

 the Langstroth hive cannot be im- 

 proved, or that the Heddon sectional 

 hive is the ne plus ultra. 



Several very handsome observatory 

 hives (in full blast), showing the stor- 

 ing of honey, comb-building habits, 

 and economy of a colony of bees, with 

 drone and worker comb in with eggs, 

 larviie and capped and hatching brood, 

 queen-cells, etc., which called forth a 

 great many expressions of astonish- 

 ment and admiration. In fact no 

 other department of this great Expo- 

 sition was as attractive to the thou- 

 sands of visitors. 



Read at the Indianapolia Convention. 



Feedini Bees fo r Winter. 



.jas. m'neill. 



In advocating the practice of feeding 

 bees sugar syrup for winter stores, it may 

 be well, in the first place, for me to con- 

 sider 8(mie of the objections which are 

 urged against the practice. 



It is said that sugar feeding has a ten- 

 dency to diminish confidence in the purity 

 of honey. This is undoubtedly true. In 

 many communities fully nine-tenths of the 

 people believe that all extracted honey is 

 adulterated. They have read that it is 

 adulterated; nearly all with whom they 

 talk are of the same opinion, and what is 

 so generally accepted needs but slight 

 evidence to' be converted into absolute 

 truth. When, therefore, such persons 

 hear of a bee-keeper receiving a ton or 

 more of sugar, and see him carting it 

 through the streets to his apiary, they 

 wink knowingly, smile self-complacently, 

 and sagely remark : "That settles it." 



Even a bee-keeper of well established 

 reputation has enough to do to success- 

 fully combat the ignorant prejudice 

 against his product without himself fur- 

 nishing confirmatory proof against its 

 purity. Nevertheless every thoroughly 

 honest, self-respecting man feels that his 

 manhood is degraded when he is called 

 upon to forego what he thinks is a mani- 

 fest advantage simply out of deference to 

 the prejudice, ignorance and narrow- 

 mindedness of his neighbors. He who 

 sturdily pursues a straight-forward, manly 

 course in the conduct of his business, is 

 sure to gain the respect and esteem of his 

 fellow-men; and though his pecuniary 

 interests may suflier for a time because of 

 ignorance and prejudice, in the long run 

 his independent honesty will bear its 

 legitimate fruit in increased honor and 

 confidence. 



Again, some bee-keepers object t© sugar 

 feeding because of a desire, which has in 

 it something of the sentiment of fealty to 

 our avocation, not to build up the sugai- 

 Interests at the expense of the honey- 

 interests. 



It is estimated that there are 3,000,000 

 colonies of bees in the United States, and 

 that the annual yield of honey is 120,000,- 

 000 pounds. It is also estimated that 35 

 pounds of honey are required to winter a 

 colony of bees. Now, if every bee-keeper 

 should follow the practice of replacing 

 this 2.5 pounds of honey with syrup, it is 

 clear that the surplus honey of the coun- 

 try would be increased more than one- 

 half, and that an already over-burdened 

 market would be still further depressed. 

 Hence, the cry, " Do not elevate the sugar 

 interests at the expense of the honey in- 



