THE AMERICA2< JJEE JOURNAL. 



151 



keeping in general. He talked for 

 over an hour" in his usual easy and 

 happy style, and was listened to with 

 marked interest. 



At the close of Mr. "\'ideto"s address, 

 the President called ('apt. S. II. Cook 

 to the stand, who, with a few approp- 

 riate remarks in behalf of tlie Assoc- 

 iation, presented to ^Ir. V. a beautiful 

 ebony cane with a solid silver head, 

 on winch was engraved, "Presented to 

 D. Videto, by tlie N. E. Ohio, and N. 

 W. Pa. Bee- Keepers' Association." 



M. E. ilason had spent much time 

 in makins; experiments, and had given 

 swarming more study than any subject 

 connected with apiculture. The ob- 

 ject in keeping bees is to get money, 

 and honey is the chief reliance for ob- 

 taining the desired reward. If bees 

 are permitted to exhaust their strength 

 in swarming, hives and foundation 

 are needed, which cost more money 

 than is received. We must have bees 

 in the hive ; we must keep our colonies 

 strong, or the business will be unsatis- 

 factory. 



He practiced the following plan to 

 prevent increase last season. He 

 worked 20 colonies in this manner, 

 and is satisfied they gave him 1,000 

 lbs. more honey than if he had allowed 

 them to swarm, and hived them in the 

 usual way. He hives the first swarm 

 that comes out in the usual way, and 

 for convenience, he will call the hive 

 that this swarm issued from, No. 1 ; 

 the next swarm, and the hive they is- 

 sue from, Xo. 2, etc. When swarm 

 No. 2 comes out, he takes 2 frames of 

 brood from hive No. 1, and puts 

 empty combs or foundation in their 

 place, and destroys all queen cells on 

 the remaining combs, and then hives 

 swarm No. 2 in this hive. No. 1, and 

 gives them a case of empty sections. 

 When No. 3 swarms, hive No. 2 is 

 prepared in like manner to receive 

 them, and thus he continued till the 

 20 colonies had swarmed, and had only 

 increased one. 



Mr. McGonnell said he prevented 

 swarming in an apiary of a hundred 

 colonies by cutting out drone brood 

 and giving plenty of room. He had 

 an increase of only 7 colonies from 

 100, and that was caused through neg- 

 lect. 



Statistics taken from the members 

 showed 1.069 colonies put into winter 

 quarters in the fall of 1882 ; 89ti of 

 them lived through the winter and 

 spring, and increased to 1,6-56 colonies 

 in the fall of 1883, and produced 22,3as 

 lbs. of comb honey, 9,7.5.5 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey, and 140 lbs. of wax. 

 About 75 per cent, of them were 

 packed in chaff or other dry material, 

 or in chaff hives on the summer 

 stands ; 10 per cent, were put in cel- 

 lars, and the rest were without anv 

 extra protection. Of those packed in 

 chafl. etc., and in chaff hives, about 

 16 per cent, were lost during the win- 

 ter and spring ; 22 per cent, of those 

 in cellars died, while 86 per cent, of 

 those without any protection died. 



The next annual meeting of the so- 

 ciety will be held in Erie, Pa., the sec- 

 ond Wednesday and Thursday in 

 January, 188-5. 



At the election of offlcerSj P. T. 

 Twitchel was made President, C. H. 



(\)on. Secretary, and N. T. Phelps, 

 Treasurer. Vice Presidents : M. E. 

 Mason, D- Mdeto. W. S. Stinson, J. 

 :Mc(;onnelI, S. H. Wheeler, J. P. Ster- 

 rett, H. W. Ilackct, J. llatton. E. M, 

 Blanchard, 0. L. Payne, H. A. East- 

 man, G. S. Harvey, 15. F. Jenkins, J. 

 S. Barb, H. H. llammon, II. F. Sager, 

 E. H. Case. 



The Association is in a flourishing 

 condition, and this meeting was a 

 success in every sense of the word. 

 C. II. Coon, .Sec. 



New Lyme, Ohio. 



Fur the American Ree Journal. 



Why Abuse Hall-Pound Sections ? 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Ever since half-pound sections were 

 invented they have been subjected to 

 a running lire of abuse. Everything 

 that could be tliought of has" been 

 said against them. Supply dealers 

 have been accused of " booming " 

 them from selfish motives. Bee- 

 keepers who did not luiderstand the 

 principles underlying the production 

 of comb honey, have written long 

 articles in which they attempted to 

 prove that not nearly so much honey 

 could be secured in small as in large 

 sections. Bee-keepers have been ac- 

 cused of being too progressive, too 

 restless, with not being satisfied in 

 " letting well enough alone," of creat- 

 ing a demand among consumers for 

 something that they would never have 

 thought of asking for if it had not 

 been brought to their notice, thus 

 compelling bee-keepers, who did not 

 wish to do so, to use small sections or 

 be left behind, when, if all bee-keep- 

 ers would only place the seal of con- 

 denuiation upon the "one bite" sec- 

 tions, they would be saved this 

 trouble. 



It has also been mentioned that 

 more sections and more foundation 

 would be needed, but why repeat all 

 that has been said against half-pound 

 sections. Of course all that has been 

 said has not been abuse, but many of 

 the arguments brought against them 

 have been so exceedingly transparent 

 that it required not avery penetrating 

 vision to see beneath them an induce- 

 ment that flowed aliout as follows : 

 " I am very much afraid that some- 

 body is going to get the start of me." 



At our late Michigan State Conven- 

 tion the subject was but lightly 

 touched upon, and when one dealer 

 reported that he could get no more 

 for them than for the pound sections, 

 and another man reported that a cer- 

 tain dealer could find no sale for them, 

 it was certainly interesting to witness 

 the satisfaction that beamed upon 

 many faces, and to listen to such ex- 

 clamations of delight as, " Good," 

 " I'm glad of it," and " That's all 

 right ;" in fact, the convention came 

 just about as near applauding and 

 cheering as it did when Mr. D. A. 

 Jones told how many thousands of 

 five cent packages of extracted honey 

 were sold at one Canadian fair. As 

 Mr. Jones went on and explained how 

 the sale of tliese small packages led to 

 the sale of larger ones, and so on and 



so forth, some of the members were 

 fairly enraptured ; they could see the 

 beauties of selling small packages of 

 extracted honey ; but half-pound sec- 

 tions — Oh 1 that was a horse of a 

 different color. 



I'erhaps extracted honey can be put 

 up for sale in small packages more 

 cheaply than the same thing can be 

 done with comb honey, but if the pub- 

 lic is willing to pay for the expense, 

 why this feeling and prejudice against 

 half-pound sections 'i* One bee-keeper 

 said to me : " It just makes me mad 

 to hear folks even talk about half- 

 pound sections," and, in saying this, 

 I fear that he expressed the senti- 

 ments of quite a number of bee- 

 keepers. 



Now, I have no interest in half- 

 pound sections ; have never used 

 them, and do not know as I ever shall, 

 but it makes me " mad " to see people 

 so unreasonably abuse them without 

 even trying them ; and that, too, in the 

 face of the fact that some of our lead- 

 ing comb honey producers have dem- 

 onstrated that, with proper appliances 

 and methods, just as much honey can 

 be obtained when using half-pound 

 as when using pound sections ; and the 

 only question is whether enough 

 larger pieces can be obtained to pay 

 for the extra manipulations. 



Arguments against half-pound sec- 

 tions, or anytliing else for that mat- 

 ter, can be listened to with pleasure, 

 but simple abuse and unreasonable 

 prejudice are disgusting. 



Rogersville, Mich. 



rnr the American Bee JournaL 



Cedar Valley, Iowa, Convention. 



The bee-keepers of Cedar Valley, 

 Iowa, met at VVaterloo, Feb. 13 and 14, 

 at the office of J. Moshen ; organized 

 by electing C. P. Hunt President, and 

 John Bird Secretary pro tern. It was 

 moved by O. O. Poppleton that a com- 

 mittee of three be appointed to draft 

 a constitution and by-laws. O. O. 

 Poppleton, II. O. McElhany, and D. 

 W. Thayer were appointed as the 

 committee. They submitted the 

 usual printed constitution and by- 

 laws with the following amendments • 



Sec. 2. Strike out all after the word 

 interests, and the following inserted 

 in its place : Shall discuss such ques- 

 tions as ha\'e a practical bearing on 

 bee-keeping. 



Sec. 8 was all struck out, and the 

 following adopted instead : No mem- 

 ber shall be entitled to the floor longer 

 than .5 minutes in discussion of any 

 question without the consent of the 

 society. 



Sec. II. In the by-laws was changed 

 by striking out from the word ofhce, 

 all the balance of article. 



On vote of the convention, the con- 

 stitution and by-laws as amended 

 were adopted. 



On motion it was moved that the 

 President -pro tern appoint a commit- 

 tee of three to nominate permanent 

 oflicers. II. O. McElhany. 1). W. 

 Thayer, and Geo. Beck were appointed, 

 and tlie following names were sub- 

 mitted : C. P. Hunt, of Waterloo, for 

 I President, and Dr. Jesse Oren, of Ea 



