184 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



extent are an injury to the fruit 

 grower." 



I have two acres of vines, of differ- 

 ent liinds, close by my apiary of over 

 50 colonies, but I never saw a grape 

 punctured yet by a bee, though I laid 

 grapes in front of tlie liives. I know 

 that they will not touch a sound grape, 

 but if wasps injure them first, the bees 

 will suck up the juice. 



Pacitic, Mo. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Convention at Davenport, Iowa. 



The second annual meeting of the 

 Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois 

 Bee-Keepers" Association was held at 

 Moore's Hall, Davenport, Iowa, begin- 

 ning Feb. 21 and lasthig three days. 

 Ir'resident I. A'. McCagg called the 

 meeting to order at 2 p. m. Secretary 

 J. J. Nagle being absent, Wm. Goo's 

 vi^as appointed secretary pro tern. The 

 roll being called, most of the members 

 were found to be present. 



The minutes of the last meeting 

 were read and approved. A motion 

 to liave a committee prepare a pro- 

 gramme so that it could be published 

 m the daily papers, was carried. The 

 committee was as follows : C. H. 

 Dibbern, J. V. Caldwell, and J. B. 

 Lindley. 



The Treasurer's report was read 

 and approved. 



A letter of invitation from the 

 Academy of Sciences of Davenport, 

 was read by the secretary, and ac- 

 cepted. 



The report of the committee on Pro- 

 gramme was made and adopted. 



A motion to hold evening sessions 

 was lost. 



The following were elected officers 

 for the ensuing year : I. V. McCagg, 

 President ; Geo. L. Gast, Vice-Presi- 

 dent; "\Vm. Goos, Secretary; Israel 

 Hall, Treasurer; all of Davenport. 

 An executive committee was ap- 

 pointed as follows : J. V. Caldwell, 

 of Cambridge, 111. ; J. B. Lindley, of 

 Muscatine. Iowa; and C. H. Dibbern, 

 of Milan. 111. 



After receiving the reports of mem- 

 bers, the convention adjourned to 10 

 a. m., Priday. 



President McCagg called tlie meet- 

 ing to order at 10 o'clock, there being 

 a much largei- attendance than on the 

 first day. 



According to programme, Mr. T. G. 

 Newman then gave an address on 

 " Marketing Honev." He spoke of 

 the importance of tlie subject, and 

 then of the antiquity of the business. 

 More than 2,500 years ago is the first 

 record we have of commerce in honey, 

 in Tyre, and since then it had been 

 marketed in various ways until we 

 have the excellent methods of to-day. 

 The product of the world is estimated 

 at about S2.5,000,000, and of this 100,- 

 000,000 pounds is produced in Amer- 

 ica. A mistake made in the market- 

 ing of honey that reduces the price 

 one cent per pound for the crop, would 

 lose S1,OOU,000 for the producers, and 

 to add one cent per pound would put 

 that amount in the pockets of the pro- 

 ducers. Comb honey, being a fancv 

 article, we must so manage it, as to 



get a fancy price. We should make it 

 attractive, assort and label, keeping 

 each kind separately. Small crates 

 sell the quickest, and are of the most 

 advantage. Extracted honey should 

 be ripened and placed upon the retail 

 market in small packages, such as 

 cans, jelly cups, kegs, etc., and being 

 good for years, it has an advantage 

 over comb honey. Candied honey 

 could be carried in paper boxes. The 

 candying is a proof of purity, and all 

 honey should be labeled with the 

 keeper's name and address ; and that 

 name should always be a synonym for 

 purity, so tliat when a person pur- 

 chases this honey he may feel sure it 

 is absolutely pure, and in that way 

 the producer could build up a local 

 market that would last for years and 

 increase constantly. He closed by 

 advocating large exhibits of honey at 

 all the fairs, in order to educate the 

 people to the importance of the pro- 

 duct, and to induce them to use honey 

 both for food and medicine, and thus 

 increase the demand. 



Mr. Briggs, of Wilton, spoke on the 

 subject of freights, and said he could 

 get better rates by express than by 

 freight. 



The Rev. O. Clute heartily endorsed 

 the ideas of Mr. Newman, and dwelt 

 particularly upon the advantages and 

 necessity of building up a home 

 market-^but then stated that more 

 money could be made by keeping 

 more bees, and producing more honey, 

 and shipping it off to the great central 

 markets than by fussing with the 

 little home markets. Mr. Clute rec- 

 ommended large packages — 600 pound 

 barrels ; it can be more easily handled 

 as freight, and the merchants prefer 

 it, as more economical in room in the 

 store houses ; besides, it sells more 

 readily to the large purchasers for 

 manufacturing purposes. Packages 

 which hold 175 to 200 pounds may do 

 for purchasers of small quantities, 

 but 600 pound packages are the most 

 protitable. 



A very laige part of the honey crop 

 is now taken in the form of extracted 

 honey. Comb honey is good and 

 beautiful, but it has the disadvantage 

 of the wax, which is indigestilile, and 

 which nobody cares to eat. In the ex- 

 tracted honey we have no wax, it is 

 honey in its purest form. ^laiiy peo- 

 ple associate extracted honey" with 

 strained honey ; they suppose that all 

 honey out of the eomlj is strained 

 honey, but tliis is great injustice to 

 extracted hcmey. In getting strained 

 honey all the combs froni a hive, 

 combs containing capped brood, and 

 growing larvie and pollen and honey, 

 are mixed up together and then the 

 liquid squeezed out. In this way 

 there is obtained some honey, but 

 there is also obtained the juice of the 

 growing larvre of the young bees, and 

 of the pollen, so that the lioney has a 

 rank flavor, a dark color, and associa- 

 tions by no means appetizing. But 

 extracted honey is as different from 

 this strained honey as it is possible to 

 be. In getting extracted lioney, we 

 get no pollen, no juices of bees or 

 larvfe. We get simply the pure honey, 

 without any admixture whatever. 

 He, who on a cold wintermorning has 



never had pure, candied, 'white clover 

 honey to spread on his hot cakes, has 

 lived in vain ! Life has lacked for 

 him one of its chiefest charms! He 

 said that he never understood the full 

 meaning of tlie scripture description 

 of " the land flowing with milk and 

 honey "' until he went into the honey 

 business. Take a dish of pure ex- 

 tracted honey, and pour cream from 

 your Jersey or Ayrshire cow over it, 

 and you have a dish fit for any god 

 or goddess that ever dwelt upon 

 Olympus. 



Sir. Joshua Wadsworth, of Moline, 

 111., said that talking about 600 pound 

 packages for shipment was all well 

 enough, but he did not believe that 

 many there raised enough lioney to 

 fill even two packages of that kind in 

 a year. What is wanted is informa- 

 tion as to the best method of dispos- 

 ing of honey in local markets. He 

 spoke of the importance of neat pack- 

 ages, avoidance of overstocking the 

 market, etc., and other matters of in- 

 terest to the bee-keeper. 



A recess for 15 minutes was taken, 

 when new members were received, 

 and the membership fees collected. 



The executive ccmimittee reported 

 that they did not think it advisable 

 to hold more than one annual meet- 

 ing, and recommended that the an- 

 nual picnic be held on Blackhawk's 

 Watch Tower, four miles south of 

 Rock Island, on the second Tuesday 

 in August. That the Secretary be in- 

 structed to notify the members at 

 least two weeks previous to the hold- 

 ing of the picnic. They also recom- 

 mended that the portion of the Presi- 

 dent's address relating to the members 

 being sociable with each other, be 

 adopted. That the invitation of Mr. 

 O. Clute, of Iowa City, to visit his 

 apiary, be accepted. The time to be 

 set by Mr. Clute sometime during 

 May. Also that the invitation of Mr. 

 E. L. Briggs, to visit his apiary at 

 Wilton sometime in September, be 

 accepted ; the time to be arranged by 

 Mr. Briggs. 



It was voted to refer this back to 

 the committee to fix the dates for the 

 picnics. 



Mr. J. V. Caldwell, of Cambridge, 

 111., spoke of the difference in flavor 

 of extracted honey and comb honey. 

 People, as a rule, liked comb honey the 

 best. It was more tasty. 



Mr. Newman said that the differ- 

 ence in the pleasure experienced in 

 eating comb and extracted honey, was 

 probably i-xplainable thus : In eating 

 extracted honey, a spoonful! was taken 

 into the month on tlie tongue, backof 

 the lip. and was swallowed without 

 obtaining the full richness of taste, 

 while the comb lioney was taken by 

 the teeth, and the tip of the tongue 

 received the full flavor and delicious- 

 ness of the honey, permeating the or- 

 gans of taste, and giving the whole 

 system a feeling of ecstasy that would 

 fill even a mythical god with delight. 



Adjourned till 2 p. m. 



The afternoon session was called to 

 order by Pres. McCagg at 2 p. m., 

 when the bee and honey reports were 

 taken of those who were not present 

 in the mornfbg. 



