THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Gathering the Statistics. 



A committee was appointed by the 

 "North American Bee-Keepers' Soci- 

 ety," at its late meeting in Cincin- 

 nati, Ohio, for the purpose of securing 

 statistical information relative to bee 

 culture in North America. The mem- 

 bers of this committee had a meeting 

 last month, and elected Dr. C. C. 

 Miller, chairman, and authorized him 

 to issue a call for information through 

 all the bee papers of America, and 

 directed him to receive, assort and 

 tabulate them, and then to offer the 

 Tabulated Statistical Table for publi- 

 cation, in all the papers devoted to 

 apiculture in particular, and agri- 

 culture in general,as well as to present 

 that table and report to the next 

 meeting of the North American Bee- 

 Keepers' Society ,to be held at Toronto, 

 Canada, next fall. In accordance with 

 these instructions. Dr. Miller has is- 

 sued the following notice, and asked 

 the editors of all the bee papers to 

 publish it, simultaneously, in the first 

 issue of January, 1883 : 



Mk. Editor :— At the last meeting 

 of the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Society, a committee was appointed 

 to obtain statistics relating to bee cul- 

 ture. Upon consultation, the com- 

 mittee have decided to ask, through 

 the various papers devoted to the in- 

 terests of bee culture, for information 

 directly from the bee-keepers them- 

 selves. Will you, therefore, please 

 request each bee-keeper to report his 

 name, postofflce. State, the number of 

 colonies he had m the fall of 1881, the 

 number in spring of 1882, the number 

 in fall of 1882, the number of pounds 

 comb honey taken in 1882, the number 

 of pounds extracted, and the number 

 of pounds of beeswax. Let it be writ- 

 ten on a postal card, like the following : 



F. Torrens, 



East Liberty, Pa. 



21 colonies, fall, 1881. 



18 colonies, spring, 1882. 



2-5 colonies, fall, 1882. 



400 lbs. comb honey. 



300 lbs. extracted. 



3 lbs. beeswax. 

 No date is needed ; send the postal 

 to Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo. 111., and 

 as soon as they can be obtained, the 

 results will be given through the pa- 

 pers making this request. 



Let each bee-keeper send in the re- 

 port of any other bee-keeper who does 

 not send in his own report. 



C. C. MlLI,ER, 



Chairman Statistical Committee. 

 "We would respectfully request 

 every reader of this notice to sit down 

 at once and send a postal card to Dr. 

 Miller, Marengo, 111., and give the six 

 items he requests, as above. By doing 

 this small share in the work every one 

 will be benefitting him or herself, as 



well as aiding the cause of bee culture 

 generally throughout the country. 

 Please do not think because you have 

 reported to some bee paper, that such 

 will do in place of this, but stop right 

 here, before reading any further, and 



^ WRITE TO DR. MILLER, .^i 



Now, having written the postal card 

 as requested, let us talk the matter 

 of statistics over a little. Here is a 

 letter from Mr. H. L. Jeffrey, Vice 

 President of the N. A. B. K. Society 

 for the State of Connecticut, who 

 wants to have a chat with you upon 



THOSE STATISTICS. 



I have been deeply interested of late 

 in the articles on obtaining a correct 

 statistical report of bees, honey and 

 beeswax in the United States. I most 

 heartily wish it may be obtained, 

 though I very much doubt that it will 

 be. during 1883. 



While reading the letter from Prof. 

 Cook, ex-President of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Society, I' 

 could not help smiling to think how 

 much help could or would be obtained 

 from the town or State supervisors, as 

 I have had a slight experience in try- 

 ing to obtain any amount of informa- 

 tion from that source. During the 

 census taking, I found just one willing 

 to give any aid out of over thirty 

 that I had conversation with, and he 

 was a bee-keeper. Through him I ob- 

 tained, as we afterwards found out, 

 just Hve-sixths of the number of colo- 

 nies in his town. 



In the year 1880, if I remember cor- 

 rectly, you, Mr. Editor, sent me a card 

 asking an effort to obtain, as near as 

 possible, the statistics of Connecticut. 

 Ever since then I have used every 

 available means to obtain it, and [ find 

 that it is next to an impossibility to 

 find out very much. 



In the first place, the number of 

 colonies in the spring should be stated. 



2. The increase, the amount of sur- 

 plus honey, and the amount of bees- 

 wax, etc. 



3. The number of colonies to be put 

 into winter quarters, saying nothing 

 of the hive used, the method of win- 

 tering, etc. 



Now comes the trouble. There are 

 so many box-hive men to be looked 

 up, whose separate productions for the 

 market supply may be compared with 

 one mill to a dollar, though it should 

 be known to make the whole com- 

 plete, and their wax product is pro- 

 portionately greater than that of the 

 practical apiarist. 



In oider.to obtain the information 

 in my last annual report to the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 1 have worked for three years, and I 

 honestly do not believe it "is anywhere 

 near correct, though I worked faith- 

 fully for it, and used every means in 

 ray power, and my memoranda shows 

 it cost nearly $100, to say nothing of 

 the time spent in writing or visiting 

 bee-keepers, or the amount used for 

 postage on letters or cards I received 

 from parties furnishing me with in- 

 formation. 



Scarcely any one ever thinks of the 

 magnitud'e or such an undertaking, 

 except those having tried it, and, 

 worse than all, is the amount of fault- 

 finding there is to withstand from 

 those thinking they could have done 

 better, though, in reality, the hardest 

 amount of work they do is with their 

 tongue. 



Mr. J. S. Terrill's plan is qufte 

 worthy of a trial if the vice-presidents 

 have either ambition or curiosity 

 enough about them to push it through ; 

 and there is another trouble, if they 

 have too much push they will not get 

 any information, because it takes time 

 and some trouble to make out even a 

 small report. The greatest trouble ia 

 to try to get a report within a stated 

 time, because no man will do anything 

 till he gets ready, and the more you 

 drive the more he holds back ; never- 

 theless, it can be worked at, year after 

 year, until a nearly correct statistical 

 table will be the result. 



Let the Committee on Statistics ap- 

 point a man in each State, giving him 

 a specimen blank ; furnish him a list 

 of all the bee-keepers, and allow him 

 three months in which to do his best, 

 then call for a report ; then call for 

 another final report, in time for the 

 National Convention. I know that a 

 fair result can be obtained by that 

 plan. Nearly every State has either 

 an agricultural paper or a principal 

 paper of some sort, and its columns 

 can be used by some one to a very sat- 

 isfactory result. Write a few articles 

 for it, then make a call through its 

 columns, and he will hear from more 

 than he thinks ; then, two or three 

 more articles, another call and another 

 response ; each time he will obtain a 

 wider field. I have tried this plan and 

 I find it is better than anything ex- 

 cept a regular,thorough canvass. Try 

 not only the papers, but solicit aid of 

 all the "farmers' clubs and the agri- 

 cultural societies. H. L. Jeffrey. 



Woodbury, Conn., Dec. 23, 1882. 



The reader will please notice the 

 fact that Mr. Jeffrey has worked for 

 three years and spent nearly $100 in 

 money, in his endeavor to get the cor- 

 rect statistics of his State on bees and 

 honey. Now, shall we ask another 

 favor of you V Of every bee-keeper 

 you can obtain an interview with, no 

 matter whether he has .5 or 500 colo- 

 nies of bees, just make a memorandum 

 of his name, post oflice and State (so 

 that it may be classified), and then 

 send to Dr. Miller a postal card con- 

 taining the reports, from your memo- 

 randum book, of the season's work of 

 every one who has not himself al- 

 ready reported. This is but a trifling 

 matter, but will tell wonderfully on 

 the general result. Instead of costing 

 you $100, as it has Mr. Jeffrey, it will 

 cost you but a tew cents, and you will 

 be fully rewarded in the general re- 

 sults which will certainly follow the 

 attainment of correct figures concern- 

 ing the honey crop of America. 



