84 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



interest in each iind every one of our 

 co-laborers, an interest in keeping up 

 apiculture to the liighest standard. 

 Let us, therefore, be prompt to advise, 

 ready in council to advance our cher- 

 ished pursuit. 



Theie are but few things to which 

 I shall call your especial attention this 

 session, and these I hope will receive 

 your careful consideration. 



Owing to a season, exceptionally 

 good, during the last half, in most of 

 the Western States, a large surplus 

 has been gatliered, and large quanti- 

 ties have been thrown on the market 

 by persons desirous of realizing at the 

 earliest date. In consequence, prices 

 have fallen, until they are less than 

 the situation warrants, especially for 

 comb honey. Added to this, there 

 have been frequent shipments of in- 

 ferior honey, and honey dew, which 

 the shipper unable to sell at home, 

 sends abroad to be sold at any price. 

 This has still further demoralized 

 trade and disgusted consumers. 



With a view to freeing our markets 

 from undue pressure, I have corres- 

 ponded with several of the large deal- 

 ers of this country, and also sent sam- 

 ples to England. The replies are here 

 tor your information. In this connec- 

 tion I feel warranted in saying, tliat 

 if each producer would briiig or send 

 average samples of his honey to our 

 State Fair for exhibit, that much 

 might be done to market at that place. 



I believe that a conference with the 

 State Board of Agriculture would be 

 of benefit to the producers and State 

 at large. An agent for the sale of 

 honey, in one or more of our largest 

 towns, to retailers or jobbers, would 

 also, in my opinion, beneht us all, in 

 as much as one jierson could, by pru- 

 dent measures, obtain fairer prices 

 than a number making promiscuous 

 sales, as is the practice now. 



Next to injudicious sales, no one 

 thing operates so much against the 

 sale of good honey as the glucose traf- 

 fic. This vile stuff, allowed by law to 

 destroy health and sound business 

 principles, is in one form or another 

 upon the tables of the majority of 

 American families. Never sold under 

 its own name to the consumer, and 

 ignorant of its effect upon health, its 

 consumption is enormous. There is 

 plenty of imimpeachable testimony, 

 proving its total unfitness as an article 

 of food, and 1 think we should leave 

 no stone unturned to expose its true 

 character. 



I believe much can be done by our 

 Associatiou to place the facts before 

 the people. But tliat wliich would 

 deal it the deadliest blow, would be 

 plenty of cheap wholesome honey. I 

 am satisfied we can afford to sell our 

 extracted honey at 10 cents per pound, 

 and at thatpriceit is within the reach, 

 owing to its vastly superior flavor and 

 sweetening qualities, of even the com- 

 mon laboring man. We can render 

 no greater service to our State than to 

 place a wholesome sweet within the 

 reach of all its citizens. 



While the exhibit at the last Fair 

 was an improvement over all former 

 ones, I am sorry to say it was by no 

 means commensurate with our pres- 

 ent status in apiculture. 1 am aware 



that to make an exhibit, necessitates 

 an expenditure of both time and 

 money, yet after attending three con- 

 secutive" fairs, must unhesitatingly 

 pronounce it a paying investment for 

 any bee-keejier who produces for sale, 

 even for a liome market. Some prac- 

 tical measures, looking to a more gen- 

 eral exhibit, would be very desirable. 

 I believe the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture will do all in its power to make 

 our exhibit a success. They certainly 

 merit our most sincere thanks for 

 what they have already done. 



With this communication, the sec- 

 ond term of my ofBce as presiding 

 officer closes. Allow me to thank you, 

 each and every one, for the very many 

 kind words, wishes and deeds, you 

 have bestowed upon me. Let me as- 

 sure you that I thoroughly appreciate 

 you all, and in the years to come the re- 

 membrances of these days will always 

 be those of sincere and unalloyed 

 pleasure. T. L. VonDokn. 



Louis Trester, a youth of about 14 

 years of age, read the following report 

 of juvenile bee-keeping : 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

 My Pa told me if I would write my 

 experience in bee-keeping during the 

 past summer, I might go to the bee- 

 keepers' meeting— so here it is : 

 Sometime in June (about the mid- 

 dle, I think it was), I bargained with 

 Pa for four frames covered with bees 

 and filled with brood, for which I was 

 to pay $1.00 apiece. When I went to 

 get them. Pa said I might take one 

 frame with a queen-cell on, as he had 

 several of them. I took three frames, 

 one with a queen-cell on, and left the 

 fourth one, thinking, perhaps some- 

 thing might possibly happen to my 

 cell or queen after she hatched, and I 

 might want another. I took the three 

 frames and put them in a hive and 

 closed them in as small a space as pos- 

 sible, by means of a division-board. 

 All went well, notwithstanding! took 

 a peep into the hive every day to see 

 that nothing happened the all-impor- 

 tant object of the hive. In due time 

 the cell was opened and a beautiful, 

 yellow queen came fortli, but my 

 anxiety was not over yet, I still kept 

 peeping into the hive nearly every 

 day, to see if my treasure, as I deemed 

 it, was still there. About tlie fourth 

 or fifth day, I looked in my hive one 

 evening, and could not find my queen. 

 It was late, about sundown, and I 

 thought such a young bird as she 

 ought to lie at home. I waited until 

 dark and then closed the front of the 

 hive, so she would not get out earlier 

 than I. and, in the morning, when I 

 looked, I found her ladyship as com- 

 posed as if she had alvVays been lay- 

 ing, and then I got my fourth frame 

 and commenced to build up, by add- 

 ing one sheet of comb foundation at 

 a time, putting it in the middle of the 

 brood chamber. When honey season 

 began I had as strong a colony of bees 

 as my Pa had in his apiary. I bought 

 the top story containing boxes, which 

 cost me $1.00, making a total cost of 

 SB.35 for bees, hive, foundation, sec- 

 tion boxes, and all complete. When 

 I put on the second story the bees 

 seemed to have no inclination to work 



in the boxes, so I put two frames with 

 section boxes down in the brood 

 chamber, and put four brood frames 

 in the place the others occui)ied, and 

 left them there about a week, and 

 found that they were working in boxes 

 both above and below ; then changed 

 all to their proper places, and then 

 they worked readily, but after all my 

 luck, and being a beginner in the bar- 

 gain, I took from my four frames of 

 btes, that I began with in the spring, 

 47 pounds of comb honey, and 53 

 pounds of extracted honey, leaving 

 about 40 pounds to winter on. I sold 

 my honey for $15 cash, leaving me a 

 gain of $8.65 on $6. .35 invested. 



Remember,that I still have my bees, 

 they are yet alive. Count them at 

 what you please, if they come through 

 all right, in the spring, my profits 

 will be at least double, tor I have not 

 counted my bees at all in my report. 



Louis TUESTEU. 



M. L. Trester read a paper on 

 " Single-walled vs. Double-walled 

 hives," which contained much for in- 

 teresting thought by apiarists. 



Adjourned until 2 p. m. 



The meeting was called to order 

 at 2 p.m. The president read some 

 correspondence from abroad in regard 

 to marketing and shipping of honey. 



Shall we use separators V Not, for 

 narrow sections. 



Is it more profitable to run for comb 

 or extracted honey V Extracted. 



Will chaff hives pay ? A difference 

 of opinion. 



Will bass wood groves grow here? 

 Yes. 



Will the Rocky Mountain bee plant 

 grow here V It will. 



Resolutions were adopted thanking 

 the citizens of Walioo, and the rail- 

 roads for courtesies, and then the 

 Convention adjourned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Feeders and Wired Foundation. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



In response to Mr. Williams' inquiry 

 regarding my feeders, and several 

 private inquiries in relation to wired 

 foundation, allow me to append the 

 following : To describe the mechani- 

 cal construction of my feeders, would 

 be simply to make confusion worse 

 confounded. Whoever has faith in it 

 being the best sliape and style of 

 make-up, to embrace the vital points 

 most desirable for a bee-feeJer, and 

 who may wish to make simie like it, 

 should by all means make from a sam- 

 ple. Just so with any article of mer- 

 chandise in the bee-keepers' line. 

 When you get a sample, do not be too 

 fast to make "just a little alteration," 

 because you think such change an 

 improvement, or may not have just 

 the rigtit stock to work from, and 

 " guess it will make no difference." 

 Recollect, that while no one claims 

 perfection, and that you might im- 

 prove any apicultural article of mer- 

 chandise, you will hardly, in a single 

 day, get ahead of one who has pon- 

 dered long over, and experimented for 

 years, peniaps, with it. 



Let me illustrate. My style of hive 



