1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



23 5 



getting better prices and new markets were opening up to 

 them. Bee-keepers could do just as well it they would organ- 

 ize. The price of honey is usually put at too low a price at the 

 first sales. 



Dr. Millard believed in putting the best man forward, and 

 let him act as selling agent. The one stumbling-block is the 

 need of ready money, and some plan to pay an advance to 

 those producers who are obliged to sell their honey to procure 

 the necessities of living. 



Mr. Touchton said that California had to compete with 

 the whole United States and Cuba. He approved of the plan 

 of putting up honey in small packages. Honey is put up by 

 dealers even into half-pound packages. To get best prices, we 

 must put it up in such packages as the public demands. Bee- 

 keepers should put their own brand on their packages, and 

 thus get up a reputation for it. 



Mr. Wilder had beeu East, and after inquiring into the 

 sale of honey, he found that but a very small amount was sold 

 for table use. The greater portion of California extracted 

 honey was used in manufacturing purposes, and it then came 

 in competition with sugar — if the price of honey went above a 

 certain figure, then honey was discarded and sugar took its 

 place. To get better prices, the honey should be put up for 

 table use, and sold direct to the consumer. Maple sugar and 

 maple syrup was always in demand, because it was put up in 

 popular packages. Capt. Wood thought that our honey 

 should be put up in both large and small packages. Our 

 honey could not all be sold for table use, and manufacturers 

 wanted it in large cans. 



Prof. Cook had dealt largely in maple products in Michi- 

 gan, but during the years of failure he would lose his trade 

 unless he supplied his customers from some other locality. 

 This is where the co-operative plan would come in as an aid. 

 In selling their products and packing it in their own associa- 

 tion there would be a great saving. The Orange Exchanges 

 saved about 28 cents per box in packing their oranges. 



Mr. Plory, delegate from the Central California Associa- 

 tion, said that they wanted co-operation. He said that there 

 must something result from the agitation. In central Cali- 

 fornia they had to contend with low prices, high freight rates 

 on less than car lots, and an unjust tare upon all of their 

 packages — upon a crate for comb honey weighing only 4 

 pounds they were obliged to allow a tare of 7 pounds — a clear 

 steal of 3 pounds. 



Upon a motion by Mr. Levering, 15 favored co-operation, 

 and 6 opposed it, and several not voting. The 6 who opposed 

 it had Exchanges of their own, and were able to get good 

 prices by holding their honey over. 



BEE-PABALYSIS CONSIDEKED. 



This was the next subject under consideration. Mr. 

 Cory's remedy was a pinched queen's head. He also gave 

 fresh brood, and distributed the brood from the affected hive 

 into other colonies, and he saw no more of the disease. He 

 had observed only four cases in his apiaries in 20 years. 



Mr. Mclntyre had only a few cases, and attributed it to 

 shaded hives and moisture. The brood was chilled slightly, 

 and weakened, resulting in trembling and death. 



Mr. Mendleson had an apiary in a shady, moist place, and 

 his colonies were more or less affected with the disease. He 

 practiced Mr. Cory's plan, and cured his colonies. 



Mr. Hambaugh did not agree with Mr. Mclntyre in rela- 

 tion to dampness. Bee-paralysis, with him, was as trouble- 

 some in dry localities as in wet. 



Capt. Wood never had a case of bee-paralysis in a hive of 

 black bees. He believed these high-bred, fancy bees were the 

 ones that suffered. 



Mr. Flory had experience with the disease in the dry and 

 hot country of central California, and had cured the stricken 

 colony with sulphur. 



Mr. Mclntyre said that a great many would breed queens 

 until they degenerated. It is easy to tell a queen-cell that 

 will produce a poor queen. Cut a cell in two, and the pupa of 

 a poor queen will have but little royal jelly, and it will have 

 the bluish appearance of skimmilk by the side of a healthy 



Mr. Touchton exhibited a two-story Langstroth hive fitted 

 for extracting, and gave a lecture describing his method of 

 management. He did not use excluders or bee-escapes. He 

 showed the right and wrong way to shake bees from a comb — 

 a short, sudden jerk was the most effective way. After the 

 lecture, considerable friendly criticism was indulged in. His 

 air-space in the cover was pronounced as impractical, but as 

 an offset it was a remedy against the melting down of combs 

 in the hot season. A large number of bee-keepers now dis- 

 card quilts altogether, and use a flat cover. 



At the close of the afternoon session, Mr. W. R. Arnold 

 invited the bee-keepers to take dinner with him, and there 

 was a royal gathering in the " Roval Restaurant." A vote of 

 thanks was afterward given to Mr. Arnold for his generous 

 treatment. 



The evening session was well attended, and 



Prof. Cook's Annual Address 



was listened to with close attention, as follows : 



I^adies and Oentlcmen .-—Last year I addressed you as 

 one new to this region and its resources ; and presented Cali- 

 fornia apiculture as it appeared to my unprejudiced eyes. I 

 am yet young among you, but I have now some observation 

 and some knowledge of my own ; and though my outlook has 

 been upon one of the most discouraging seasons ever known 

 to our region, yet I am more sanguine regarding the grand 

 future of the bee-keeping industry of California, than I was 

 one year ago. Prom a careful investigation of the records, I 

 believe we can count on a honey harvest of unrivaled propor- 

 tions for at least three years out of five ; that we can safely 

 reckon on a good profit two years out of three, and if our 

 management be wise, we need never be under the necessity of 

 feeding our bees. If the past year is a criterion, our bees can 

 fly every month of the year, and gather honey even in the 

 months of November, December, January, and February. 

 Thus the problem of safe wintering is solved for us by our 

 marvelous climate. Warm sunshine and nectar-ladened bloom 

 come with as much salubrity to the bees as to the people and 

 will prove— are proving— of signal service in giving to our 

 favored region a reputation that must soon crowd our beau- 

 tiful valleys with the best citizens of our country. Certainly, 

 if we except Florida, no part of our country offers so much to 

 entice the ambitious bee-keeper, as does our own sunny South- 

 land of the Golden State. 



I believe I have proved the past year, that bees are a siiie 

 qua non to successful fruit-culture; Southern California is 

 ever to be the pomologist's paradise. As soon, then, as our 

 pomologists know the real truth, they will court the presence 

 of the apiarist. Already I find the fruit-growers ready to 

 acknowledge that bees are a requisite to their best success. 

 Thus California, more than any other State in our country 

 needs, and must have, the bees. This fact will give added 

 glory to our pursuit. . 



FOUL BBOOD AND BEE-PABALYSIS. 



The only two drawbacks to positive success on the part of 

 the cautious and intelligent apiarist, as it seems to me, are the 

 two diseases, "foul brood " and " bee-paralysis." These are 

 no worse in California than elsewhere, and, as I believe, we 

 have intelligence among our bee-keepers that is unsurpassed 

 in any region of the world, we need feel no serious alarm or 

 apprehension because of these diseases. Disease finds its 

 greatest foes in culture and intelligence, and so these two 

 microbe maladies must suffer a fitful and precarious existence 

 among us. 



The third disease— " new bee-disease"— that invaded our 

 apiaries last season, destroying the brood, if it were not 

 caused by insufficient honey to feed the brood, readily suc- 

 cumbed to feeding, and so need give us no uneasiness. We 

 may then, brother bee-keepers, heartily felicitate each other 

 in our location, no less than in our business. 



We are also to be congratulated in the fact that we may 

 know in advance what our prospects for the season are, and so 

 plan that our cloth and garment shall harmonize. The pres- 

 ent winter of abundant rains, insures a crop this coming sea- 

 son. We know that we shall have the nectar-secreting bloom, 

 so that our supers will fairly bulge with the rich harvest of 

 delicious honey. In the East, no one can prejudge the season, 

 and so every bee-keeper must provide a full equipment of 

 supplies, which he may not need for one, two, and in rare 

 cases for even three years. Last winter we knew from the 

 scant rainfall that no harvest was to be gathered. We there- 

 fore lessened our embarrassment by curtailing expenses, and 

 reduced our loss to the minimum. We rejoice, then, that we 

 are in the region of largest harvests, of fewest failures, and 

 where failures give long notice of intended visits. 



But there is one serious obstacle, but I hope not an irre- 

 medial one, to the best success in California apiculture. The 

 profits are so large, the required attention so slight, the nec- 

 essary capital and risks so insignificant, that many people with 

 little knowledge and no enthusiasm, secure bees, locate them 

 in some region of sage or other bloom, and give them no 

 attention, except for a brief season just in the time of the 

 honey harvest. In many cases, as I positively know, the bees 

 are not even visited for months, and in case of a drouth like 

 that of last season, over a year passes by without a single 



