154 Transactions of the American Institute. 



of supply of the best spring wheat to the Chicago market. The 

 kinds now priucipall}^ grovvai are the Conolly Club, Fife and Rio 

 Grande — the two fonner are club, the latter is bearded. The crop 

 the past season was not generally first quality, owing to the extreme 

 heat when ripening. It does not seem to make much difference 

 about the time of ripening, whether sown late or early. The rea.son 

 it is raised instead of winter wheat is on account of failure of snow 

 in the winter to protect the winter wheat; snow being so uncertain, 

 the raising of winter wheat is pretty much abandoned. 



The great question of interest to the whole country is the spread 

 or suppression of the Canada thistle. Men will spend their time 

 and money at all kinds of shows and exhibitions, and stand or sleep, 

 and let this curse from heaven spread over the whole land. If it is 

 not checked in its progress, it will be but a short time before the 

 producers of wheat will be diiveu from the great wheat fields of 

 the West as Adam was driven from the garden in the East. 



THE HONEY BEE. 



The regular subject was then taken up. Mr. T. F. Bingham, 

 Gowanda, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., having been requested at the 

 last meeting of the Club to read a paper on the honey bee, was 

 now called to the stand. In introducing his paper, Mr. Bingham 

 said a thorough understanding of its contents would enable any 

 intelligent person to keep bees with profit. 



While agriculture in the United States is among the neglected 

 branches of rural economy, the time is not far distant when, like 

 Germany, Switzerland and Prussia, it will become a source of 

 national revenue. No branch of rural employment presents so 

 wide, profitable and charming a field for the ladies of our country 

 as bee keeping. Many have accepted it, and success attends them. 



To possess a hive that will winter safely an average swarm of 

 bees, if well supplied with honey, giving perfect control to evfery 

 comb, and furnishing suitable spare honey facilities, is to have taken 

 the first step in profitable bee culture. While it is advisable that 

 every bee keeper should understand every point in the natural his- 

 tory of his subjects, it is not essential that he should be familiar 

 with every minute detail. But to succeed in bee keeping, one 

 should know that there is but one mother bee in every perfect 

 swaiTu, and that she accompanies the fii'st swarm in all cases. All 

 after-swarms contain one or more unimpregnated queens. This, in 

 connection with the fact that every young queen leaves her hive 



