280 



THE AMERICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



operated according to a plan of na- 

 ture's own laws ; they are as prolilic 

 layers as any other queens in my api- 

 ary of 75 colonies, and they did not go 

 through the absurd, scientific mons- 

 trosity mentioned on page 65 of " A 

 B C of Bee-Culture." It is my opin- 

 ion that all bee-keepers who claim to 

 have ever observed such wonderful 

 nonsense, were laboring under a de- 

 lusion, or looking through the wrong 

 end of the microscope. 



Practical bee-keepers are testing 

 the methods, reports of which will 

 appear in due time. Any plan of 

 operation that is a success will work 

 in one apiary as well as another, if 

 the normal conditions are properly 

 observed. A man that has passed his 

 opinion beforehand is unlit for a jury- 

 man; the same rule holds good in 

 apiculture. It is the investigator 

 that takes the lead, and reaches the 

 ultimatum of success. 



New England Homestead. 



Secnring AppMossom Honey, 



SAMUEL CUSHMAN. 



Under the usual management, sur- 

 plus honey is rarely taken from this 

 source. Bee-books generally teach 

 that apple honey is dark, inferior in 

 flavor, and is of use only in building 

 up colonies. A prominent New York 

 bee-keeper once said: "We could 

 get as much honey from apple-blos- 

 som as from basswood, if we had the 

 workers at that time to gather it. 

 But with plenty of bees, a failure of 

 the yield, or cold and rainy weather, 

 will prevent success, as many have 

 found." 



In southern New England, honey 

 from this source is often obtained in 

 large quantities in the brood-chamber 

 without special management. A 

 Massachusetts apiarist had one col- 

 ony gather " 72 pounds of surplus 

 honey in four days from apple-bloom." 



Last season I acted on the above 

 suggestion, and by special manage- 

 ment obtained a nice lot of apple 

 honey in pound sections. It was the 

 thickest and finest flavored honey I 

 ever tasted, and when gathered and 

 capped quickly, it was nearly equal in 

 appearance to the best white clover 

 honey. It was not quite so white, 

 but was bright and clear, and the 

 apple-blossom flavor was very dis- 

 tinct. This honey was exhibited at 

 the Rhode Island State Fair, received 

 the first prize, and was sold to a 

 dealer at a better price than is given 

 for white clover. The judges and 

 bee keepers generally who tasted it, 

 pronounced it equal or superior to 

 anything they had ever eaten. 



My management to obtain this 

 honey in sections was as follows : 

 Early in the spring I fed warm syrup, 

 artificial pollen and uncapped stores, 

 and added empty combs, etc.. to get 

 a force of workers in time for the 

 bloom, which I expected about May 

 20, but which opened on May 10, as 

 the season was early. Just before the 

 height of the bloom, I filled out the 

 brood-chain bers of several colonies 

 with capped brood from weaker ones. 



leaving only combs of capped brood, 

 and also united a few colonies where 

 two stood side by side. One was re- 

 moved ; the other placed between 

 where each stood. Nearly all the 

 bees from the removed colony were 

 brushed in front of the remaining 

 one. The one removed had the queen, 

 combs of honey and uncapped brood, 

 and enough bees to cover the brood, 

 and were in a condition to build up. 

 They were placed on a new stand. 

 The prepared colonies had combs full 

 of capped brood, an extra lot of young 

 and field bees, and were obliged to 

 occupy supers for want of room, and 

 had no other place to store honey. 

 The surplus cases contained rows of 

 sections of empty comb, alternating 

 with those having full sheets of foun- 

 dation. 



The result was from 20 to 30 nicely 

 capped sections per hive. This was 

 nearly all gathered in three days. 

 One colony furnished 32 sections of 

 honey and did not swarm. Without 

 this apple honey I should have had 

 little choice comb honey last season, 

 as clover was a failure, and there was 

 little fall honey. Under this manage- 

 ment, honey is produced at a greater 

 cost of bee-power than that from 

 clover or a later crop, and therefore 

 must bring more to be profitable. 

 This is but the experience of one 

 season in taking honey from this 

 source ; it may vary in quality in dif- 

 ferent seasons. Those who try this 

 plan and succeed will, I think, be well 

 repaid by the quality of the product, 

 but I would suggest that it may be 

 safer to work but 1 or 2 colonies in 

 this way. 



Pawtucket,5 K- 1. 



For the American Bee Jo.umaL 



Tie Honey-Proflncers' Association. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Not many years ago bee-keeping 

 was a bonanza, in one respect, at 

 least ; and that was in the selling of 

 its products. The pursuit is a fasci- 

 nating one ; its beauties have been 

 painted in the brightest colors ; its 

 ranks have been filled to repletion ; 

 and the active minds of its bright 

 devotees have all been brought to 

 bear upon one iocus-^roduction. 



The bonanza is a bonanza no more ; 

 the beautiful, pastoral pursuit has 

 been forced down to a business level 

 —yea, below the business level of 

 some occupations. In overcoming 

 the difficulties of production it seems 

 as though success had ended in over- 

 production. The wigglings, twistings, 

 and frantic attempts of the "boom- 

 ers " to attribute the low price of 

 honey to something, anything, than 

 over-production, are really pitiful in 

 their ludicrous inconsistency. It must 

 be admitted that the demand has not 

 kept pace with the production. Once 

 the honey-buyers sought the honey, 

 now the honey must seek them ; and 

 it is a tedious task to find them, as 

 the commission man has sprung up 

 and the cash buyer faded away. The 

 commission merchant has been ter- 



ribly abused of late; and, mingled 

 with the abuse, it is quite likely there 

 were some unpleasant truths. Per- 

 sonally, however, I have nothing but 

 praise for this class of men. 



Beekeepers are not the only class, 

 however, that has suffered from over- 

 production. Many strawberries were 

 sold last season for scarcely enough 

 to pay for picking, transportation and 

 commission. Last September I at- 

 tended a meeting of the American 

 Horticultural Society, held at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. The president of the 

 society, Parker Earle, the " straw- 

 berry king " of Illinois, in his annual 

 address, went straight to the heart of 

 this problem. He said : 



" Many as are the enemies to con- 

 quer in every line of horticultural ef- 

 fort—and sometimes it seems as if all 

 the forces of nature were combining 

 against our success, when insects de- 

 face, and blights wither, and drouths 

 burn, and frosts destroy — yet the in- 

 genuity, the energy, the enthusiasm 

 of the horticultural producer are 

 found sufficient in most cases to over- 

 come all obstacles so far as to provide 

 enough, and too much. In fact, the 

 difficulties of production have been so 

 far overcome that most branches of 

 the business seem to be suffering from 

 over-production. 



" Looking at this question from the 

 stand-point of a commercial grower 

 of fruits, it appears to me that one of 

 the chief problems for our fraternity 

 to solTe is, how to distribute our pro- 

 ducts more perfectly — how to reach 

 wider markets. . . .There is as yet no 

 over-production of good fruits ; but 

 there is defective distribution. There 

 were not too many apples grown in 

 New York, Michigan and Missouri 

 last year, although apples sold in 

 many of our large markets for prices 

 far below the possibilities of profit; 

 but our system' of distribution left 

 half of the families in America with 

 few or no apples to eat last winter. 

 When one or more barrels of apples 

 go into each farm-house and laborer's 

 cottage all over the South ; to each 

 miner's cabin among the mountains, 

 and to all the new homes building on 

 the wide plains of the West, the sup- 

 ply of apples will not be found too 

 large. There have not been too many 

 oranges grown in Florida and Cali- 

 fornia for the last few years, though 

 many orange-growers have gotten 

 little profits from their crops; for 

 three-quarters of the people within a 

 practicable commercial distance of 

 these orange-orchards have eaten 

 scarcely any oranges in these years. 

 If all the American people were to 

 eat apples and oranges daily in their 

 season, the quantity produced would 

 not supply their wants. A more 

 thorough system of distribution will 

 render this approximately possible 



" Hence it appears to me that we are 

 not producing too much, but are 

 marketing too poorly, and that the 

 question of distribution is the one 

 most important to the commercial 

 grower. Its successful solution will 

 result in infinite benefits to the people 

 who consume, and in living profits to 

 the often-discouraged class who pro- 

 duce." 



