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THE AMERICAil BEE JOURNAL. 



the woods in search of wild plums, 

 grapes and berries, and finally suc- 

 cumed to the inevitable, and ate 

 molasses. Since the advent of glucose- 

 factories, molasses and syrups have 

 " gone by the board." Fruit is more 

 abundant than in the early settlement 

 of the country, but it does not en- 

 tirely fill the gap. This class of con- 

 sumers are almost entirely neglected 

 by producers. They think honey is 

 something to be sold to town-folks. 

 How one of our Western farmers 

 would laugh if you should ask him to 

 buy a pound of honey ! " A pound of 

 honey ? Why, that wouldn't be a 

 lap. Bring me 50 or 100 pounds." He 

 has no use for a lOcent package. 



Those who farm here have large 

 families ; if not many children, they 

 have work-hands, comers and goers, 

 and there are few days when strang- 

 ers do not sit down to their tables — 

 agents, peddlers, etc. What a bonanza 

 would honey be to the over-worked 

 ■wife ! It needs no cooking ; she does 

 not have to stand for hours, either, 

 over a hot stove or by a fire out-of- 

 doors, with smoke or ashes in her 

 eyes, moving a stirrer back and forth 

 all day, and at night till the clock 

 strikes the " little hours," to finish it 

 off as it boils and sputters. This class 

 needs instructing in the use of honey, 

 and they could be easily taught, if it 

 were only brought to their notice. 



We never shipped any honey more 

 than once, and that was owing to the 

 severe illness of Mr. Harrison ; and if 

 we had employed the young man who 

 packed and shipped it, to have ped- 

 dled it out, we should have saved 

 money and worry, as he had been in 

 the peddling business. During the 

 winter, in most localities, there are 

 plenty of young men out of employ- 

 ment, well fitted, with a little in- 

 struction, to sell honey. It would be 

 better to trust them with our prop- 

 erty than to ship it to entire strangers. 



I am not ashamed of the business, 

 but proud of it— glad that I am a pro- 

 ducer of a pure sweet. In peddling 

 honey, the better way when it is sold 

 from house to house, would be to go 

 forth as the apostles did, " by twos." 

 One could drive the team, and abide 

 by the stuff, while the other could 

 exhibit the honey and solicit orders. 

 The best assistant would be one who 

 has been over the ground before. A 

 honey-route, in time, would have a 

 commercial value the same as milk- 

 routes now have. A family that uses 

 honey at all buys a good deal, while 

 there are others who cannot be in- 

 duced to use it ; and in going over the 

 ground the second time these could 

 be left out. 



Large producers must, of course, 

 seek distant markets ; but " it is the 

 little foxes that spoil the vines." 

 Small producers must sell their own 

 honey at home, if they would succeed; 

 make honey legal tender for every- 

 thing they buy. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



[About selling honey on commis- 

 sion, Mrs. Harrison is quite right in 

 saying that it is vexatious and very 

 unsatisfactory. A case in point oc- 



curred in Chicago this month. A 

 small lot of the best white clover 

 honey ever produced was put into the 

 hands of a commission merchant as a 

 trial lot, to ascertain whether it 

 would be advisable to let him have 50 

 tons more to sell. The commission 

 merchant made returns at 5 cents 

 per pound, less commissioner's ex- 

 penses, etc. As it will not do to sell 

 at such ruinous rates, the rest of the 

 crop will be " held " from the com- 

 mission men. — Ed.] 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and vtace of Meeting. 



May 5.— Progressive, at Bedford, Ohio. 



MiBS Dema Bennett, Sec, Bedford, O. 

 May 10.— Keystone, at Scranton, Pa. 



Arthur A. Davis, Sec, Clark's Green, Pa. 



May 10.— Cortland Union, at Cortland, N. T. 

 D. F. Shattuck, Sec, Homer, N. V. 



May ) 3. —Sheboygan County, at Hingham, Wis. 

 Mattie B. Thomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



May 24.-N. W. Ills. & 8. W. Wis., at Rockton, Ills. 

 D. A. Fuller, Sec. Cherry Valley, nls. 



May 26.— West Lake Shore Central, at Kiel, Wis. 

 Ferd Zastrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 



Dec. —.-Michigan State, at Bast Saginaw, Mich. 

 H. D. Cutting, Bee. Clinton, Mich. 



^" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Kd. 



Expecting a Good Harvest.— Geo. 



W. Moore, Golden City, p Mo., on 

 April 22, 1887, says : 



Bees have wintered 'finely. I had 

 packed 10 colonies on the summer 

 stands in the Langstroth hives ; on 

 Feb. 7, they had brood hatching; on 

 March 10 they gathered pollen and 

 honey from elm and maple. Fruit 

 bloom is almost gone. It has been so 

 windy that the bees have not had a 

 chance to do much in the way of 

 gathering honey. They are very 

 strong in numbers. I look for a good 

 honey harvest this year. 



An Apiary Rouglily Handled.— 



Jno. C. Peden, Lawrenceburg,© Ky., 

 on April 20, 1887, writes : 



For 5 years I have had from 15 to 20 

 colonies of bees near the Kentucky 

 river, between 2 and 3 miles from 

 home. During that time they have 

 been protected from harm by being 

 near the house of Wm. Skelton, who 

 had charge of the landing and eleva- 

 tor there ; but last February he 

 moved away, and that left my bees 

 without protection, except in the day- 

 time. On Tuesday, April 12, 1 made 

 arrangements to remove them, but on 

 that night some evil-disposed person 

 turned them all (24 hives, 19 contain- 

 ing bees) down the river bank where 



it sloped toward the river at an angle 

 of 45°, was very rough and rocky. I 

 heard of it early the next morning, 

 and went to them, and by noon I had 

 most of the bees back in the hives. 

 Upon examination I find 13 queens 

 left, which seems almost impossible, 

 considering that many of the hives 

 rolled for 50 to 75 feet down the bank. 

 The surplus combs were stored in the 

 upper stories of the hives, making 

 nearly 500 combs in all. These, along 

 with the bees, brood, combs, stores 

 and hives were scattered in the ut- 

 most confusion, and that 13 queens 

 were yet alive is much better than I 

 expected. 



Encouraging Outlook.— Ira Barber, 

 DeKalb Junction, 5 N. Y., on April 

 22, 1887, writes : 



So far as I have learned, bees were 

 put into winter quarters in poor con- 

 dition, as a rule, in northern New 

 York, and the result is a heavy loss 

 to many bee-keepers. I carried the 

 last of mine out to-day, and all occupy 

 their old stands but 3 out of 147 colo- 

 nies carried in last November. About 

 80 per cent, of them are in good con- 

 dition for business Clover has win- 

 tered fairly well, and the outlook for 

 a crop of honey is favorable. 



Long Winter Confinement of Bees. 

 — G. M. Doolittle,Borodino,©N.Y.,on 

 April 21, 1887, writes : 



The first pollen was brought in by 

 the bees to-day, and that in very smau 

 pellets from skunk-cabbage. The 

 old snow-banks are still 3 feet deep in 

 places in my bee-yard, with freezing 

 nights nearly all the while, which 

 does not tend to diminish them very 

 fast. As near as I can get at it, the 

 date of the first pollen was never so 

 late as April 21 before in all my 18 

 years' experience with bees. Bees 

 wintered out-doors had their first 

 flight on April 3, which was just 5 

 months from the time they flew last 

 fall. My loss is 10 per cent, of this 

 class. Those in the cellar are quiet 

 and nice yet, and I am glad of it, for 

 it looks as if they are to be confined 6 

 months— 180 days. Who beats that V 



Sowing for Bee-Pasturage.- James 

 Jardine, Ashland, o+Nebr., on April 

 22, 1887, writes : 



In this part of the State we have 

 had rather a hard winter for bees that 

 were out-of-doors. Many bee-keepers 

 have lost almost all the bees they had. 

 I put 101 colonies into a bee- cellar on 

 Nov. 15, 1886, and took 101 colonies 

 out on April 2,1887. I kept the tem- 

 perature at about 40° to 50° the most 

 of the time. My hives are all 8-frame 

 Langstroth; I gave them plenty of 

 ventilation, and have been very suc- 

 cessful so far with cellar-wintering. 

 My bees are doing nicely now, and 

 are breeding very fast. I hope we 

 will have a better year for honey than 

 last year. It was then too dry for 

 them in this part of the State. I have 

 induced many farmers here to sow 

 Alsike clover this spring, and I think 



