I'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



437 



^oxxt$:^on(itnu. 



This mark © Indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center ot the state named ; 

 5 north ot the center; 9 south; 0« east; 

 ♦O west; and this (< northeast ; VJ northwest: 

 0> southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JoomaJ. 



Tlie HoRey Season of 1887. 



0. CLTTTE. 



Throughout Iowa, and large por- 

 tions of adjacent States, the drouth 

 since May, 1886, has been the most 

 remarkable in the history of this sec- 

 tion. From May to October, 1886, 

 very little rain fell. All the pastures, 

 meadows, roadsides and waste places, 

 where the white clover usually spreads 

 its thick carpet, were parched brown 

 and crisp. During the fall of 1886 we 

 had only light rains. The ground was 

 dry when winter came. During the 

 winter we had some snow, but the 

 amount was small compared with the 

 average winter. Toward spring there 

 were one or two heavy rains, but as 

 they came while the ground was still 

 frozen bard, the water mostly ran 

 into the streams. The spring and 

 early summer of 1887 are now gone, 

 and the rains have still been light. 

 Not a single long rain has soaked the 

 ground since the middle of May, 1886. 



The rains of the early spring of 

 1886 had been plentiful, hence when 

 the drouth began in May the ground 

 was well soaked. The grass crop, 

 and the small grain gave a good yield. 

 The white clover was abundant in 

 this section, and yielded honey well, 

 30 that, as I reported in the Bee 

 Journal last fall, we obtained in 

 1886 about 100 pounds of extracted 

 honey per colony. The corn crop of 

 1886, and other fall crops were very 

 light. There was almost no yield of 

 fall honey. The long, dry, hot sum- 

 mer dried out much of the white 

 clover. The long, cold winter with 

 little snow exposed the clover to 

 further loss ; and the excessively dry 

 spring of 1887 has continued the un- 

 favorable conditions. 



There has been but little white 

 clover to be seen. The scattering 

 plants seem to struggle bravely for 

 life, but they can give but tew 

 blooms. The season for white clover 

 honey has come and gone, and has 

 yielded no surplus. The strong colo- 

 nies stored a little honey while the 

 bloom lasted, but not enough to fill 

 the brood-chambers. The weak colo- 

 nies gathered about enough to live on. 



Owing to the exclusive drouth and 

 to warm weather, the linden opened 

 earlier than usual. The trees were 

 well loaded with blossoms; but the 

 blossoms have yielded only a small 

 amount of honey. The strong colo- 

 nies have stored a little surplus ; the 

 weak ones have built up in numbers ; 

 all have probably stored enough to 

 winter on, hence we shall be spared 



the trouble and expense of feeding 

 winter stores. But the surplus honey 

 is very small in amount, and the lin- 

 den is now about gone. 



It is possible that abundant rains 

 within a few days would bring on fall 

 bloom, and give us a fall crop. But 

 this is not probable. We must make 

 up our minds to a very small yield of 

 honey for 1887. Perhaps with some 

 of us there will be no surplus at all. 



Fortunately the tendency to swarm 

 has been very slight. No more than 

 5 per cent, of my bees have swarmed. 

 Hence they are keeping in good con- 

 dition. They will have abundance of 

 good honey for winter. And not 

 having any honey to look after, we 

 can devote the spare time to other 

 important matters. 



It is to be hoped that other sections 

 of the country may report more favor- 

 ably. Wherever the bee-keepers are 

 getting honey this year it is probable 

 that they will get good prices. For 

 the area is so immense over which 

 there will be scarcely any crop, that 

 it is certain that those who get honey 

 in more favored sections, will have a 

 quick market. 



Iowa City, ex Iowa, July 1, 1887. 



Bee-Keepers' Guide. 



Tie Anti-Bee Craze-An EpMeniic. 



REV. M. MAHIN, D.D. 



It is wonderful to what an extent 

 our humanity is subject to epidemics. 

 We have epidemics of small-pox, 

 measles, whooping-cough, typhoid 

 fever, and Asiatic cholera, not to 

 mention the many other diseases that 

 " flesh is heir to." And it would 

 seem that there are mental states that 

 are very nearly akin to the epidemics 

 that affect the physical man. There 

 are times when suicide seems to be- 

 come epidemic, and self-hangings, 

 drownings, poisonings, etc., are 

 alarmingly frequent, so that we are 

 almost afraid to trust our friends out 

 of sight, and sometimes we are in- 

 clined to feel a little distrust of our- 

 selves. We have had an epidemic of 

 fancy poultry raising, not inaptlv de- 

 nominated "the hen fever," which, 

 in a milder form than the first out- 

 break more than thirty years ago, has 

 become chronic, and is likely to re- 

 main, to the real benefit of the poultry 

 interests of the country. 



■And, then, we have had an epidemic 

 of " bee fever." The attacks were 

 many and violent. People of all 

 classes, many of them with no experi- 

 ence and no adaptation to the pur- 

 suit, rushed into bee-keeping with 

 patent hives, new races of bees, and 

 not a few after losing hundreds of 

 dollars, quit the business in disgust. 

 They did not heed the advice of one 

 of our humorous writers expressed in 

 the following passage, more forcible 

 than elegant : "Don't never under- 

 take to do nothing what aint your 

 forte, lest you lind yourself sprawlin 

 in the canawl, figuratively speakin." 



But of all the eoidemics that have 

 come to my knowledge, there is none 

 quite so laughable, if it were not for 



the victims, and for the lovers of 

 honey, so serious as that named at 

 the head of this article. The desire 

 to legislate against keeping bees in 

 certain localities except in limited 

 numbers, has become, or is becoming 

 epidemic. It is to be hoped that it 

 will not become chronic. The most 

 amazing thing about it is the ignor- 

 ance in which it originates. One 

 would think that with our many peri- 

 odicals devoted to bee-culture, and 

 the many able writers who contribute 

 to the agricultural and other papers, 

 the public mind would be better in- 

 formed. The claim that bees injure 

 fruit has been demonstrated over and 

 over again to be without foundation. 

 That when forage is scarce they will 

 suck the juices of fruits, and es- 

 pecially of grapes, when the skins 

 have been broken, is quite true. But 

 this is no serious damage, as the 

 broken fruit would soon ferment and 

 spoil. It has been shown by carefully 

 conducted experiments that bees con- 

 fined where no food is accessible but 

 what is contained in perfectly sound 

 grapes, will starve to death . But sup- 

 pose they do a little damage, now and 

 tlien, by appropriating the juices of 

 broken "fruits, the fruit-grower's fruit 

 does the bee-keeper's bees quite as 

 much harm as the bee-keeper's bees 

 do the fruit-grower's fruit, and I fail 

 to see why the bee-keeper has not as 

 good a case against the fruit-grower, 

 as the latter has against him. The 

 fact is, society cannot exist without 

 compromises of convenience and in- 

 terests. If we have the benefits of 

 society, and of the variety of employ- 

 ments and products which society 

 furnishes, we must submit to the in- 

 cidental inconveniences which nat- 

 urally grow out of this order of 

 things. I have no right to say to my 

 neighbor that he shall not raise chick- 

 ens, because the crowing of his par- 

 tridge cochin rooster disturbs my 

 morning nap, or the cackling of his 

 hens breaks in upon my Sabbath 

 meditations. I have had my sweet- 

 corn eaten up by my neighbor's fowls 

 before an ear of it was mature enough 

 to cook, and my tomatoes destroyed 

 by them almost as fast as they began 

 to color ; but what an outburst of 

 ridicule I would have encountered if 

 I had gone to the town council and 

 asked for an ordinance to the effect 

 that no one should keep more than 

 one rooster and two hens within the 

 limits of the corporation. 



As to the danger of things to neigh- 

 bors and passers by, it is so small as 

 to be scarcely worthy of a moment's 

 notice. There is much more danger 

 that my horse may run away and 

 hurt somebody. Yet no one proposes 

 passing an ordinance against keeping 

 horses in the city or village. 



I am persuaded that bee-keepers 

 are themselves to blame, in many 

 cases, for the trouble, A neighbor 

 may, without reason, complain of an- 

 noyance from our bees ; or he may ex- 

 perience some real annoyance ; but in 

 either case we must be patient, and 

 answer kindly. " A soft answer 

 turneth away wrath, but grievous 

 words stir up anger." And, then, I 

 have found that a nice dish of honey 



