714 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and cause the waste places to rejoice 

 with the happy hum of industrious 

 bees next year. 



White and red clover have an es- 

 tablished reputation, and need no 

 words of praise, Alsike or Swedish 

 clover (Tritoliun hybridum) is a 

 stronger grower than the white, and 

 has a white blossom tinged with pink. 

 It forms excellent pasture and hay, 

 and some of the Indiana apiarists ex- 

 haust our language in its praise; it 

 thrives with them on a damp, clay 

 soil. I have tried to grow it in dry, 

 sandy soil, and always failed, but 

 have since learned that it is sown in 

 Sweden in late winter upon the snow, 

 and I never tried sowing it at this 

 season. 



Peoria,© Ills. 



For tbe American Bee Joonuu 



Edncatini People Ml Bee-Keeping. 



G. H. ASHBY. 



I send you the dues for the Union. 

 I feel ashamed that I have not joined 

 the Bee-Keepers' Union before, when 

 I have noted the great good that has 

 been done through it. I live in the 

 heart of the village, but 1 am fortu- 

 nate in having good people around 

 me, who recognize my bees as their 

 friends. This county is one of the 

 three greatest fruit c'ouuties in the 

 State. This year we will ship about 

 100,000 barrels of apples, and we raise 

 other fruits in like proportion. There 

 are a great many bees in Ihe county, 

 but mostly only a few colonies in a 

 place. I never heard of any trouble 

 about bees here. By making au ex- 

 hibit at the County Fair each year, 

 and in other ways, I am educating the 

 fogies in the direction of modern bee- 

 culture; so that I hope soon to " show 

 up " a little on the interesting honey 

 question. 



The dealers in town will now buy 

 nothing but one-pound sections, un- 

 less at very much reduced rates, 

 which is doing more good in driving 

 people to use improved fixtures, than 

 anything else. I find that by making 

 poor goods unsalable, I am tickling 

 their pockets, which is a very tender 

 spot with most people. I also, in ad- 

 vertising, offer instructions free. I 

 often have to show a person a queen, 

 after forty or more years of bee-keep- 

 ing. The hardest thing I have to do 

 is to get them to subscribe for one of 

 the papers on bee-keeping. 

 Albion,«o N. Y., Oct. 31, 1887. 



Exchange. 



MMm in Bee-Keeping, 



L. C. KOOT. 



Those interested in our pursuit 

 should spend some portion of their 

 leisure during the winter months in 

 acquiring information in regard to 

 the most approved methods in the 

 apiary. It is desirable that those 

 who wish to commence bee-keeping 

 should become familiar, not only with 

 the necessary, but the best fixtures, 



in order to begin intelligently, and to 

 continue in the right direction. 



Many beginners do not attach suffi- 

 cient importance to this matter of 

 preparation by reading, and often find 

 it necessary to make many changes, 

 thereby incurring much needless ex- 

 pense. Others become discouraged 

 and drop the business in a year or 

 two, when, if circumstances had been 

 more favorable, they would have at- 

 tained, with application, reasonable 

 success. It is a mistake for begin- 

 ners to hope to reach at once, results 

 equal to those who have had years of 

 experience. Those who indulge in 

 this idea, will be sure to meet with 

 disappointment. It is a common mis- 

 take with modern writers upon bee- 

 keeping to offer too glowing induce- 

 ments to the inexperienced. 



In my opinion there are, at the 

 present day, two distinct classes, 

 taking extreme ground in relation to 

 our interests, both of which I con- 

 ceive to be in error. One class en- 

 deavors to induce all, without regard 

 to fitness, to engage in bee-keeping, 

 assuring thero, by delusive state- 

 ments, that it is the highway to pros- 

 perity. The other, on the other hand, 

 says that the business should only be 

 conducted by specialists, who devote 

 themselves exclusively to it. I am 

 often told that I am helping to in- 

 struct the public to produce such 

 quantities of honey, that those of us, 

 who make it a special business, can- 

 not dispose of our own honey at 

 figures that will make it remunera- 

 tive. I admit that there may be some 

 truth in this,if we are to be controlled 

 by selfish aims alone, but I cannot 

 believe that this is the proper view to 

 take of it. 



The facts are these : All over this 

 beautiful land, blossoms are secreting 

 honey which is passing away and 

 being wasted, at the very doors of 

 those who might, with a proper un- 

 derstanding of the means, secure it as 

 a wholesome article of food. Again, 

 there are those in nearly every com- 

 muuitv. who are keeping a few colo- 

 nies of bees in box hives, and in the 

 old way securing little or no profit. 

 This is the class I desire more par- 

 ticularly to influence. One of the 

 earliest lessons I received was, that 

 whatever it paid to do at all, it paid 

 to do well. If it pays at all to keep 

 bees in the manner alluded to, it 

 certainly must pay much better to 

 keep them after the most improved 

 methods of the present. 



It is not true that all can keep bees 

 successfully, but only such should 

 undertake it as are by nature adapted 

 to it, and will give it the same thor- 

 ough continued application that is re- 

 quired to make any branch of busi- 

 ness profitable. If one desires to un- 

 derstand how to commence rightly, 

 and to become familiar with what is 

 required to conduct bee-keeping sat- 

 isfactorily, secure some practical 

 work on the subject which does not 

 represent either class of extremists 

 just mentioned ; begin moderately, 

 and grow into the business as experi- 

 ence increases. 



Stamford,? Conn. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and vtace of Meeting. 



Nov. 16.— Western, at Kansas City. Mo. 



J. A. Nelson, Sec, Muncie, Kans. 



Nov. 16-18.— North American, at Chicago. Ills. 



W. Z. Uutchinson, Sec, Flint, Mich. 



Nov. 19.— Marshall County, at Marshalltown. Iowa. 

 .7. W. Sanders, Sec, LeGrmnd, Iowa. 



Nov. 25. 26.— Pilie Co. & Ills. Cent., at Pittsfleld. lU. 

 W. T. F. Petty, Pres., Pittafleld, Uls. 



Dec. 7-9.— MichiKan State, at East Saginaw, Mich. 

 H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 

 IR88. 



Jan. 7.— Susquehanna County, at New Milford. Pa. 

 H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harforcl, Pa. 



Jan. 20. 



-Haldiniand, at Cayuga, Ontario. 



B. C. Campbell, Sec, Cayuga, Ont. 



ty In order to have this tahle complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings,— Ed, 



s^kSSIi^Mi 



Too Wet for the Bees.— A. W. 



Smith, Fark8ville,o. N. Y., on Oct. 

 28, 1887, writes : 



My report for 1887 is as follows : 

 Spring count, 83 colonies ; extracted 

 honey, 2,32-5 pounds ; and comb honey, 

 370 pounds. They increased to 103 

 colonies, and I doubled them down to 

 7.5 colonies, and fed them about 500 

 pounds of old honey to get them in 

 condition for winter. It has been too 

 wet here for the bees to get much 

 honey. 



Northwest Arkansas as a Bee- 

 Conntry.— Wm. Camm, Murrayville, 

 *o Ills., on Oct. 29, 1887, writes : 



In my late travels I found north- 

 west Arkansas a poor bee-country, 

 and the Indian country is over-rated 

 sadly. Northwest Arkansas has had 

 a wild flora fair for bees, but while 

 that is all gone, it has not been re- 

 placed, and I fear it will not be, I 

 met drouth there as here, and found 

 natural opportunities closed by specu- 

 lation agamst labor there quite as 

 much as nere. By an appeal to those 

 qualities and faculties that lift men 

 above and distinguish them from 

 brutes, by reason and moral suasion, 

 we must seek to change social condi- 

 tions so as to change interests in land 

 to its improvement, rather than 

 ownership, and then we can find some 

 way of retaining more moisture in 

 our soils. 



Good Supply of Winter Stores.— 

 J. W. Sanders, Le Grand,© Iowa, on 

 Oct. 27, 1887, writes : 



We are all, or nearly so, without 

 any surplus honey this fall. I think 

 that my own bees have a good supply 

 of winter stores, for there was a fine 

 quantity of buckwheat in this vicinity 

 that helped out the fall flowers. The 

 frost staying off so late was another 

 help. I find that some have fears, 

 where they had no buckwheat at 

 hand. The drouth in Iowa was a 

 severe one,and our white clover fields, 



