THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



809 



him what it was, and he found that 

 it answered just as well as any honey, 

 and he bought all we had. 



T. F. Bingham— By using steam in 

 conking food, honey can be used. 



A. I. Root— We have been getting 

 some very superior cakes made with 

 honey. Their manufacture is a secret. 



On motion of Prof. Cook, it was 

 voted that a committee be appointed 

 to confer with the Government in re- 

 gard to its buying and distributing 

 the Chapman honey-plant seed. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet at 1:30 p.m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 1:30 p.m., with President Hilton in 

 the chair. 



It was voted that the Association 

 hold its next annual meeting at Jack- 

 son, Mich., the time of meeting to be 

 decided by the officers. 



The election of officers resulted in 

 the re-election of the old officers, viz : 

 President, Geo. E. Hilton, of Fre- 

 mont; Secretarj', H. D. Cutting, of 

 Clinton ; and Treasurer, M. H. Hunt, 

 of Bell Branch. 



Prof. A. J. Cook at this time de- 

 livered a lecture upon 



Tbe Anatonir of Bres. 



He described the glandular system 

 in particular. One pair of glands 

 furnishes the saliva, and another the 

 food for the larvee. The drones do 

 not have this gland, and it is only 

 rudimentary in the queen, which 

 shows that she once nursed the 

 larvae, as the queen bumble-bee now 

 does in the spring. The change that 

 has taken place in the honey-bee in 

 this respect, is another proof of the 

 correctness of the evolution theory. 

 This gland is very deticient in old 

 worker bees, which shows that nurs- 

 ing is not their business. It is the 

 food furnished by these glands that 

 the workers feed the queen. If she 

 had to eat honey and pollen, and 

 digest it herself, she could never lay 

 twice her weight in eggs in one day. 

 Another set of glands furnishes a 

 fluid that changes the character of 

 the nectar gathered, changes the cane- 

 sugar to glucose. This glucose may 

 be chemically the same as commercial 

 glucose, but there are other tests that 

 show it to be dififerent. 



Mr. T. F. Bingham, of Abronia, 

 Mich., then read an essay on, 



Hoiv to Improve Our Bees. 



To tbe casual observer, as also to 

 the young student, this subject is one 

 of almost illimitable scope, preseot- 

 Ing vast possibilities; and while con- 

 sidered as in a certain sense parallel 

 and analogous to the improvements 

 realized by the breeders of thorough- 

 bred horses, cattle and sheep, the 

 almost certain realization of the en- 

 thusiastic bee - keeper's brightest 

 dream lends a perpetual charm. Many 

 presumably well-balanced and con- 

 servative bee-keepers have devoted 

 much time, money and practical en- 

 deavor to the ever charming and 

 paramount wish to enhance the prac- 

 tical economic value of the honey- 

 bee. While the success so far uh- 



attained in no way narrows or cir- 

 cumscribes the field of enthusiastic 

 vision, the practical results attained 

 serve to modify in a certain sense the 

 immediate hope of marked improve- 

 ment. 



It would not be safe to say that no 

 gain had as yet been made in the 

 direction of color, disposition and in- 

 dustrial value of bees. Yet it is 

 strictly safe to venture the assertion 

 that, while we have many modifica- 

 tions and crosses of races, these modi- 

 fications do not in a practical sense 

 justify the hope or stimulate the be- 

 lief that material and marked im- 

 provements are possible from the 

 mixing of races of honey-bees. 



If, as now seems probable in the 

 near future, those bee-keepers wish- 

 ing to realize the best home market, 

 and the surest returns for their pro- 

 duct, should adopt the plan of part 

 comb and part extracted honey, little 

 effort will, in the light of past suc- 

 cesses, be bestowed upon experiments 

 to improve any mixture of Italian 

 bees, whose queen and workers will 

 allow of the rapid manipulation of 

 the combs and hive without running. 



However much may have been 

 hoped and dreamed in regard to the 

 Utopian honey-bee, " Apis Ameri- 

 cana." one great fact, practical and 

 demonstrable, cails us back from 

 Wonderland, and forces the convic- 

 tion that, while our standard of ex- 

 cellence is the Ligurian or Italian 

 bee and her near crosses, " Apis 

 Americana " will needs have more 

 than a pedigree to install her in the 

 heart of the practical bee-keeper. 



T. F. Bingham. 



After the reading of the above 

 essay, it was discussed as follows : 



Prof. Cook— The two great points 

 upon which we need to work are, to 

 improve our bees and our honey- 

 plants. 



L. C. Whiting— I once had a colony 

 that built but few brace-combs ; by 

 rearing queens from this queen, I 

 secured a strain of bees that built 

 almost no brace-combs at all. 



Mr. John Rey. of East Saginaw, 

 Mich., then read an essay on, 



marketing Honey at Home. 



I will give only my own experience 

 in a home market, having never sent 

 any honey to outside markets, for 

 the simple reason that I have found 

 ready sales in my home market. 



Advertising is the life of trade, and 

 the same holds good in bee-keeping. 

 Up to four years ago I could not al- 

 ways dispose of the honey that I pro- 

 duced the season before, and 1 would 

 have some old honey on hand when 

 new honey was coming in. I found 

 that something must be done in order 

 to get my honey before the consumer, 

 and I adopted the plan of advertising. 

 I did it in this way : 



I noticed advertised in the Ajmeui- 

 CAN Bee Journal, a leaflet called 

 " Why Eat Honey," and alsoa pamph- 

 let on " Honey as Food and Medi- 

 cine." I thought that would be a 

 good way to work up a home market ; 

 so I sent for several hundred copies 

 of each, and with every package of 



honey I sold, I would give one of 

 these " leaflets," and at the same 

 time I would stamp my name on the 

 leaflets, and for the comb honey I 

 would stamp it on the sections. For 

 extracted honey I would always label 

 the glasses. I was surprised to see 

 mv honey sell so fast. My honey was 

 all" gone before the new honey was 

 coming in, and I had to do something 

 in order to hold my trade, not having 

 been able since to produce honey 

 enough from my own bees to supply 

 my home market ; so I have to buy 

 honey to fill my orders until my new 

 honey is ready the following season. 



In buying honey I always make It a 

 point to buy it from my neighbor 

 bee-keepers, providing that I can get 

 it at some profit ; of course the profit 

 is small. They keep posted on the 

 market price, and they expect to get 

 nearly as much for their honey from 

 me as I would get myself. But even 

 so, if I get ■ their honey at a small 

 profit, it takes that honey off the 

 market, and gives me a chance to 

 bring mine on, with the prospect of 

 better prices in the future. 



I have often thought that if I had 

 enough money, I would buy all the 

 honey from my neighbor bee-keepers, 

 and from farmers that produce little 

 honey to sell. For instance, in Sagi- 

 naw county I would start a honey 

 house, and the producer of honey 

 would bring his honey to me, and the 

 retailer and consumer would look to 

 me for their honey. But being a poor 

 man, I will have to drop that idea, 

 and do the best I can ; but if such a 

 live man could be found in every 

 county throughout the country, with 

 plenty of money and experience in 

 the marketing of honey, I think that 

 bee-keepers at large would get better 

 prices for their honey. 



Why, the farmer knows in the 

 morning before he starts to the city 

 with a load of wheat, what he is going 

 to receive for his wheat, by seeing the 

 prices in the daily market reports. 

 He takes his wheat to the flour mills, 

 gets his cash, and returns home 

 happy. The retail grocer, and the 

 consumer, get their flour from the 

 flour mills; and if the producer of 

 honey could bring his honey to the 

 " honey man," as you would call him, 

 why, the retail grocer and consumer 

 would look to the honey man for their 

 honey. 



As to putting up honey in market- 

 able shape, I have nothing new to 

 offer to the experienced honey pro- 

 ducer. It is from them that I have 

 taken my lesson— by attending the 

 bee-conventions, and reading differ- 

 ent bee-books. But to the inexperi- 

 enced bee-keeper I would say : Never 

 let a section of honey go out without 

 your name on the section ; or if it is 

 extracted honey, always put up the 

 nicest and best honey in glass pack- 

 ages, and put your name on it, on a 

 nice label. By putting up honey in 

 glass jars, the consumer can always 

 see what he is buying, and, besides, 

 the jar is of some use after the honey 

 is consumed. John Ret. 



After its reading, Mr.Eey explained 

 that he prepared it hurriedly, and 



