260 



AMERICAN BEE JOURMAJL. 



tions, could just as well have been sold 

 at 20 cents as at 18 cents, had the 

 teachings of the Exchange been followed. 



The season of 1887 illustrated the 

 other extreme. It was generally stated 

 in the bee-periodicals that there was a 

 very short crop of honey, and some went 

 so far as to say that they expected 

 honey to sell at 25 cents per pound, 

 wholesale, before the opening of another 

 season. 



It was true, there was a very short 

 crop in certain parts of the West, but 

 there was an equally good one in the 

 East, and I know of several bee-keepers 

 that held their honey — relying on the 

 correctness of these reports — until Jan- 

 uary or February, and then sold it for 

 several cents less per pound than they 

 could have obtained in the Fall. It was 

 plain enough that no one in particular 

 was to blame for this condition of affairs 

 — the facts had not been ascertained. 



That the gathering of statistics is a 

 great boon to the progressive bee-keeper, 

 and that the formation of the Exchange 

 is a move in the right direction, I think 

 but very few, if any, present at this con- 

 vention will deny. 



But as I write this I think of the 

 much broader field of usefulness and the 

 room for improvement that is open on 

 every hand, as soon as it has sufScient 

 funds to carry out the work; and I shall 

 not feel entirely satisfied until the Ex- 

 change reports shall be in the hands of 

 every intelligent bee-keeper in the coun- 

 try, and it has a separate report, in 

 pounds of honey produced, and the 

 number of colonies, from at least one of 

 the most progressive bee-keepers in each 

 county in the several States. — Read at 

 the Detroit Convention. 



CanseofFailnreoftlieHoneyCroD. 



C. F. MUTH. 



The reason given by most writers for 

 the very short honey crop in 1890 is, 

 that the white clover blossoms had a 

 poor secretion. My observation differs 

 from that of most writers on the sub- 

 ject. For the sake of argument, and the 

 benefit derived from comparing notes 

 with others, I will give my experience of 

 the season. 



By a close comparison with his own 

 experience, every bee-keeper will know 

 whether I am right or wrong, or whether 

 conditions in the neighborhood of Cin- 

 cinnati were the same as those in the 

 neighborhood of the reader. 



The Summer of 1889 gave us a poor 

 honey season over almost all of America. 

 A good crop can be recorded from Cali- 

 fornia only. Colorado, perhaps, comes 

 in next for a good yield from alfalfa, but 

 the enterprise being new, and bee-keep- 

 ing not yet developed, the quantity pro- 

 duced did not amount to very much. 

 Only a very small crop was harvested 

 from white clover in the Southern part 

 of Ohio, and almost no honey whatever 

 from Fall blossoms, such as asters, 

 golden -rod, smart -weed, heart's -ease, 

 etc. 



The Winter of 1889-90 was very 

 mild, with the coldest spell in March. 

 Being well supplied with stores, our bees 

 kept breeding all Winter, and the ma- 

 jority of my colonies had 5 to 6 combs 

 filled with brood in March, the same as 

 had been the case in May of previous 

 years. 



We know that nothing is more exhaust- 

 ive to stores than the rearing of brood, 

 and I claim that the difference in the 

 consumption of honey between bees win- 

 tered out-of-door and those wintered in 

 the cellar, is not worth talking about 

 until brood-rearing has commenced. 

 Those rearing the most brood consume 

 the most, as a rule. 



The most of the colonies in Southern 

 Ohio had consumed their stores by the 

 beginning of April, and many colonies 

 starved in May, 1890, an occurrence at 

 that time of year which has not yet come 

 within the experience of many bee- 

 keepers. 



The cold, wet spell during the bloom 

 of fruit trees, in the latter part of April 

 and the beginning of May, prevented the 

 bees from replenishing their depleted 

 stores, and with their natural foresight 

 to self-preservation, they promptly pre- 

 pared for coming hard times by com- 

 mencing to pull out their larvae. As a 

 natural consequence, bees had reduced 

 their numbers so much that a good honey 

 crop was out of the question, if the clover 

 blossoms were yielding ever so much. 



With the month of June white clover 

 commences to bloom, and with it begins, 

 and ends, our honey harvest. Being of 

 only four or five weeks' duration, it is of 

 the greatest importance to the bee-keeper 

 to have every colony very strong in num- 

 bers — and not in number of bees only, 

 but in number of workers, i. e., foragers 

 — bees more than 8 or 10 days old. 



Very few colonies were ready for the 

 harvest in 1890. Most of them had less 

 brood at the beginning of June than they 

 had during March and April, and they 

 just began to become strong by the time 

 that the season was over. 



