326 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



COlVVEBfTION DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1891, 

 March 25, 26.— S. W. "Wisconsin, at Lancaster, Wis. 

 Benjamin E. Rice, Sec, Boscobel, Wis. 



March 10, 11.— Huron, Tuscola and Sanilac Counties, 

 at Caro, Mich. 



Jno. G. Kundinger, Sec, Kilmanagh, Mich. 



April 1, 2.— Texas State, at Greenville, Texas. 



J. N. Hunter, Sec. 



May 6.— Bee-Keepers' Ass'n. and Fair, at Ionia, Mich. 

 Open to all. Harmon Smith, Sec, Ionia, Mich. 



May 7.— Susquehanna County, at Montrose, Pa. 



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



Jt^*" In order to have this table complete, 

 Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



North American Bee-Keepers' Association 



President— P. H. Elwood Starkville, N. Y. 



Secretary— C. P. Dadant Hamilton, Ills. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon . .Dowagiac, Mich. 

 Sec'y and Manager— T. G. Newman, Chicago. 



Bee and flopei] Gossip. 



Dampening" Sections. 



On page 265 Mr. E. C. Eaglesfield 

 gives his method of dampening sections, 

 before bending, and asks if any one has 

 a better way. I think I have. It is as 

 follows : Lay a bale of 500 sections on 

 the floor, and remove the cleats covering 

 the grooves. Now take a teapot filled 

 with hot water, and pour a small stream 

 of water into each groove, then turn 

 them over, and repeat the operation. By 

 this method I can dampen 500 sections 

 in 2 or 3 minutes. S. F. Tkego. 



Swedona, Ills., Feb. 20, 1891. 



liife-Members of the Union. 



Could not more bee-keepers be induced 

 to join the Union if it and the American 

 Bee-Keei3ers' Association were consoli- 

 dated? It seems to me to be a good 

 plan, and one that that will prove ad- 

 vantageous. A life-membership fee of 

 $10 would entitle them to more benefits, 

 and at the same time more would be en- 

 abled to join. But this is merely a sug- 

 gestion. J. W. Tefft. 



Buffalo, N. Y. 



[We leave that to the members to de- 

 cide. — Eb.] 



Not a Shadow of a Prospect. 



Except that we are having sufficient 

 rains to soak the ground thoroughly, so 

 that white clover has a chance to grow 

 from the seed, there will not be a shadow 

 of a prospect for a white clover honey 

 crop in this part of Iowa (Keokuk and 

 surrounding counties) the coming sea- 

 son, as the great drouth of last Summer 

 killed all the white clover on the upland 

 meadows, and even the bottom lands 

 make a very poor showing. Bees went 

 into winter quarters here with very light 

 stores, and swarms which had to build 

 their comb, had no winter stores at all, 

 and, as a result, are dying by wholesale. 

 In this section of the country a bee- 

 keeper has no chance to sell a colony of 

 bees for a fair price, as farmers who 

 secured a start of a little apiary by 

 catching a runaway swarni, are selling 

 prime swarms for 75 cents to $1 each. 

 Of course, none of those fellows read a 

 bee-periodical, and you cannot induce 

 them to subscribe for one, but if you 

 talk "bees," they know all about them, 

 and more too. P. F. Ahrens. 



Sigourney, Iowa, Feb. 20, 1891. 



Salt for Bees. 



A correspondent of the Bee Jouenal 

 writes that his bees are uneasy, and he 

 thinks there are mice in the hive. In 

 my opinion, the trouble is that he has 

 not properly ventilated the hives. My 

 bees are as quiet as kittens. I open 

 both back and front entrance, and raise 

 the top board about 3^ of an inch. Once 

 a week, I look into the bottom of each 

 hive, and, with a bent wire, remove all 

 dead bees. About two weeks ago I 

 found that 2 colonies were dying, and 

 w^hen the dead were removed, they 

 emitted a foul odor. I mixed some salt 

 in a pint of clear water, and threw some 

 of the water into the bottom of the hive, 

 and the bees came down on the bottom- 

 board, and drank the salt water, like so 

 many cows would have done. Since 

 then, I have given them a little of the 

 salt water every few days, and but few 

 dead bees are to be found now. We 

 always give salt to our horses and cat- 

 tle, and perhaps a little salt would be 

 good for the bees. I am not in favor of 

 wintering bees out-of-doors in this 

 climate, when our cellars are almost in- 

 variably dry at that season. My house 

 is 26x36 feet, and rests on a stone foun- 

 dation 26 inches above the ground ; my 

 cellar is 12x16, and 7 feet deep, and the 

 average temperature is about 38^. If 

 the cellar is too warm, give the bees 

 more ventilation in the hives. When 



