THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



prise than any one else, aside from Perrine 

 himself. Mr. Perrine engaged Mr. Grabbe 

 to help him in the fall of 187<;, I think, and 

 kept him more or less employed with the 

 bees until the spring of 1880. He was in 

 charge of the barges of bees at the time 

 friend Balch joined tliem, with the bees in 

 his charge, at Vicksbnrg. It was at my 

 suggestion that Perrine first employed 

 Grabbe and after I had refused to work for 

 him. 



I will enclose a letter, for your pei-usal, 

 that I wrote early this month to friend 

 Stevenson, which please mail after you have 

 read the same. It should have been sent to 

 him long ago but was laid aside and for- 

 gotten. I wish you would mail to him the 

 two copies of the Review that discuss Migra- 

 tory Bee-Keeping. 



One word more about the car-load of bees 

 E. T. Flanagan sent to me in June, 1884. 

 There were in all about 150 colonies in the 

 two-story Simplicity hives, all arranged for 

 extracting. The bees did not reach me here 

 until the middle of .June, and, besides, only 

 fifty colonies were in condition to store sur- 

 plus honey! 100 of them were no stronger in 

 bees, nor any better, than three-comb nuclei! 

 In short they did not become strong enough 

 to store surplus honey until the latter part of 

 July, and at that date the honey har- 

 vest in this locality is at an end. The 

 fifty strong colonies gave me a surplus 

 of about forty pounds each. Now, had Mr. 

 Flanagan sent me 150 strong colonies early 

 in May, I should have secured, that season, 

 an average of at least 100 pounds per colony 

 (extracted honey), for^ contrary to Mr. 

 Flanagan's statement in the Review, the 

 honey season here in 1884 was an exception- 

 ally good one. 



Again, the contract with Flanagan stipu- 

 lated that, at the close of the honey season 

 here, to-wit: the latter part of July, the 

 apiary should be taken to southern Illinois 

 so as to secure a fall crop of honey there. 

 The location was to be chosen by Flanagan, 

 and I was to accompany the liees by rail and 

 to remain with the apiary until the close of 

 the fall crop. Then the apiary was to be 

 put in shape to ship down to New Orleans, 

 when my services were to end. But no effort 

 was made by Mr. Flanagan to select a honey 

 range in southern Illinois until late in 

 August, and then not until I had insisted on 

 his doing so, as per contract. The bees did 

 not leave here until August 23. I reached 

 the destination (East St. Louis) the follow- 

 ing day, but I found the fall crop there was 

 one-half gone by that date. The shipping of 

 the apiary to New Orleans, at the close of 

 the honey season, was given up, and mainly 

 because the owners, Flanagan & Illinski, 

 had no one to accompany it, and take charge 

 of it at its destination. 



It is simply folly to reach a honey range 

 when the harvest is half gone, or when there 

 is no show for a honey crop at all, and then 

 claim that migratory bee-keepxUg is an un- 

 profitable enterprise. This is equivalent to 

 putting on honey receptacles after the har- 

 vest is over. 



But I will close, as you must be tired out 

 by this time. If you find anything in my 



letter to Mr. Stevenson, or in this, that you 

 desire to print, you are at liberty to do so. 

 St. Chakles, 111., Dec. 27, 1889. 



Here is the letter written by friend Bal- 

 dridge to friend Stevenson, and sent here for 

 our perusal. We have forwarded it, and 

 hope that we may be able to lay his reply 

 before our readers : 



St. Chakles, 111., Dec. 27. 1889. 



Friend STEVENSON.-^Yours, of Nov. 27th, is 

 received and noted. I am surprised to learn 

 that you did not come up to Missouri with 

 your apiary in 1888. I presume the main 

 reason was that the Missouri prospects for 

 honey that year were poor. The honey crop 

 up here was very poor that year. By staying 

 in Louisana that year you were, however, 

 caught by the autumn storm and thereby 

 lost the better part of your apiary. I regret 

 to hear this, but such is life. 



It seems that you brought up a car-load of 

 bees to Missouri in May last, or in June, and 

 without much, if any, loss. I wish you 

 would tell me what kind of car you used, 

 and how much you had to pay for it. You 

 ought to have got a car-load through for, 

 say '^'i) — but I presume you had to pay 

 more. I think Perrine paid, in 1880, about 

 $100 per car, from Kenner to Chicago, but 

 the rate should be lower now. I prefer a 

 slatted stock car for bees in place of any 

 other, and I think it would pay to cage all 

 the queens long enough before starting to do 

 away with unsealed brood. What say you to 

 this? 



My experience is that it will not pay to 

 ship bees from South to North unless there 

 are good honey prospects at destination, and 

 this can be known before starting, nine 

 times out of ten. Don't you think so? This 

 was what spoiled Perrine's enterprise in 1880. 

 I knew and he knew (for I told him), that 

 there was no show whatever in northern 

 Illinois for white-clover that year, but he 

 would not believe it. He said he never knew 

 it to be in the condition I said it was, but he 

 found out, after he got up here, that I had 

 told him the truth. I tried my best to have 

 him keep his apiary near Kenner that year 

 and stay there until there was a good pros- 

 pect up here, but he would not listen to the 

 project. I told him that I was willing to 

 remain with the apiary near Kenner and so 



was my helper, Mr. . The result was 



every hive of those bees that lived to get up 

 here died from starvation before Christmas! 

 I am sure now, and was then, that had the 

 apiary been kept near Kenner we would 

 have closed the season (1880) there with 400 

 strong colonies, and more than enough 

 honey to have paid all expenses. The white- 

 clover prospects up here, in spring of 1881, 

 were of the best and proved to be first-class. 

 Had we kept the apiary South, as stated, and 

 moved it North in the spring of 1881, we 

 both would have made a pile of money. 

 Now, owing to Perrine's want of knowledge, 

 or rather his stubbornness, the project was a 

 failure, and this, and his other foolish ex- 

 periments, have caused many to look upon 

 *' migratory bee-keeping " as a failure. 



