THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



83 



tank inside of a large wooden box. This 

 tank contains water. Now, sir, you start a 

 fire in this stove, put in a chunk and close it 

 up just as though you were going to fix a 

 stove in your house to keep tire all night. 

 Put in fourteen of these tin cans holding 

 fifty-eight pounds, net, each, shut down the 

 lid to the box and go about your business. 

 In about twelve hours this honey will be 

 perfectly clear ; all of the grain out of it, no 

 froth, no discoloration, no change in tiavor, 

 everything perfect and the honey ready to 

 ship. This arrangement cost me about ,$40, 

 and it is worth 1440 and more too. 



Now about the extractor. There never has 

 been an extractor made that is fit for a bee 

 keeper to use, running business on as large 

 a scale as I do. If our honey extractors were 

 knitting machines, they would not take the 

 first stitch. They would not come anywhere 

 near it. Not one of them, not even the best, 

 is made of material half good enough, nor 

 is the workmanship anywhere near what it 

 ought to be. Probably both are good enough 

 for the pi'ice, but the honey producer, who 

 does business on anything like an extensive 

 scale, cannot afford for a moment to use a 

 cheap extractor. It is the dearest thing he 

 ever did. If I had time,' and wanted to 

 invent everything in the line of bee keepers' 

 supplies, I could go at it and get up an ex- 

 tractor that would stop almost at will, 

 would reverse the combs without stopping the 

 motion of the machine at all, would take 

 four Langstroth combs in its four baskets, 

 or eight of the combs for my new hive in the 

 same four baskets, just as we are now using 

 in the Stanley automatic. That is a good 

 extractor as compared with others, l)ut com- 

 pared with what it ought to be it is a regular 

 rattle trap. It is all the time getting out of 

 order, and keeps us putting it in, of course. 



Well, well, I have spun this out longer than 

 I intended to, and will dry up right here. 



DowAGiAO, Mich., 



May 3, 1890. 



C. 0. Perrine's Scheme : Why It Failed ; 



Large Profits in Getting Bees From 



the South. 



F. GBABBE. 



I HERE has been so much said in the 

 Review by those who know a part and 

 guess the remainder of the history of 

 C. (). Perrine's migratory expedition 

 of 1878, that I feel it incumbent upon myself 

 to set at rest many rumors, errors and mis- 

 statements made by misinformed corres- 

 pondents. 



First, it is conceded that the expedition 

 was a financial failure. A writer in the Sep- 

 tember No. of 1889, stated that "Mr. Perrine 

 and Grabbe were taking things coolly in 

 New Orleans when it was of vital importance 

 that the expedition should be on its north- 

 ward way." 



It is not in the nature of Mr. Perrine to 

 take anything coolly. Industrious, energet- 

 ic ; the man who began the honey business 



in Chicago years since with a peddler's 

 basket on his arm, and worked up an annual 

 sale of honey, maple syrup, etc., of about 

 .f:M),000 yearly, displayed in the inception 

 and promotion of the migratory expedition 

 the sarne driving originality that had signal- 

 ized his past. He had been preparing for 

 the expedition for over a year. He had vis- 

 ited France, Italy, and other places aViroad 

 and at home, to consult with the most suc- 

 cessful bee keepers ; and in 1877, with faith 

 in his own ability and ample capital, he 

 made arrangements at New Orleans to solve 

 the great problem of migratory bee-keeping. 



But for unforseeu and unavoidable acci- 

 dents and delays, that expedition would cer- 

 tainly have demonstrated the entire feasibil- 

 ity of Mr. Perrine's theories. The plan was 

 to be ready to leave New Orleans the last of 

 March, when the bees had about completed 

 storing surplus from the willow bloom, and, 

 moving from thirty to forty miles per night, 

 advancing with the blooming vegetation, and 

 foraging days, until the vicinity of St. Paul, 

 Minn,, would be reached, about sixty-five 

 days later, foraging the entire voyage. 



Unfortunately the second bee-barge was 

 not completed on time. It was not until 

 May 14, about forty -five days late, that the 

 two barges and tow started north with about 

 800 colonies of bees on board. By this time 

 the white clover was in bloom near St. Louis. 

 About seventy miles above New Orleans 

 there was a serious break down and some 

 machinery had to be sent back to New Or- 

 leans for repairs. This caused a delay of 

 several days. Near Baton Rouge several 

 days more were lost by a break down. The 

 resistance of the current, too, between the 

 bluffs, was. too great, and, as the tow boat 

 was of inadequate power the barges were 

 abandoned about ;W miles from New Or- 

 leans, the bees transferred to the steamboat 

 and run up the river near St. Peters, Mo., 

 about forty miles above St. Louis. The 

 season being too far advanced, the bees were 

 landed, and a fair crop of honey gathered in 

 the fall from Spanish needles. 



The test was not a fair one, and the' 

 $120,000 sunk in the enterprise proved to Mr. 

 Perrine, at least, that, with an early start 

 and proper facilities, the enterprise would 

 have been a success. 



Since then I have been getting through 

 from New (Orleans from D. McKenzie Camp 

 Parapet, La., (near New Orleans), populous 

 colonies. Several shipments being made 

 during the month of May. The swarms are 

 transferred to shipping cases, well ventilated, 

 and they arrive here, in Libertyville, in 

 about six days. The journey does not de- 

 stroy unhatched brood, as I have had many 

 cast large natural swarms about ten days 

 after their arrival, and store some surplus 

 honey from apple blossoms. All bees I have 

 had shipped from New Orleans during the 

 month of May have paid me about seventy- 

 five per cent over the bees wintered here in 

 northern 111, With a good season here I can 

 realize 100 per cent by the migratory system 

 above the ordinary bee keeping in northern 

 Illinois, 



Libertyville, 111, 



April 3, 1890. 



