138 



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Mr. Goodspeed then read some ex- 

 tracts from a report of successful ex- 

 periments made by N. W. McLain. 

 Continuing he said : 



I believe that the best method is 

 this : Select the colony containing 

 the drones you wish to use. Isolate it 

 so far as convenient. Place the queen 

 within hearing. Secure by guards 

 both drones and queen from flight. 

 Confine the drones until 4 o'clock, or 

 an hour after the natural flight of 

 •drones. At the time and place of the 

 experiment, give them a regular flight 

 each day. At this time, when the 

 selected drones are well in air, liberate 

 the queen and wait for her return, 

 which will be in a very short time. 

 Nine times out of ten it will succeed in 

 this way. The mating is perfectly 

 natural, yet all the advantages of the 

 '• artificial" are secured with none of 

 the disadvantages. 



Combs in tJufiulsbed Sections. 

 Mr. Foster asked if it was profitable 

 to use the combs in unfinished sections 

 the second year. 



Mr. Elwood — Yes ; extract the 

 honey and use them as "bait "to get 

 the bees to work sooner in the boxes. 



Mr. Foster — I liave done so, and 

 taken pains with them, but the honey 

 was of inferior quality, and the combs 

 presented a watery appearance. 



Mr. Betsinger said that the honey 

 was not all removed from the combs ; 

 that this had granulated, and caused 

 the watery appearance. It is always 

 best, after the honey is extracted, to 

 let the bees clean out the combs before 

 putting them away. 



Mr. Ehvood — We expect the honey 

 to be second quality, because it is 

 gathered first, and remains longest on 

 the hives ; but I know of no way to get 

 the bees to work in the sections as 

 soon. 



The President then appointed John 

 Aspinwall and N. N. Betsinger mem- 

 bers of the committee on Constitution 

 and By-Laws, in place of S. M, Locke 

 and I.' L. Scofield. P. H. Elwood, C. 

 M. Goodspeed, and J. H. Taylor were 

 also appointed as a committee on reso- 

 lutions, after which an adjournment 

 was taken luitil 7:30 p.m. 



EVENING SESSION. 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. 

 L. C. Root, deeply regretting his in- 

 ability to be present, and open the 

 discussion on the question, "How can 

 we increase the demand for honey and 

 maintain present prices ?" He, how- 

 ever, submitted an essay, which was 

 then I'ead, and the sentiments gen- 

 erall}' approved. 



Mr. Aspinwall — I believe that Mr. 

 Root has hit the nail squarely on the 

 head, and covered the ground per- 

 fectly. 



It was then suggested that, inas- 

 much as Mr. Root had removed from 

 the State, the Association should make 

 him an honorar}' life member, with all 

 the rights and privileges of the Asso- 

 ciation. This was then done. 



President Clark remarked, that the 

 Association now had two Roots as 

 honorary members, and if they only 

 would strike deep enough, the Associa- 

 tion would be firmly "i-ooted." 



The committee on constitution and 

 by-laws submitted its report, which 

 was substantially the same as the old 

 constitution, with the amendments 

 which were made at Syracuse, in 1885. 

 After a short discussion and a few 

 slight changes, the report was adopted. 

 Mr. Root, of the committee on the 

 question-box reported 16 questions and 

 replies. 



Marketin:; Comb Honey. 

 This subject was then discussed by 

 N. N. Betsinger. Going back to the 

 infancy of honey marketing, he noted 

 the gradual increase in sales, and 

 talked about prices for honey, past, 

 present and future. He attributed the 

 fluctuations, in a large part, to the 

 packages in which it was sold. He 

 thought that the improvements made, 

 both in the packing and placing on the 

 market, increased the sales, as the 

 consumers were continually wanting 

 something new. He believed that 

 false reports in regard to the amount 

 of the honey crop also had its influence 

 on the market. 



Mr. Dickinson said that there is now 

 too much variety in shape and size of 

 packages. I think that the wishes of 

 tlie wholesale dealers in regard to the 

 size of packages should be consulted. 

 He also said that dealers preferred to 

 have packages that were a little short, 

 rather than over-weight ; that is, a 25- 

 pound package should weigh a trifle 

 less, rather than to weigh 26 or 27 

 pounds. Retail grocers selling them 

 out by the piece, lose on the heavier 

 packages, arid therefore they always 

 reject them and selected the lighter 

 crates. He also advised the grading 

 of honey very carefully, without veneer- 

 ing the crates. Get the honey into the 

 market as clean and nice as possible. 



A few minor subjects were discussed, 

 after which the report of the commit- 

 tee to draft a scheme for the formation 

 of an international association w^as 

 called for, which was then read, and 

 after a short discussion, was "tabled" 

 until a subsequent session. 



A recess was then taken until 9 a.m. 



SECTION HONEY. 



The Use of Thin Foundation for 

 Comb Honey in Sections. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BT F. I. SAGE & SON. 



nome markets for honey can be 

 made by judiciously distributing the 

 pamphlets, " Honey as Food and Medicine." 

 Such will create a demand in any locality at 

 remunerative prices. See list on the second 

 page of this paper. 



During the past few years we have 

 had much complaint, and many curi- 

 ous questions asked, regarding the so- 

 called " fish-bone " found in honey in 

 sections by consumers. We have be- 

 fore asserted that there are manj- thou- 

 sands of intelligent people who believe 

 that tons of comb honey is manufac- 

 tured by man, without the least aid 

 from the bees, and these people, when 

 they purchase a section or two of 

 honey in the centre of which they find 

 a thick sheet of gutta percha (as they 

 express it), are quite easily convinced 

 that "Wiley" knew what he was talk- 

 ing about when he wrote his " scien- 

 tific pleasantries." 



That Wiley and thick foundation 

 have greatly damaged the houey-trade, 

 we have not the slightest doubt, and 

 although manj' bee-keepers may take 

 it all as a " huge joke," if they could 

 but follow us through our honey-sell- 

 ing routes, they would be quickly con- 

 vinced that we are correct in our esti- 

 mate of the damage done to bee-keep- 

 ers by these causes. 



So well satisfied are we that the two 

 causes named above have, and are 

 damaging our hone}--trade, that we the 

 past season conducted some tests and 

 experiments to decide as to which is 

 the best style and manufacture of thin 

 foundation for honey in sections ; and 

 \^'ithout consuming space by going into 

 the details of our tests, we will simply 

 say that the thin, flat-bottomed founda- 

 tion proved to be decidedly the best 

 and most satisfactory of any. We hope 

 that all bee-keepers of whom we buy 

 honey will hereafter use thin, flat-bot- 

 tomed comb foundation. We recom- 

 mend this because it has proved to be 

 most satisfactory to us, for we are not 

 acquainted with the makers of it. 



This section-foundation question is a 

 serious one, and has more influence on 

 the honey market than many bee-keep- 

 ers are aware of. At first glance, we 

 should most certainly decide that foun- 

 dation made with natural shape of base 

 would be most acceptable to the bees, 

 but our practice proves the superiority 

 of the flat-bottom foundation ; and it 

 has occurred to us that possibli/ the bees 

 are compelled to still further thin and 

 manipulate the flat-bottom cell in order 

 to bring it to the desired shape. 



We do not think it advisable for 

 bee-keepers to make thin foundation 

 for their own use, as not more than one 

 in twenty would produce an article 

 equal to that made by almost a7iy of 



