740 



T'HE MBa[ERieJS.H WBM JQ^JSiMMMLf. 



statistics.— The subjoined summary 

 of information, derived from individual re- 

 ports given in Olcanings for Nov. 1, 1S88, 

 will Kive a correct idea of tlie present con- 

 dition of tlie apiarian pursuit througlwut 

 the United States and Territories : 



1. The average price of comb honey 

 throuKhout the United States is a small 

 fraction over 19 cents per pound. The aver- 

 age for July 1 was 16 cents. The market is 

 luiprovinB some, as will be noticed. In some 

 cases it sells as high as 30 cents. In a large 

 numher of localities it is sold for ascents. 

 In only three or four places does it sell for 

 le^s than 15 cents. 



2 The average price of extracted honey 

 is a fraction ovf r 13 cents per pound. The 

 statistics for July 15 showed H cents. There 

 seems to be less fluctuation in the price of 

 extracted than of comb. 



3. A trifle over 48 per cent, of honey was 

 secured throughout the United States by 

 the reporters, and probably this percentage 

 represents very nearly the proportionate 

 amount secured by bee-keepers as a whole 

 through the country. This Is some better 

 than the report in July, by about 25 per 



cent. . , i. ^, 



4. Of those who report in regard to the 

 quality of honey, 66 report good ; 32 fair, 

 and only 8 poor. 



5. Of the number who reply in regard to 

 the season, 13 report it to have been good ; 

 44 far, and 53 poor. If we put those who 

 report oood and those who report fair to- 

 gether, i he ratio stands 57 to 53. In other 

 wot ds, in about half the localities the sea- 

 son has been poor ; and in the other half, 

 from fair to good. 



6 This season is decidedly better than 

 last : 66 report better ; 12 ahout the same, 

 and 27 worse. At this rate we may expect a 

 tolerably good season next year, if the 

 gradations from worse to better mean any 

 thing. 



7. As to feeding, very little has been done 

 this fall ; of those who report, SO will not 

 be obliged to feed at all. The remainder, 

 27, will feed some, but not much. 



Comparing this season with the last, we 

 have great reason to be encouraged ; and 

 alihough the reports given reler to indi- 

 viduals largely, yet in the majority of cases 

 they are representative of the locality. If 

 one man in a certain section of the State 

 has had a poor season, those about him will 

 experience pretty much the same state of 

 affairs. There are occasionally exceptions 

 to this rule, but it generally holds true. 



In Aiiclilainl, New Zealand, they 

 have mild winters. Mr. O. Poole, in the 

 .Australasian Bee Journal for Oct. 1, 1888, 

 remarks thus concerning such seasons : 



As a proof of the mildness of the past sea- 

 son, 1 may mention that a small colony of 

 bees have successfully passed the winter 

 mouths at Uevonport on three combs in a 

 glass observatory hive. The queen has for 

 some time been busily laying, and at present 

 they have every appearance of doing well. 



Alvcays Mention your Post-Offlce, 

 County and State when writing to this 

 office. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually writing— 

 never mention anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the new address. 



'What Becomes of all the SuK^r 

 and Honey ? asks the American Agri- 

 culturist, and then answers it in this way : 



In the United States the consumption of 

 sugar per head of the population was 29 

 pounds in 1869 ; 39 in 1879 ; 48 in 1883, and 54 

 in 1887. In England the consumption of 

 sugar was 32 pounds per head in 1858 ; 41,i2 

 in 18,58 ; 62 in 1867 ; 62 in 1876. For several 

 countries the consumption is placed as fol- 

 lows : 



Great Britain 63 pounds. 



France 25 



Germany 18 " 



Denmark 33 



Holland 25 



Austro-Hungary 15 



Italy 6 



Spain 7 " 



United States 54 



Canada 51 



Australia is put at 86 pounds per capita, 

 and Venezuela at 180— a flgure that seems 

 incredible. In all countries the average 

 consumption annually increases. Sugar is 

 becoming as much a necessity of life as 

 bread. 



Then on the consumption of honey it 

 continues In the following words : 



The annual product is about 28,000,000 

 pounds, or }.,' a pound apiece to the popula- 

 tion. In 1880, Tennessee made 3,131,000 

 pounds ; New York, 2,089,000 : Ohio, 1,637,- 

 000 ; North Carolina, 1,591,000 ; Kentucky, 

 1,.500,.565, and seven other States— Arkansas, 

 Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsyl- 

 vania and Virginia— produced more than 

 one million pounds each ; altogether, in the 

 States named, more than half the entire 

 product of the country. 



The Agriculturist has fallen into an error, 

 consequent upon copying the figures given 

 in the census reports which are manifestly 

 incorrect. The honey product of America 

 is over a hundred millions of pounds, in- 

 stead of a quarter of that amount. 



Cider tor Winter Stores.— Several 

 correspondents have inquired whether it 

 would be advisable to attempt to winter 

 bees on stores composed of cider. In reply 

 we commend the following from an ex- 

 change : 



Bees should not be allowed liberty to 

 cider. All stores from this and decayed 

 fruit are very unhealthy for them during 

 wioter as food. Bees will store their combs 

 full of sweet cider if allowed access to it, 

 and in such a case heavy losses are sure to 

 follow during the winter. It well pays 

 each one interested, the apiarist or the man- 

 ufacturers of cider, to enclose the mills in a 

 building where bees cannot molest them, 

 as it is almost impossible to manufacture 

 cider, when the mills are located close to 

 large apiaries, in the open air. 



Combs containing a large amount of cider 

 should be removed, and others of good 

 honey inserted in their stead. If combs of 

 honey are not at hand, it will pay to feed 

 such colonies the full amount of winter 

 provisions, and the combs of cider honey 

 can be used in the spring with no bad effect 

 for spring feeding ; and even it combs of 

 honey are soured to a certain extent, it will 

 do no harm to give it to the bees in warm 

 weather when they are flying daily. But to 

 confine bees without loss during cold 

 weather, it is essential to have a healthy 

 diet on which to confine them. 



l\eTV Constitution. — Prof. A. J. 



Cook writes us as follows about the com- 

 mittee who had it in charge last year : 



Please allow me to say in reply to the 

 severe strictures of my good friend Dr. 

 Miller in reference to the committee on the 

 new Constitution and By-Laws, that the en- 

 tire blame rests upon me as chairman. 1 do 

 not wish my friends Hutchinson and Root 

 to suffer for my delinquency. I have only 

 to say that, owing to a severe press of work 

 the past year, the whole affair utterly es- 

 caped my mind. It was like a thunder clap 

 when Dr. Mason called upon me for a 

 report. 



I was not present at Columbus, O., when 

 the new Constitution was adopted. As 

 stated in my improptu report, I do not 

 think the new regime will be any improve- 

 ment on the old. 1 believe the association 

 is a very important organization. 1 also be- 

 lieve that it will do the most good by con- 

 tinuing its migratory meetings, reaching to 

 all parts of the country, and securing essays 

 for each meeting from representative men 

 from all sections. After this the more in- 

 formality, and the less machinery, the bet- 

 ter. But we shall see. I shall heartily 

 support the new order, and rejoice sincerely 

 in any improvement that results. 



One might easily conclude from reading 

 the above that some" one had proposed, or 

 that the Constitution had provided that the 

 annual meetings of the Society should be 

 held at one place all the time. Of course 

 they are to be "mi{}ratory meetings, reach- 

 ing to all parts of the country," as hereto- 

 fore. We agree with the Professor in re- 

 gard to obtaining essays. The other plan 

 has been " tried and found wanting." 



Clear Orit.- As an illustration of this 

 grand quality, Mr. E. S.Arwine gives in the 

 Pacific Farmer his experience in hiving a 

 swarm of bees. He says : 



Once upon a time, about 1877 or 1878, 1 

 had a swarm cluster about 30 feet tip on a 

 tree near my apiary ; and as 1 could not get 

 at them with a ladder on account of the 

 small limbs, I climed the treefto get them. 

 1 could get nothing to stand on, in reach of 

 the cluster, but two small limbs about as 

 large as a man's tumb, and held on by a 

 limb about l',' inches in diameter, and 

 about 4 feet froFn the body of the tree. 



The limbs I stood on being on a small 

 fork that terminated in small oranches out- 

 side of and around the cluster, I had cut the 

 small limbs from around the bees, and was 

 about tying a line to a limb, when the two 

 branches 1 was standing on broke. The 

 limb I was holding to, by the jerk of my 

 weight coming all on it, bent quickly, strik- 

 ing the cluster, and that precipitated a large 

 part of it on to my bare head, my hat hav- 

 ing been knocked off while climbing. 



Think of the joy of my situation— hang- 

 ing by one hand some 18 or 20 feet high, 

 with perhaps a hundred lances busily test- 

 ing the hardness of ray head, and the stick- 

 ing qualities of my grit, but I did not fall. 



I had had a broken thigh once, and I 

 would prefer a thousand bee-stings to one 

 broken leg. I quietly pulled myself on to 

 the body of the tree, climbed down, combed 

 the stings out of my scalp, while my wife 

 picked a dozen or two out of my forehead, 

 face and neck, after which I climbed up 

 again, knocked the cluster into a basket, 

 let them down by a rope, carried them to 

 the hive, and emptied them out. Thus I 

 learned that we could carry bees in an open- 

 topped vessel as well as any way, and with 

 no risk of jarring the cluster off. 



