IM 



THB BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



will, we believe, remove or mitigate this 

 trouble. As obstacle after obstacle has been 

 removed in home-bee-keepiug, so the mi- 

 gratory plan may yet be robbed of its draw- 

 backs. Riyht here a hypothetical (juestiou 

 comes to miiid. Suiiposiny that an apiary 

 moving up the Mississippi, secures six crops 

 of honey — six times as much as a stationary 

 apiary — would tliis be more profitable than 

 six stationary apiaries? In other words, 

 which is the more promising field for enter- 

 prise, following up the season, or establish- 

 ing out-apiaries? Upon this point there are 

 many things to be considered, and varying 

 circumstances would probably lead to dif- 

 ferent decisions. Interesting though it 

 would be, we have now neither time nor 

 space to discuss this i)hase of the subject. 

 When wo take up "Out-Apiaries," as we 

 probably shall ere long, then this part of the 

 subject can be discussed. But the majority 

 of our readers are probably more interested 

 in that plan of migratory bee-keeping that 

 consists of loading the bees on a wagon and 

 moving them live, ten or twenty miles to 

 some locality abounding in honey plants not 

 found at home. As our friend AValker re- 

 marks, a good locality for clover and bass- 

 wood is usually a poor one for fall flowers ; 

 and should we be fortunate enough to secure 

 a locality affording an abundance of both 

 early and late pasturage, the greater will be 

 tlie likelihood of our being obliged to divide 

 the field with some intruder. Both points 

 are exceedingly well taken. We would never 

 move bees to new pastui-es when there was a 

 reasonable prospect of securing a yield at 

 home ; but we are fully convinced that it 

 may be done at a profit when the home lo- 

 cality will furnish no honey, and the proba- 

 bilities are that one a few miles away will. 



Since the above was put in type, we have 

 received a letter from Byron Walker (it ap- 

 pears on jtage ir>2, at the end of his regular 

 article), and it would seem that, after its pe- 

 rusal, no would-be "migrator" need longer 

 fear that the Mississippi cannot be ascended 

 with sufficient rapidity. 



BEE-CONVENTIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS. 



This is to be our special topic for ( )ctober. 

 The season for holding conventions will 

 soon be here, thus the topic will be a fitting 

 one. These gatherings are intended for the 

 interchange of thought, the exchange of 

 views and experiences, and the enjoyment of 

 the pleasures that arise from a personal ac- 



quaintance with those engaged in the same 

 pursuit as ourselves. Years ago, bee-keep- 

 ing literature was not so plentiful as it is 

 now. Then, if a bee-keeper heard of a pa- 

 per containing an article "on bees," he 

 would tramp away off across the town for 

 the sake of reading it. In those days, to 

 attend a convention was a tjrcat advantage. 

 Those days are past. Apiarian books and 

 journals are plentiful and cheap. Through 

 these mediums the diffusion of knowledge 

 has become well nigh universal. Even a 

 //iO((f//iHs no sooner born than it is wafted 

 on the white wings of journalism from one 

 end of the land to the other. So fully do the 

 journals keep abreast, yes ahead, of the 

 times that conventions can do but little more 

 than talk over what has been already dis- 

 cussed in the journals. For a few dollars, 

 the bee-keeper can have the best books and 

 all of the journals published. With these he 

 can sit down in the quiet of his home and 

 read them at his leisure. Under such cir- 

 cumstances, every point is taken in and 

 comprehended ; in the hurly burly of a con- 

 vention many tilings are not always clearly 

 understood, or are driven from the mind. 

 How many up-with-the-times bee-keepers 

 now go to these meetings expecting, as the 

 result, to come home loaded down with in- 

 formation? Not many. It isn't for that 

 they go. It's to meet with the "boys." It 

 would be too sweeping an assertion to say 

 that no valuable knowledge is exchanged at 

 these gatherings : but, owing to the thorough 

 manner in which the journals do their work, 

 conventions are, more than ever, great big, 

 visiting bees. "But to meet our brother 

 bee-keepers, to grasp their hands, to rub our 

 minds against theirs in actual, [lersonal con- 

 versation, is a great thing. It brightens us, 

 it sharpens us, it gets us out of the ruts, and 

 we go home with a feeling of vim and fresh- 

 ness about us." So we felt and wrote after 

 returning from the last meeting of the North 

 American at Columbus ; and so we still feel, 

 but can't our conventions and associations 

 be improved ; be made to help us more in a 

 financial way? ^Ve know it is not best to so 

 magnify the almighty dollar that it hides 

 everything else, but of this there is no dan- 

 ger in this connection. The social feature 

 "will out ;" the bee-keepers will visit ; so it 

 is with a clear conscience that we may turn 

 out attention to the more utilitarian advan- 

 tages that may be gained by association. 

 First, a few words about the management of 



