

166 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



the chair, and said: I will make my 

 report at this time. We find that we 

 have but eleven States represented, 

 and two or three of those with only 

 one or two present. I am sorry to say 

 my State stands in the one column. 

 Alphabetically arranged, we have made 

 the following selections: 



D. C. — E. F. Phillips, Washington, 

 I>. C. 



Florida — O O. Poppleton, Stuart, 

 Fla. 



Iowa — W. P. Southworth, Salix, Iowa. 



Illinois — George W. York, Chicago, 

 111. 



Kansas — Dr. G. Bohrer, Lyons, Kans. 



Michigan — George Hilton, Fremont, 

 Mich. 



Minnesiota — ^P. B. Ramer, Harmony, 

 Minn. 



Missouri — M. E. Darby, Springfield, 

 Mo. 



Nebraska — J. P. Goodwin, iHbmer, 

 Nebr. 



South Dakota — R'. A. Morgan, Ver- 

 milion, S. Dak. 



Wisconsin — Jacob Huffiman, Mon- 

 roe, Wis. 



The President — The next subject on 

 the program is "Putting in Comb 

 Foundation," by Mr. W. P. Southworth, 

 of Sailix, Iowa. 



Mr. Southworth — Mr. President, 

 Ladies and Gentlemen: You no doubt 

 expected to bear Mr. Brown on this 

 subject. Neither of ois knew that 

 there was a program. Mr. Brown is 

 the wax presser. he is the man that 

 hodls up the old combs and gets the 

 •wax out, and is probably more conver- 

 sant with that part of it than I am; 

 not that I am more conversant with 

 foundation and wiring of frames than 

 (he is. 



As to this matter of foundation, I 

 am, no doubt, talking to men that have 

 had a great deal more experience than 

 I have had, and I feel some of them 

 ought to have taken this place instead 

 of me, but, nevertheless, I am indebt- 

 ed to the men that have made a suc- 

 cess of their business and have "been 

 willing to give these points on which 

 they have made a success to the pub- 

 lic, and if I can give anything that 

 will ibe of any benefit to this meeting, 

 I want to do it. I am of the opinion 

 we need more honey-producers, and 

 that there is not enough honey pro- 

 duced at the present time to supply the 

 needs of the public. 



Every enterprise must have its 



foundation; the same thing applies to 

 the bee-hive, and I go a great deal 

 on foundation in the brood nest and 

 in all parts. I don't want to speak 

 from the standpoint of a supply dealer 

 to urge people to use foundation, to 

 get them to buy it, but from the stand- 

 point of a honey-producer. The thing 

 we want is the honey, and we have 

 got to have t)he combs to put it in. 

 We have also got to have the ibrood 

 nest to raise the bees to gather this 

 honey. We do not want crooked 

 combs, we do not want odd sihaped 

 cells, nor do we want a great 

 amount of drone comb. Foundation 

 gives us the best results in securing 

 this. We want the combs filled with 

 brood from end to end; from top to 

 bottom, and from corner to corner, and 

 I am quite sure that all through we 

 will get the best results with using the 

 full sheets of foundation. ; 



Not long ago it was my privilege to 

 look over a lot of combs in whidh- the 

 man had only used starters. I imaght 

 say he has the finest lot of combs I 

 ever exaanined, iboit he had to put lots 

 of work on these combs, after they 

 were drawn, to get them in that con- 

 dition, by cutting out such parts as 

 he didn't want and piecing in the 

 others. 



In the matter of getting our founda- 

 tion drawn into good combs, we w^ant 

 to put them on in season and not out 

 season. It Is useless to put founda- 

 tion into the frames in the hives if 

 the bees are not in a condition to 

 utilize that foundation, to build it out 

 and use it. The hees must be gath- 

 ering nectar or else have a sufficient 

 amount of food to stimulate the se- 

 cretion of wax to draw out and get 

 nice straight combs. If we put it in 

 at a time when the bees cannot use 

 it, it will sag with the weight of it. 

 I would put the foundation in in the 

 spring when the flo^y commences and 

 would prefer to have it drawn in the 

 brood nest or in natural STvarms. In 

 arranging the foundation in combs, 

 I think it is well to use wire or splints. 

 In the matter of using splints, I cannot 

 speak from experience, as I have nev- 

 er used them nor come in contact with 

 persons who have used them, but I 

 have used different methods of waring; 

 longitudinal wires were very good, 

 but I found it would sag; we could not 

 keep the foundation up in all cases so 

 that it would not spread. Then I used 



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