^'V-i '-. ■ Vv-^.-P- 



80 



THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



m, 



Dr. Miller— You may go over this ground for ten years 

 and you will come out where you went in. There is the 

 same man, and he says I got three times as much one year, 

 and then he tried it again another year and he says it was a 

 mistake, he got only two and one-tenth that year. If the 

 same man in the same place finds that one year doesn't give 

 him the same results as the other, you may change your man 

 and change your place and you will have a different result 

 again. When a young man comes to me and says. What shall 

 I do? What is the ratio? The only answer is. Try it and 

 see. You have to try it for your own place, and your own 

 management, and you may thrash this over until aftf r bed- 

 time and you won't be any nearer to a solution. 



Mr. Baldridge — Mr. France says he had three times as 

 much one year and the next year two and one-tenth. Now, 

 perhaps the third year with more experience he won't get that 

 proportion. 



Mr. France — I would say that these things vary accord- 

 ing to the season and management, and we may thrash this 

 over and over and you will find that that is the experience of 

 every man. 



Mr. Clarke — As regards the extracting yards, especially in 

 Wisconsin, a few years ago we heard of a great loss of bees. 

 Wasn't it a fact that 90 per cent of these losses came from 

 where they extracted? 



Mr. France — I would put it at that per cent. Quite a por- 

 tion of them were. There were a great many places where 

 the bees worked late in the fall, and there was something 

 gathered from the marshes and it caused diarrhea, and the 

 bees died. 



Mr. Clarke — I think it was about five or six years ago. 

 I know it was a general discussion that the extracted was 

 paying down to the ordinary time, but that everything had 

 fallen off, and that they had bees they couldn't and wouldn't 

 feed. That is the year that we had low-priced honey, and 

 it seemed the extracted part of it came mostly from the ex- 

 tracting yards. 



Mr. France — It is largely so, and I was disappointed 

 this year when I got back from the National Convention in 

 going over the State. I put the question : "In what condition 

 are your bees for winter?" And they said: "They are work- 

 ing nicely." I said: "Have you opened the hives really to 

 know?" No, they had not, and to their surprise what they 

 thought was wintering supplies had been used up. I can't 

 account for it. If they own a horse or cow they will feed 

 it up to go through winter, but they let their bees starve. 



Mr. Abbott — Down in Missouri I can produce a little 

 over twice as much extracted as comb. I buy it with my 

 money ! 



RETURNING SWARMS AND CUTTING QUEEN-CELLS. 



"In case the queen is taken from a swarm and the swarm 

 returned to the parent colony, would the colony be likely to 

 swarm soon again, providing all queen-cells but one are cut 

 out?" 



