C2_^ ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS BEEKEEPING LIBRARY BRIEF HISTOPl^S^ OF THE ® B NORTH AMERICAN ^o3 WITH A DIGEST UF ITS Annual Conventions from 1870 to 1884r - AND A Full Report of the Proceedings Sixteenth Annual Convention, HELD AT DETROIT, MICIIU;AX, On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, December 8-10, 1885. By THOMAS G-. NEWMAN, Ex-President of the Society. CHCICA-CSO, IIiX.Il<rOIS : OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 1886. ADVERTISEMENTS. 1869. Up with the Times. 1886. OVER 50,000 SOLD ABMSTRONG'S And not a Letter of Complaint ! Perfection "Crown" Bee-Hive. The brood-frames, honey-rack, and surplus sec- tions, are all reversible. It took Urst premium at the St. Joseph and St. Louis, Mo., Expositions in 1885, over seven other prominent hives, for the SLOW! bee-hive for all purposes. Descrip- GO best arranged tive circular free. Address, They always get the Blue Card, when ELVIN AKMSTKONG, Propr., Bee-Keepers are the judges. JERSEYVILLE. ILLS. It ia probable that all the largest and best known bee-keepers are good judtjes of what is cheapest and best for them to buy and use in Vandervort Gomli Fdn. Mills, their apiaries. We have letters from hundreds of the best known apiarists, and know that our Send for Samples A Rednced Prlce-I^lat. ABtf J.VANDEEVOET.Laceyville, Pa. TJncapping-Knives, Frank L. Dougherty, BINGHAM .532 E. Wasliinsctolt St., PEALKR IN Bee-Smokers Bees.Bee-keepers'Supplies &Honey are the only ones that last long or give lasting and Langstroth Hives a Specialty. complete satisfaction. Thousands of them are now good that have been used six years. We arrangement for tailing comb iioney six sizes, differing in price according to size OUR make is certainly equal to, if not ahead of *2.0i), They are all —from 65 cents to post-paid. far produced. hase-burners -the fire being always helow the fuel anything so and ready to burn as in any good stove. Send for our Illustrated Catalogue. These smokers and knives are the standard of excellence in Europe, Cuba, Australia, Canada and the United States. Our 65-cent, or "Little Wonder" Smoker is amply large for a few colonies of bees ; will last six or more years, and is the best low-priced bee-smoker made, and the lowest priced one made in America by any one. F. A. SALISBURY'S Send card for free Illustrated Circular for prices, by mail, or half-dozen rates, to CATALOGUEforl886, BINGHAM dk HETHERINGTOX. SENT ON APPLICATION. A-bronla.* Sllch. P. S. It will pay any bee-keeper to order a half- Head-Quarters forComb Foundation. dozen to sell to his friends. We are the original Patentees, and Only Makers In the U. S. CEDDES, Onondaga Co., N. Y. BeAvare of Tiiiitatioiks ! I Yandeiwt Foundation Mill. 1886. ALLEY'S 1886. 6 Inch, Price, $25.00. Combined Drone and Queen Trap. It makeB the finest extra thin Foundation for A perfect non-swarming arrangement. Send comb honey. For Sale by and get them by the quantity, in the flat, and sell to your bee-keeping friends. Every bee-keeper THOS. G. NEWiTIAN & SON, will purchase one or more who examines them. Send for wholesale prices. Circulars free. 923 & 925 West Madison St., CHICAGO, ILL. HEUfKY ALliEX dte €0., 5lDtf. Wenham, Essex Co., Mass. DRAKE & SMITH, Successors to A. B. Manum, Bristol, Vt. Italian Bees and Queens, MANUFACTXTREKS of the BXtlSTOI. IFOTl 1886. Bee-Htve, the Standard Hive of Vermont, Section KoneF-!Bes:e«, all sizes, made from AL.SO SYRIAN BBKS and QUEENS, White Poplar, (the best timber in the world for honey-boxes), l-pound boxes a specialty. Nuclei, the Hives, Clamps, Bees by Pound, Sections, Separators andWood Sides. LiehtuingCHners, etc. Send for my Prioe-List for 1886. Shipping Crates, Bee Escapes. Bee Feeders, and Address, I. K. GOOD, Manum'^s Bee Smokers—all made of the best ma- terial and In a workmanlike manner. Send atamp NAPPANBE, IND. for illustrated Catalogue and Price -List. 46D12t J^ BRIE^ HISTOn-lT OF THE NORTH AMERICAN WITH A DIGKST OF ITS FIFTEEN ANNUAL CONVENTIONS, AND A Full Report of the ProceeMngs OF THE Sixteenth Annual Convention, HELD AT DE'1:R01T, MICHIGA2T, On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, December 8, 9 & 10, 1885. By THOMAS a. NEWMAN, Ex-President of the Society, orricE or the amebican bee jouenal, 1886. REV. L. [,. LANGSTROTH, »/ Oh in r.:i:sES quinby, 0/ ^'ew r..rt. INTEODUCTION. Life is too short, and Americans are too the officers for the year, (the Secretary be- busy to spend the time necessary to delve ing absent); at other meetings, persons into a multitude of volumes in order to post were elected to fill offices not warranted by themselves on the general history of the the Constitution, which had been amended, past in reference to the formation of Socie- re-amended, and the amendments entirely ties of Apiculture. Tljpy have long needed lost sight of. There will be no excuse for a digest of Convention History in general, such things hereafter; if this pamphlet Is and of the Continental Society in particu- consulted, confusion will be avoided. lar. They •want to know what was done, The organization of Societies are of im- and what subjects were discussed at the mense advantage to our pursuit, and help former meetings. Heretofore this could to obtain for it that recognition which it only be ascertained by carefully examining richly deserves among the productions of over 30 volumes of the Ambkican Bee America. They open up avenues of trade JoTJENAL, and other papers; and some of for honey by informing consumers concern- these are possessed by comparatively very ing Its excellence for medical and mechani- few of the apiarists of to-day. cal piuTJOses, confectionery, table use, etc. Frequently have the members of the They help producers by looking after their Society voted to have the proceedings pub- interests in the use of the mails for the lished in pamphlet form,, but so far the transmission of bees to all parts of the Society has done it but once, and then world, and the use of the railroads for the only published one-third of what was voted shipping of honey and getting It into the to be done (see page 9), by publishing the proper classifications, etc. report of one convention instead of three. When the North American Bee-Keepers' In 1877 the publishers of the Amehican Society, in October, 1878, appointed the Bee Jotienal issued a pamphlet of 33 editor of the Bee J otjbnax to represent the pages containing a report of the Conven- Society at the Conventions and among the tion of that year. They also publish this bee-keepers of the Old World, it exhibited pamphlet at their own expense, and have a wisdom for which it has not received published a report each year, varying from proper credit from the bee-keepers of 4 to over 40 pages, in the Amebican Bee America, and foresaw the advantages to be JOtJENAI,. derived from the cultivation of closer rela- In the following pages, we have endeav- tions with foreign bee-keepers. ored to supply this want by stating the 1879, the Delegate visited of the place and time of each meeting of the Con- In most more prominent apiarian societies of tinental Societies during the past 35 years, Europe, and was everywhere received with and naming the principal officers elected, cordiality and courtesy. But much preju- as well as to note all the business of im- dice existed against American products, portance transacted. and especially honey. In England the We have also mentioned all the subjects public haifi been frequently imposed upon discussed, and enumerated all the essays and had become disgusted with vile trash read at each meeting; so that the history is sold as " Pure Strained Honey; " while in complete, without a broken link, so far as France, Italy and Germany, it was Incom- it can be ascertained at the present time, prehensible how the Americans could pro- and feel sure it will now become a book we duce such vast amounts of apparently of reference in our National gatherings. superior honey, and compete with their Only a few years ago, at one of the an- own producers, after paying exorbitant nual meetings, no one had even a list of freights. ; ' INTRODUCTION. The Delegate appreciated the immensity combs ' launched into this country from of the market a-waiting our product, but America. Tou deserve great credit for realized the necessity for removing distrust your tireless efforts in that direction." and, wherever he went, labored with this the gratifying intelligence, objept in view. It was not enough to assert Now we have that the sale of foreign that our honey was superior, but he was in German figures, honey in Germany has nearly doubled in obliged to prove why it was so; nor was it sufficient to claim that we could produce the past few years, reaching an aggregate equivalent to one-eighth of the en- pure honey and meet the public demand at almost tire product of North America. popular prices, but he found it best to de- monstrate how it would be accomplished. The Hamburg Journal, in Germany, Scarcely had the Delegate returned, when has formulated a table showing the follow- our market became stronger; the foreign ing result: The total amount of American demand was strengthened, and a healthy honey received at Hamburg in 1877, was competition sprang up. The following in 1,018,000 kilos (a kilo is 3 pounds).