amount at their disposal. To get the sum asked for we believe that every beekeeper should write to the director, C. V. Truax, State House, Columbus, Ohio, and express to him the necessity of cleaning up foul brood quickly and thoroughly, and that a fund sufficient to do do so should be included in the budget.

The winter meeting of the Ohio State Beekeepers' Association will be held, as usual, during Farmers' Week, at Ohio State University, February 5 and 6. Our new national chief, Mr. Hambleton, who succeeded Dr. Phillips, will be here, as also will B. F. Kindig, present Nationa! League president.

There will be other prominent men to cover vital topics, but we are unable, at this writing, to give their names.

The extreme dryness of the southern three-fourths of our state will have a bad effect, we fear, on next year's crop of clover. Fall flowers, unfortunately, did not yield sufficient nectar to promote extensive brood-rearing. Careful beekeepers did considerable stimulative feeding and will, of course, have enough young bees to winter successfully. Practically all bees in central Ohio, in the hands of careful apiarists, are packed in winter cases.

Over 12,000 honey labels were sold by the state association this season, and if our own experience is any straw in the wind, we can say that they reduced sales effort fully 50 per cent.

A new type of the same general label design, but embodied in one piece, will be displayed at the annual meeting for the approval of the members. Columbus, Ohio.

F. B. Moore.

In Georgia. The honey crop this

season in this state has been about the best on record. In addition to this, the weather for the last two weeks of October and nearly all of November was very fine and the bees have generally gathered an abundance of winter stores. Our first severe frost occurred the 26th of November, when the mercury went down to 28°. Bees in and about Savannah enjoyed a bountiful crop of fall honey supposed to be from some speeies of goldenrod, which grows plentifully there. The fall crop, however, is the principal crop for that region. Here, and in places where "Mexican clover'' abounds, the usual late crop was gathered, often much more than enough for winter stores.

The honey exhibits at the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta by J. W. Cash of Bogart and C. H. Herndon from J. J. Wilder's apiaries, were very fine. They showed up the different grades and qualities of hon

ey of the Piedmont region and the southern coastal plain region of Georgia.

The meeting of the Georgia Beekeepers' Association at Savannah was unusually interesting, though the attendance was not large. I think all felt well repaid for the trouble and expense of attending. We were favored by the presence of E. R. Root and Hon. J. J. Brown, State Commissioner of Agriculture, each of whom gave us some instructive and entertaining talks, in which both are adept. The informal talks between sessions were also very interesting, and as Mr. Root was telling a group of listeners about his travels and lectures and the bee demonstrations he often makes, such as putting bees into his hat and then putting it on his head or throwing them up into the air and letting them fall over him, some of our beekeepers doubted that such things could be done with all bees, particularly some such as they had. Mr. Root said he could do it with any bees, so a demonstration was arranged for the next day. A box of the crossest bees were brought and the demonstration made in one of the city parks, witnessed by a crowd of people of all ages. Νο casualties occurred except that A. R. Irish in putting a hat, with bees in it, on his head, got stung twice. He has learned, however, not to mind such little things. The demonstration was quite satisfactory to all. Photographs were taken of the scene and the pictures appeared in the Sunday papers, creating quite a sensation in the city.

Norman Park. Ga. T. W. Livingston.

In North Carolina.

Following one of the most productive seasons beekeepers have had in a long time from the viewpoint of honey output, this state went through a very dry fall that has made heavy inroads on fall honey that the bees had gathered. Winter stores are so short that many beekeepers have found it necessary to do some heavy feeding. Unfortunately some have realized this necessity so late that they have met with considerable difficulty in many localities owing to the sudden advent of the winter cold.

Just now, however, December 6, almost summer conditions again prevail through a considerable part of eastern Carolina and those beekeepers who have lagged in the work of preparing their bees for winter have a few more days of grace to see that the "light hives" are given stores sufficient for winter requirements.

The small honey producers throughout the state apparently have had very satisfactory markets for their honey, which,

however, is marketed all too often without care as to the condition of the honey and the type of package offered for sale. Much of the local or community supplies seem now to be nearly or quite exhausted, and the larger producers whose activities approach "commercial" beekeeping are finding their markets expanded by the inclination of smaller beekeepers to purchase honey to supply their trade.

Honey prices have been fairly well maintained in this state through the season, but there are many producers who keep from 25 to 100 colonies as a side line who seem not to realize what the cost of honey production is and sell both to families and to grocers at ridiculously low prices. In some sections grocers talk of retail prices of 12, 15 and 25 cents per pound for honey and the standard pound section at 20 to 35 cents. This is for local honey which, happily, is now nearly or quite exhausted in many localities.

Due to the fact that the greater por tion of North Carolina surplus honey is the wild flora, it is hard to form any idea of the outlook for honey production next season. The real "Godsend" for North Carolina honey production is the absence of late frosts and a moderate and well distributed rainfall that will not interfere with the work of the bees in gathering the nectar. Let these conditions prevail and the Carolina beekeepers will most surely come in for their share of the finest honey produced in the world. W. J. Martin.

Wilmington, N. C.

In Louisiana. The first frost of the

Every

winter came in Louisiana on November 26, which stopped the growth of the majority of fall and winter honey plants. At the present time the only flowers producing nectar are the white and purple asters, possibly with the exception of a few scattered goldenrod and soft maple. The maple will be in full bloom about January 5. colony of bees in Louisiana owned by modern beekeepers have gone into their winter quarters in the very pink of condition. The year 1924, as far as I can ascertain, is the record honey year for Louisiana, notwithstanding the great drouth which covered a period of more than five months in some localities. The fact that Louisiana has more rivers and streams inside its boundaries than any of the other states, makes it an admirable place for beekeeping. The lowlands bordering these streams, with their myriad of blossoms, together with the many days of flying weather for the bees, made an immense crop of honey possible.

Frank Reed of Plaquemine, Louisiana, produced 296 half barrels of honey, aver

aging 110 pounds per colony. This amount was from his summer honey flow. I did not hear what his fall crop amounted to. One beekeeper in his vicinity averaged 116 pounds with over one hundred colonies during September and October, while here at the university an average of 70 pounds was made during the latter months. Frank Reppert of Shreveport, Louisiana, reports a crop of 60,000 pounds of as fine honey as can be produced anywhere.

I made exhibits the past fall at three of our best fairs, concluding with the State Fair at Shreveport. In this exhibit of 400 square feet, I demonstrated what is being done in every phase of beekeeping in Louisiana. I brought out very forcibly the difference between box hive and movable frame hive beekeeping, showing the honey from each and the manner of making it. There seemed to be more interest in bee culture this year than I have ever noticed before, and many more people have asked questions as to its possibilities. In my exhibits I made a special phase of boys and girls bee club work, showing honey and beeswax made by their bees. Baton Rouge, La.

In Ontario

*

E. C. Davis.

For the past month the weather here in Ontario has been normal except that continued lack of rain has been in evidence in most parts of the province. Some beekeepers have written me stating that they feared the clover was suffering from the long continued drouth. Personally I have no fear along that line for as pointed out previously, clover had a good top and an exceptionally good root system before the drouth started. Wells are dry in many localities, so that the farmers will welcome the heavy rain which started this morning (Dec. 8) and is pouring down as I write. I will again state as I did a month ago, that prospects were never better for clover at this season, provided we get anything like a normal winter and spring in 1925.

The annual convention of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association is once more a thing of the past. While the attendance was good and representative of the whole province, still the number attending was not as large as has been the case during the last three years. A short crop no doubt explains this, as this is always a factor in determining the attendance at conventions, to a more or less degree.

A number of Quebec province beekeepers were also present, and Ohio, New York, Michigan, Vermont and Connecticut were also represented. Mr. Baldensperger of Nice, France, who was sent as

a delegate to the VII International Apicultural Congress, recently held in Quebee, gave a very interesting address covering his experience in Palestine and other countries, and in private conversation with many of the members proved himself to be a very versatile gentleman in other fields as well as that of apiculture. Born in Palestine and spending many years there in extensive beekeeping, later moving to Africa and other places, and now ending out his busy life at Nice in southern France, his varied experiences make him an interesting conversationalist, and I for one will not forget our pleasant associations, for some time to come. In fact, his hearty invitation to visit him has aroused hopes within me that I might possibly see sunny France some time. All of which must be a deferred hope for the present.

While the production end of apiculture received some attention as usual, it was easily noted that such problems as disease control, registration of beekeepers (which by the way, is but an aftermath of the disease problem) and marketing loomed up in importance away above the matter of management of bees and increased production of honey. So far as handling the product is concerned, Manager Halstead of the Co-operative and other officials gave full and satisfactory details of the progress being made. The fact was stressed that our western market is going fast, owing to the increase in honey production in the western provinces, and as an alternative Ontario must either use more honey, export more or produce less in the near future.

Judging from the sentiment of the convention, there is no question that practically all those in attendance look upon the control of disease as the most serious problem facing the industry. A few years ago many thought that American foul brood would soon be under control in the province, but today it would be hard to find many well informed beekeepers who are at all sanguine that such a desirable condition will be reached for quite a few years, at least. A proposal to have registration of all beekeepers made compulsory was unanimously favor. ed by the convention and I believe a committee is being appointed to interview the Minister of Agriculture and see if some tangible plan can be worked out that will be fair and just to all, whether it be a commercial beekeeper or the man or woman with but half a dozen colonies. If all beekeepers were registered it would be a great help in inspection work as often the few colonies not known to be in a certain locality, cause endless trouble and monetary loss to others, as well as to the owner of the bees.

The formalin treatment of foul combs received a lot of discussion, practically a full session being taken up with that subject. While reports in the main were favorable, yet some outstanding failures were reported, and the department at Guelph is not yet prepared to advise treatment of badly diseased combs from the brood-chamber. They do, however, recommend treating all super combs from diseased colonies as every test made with such combs failed to produce any disease. From the address of Prof. Jones we learned that in every case, water use with the formalin gave just as good results as when alcohol was used. The assistant apiarist, Mr. Jarvis, also substantiated these conclusions.

In view of the statements of these two gentlemen, naturally alcohol will be discarded in most cases and water used in its place. The reason, of course, is obvious. Denatured alcohol costs around $1.20 per gallon in a wholesale way here in Ontario, while "aqua pura,' "' to use the term your doctor does when he writes that prescription for you, is on tap for nothing. Boiled down to actual cost per gallon, it means that while the alcoholformalin solution will cost us here in Ontario $1.50 per gallon or more, the waterformalin will be something around 40 cents a gallon. If this mixture ultimately proves to be successful, the price for treating combs will be almost negligible and unquestionably it will prove a pow erful weapon in combatting American foul brood. After our unfavorable experience of last year, naturally we feel like going a bit slow before doing much of the same kind of work again, but one thing that we have decided upon is that with foul cells that are sealed over, the cappings will be carefully removed before treatment. Some may say that it is not necessary to do this, but a "burnt child dreads the fire," and we certainly think that our past experience justifies us in taking all possible precautions if we treat any more combs. J. L. Byer. Markham, Ontario.

[It should be remembered that the laboratory worker is much more careful in such work than the average beekeeper and will often succeed where the beekeper would fail. It will be well, therefore, for beekeepers to go slow on the water solution until more experimental data is available. There are so many chances that a sealed cell may have been overlooked in some of the combs, or that some of the cells may contain pollen, and the water solution being unable to penetrate the cells, the disease might be spread by this treatment. In dealing with American foul brood it is well to err on the safe side.-Editor.]

Kept Busy During Honey Week.

Your suggestion in Gleanings influenced me to write Dr. Fracker for help for National Honey Week, and his suggestions surely kept me busy during that week. I used three days arranging for the use of slides in four shows, preparing newspaper articles, bottling honey and other advertising schemes. I sold honey on the street for three days, averaging $25.00 a day. The newspapers published several of my articles on honey during the week. New Orleans, La.

W. J. Smith.

Radio for I listened in on my radio Beekeepers. to two talks on honey and bees, one on November 17 and one November 19. One of these talks was by R. B. Willson on "Bees and Honey." This talk was broadcasted on Monday evening, November 17, from radio station WGY, Schenectady, N. Y. The other talk on bees was by Prof. W. P. Alexander on the "Life of the Honey Bee." This talk was broadcasted on Wednesday evening, November 19, from radio station WGR, at Buffalo, N. Y. I surely enjoyed listening to these lectures by so well known bee-men, and am grateful to be able to hear such talks by radio. More beekeepers should have radio receivers so they could listen in.

Hinkley, Minn. I. W. Westlund.

Preventing Fermentation in Radiator Mixture.

Among Mr. Crane's "Siftings" for December, I note his mention of honey in automobile radiators, and particularly the query as to the possible fermentation of the honey mixture if kept over until the next season.

Knowing as I do, that benzoate of soda has been used effectively to prevent the "working" of cider, it appears to me logical that it should be equally effective with honey mixture. Therefore, I have been adding it to mixes which I have furnished for several trucks and autos. As to the necessary quantity of benzoate of soda, I do not know, but have been using a level tablespoonful to five gallons. Benzoate of soda is inert with regard to metal parts, and does not alter the character of the mixture. The addition of alcohol to the mixture seems to prevent foaming, to some extent. When honey mixture is used, it is very neces

of the various branches under his direction. In his recent address to the Georgia Beekeepers' Association he showed that the Department of Agriculture was self-sustaining and even returned a handsome balance to the state over all expenditures.

The State Entomologist, Ira W. Williams, has, through his able assistants, succeeded in getting the foul brood situation so well in hand that the beekeepers of the state can feel considerably at ease on that subject.

Long live these honorable gentlemen! Norman Park, Ga. T. W. Livingston.