104 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF Tfiyg 



Mr. Aspinwall — Yes, to make the 

 foundation. The roll has to be large 

 to produce drawn cell foundation and 

 worker cell foundation alternately. 



Put in section of worker cells, then 

 .three centers of drawn, then follow 

 one of w'orker, which makes the worker 

 at the end of my super. 



A member — Is that on a single roll? 



Mr. Aspinwall — Yes, it nas to be lai-ge 

 enough to do that, and that accounts 

 for the expense. To get it accurate 

 was very difficult. I made it for my 

 ' own self to begin with exclusively so 

 as to make as little truuhlp at the 

 honey yield season as possible. 



As I said before, Mr. Root has done a 

 great deal; he has pressed the business 

 of the manufacture of bee supplies to 

 an extent that it has advanced indus- 

 trially, wonderfully. 



The next thing added to American 

 bee culture was the introduction of 

 Italian bees in 1859 and 1860 by P. J. 

 Mahan of Philadelphia and in 1859 and 

 1860 by S. B. Parsons of Flushing, Long 

 Island. My start came through S. B. 

 Parsons and Mr. Quinby. 



Frank Benton has also done much to 

 introduce the stock from Europe, no- 

 tably the Carniolan stock which is 

 probably as fine as any Italian. The 

 great trouble is to maintain it in its 

 maturity on account of its markings be- 

 ing so near like the common bee. 



Another thing that has helped Ameri- 

 can bee culture is the discovery of Par- 

 thenogenesis by Rev. John Dierzone in 

 1848. 



When we consider the progress of 

 bee culture you will pardon me for 

 bringing in the foreign inventions, be- 

 cause it became necessary to use these, 

 and I must give credit to whom credit 

 is due. 



By this discovery we have that which 

 enables us to control our stock better 

 and make better selections, and 

 aids us in the wonderful business of 

 queen rearing very much indeed. 



American bee culture w^as also an- 

 ticipated by the scientific end of it in 

 Europe. We are much slower in taking 

 up that end than in Europe. In this 

 connection of queen rearing, we want 

 to give a little credit to G. M. Doolittle. 

 His scientific queen rearing gave ad- 

 vanced methods with which most of 

 you are familiar. 



This subject is interesting to me per- 

 haps more so than to a great many 

 others and it could be talked upon all 



day. Of course I am jyst going to out- 

 line what I have run against since 

 1854. 



In 1859 just previous to the introduc- 

 tion of the movable comb hive in my 

 yard I lost half of my bees by foul 

 brood. Mr. Quinby's method enabled 

 me to get out of it in time for super- 

 seding my hive with the Langstroth 

 frame. 



I want to credit Mr. Quinby with the 

 smoker, and, while w^e find that there 

 were smokers in Europe previous to 

 his, we have to give him the credit for 

 originality and the success of it in this 

 country. This came out in 1854. 



Mr. Bingham followed this closely 

 with the improved draft, which enabled 

 the fire to continue without, its smoth- 

 ering out, so to speak. 



We are not aware where the tiering 

 system began; the tiering system of 

 supers; it is important in bee culture 

 today, and I believe began in 1865. 

 There are not many who know that, 

 but Mr. Quinby gives it iin his second 

 edition, on page 140, as 1j865. 



It is marvelous what will grow out i 

 of a small ' thing. It looked like A'^ 

 small matter to take a box and set it 

 on top the hive; he had four glass 

 honey boxes, and he would lift them 

 up when the honey yield was coming 

 in and put another under, and in that 

 way he estimated he would get from a 

 third to a half more pounds of honey. 



Mr. Quinby came out with his foul 

 brood cure in 1852, and yet there is 

 more foul brood today than ever in the 

 world, fey- the reason that bee-keeping 

 has advanced so rapidly that there are 

 thousands and thousands more bees. 



Foul brood is here to stay — like other 

 diseases; and in this connection, the 

 more advanced we become in bee cul- 

 ture and the more scientific it becomes, 

 ;t will dwindle down into the hands of 

 a few specialists, and in that way we 

 hope ^ to keep foul brood down. 



When I was a boy the farmers 

 around us had five or six, up to twenty 

 swarms of bees in various box hives 

 and logs. My first yard of bees be- 

 came contaminated through one of 

 these yards having foul brood. My 

 bees lost no time in hunting up that 

 honey and carrying the germs. 



The Wax Extractor — That as used 

 today was originated in Europe also. 

 I quote from Professor Gferster of 

 Berne, Switzerland; he is given as the 

 inventor of it. 





