

Sj Eoiered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 



QEORae W. YORK, Bdltor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, APRIL 28, 1904. 



Vol. XLIV-No, 17. 



c 



Editorial Comments 



} 



ShippinpT Comb Honey to Market. 



Some time ago we were called to examine a small shipment of 

 comb honey that had come to Chicago from a distance of perhaps 300 

 miles by freight 



It was not properly packed in large crates with straw or hay in 

 the bottom. So the honey was in a dilapidated, broken-down condi- 

 tion. There were several sizes of sections, set in different ways, in 

 the same shipping-case. Honey that was granulated was mi.xed in 

 with the nice, ungranulated. The whole thing was pretty much of a 

 mix-up. If the dealer got S cents a pound tor the lot he did well. 



And yet we hare no doubt the producer who shipped it thought 

 he was sending to market a very fine lot of honey. 



It is unfortunate that some bee-keepers will not first try to find 

 out just how to prepare honey for shipping. The result is that on a 

 single shipment they sometimes lose enough to pay for all the books 

 and a year's subscription to all the bee-papers that are published in 

 America to-day. 



The best and more experienced bee-keepers are the ones who 

 appreciate current bee-literature the most. Then how much more 

 should the inexperienced value it? It pays to inform oneself thor- 

 oughly in one's business or work. There is really no good excuse for 

 any bee-keeper to-day going without all the necessary information. 

 It can be had for so small a cost. 



Patents in Bee-Keeping. 



Occasionally there arises one in the liee-keeping line who thinks he 

 has some invention that is going to revolutionize the industry of bee- 

 culture. He therefore patents it. Perhaps in the majority of cases it 

 is a new kind of bee-hive. His special hive will simply compel the 

 bees to store lots of surplus honey '. But it is mostly on paper, or " in 

 his mind." 



After making a careful examination of all the apiarian patents 

 ever granted in this country. Editor E. R. Root gives this as the result 

 of his investigation : 



Nine-tenths— yes, 1 am safe in saying ninety-nine percent — of all 

 patents relating to bee-culture have been issued to men — can hardly 

 call them bee-keepers — who have had almost no practical knowledg-e 

 of the general principles covering hive-construction and the general 

 habits of bees. The great majority of these useless inventions, even if 

 they would accomplish what was expected of them liy the brilliant i : > 

 geniuses that evolved them, would have absolutely no sile, for the 

 simple reason that the dear public is not going to pay for something 

 for which it has absolutely no need. Let me give a few illustrations 

 of some of the wonderful ( >.) inventions. 



One inventor got up a hiving-apparatus that consisted of cog- 

 wheels, shafting, chain-gearing, and elaborate frame-work, for dump- 

 ing a Bwarm, after it has clustered, into a hive. The whole apparaius 

 would cost a hundred times as much as any swarm is worth. Ami, 

 just think of it! here was a man who had the temerity to payout 

 *1U0 for a patent covering something he supposed would have a de- 

 mand ! Was he after glory or money? 



And then the devices that were gotten up to catch the motli- 

 miller! The amount of brains and time that has been spentontl'i- 

 one subject alone is enough to have made a nice little fortune. \\ ■ 

 have something like 1500 api' ultural patents in our office, whii , 



number comprises the entire list. Probably a fourth of them is de- 

 voted to moth-traps — say there are 300; then let us estimate -^100 as 

 the cost of each patent, or -$30,000. This amount went into the hands 

 of patent attorneys. Besides, this is loss of time, which, if it had been 

 spent behind the plow-handle, would have made another fortune. 



It does seem as if the general government ought to have an expert 

 to pass on the practicability of some of the subjects that come up for 

 patents. This would afford protection to some fools who need to be 

 saved from themselves, and save thousands of dollars; but it might 

 also throw thousands of quack attorneys out of business. 



If there were an expert in each department who would rule out 

 certain inventions that have no value, it would save good dollars, 

 wasted efforts, and blighted hopes. But the government does do 

 something in this line to a certain extent. 



We certainly would not try to discourage real inventions, but how 

 silly it is for one, who has had perhaps only a few months' experience 

 with bees, to think that he is able so to improve the hives and other 

 fixtures of beedom as to revolutionize the business, and himself 

 command wealth and fame ! How very many devices have been pat- 

 ented that never were in sufficient demand to pay the cost of securing 

 the patent. In the twenty years that we have been connected with 

 bee-keeping interests, we can not recall a half-dozen apiarian inven- 

 tions that ever paid the expense of having them patented. It's dis- 

 couraging to would-be inventors in this line, but it is history that is 

 well worth heeding. 



The Uncertainties of Bee-Keeping. 



We suppose there is scarcely another calling or occupation that 

 contains so many uncertainties as does that of bee-keeping. But these 

 very probabilities are what give to the subject some of its greatest in- 

 terest. If all knew in advance just what the future is to be, would 

 they be any better off ? Hardly. (Jften it is a good thing — a blessing— 

 that no one knows definitely what is to happen later on. Of course 

 there are occasions when it might be well to know, but in the great 

 majority of cases we believe it is much better that things are as they 

 are. 



Not to know just how matters will result, should be an incentive 

 to do all we can — our very best — in order that whatever the result 

 may be, we can feel that we did what we could — lived up to our best 

 light and endeavor. 



The varied uncertainties of bee-keeping come rather harder on the 

 bee-papers than anywhere else. With farming it is different. A 

 man who buys a farm does so with the intention of doing something 

 at that business for a term of years — perhaps for life. But many of 

 those who begin to keep bees do not give them the required attention, 

 and at the proper time. Such seem to think all that is necessary is to 

 buy a few bees, put them in a particular kind of patented hive, and 

 then forget about them until time to take off the honey crop. By 

 that time, if there isn't a hundred pounds or so to the colony, they 

 think bee-keeping doesn't pay ! 



The fact is, there are too many people who take up bee-keeping 

 just as any other fad that strikes their fancy. For a time " they run 

 well," and then they're " all run down.' Perhaps they have bought a 

 bee-book and subscribed for a bee-paper — neither of which has been 

 carefully read and directions followed. The next thing we hear they 

 are "out of the business." No wonder. They never got fully into 

 the business of beekeeping. The only way to do anything is /« lA/ 17. 

 It requires determination, and a willingness to apply oneself to the 

 work. " There is no excellence without labor." No success without 

 it, either. 



Now, if there are any among our readers who are dilly-dallying 



