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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 20, 1901. 



upon smooth flat stones, that were easily procurable, from 

 one to two inches thick, and laid flat on the ground, dis- 

 tributed all about over a large yard. Now when the worms 

 fell to the bottom they had no place to hide, could not 

 get back on the combs, so had to go to the ground, and 

 many were picked up by the chickens and birds— the little 

 brown house-wrens were often seen busy around the hives 

 gathering these worms for their brood. 



My father tried other projects — had hives placed in a 

 house, and had the entrance to them through long flat tubes 

 extending a foot or so outside the walls of the house, so the 

 moth-fly could not find her way into the hive, 1 suppose. 

 He had a theory that it was necessary for the worms to 

 have access to wood for material to form their cocoons 

 with, as we often see them scrape and cut into the wood of 

 the hive to enclose themselves ; and he got the idea of hav- 

 ing hives made like common crockery or stoneware, but 

 not being near to any crockery manufactory he failed to 

 try the experiment. The hives placed upon the stone with 

 an open entrance all around that was never closed or con- 

 tracted, winter or summer, seems to have given the best 

 satisfaction, for they were used in that way until I adopted 

 the Langstroth movable-comb hive in 1863. 



I remember some curious devices of my neighbors" 

 One had a hive suspended by chains in a tree some 20 or 25 

 feet from the ground — to imitate the natural abode of bees 

 in hollow trees, I suppose. Another had a bee-house with 

 arrangements for getting surplus honey from below the 

 hive instead of the usual way from the top. A trough-like 

 box 12 or 14 inches square extended around the inside of the 

 house, and was divided into compartments, and upon this 

 box the hives were set, the bees having to pass through the 

 box to get out. When they had filled the hives, they would 

 fill the box below, and a trap door was arranged on the box 

 so the honey could be cut out. He claimed that it worked 

 well. 



There was another curious bee-house in his front yard. 

 It was a section of a very large hollow sycamore tree, 

 probably four feet in diameter and eight feet high. It was 

 placed upon a post a foot above the ground with a floor in 

 it, and a neat, conical roof of shingles, with a staff in the 

 top, and was quite ornamental. A door was sawed out and 

 was hinged so that one could go into it ; and in it an ordi- 

 nary box-hive of bees was placed. When the bees filled 

 the box they would build comb all over and around the out- 

 side of it. The door to the big "gum" was opened, and 

 the honey outside of the hive cut off whenever needed, or 

 as cool weather came on. I don't know whether this col- 

 ony ever swarmed or not. Ontario, Canada. 

 (To be continued.) 



Bee-Keepers' Exchanges— Organization and 

 Co-operation. 



WAUai for the Wiseotisui State £ee- Keepers' CoHvention held at Jfadi.sun. 

 BY C. A. HATCH. 



WE have so often heard it said, "In union there is 

 strength," that it has lost its power to affect our 

 understanding. A single straw would not be much 

 to match against a man's strength, and yet if that single 

 straw be increased by numbers enough it can defy the 

 strength of the strongest man. 



An army would not accomplish much if each soldier 

 ware allowed to go and do as he pleased regardless of every 

 other soldier ; but it is only when the soldier ceases to be 

 an individual, and becomes a unit of the whole, that it 

 becomes an army and ceases to be a mob, that effective 

 work can be done, and it becomes a power. 



ORGANIZATION. 



Concentration and organization are the effective means 

 of progress in the beginning of the new century. Unor- 

 ganized labor is being pushed to the wall by organized. 

 The manufacturer who is not in a syndicate, trust, or some- 

 thing of the kind, has a hard row to hoe. He may make 

 just as good an article, and may be able to sell it for the 

 same price as the trust article, but then comes in the item 

 of freight-rates which is sure to down him if nothing else 

 will. The large concerns have larger quantities to move, 

 and therefore can ship by car or even train load, thereby 

 getting lower rates, to say nothing of treaties with rail- 

 roads whereby special rates may be obtained. 



WHOM IT HBLPS. 



The small bee-keeper with only a small output is the 

 one that an exchange can help most. He is one of the 

 small straws that are to be bound together to make the 

 strong rope. Ten men having one-tenth of a car-load each, 

 by organizing, can have almost the advantages of him 

 who produces a car-load himself. The large producer gains 

 by having small lots where they can be controlled, and not 

 put on the market at ruinous prices, to demoralize all 

 prices. 



Bee-keepers are of necessity more or less isolated, and 

 hence can not avail themselves of the help of organization 

 as readily as some other callings. But even these difficul- 

 ties can be overcome. 



ADVANTAGES. 



The advantage of lower freight, both on goods shipped 

 by members and goods shipped to members, is one of the 

 advantages of bee-keepers' exchanges. Also the difference 

 between buying at retail and in car-lots or large quantities 

 is another advantage. This will apply to all supplies used 

 by the members, as. for example, hives, sections, founda- 

 tion, cans, and barrels. 



Another of the advantages of a well-managed ex- 

 change is in the uniform grading of the bee-keepers' 

 products. Few men are capable of grading their own 

 honey in a proper manner, for they are either too partial to 

 their own production and grade too high, or they are too 

 diffident of their own success and modestly put it too low, 

 and yet others are downright dishonest and think anything 

 they can work off is all right ; whereas, an honest, capable 

 grader has none of these influences to draw him one side 

 and warp his judgment, and therefore can give a uniform 

 and honest grade. One of the trials of a dealer is in not 

 getting a uniform quality from different producers, owing 

 to their different ideas as to grading, and if an exchange 

 could do nothing else this one thing would pay for all the 

 trouble. 



Not every bee-keeper, however good he may be at pro- 

 ducing good crops of honey, is a good salesman, many a 

 bee-keeper losing heavily in mismanagement in selling 

 what has cost him so much hard labor. 



In an exchange one can have the advantage of the 

 concentrated wisdom of all the membership in selling, by 

 selecting one of the best business men for business mana- 

 ger. 



Uniformity of packages for both comb and extracted 

 honey is another of the benefits of an exchange ; being all 

 bought at the same time and place, of course all would be 

 alike, and, therefore, many of the trials over tare on pack- 

 ages would be overcome, dealers would become familiar 

 with the packages used, and know just what shape it would 

 come to them in. In fact, uniformity is the word that 

 expresses most of the benefits. Uniformity of products as 

 to grading, uniformity as to packages, and, last but not 

 least, uniformity of price. 



One kind and grade of honey would always bring the 

 same price, no matter from what part of the State it came, 

 and not as it now is — one producer competing against 

 another producer, or even against his own products, as 

 would be the case where shipped to two dealers in the same 

 city. 



COST OF CO-OPERATION. 



Everything in this life costs time, labor, or money, and 

 a honey exchange is no exception. It will cost both money 

 and self-denial to accomplish anything worthy of the 

 name. Postage, paper, and some one to carry on the cor- 

 respondence, must be paid for ; a room large enough to 

 store a car-load of honey in, at some central point in the 

 State, would have to be secured, and also the services of a 

 salesman. But in my experience with honey exchanges, 

 which has been quite extensive and varied, all these obli- 

 gations of the members are more easily met than the self- 

 denial required to say oitr honey is not a little nicer than 

 neighbor B's, our opinion is of a little more value than any 

 one else's. 



If an exchange is to succeed, there must be a full and 

 complete surrender of individual opinion to the rule of the 

 majority. We must think our honey just what the grader 

 makes it, and no more. Be honest yourself, and give 

 others the credit of being the same, and half the troubles 

 of organization will vanish. 



There are other advantages in an exchange not men- 

 tioned in this paper, and on account of its length the plan 

 of organization has not been mentioned, although much is 



