278 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



thusiasm it has never dreamed of any- 

 thing- so magnificent as the project out- 

 lined in Gleanmgs. 



Mr. Root: — The above company has 

 been incorporated in the state of New 

 York, and on July 15 will start their first 

 apiary of 1,000 colonies at Kingston, 

 Jamaica, W. I. It is the intention of the 

 company to increase to 50,000 colonies. 

 The Board of Directors are: J. S. 

 Charlton. New York, President; A. B. 

 Peters, Brooklyn, N. Y., Secretary and 

 Treasurer; W. C. Morris, Yonkers, N. Y., 

 Theodore Hess, Patterson, N. J., and 

 Herman Neubert. Brooklyn, N. Y. The 

 field work will be under the personal 

 direction of W. C. Morris, the Yonkers 

 bee keeper. A large bottling plant will 

 be established in New York, and the pro- 

 duct sold direct to the grocery trade. 

 Agencies have been established in Eng- 

 land and Germany. Any other informa- 

 tion will be furnished by 



A. B. Peters, Sec. 

 After reading the foregoing I wrote to 

 Mr. Morris, asking- for particulars, and 

 received the following letter accompanied 

 by the portrait of the author, which I 

 reproduce. 



Yonkers, N. Y. June 21. 1910 

 Friend Hutchinson:— Ycurs to hand in 

 reg-ard to Ame-ican Bee Products Co. 1 

 am one of the five directors of the com- 

 pany. It is a stock company, incorporated 

 under the laws 

 of the state of 

 New York. I 

 will probably 

 leave for Jamai- 

 ca sometime in 

 July, buy 250 

 colonies of bees, 

 and send from 

 home 1,000 ten- 

 frame two-story 

 hives; and everv 

 thing needed for 

 an up-to-date 

 apiary. I will 

 incease to 1,000 

 colonies by Dec. 1. After the flow is 

 over I will increase to 3,000 the second 

 year, and continue to increase one to 

 three, until we have 50.000 colonies; 

 which we hope to have in five years time. 

 I am to have full charge of the field- 

 work; in fact, I am the only practical 

 bee man in the company, and 1 have 

 been at the business only four years, but 

 have made a good living at it for the 

 past two years. I have a business now 

 paying about $5,000 a year. 



I suppose you would like to know my 

 plans, but, although I have laid out 

 just what 1 intend to do, local conditions 

 may change my plans. 



As already stated, I have been in the 

 bee business only four years. Although 

 I had over 100 colonies last year, and 

 more than 200 this year, I have had no 

 s-warms. So far as I am concerned, I 

 am not interested in non-swarming de- 

 vices. I started with one colony, in- 

 creased to six. The second year I in- 

 creased the six to sixteen, then the next 

 year increased one to twenty in a season. 

 I increased on August first, last year, 

 two to ten, wintered them, and sold the 

 ten on May first at 810.00 per colony. 

 Isold 108 colonies last year, and, so far 

 this year. 87, at an average price of 

 about $10.00 per colony. 



I have read everything published in 

 English on bees, and tested by actual 

 experience everything that looked good 

 to me. I have visited most of the promi- 

 nent New York state apiaries, Alexander 

 and others, and. although this venture 

 may look big to some people, and I be- 

 lieve at least one of the bee journals will 

 give me a dig, you can't, as you have 

 been preaching "more bees;" and these 

 fellows who say "it can't be did" will 

 have to crawl into their hole. 



I am going to establish these 50 yards, 

 with 1.000 colonies in a yard if possible; 

 and will have more than 50 yards if 

 necessary, with an absolutely perfect 

 organization and system. With a capa- 

 ble manager for each yard, 50,000 

 colonies will be no harder to run than 

 500. You see, I am going somewhat 

 slowly in this matter, and will not start 

 the total amiount until the fifth year. 



We will also start a large bottling 

 plant in New York City, and sell direct 

 to the New York City grocery trade. 

 We may start in Aug. 1. if we do, we 

 will need several carloads of honey. 



While I bslieve in keeping bses in large 

 numbers, I don't feel very hopeful re- 

 garding the success of this undertaking. 

 His portrait shows Mr. Morris to be a 

 bright man, and four years will enable 

 one to learn quite a little about bee 

 keeping, but the conditions in Jamaica 

 are so different from those of New York, 

 that this experience does not count for so 

 very m.uch. Another serious difficulty 

 is that of securing 50 men, each compe- 

 tent to manage 1,000 colonies. Of 

 course, the project may succeed; I sin- 

 cerely hope that it will; but it strikes 



