THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



283 



foul lirood from Mich sources. The 

 liccusc fee could he used to assist iu 

 caring for inspection expenses. 



'I"he hee-keepers certainly received a 

 royal welcome in ]\linneapt)lis. Even 

 the hotels seemed iminied with the 

 "glad hand" spirit, and across one end 

 of the dining room of the Hotel Ven- 

 dome. which was selected as the hee- 

 men's headquarters, was hung a sign 

 reading, "Welcome, Busy Bee Associa- 

 tion." Honey was also on the bill of 

 fare. 



At the National Convention, ]\Ir. 

 Hamlin Poor, of Bird Island, Minn., 

 advanced a good argument to use with 

 State Legislators when working for 

 foul brood laws. He said that instead 

 of trying to show up the value of bees 

 to the bee-keeper, it is lietter to show 

 up their value to horticulture, and that 

 the valuable fruit crop depends to a 

 large extent upon the welfare of the 

 honey bee. Good argument, that. 



^Manager France explained a method 

 of keeping bees from water tanks, by 

 simply covering the tanks with boards, 

 cutting a hole in the center for the 

 stock to drink from. He explained 

 that bees would never bother a water 

 tank unless they could get at the edges 

 to drink. Another plan where bees are 

 bothering by getting water from the 

 tank overflow^ is to conduct that over- 

 flow some distance from the tank by 

 the use of an iron pipe. Good ideas, 

 both. 



Standardizing Our Packages. 



The question of standard packages is 

 an important one. If we could have 

 standard sections, standard shipping 

 cases, standard hives, standard ex- 

 tracted honey packages, a great saving 

 would be accomplished. Machines 

 could be set to manufacture the stand- 

 ard. Jobbers could keep a supply 



of but one thing, the standard. Bee- 

 keepers could order together, or buy 

 from one another in case of necessity, 

 and not find themselves in the predica- 

 ment mentioned at the National, where 

 several bee-keepers found themselves 

 out of sections, but learning of one 

 bee-keeper who had an over supply, 

 went to him and found them all a dif- 

 ferent sice. 



The question is. how shall this be 

 brought about? Not by the bee-keep- 

 ers, for they can't agree on what they 

 want. Not by the supply men, for they 

 naturally would be partial to their par- 

 ticular size and make. Not by the 

 honey-jobber, for possibly he has builc 

 up a trade in some particular size. By 

 whom then can we look for the solu- 

 tion to this perplexing queestion? To 

 the zvhole lot of them combined. 



It is stated that Mr. Souther, the 

 well-known steel expert, was given the 

 task of standardizing the formulae and 

 heats, etc., for the best kind of steel 

 to be used for specific purposes. Thus 

 all other engineers were able to ar- 

 range and specify formulae that they 

 could be sure would produce steel that 

 would meet any requirements of their 

 specifications. 



Mr. Southers gave his brother engi- 

 neers this information freely. In turn 

 some gave their special knowledge of 

 carburetors, others of other parts. Steel 

 tubing for instance was originally made 

 in three thousand sizes. It is now 

 made in less than three hundred. Stand- 

 ardization of such things, through the 

 co-operation of the automobile engi- 

 neers, lessened detail, lessened losss, 

 lessened costs, work and worry, and 

 has produced a wonderful saving for the 

 automobile industry. 



The bee-keeper, the supply manufac- 

 turer, the jobber, and the honey-dealer 

 would all welcome standard sizes. No 

 one can get them alone, but a delega- 

 tion from all, coming together with 

 facts and figures, could work out this 



