March, 1908. 



American ^ee Journal 



)>.^^ts»>i 



take charge of the nectar, as some- 

 thing separate from the land, and lease 

 or license to one man a certain amount 

 of territory adjoining his apiary, which 

 would prevent any one from locating 

 an apiary within several miles of him, 

 and guarantee him the exclusive pastur- 

 age of his locality. All the great lights 

 of beedom that expressed themselves 

 on the question at all, such as Dr. Mil- 

 ler, Mr. Hasty, etc., shouted with one 

 accord, "Amen! Speed the day!" Well, 

 I have been waiting ever since for some 

 one to say a few words on the other 

 side of the question, but in vain, so 

 I am going to tackle it myself, even 

 though I may bring a swarm of hy- 

 brids CAmericans) around my ears, in 

 a way that will "send me to cover" in 

 double-quick time. 



First, why should a bee-keeper enjoy 

 special privileges which are not ex- 

 tended to other people in equal and 

 legitimate busin-css enterprises? Why 

 should not the merchant who first set- 

 tles in a village, investing thousands 

 of dollars where the bee-keeper invests 

 hundreds, be likewise protected against 

 competition? Certainly every argu- 

 ment that can be offered in favor of 

 protecting the bee-keeper applies equal- 

 ly well to the merchant; each, if true 

 to his business, will have his all in- 

 vested ; each will be honored and re- 

 spected, the merchants generally being 

 leaders in all things of importance in 

 their localities, more so than the bee- 

 keepers, and, as we are all human, it 

 is pleasing to any ambitious person to 

 feel that he is considered "somebody" 

 in his community; and as each is likely 

 to remain indefinitely before competi- 

 tion appears, they are likely to form 

 the same ties socially through friend- 

 ship, relationship, and otherwise. The 

 parallel is complete, and I will only 

 show why the bee-keeper should not 

 have a monopoly on his locality. 



First, I believe that but few people 

 would put forth their best efforts if it 

 were not for competition. This tends 

 to make a better bee-keeper with com- 

 petition than without. 



Second, the nectar is gathered over 

 a large area, and as but few bee-keep- 

 ers are extensive land-owners, their bees 

 roaming at their sweet will wherever 

 there is nectar to be found, nearly all 

 of it is gathered on other people's land. 

 It certainly ought to be regarded as a 

 free product — free to any man who 

 wishes to keep bees to gather it. 



Third, competition is the one thing 

 that upholds the law of "the survival 

 of the fittest," and to this we can at- 

 tribute nearly all progress made in api- 

 culture. If priority should hold the 

 pasturage of a locality, than the farmer 

 with his 25 or 50 boxes of bees (some 

 of them rotten with foul brood, etc.) 

 getting little or no honey, would hold 

 and prevent any up-to-date and pro- 

 gressive bee-keeper from coming in and 

 establishing a profitable business in a 

 perhaps really good locality. With com- 

 petition when the up-to-date bee-man 

 moves in, Mr. Farmer will soon find 

 out that he is behind in his methods, 

 that he must get rid of his box-hives 

 and his sulphur pit, and take a bee- 

 paper or two, or get out of the busi- 

 ness. 



F'ourth. the right of priority as we 

 have it at present, is all the protection 

 any up-to-date bee-keeper needs, and 

 of course no others ought to be pro- 

 tected. If he is at all up to the times, 

 he will know his honey-flows and be 

 prepared for them. He will have years 

 of experience. He will know of weather 

 conditions as pertaining to apiculture, 

 and will kcei) at all times all the bees his 

 locality will support, one year with 

 another. And above all things, he will 

 tell about his failures as well as his 

 successes. This last item alone will, 

 I think, eliminate 50 per cent of your 

 prospective competition, and if you live 

 up to Rule 4, the other 50 percent will 

 not continue in the business long 

 enough to become dangerous. If you 

 do find a fellow who is going to stick 

 to it, he will know that it is to his 

 advantage to seek another locality rath- 

 er than "buck" the old-timer. 



If any of your neighbors should con- 



tract the bee-fever to such an extent 

 that they are just bound to try their 

 hand at it, don't be afraid to sell him 

 some bees if you can spare them, at 

 the same time also telling him that 

 it takes years of study to be a success- 

 ful bee-keeper, and that you are keeping 

 all the bees the pasturage will allow 

 profitably. If he still persists, and 

 won't believe you, let him have the bees, 

 and by the time he uses a small stone 

 quarry to keep his supers from blow- 

 ing away, and if you let him get his 

 "pointers" from the rear end of the 

 bees, and not from you, for a year or 

 two. he will think you told the truth, 

 and he will be cured to stay cured, 

 and will sell you his outfit at your own 

 price. 



Now, if Dr. Miller or Mr. Hasty, lose 

 their localities (which I hope may never 

 happen) — well, they needn't come to me 

 for sympathy. 



Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 18. 



Slftlngs from a New York Bee- 

 Keepers' Institute 



BY F. GREINER. 



It was a happy thought for the two 

 societies of Ontario and Seneca to have 

 a joint meeting at Canandaigua, N. Y., 

 Dec. ID and 11, 1907. While the at- 

 tendance from Seneca was not great it 

 brought over the best timber — certainly 

 an advantage for all present. 



From the presidents' addresses the 

 following may be of interest and give' 

 food for thought to bee-keepers who are 

 not organized and rarely, if ever, attend 

 bee-conventions ; 



H. L. Case, President of the Ontario 

 County Bee-Keepers' Society. — When 

 bodies of men are organized they be- 

 come recognized. They are in a posi- 

 tion to accomplish something by their 

 united elTorts. We have made advances 

 in purchasing supplies and should do 

 more in disposing of our products. We 

 ought to keep up the price. Small, un- 

 informed producers have sold fancy 

 honey in this place at 10 cents per 

 pound, ruining the market for others at 

 the start. If anything could be done, 

 we surely ought to do it. 



J. T. Greene, President of the Seneca 

 County Bee-Keepers' Society. — Of all 

 the work men are engaged in, none is 

 so full of enthusiasm as bee-keeping. 

 In other enterprises we find dead men. 

 We find dead doctors, dead ministers, 

 lawyers and other professionals, but a 

 bee-keeper, if he is at all interested in 

 his occupation, he keeps either growing 

 or he will drop out. In order to con- 

 trol and improve the market we must 

 do missionary work — have these other 



bee-keepers join our society, or buy 

 them out. 



Foul Brood and Its Tre.\tiient. 



The question of foul brood is a grave 

 one. The disease is spreading and com- 

 ing upon us. Our very existence de- 

 pends upon our vigilance to keep the 

 disease in check. Let us be on our 

 guard. 



Chas. Stewart, foul brood inspector, 

 emphasized what had been said about 

 keeping up the home market. In his 

 locality they had been successful — they 

 had either educated or bought out. 



On the foul brood question he took 

 an optimistic view. The disease had 

 cost a great deal to the bee-keepers, but 

 there was a silver lining to it, after all. 

 It had made better bee-keepers and 

 taught them that they must keep in 

 close touch w'ith each other to control 

 ind cure this disease. Some slovenish 

 bee-keepers had their bees entirely wiped 

 out, while careful men saved theirs. 

 There were not nearly so many dis- 

 eased bees in the formerly badly afflict- 

 ed districts. 



In treating an apiary the bees are 

 shaken only once. The hives are not 

 disinfected, but the frames are steamed 

 or burned. Only one out of 10 colo- 

 nies shaken once r>eeds shaking the sec- 

 ond time. A careful bee-keeper can 

 treat his bees with but little loss. He 

 placed great stress again upon the fact 

 that the Italian bee withstood the dis- 

 ease much better than the other com- 

 mon race. The Carniolans he found 

 to be more immune than the common 

 blacks- He also said that the disease 

 could be cured in the fall by shaking 



