W. Z. Hutchinson, Late Editor of the "Bee-Keepers' Review" 



An apicultural chieftain has fallen. He 

 was one of the leaders not only in the 

 actual work of the apiary for many years, 

 but also in the literature of advanced bee- 

 culture. He was a far-seeing prophet of 

 the time when honey-production should 

 be placed upon a firm business basis, and 

 not conducted in connection with some 

 other pursuit. He preached the gospel of 

 "keeping more .bees," and practiced what 

 he preached. He was ever discovering 

 the best methods of apiarian procedure, 

 and describing them for the benefit of 

 others through the Bee-Keepers' Review, 

 which he founded in 1887, and of which 

 he was editor and publisher from first to 

 last. The Bee-Keepers' Review was W. 

 Z. Hutchinson. No other man can wholly 

 take his place as its editor and conductor. 

 His peculiar and fascinating personality 

 permeated its pages and general manage- 

 ment so thoroughly that it was a publica- 

 tion unique and widely different from all 

 others in its field. 



Mr. Hutchinson was born in Orleans 

 Co., N. Y., Feb. 17, 1851, and 4 years later 

 his father moved to Genesee Co., Mich. 

 " W. Z." was of a mechanical turn of mind, 

 which he followed until 18 years of age, 

 when he began to teach school in the win- 

 ter-time. It was the custom in those days 

 to "board around," and in that way he 

 happened to find a bee-book, which open- 

 ed his eyes to a new world. Following 

 this "lead " he discovered a bee-keeper by 

 the name of Simpson, who had an only 

 daughter in whom Mr. Hutchinson became 

 even more interested than he was in her 

 father's bees. She later became Mrs. 

 Hutchinson, and to-day is left with ',i 

 daughters to mourn for the one they so 

 much loved, and who departed this life 

 May .30, 1911. 



In a letter written to us by Mrs. Hutch- 

 inson, she speaks thus tenderly of her late 

 husband : 



Fmnt. Mich.. June 5. mii. 



Mr. York : — Mr. Hutchinson kept up his cour- 

 age until a//7/oj/ the last of his conscious days. 

 as he was unconscious a day and a niiiht before 

 the end. and nearly so for 2 d.iys before. Not 

 more than a week before he said; " I have not 

 done anythingaboiit the next Review, but euess 

 I will let it KO this month, and may be next."" 

 For he was tryint' so very much tr) get well, and 

 thousrht it best to do all he could towards it. 

 "ihere were so many complications that ap- 

 peared just as we felt encouraged to think he 

 was gain ing. 



While he was in the hospital at Ann Arbor in 

 the spring, and ever since that time, he sat up 

 in his bed and kept the Review eoini;. always 

 with the expectation of getting well, and all of 

 his work was planned with that end in view. A 

 ^^//^T man. / believe, never lived, nor a kinder 

 husband or father. He looked, as he lay in his 

 casket, as if he had never been ill. and it did 

 seem sohardtoha\e them take him away; hut 

 I feel that iume day I i/r.(//see him again. 



I was obliged to lei my little grandson that has 

 lived with us so long, go to his home In Detroit 

 while Mr. Hutchinson was so ill. At the time 

 of the furneral. little Hruce. being himself too 

 ill to come, said he was going to die as soon as 

 he could so he could see grandpa! This must 

 tell how he loved him 



Mks W.Z. Hutchinson. 



We became acquainted with Mr. Hutch- 

 inson in November, 1886, while attending 

 a meeting of the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association at Indianapolis, Ind., where 

 we roomed together in the hotel. It was 

 about 2 months after our own marriage, 

 and Mr. Hutchinson being somewhat 

 older, we had a delightful and confidential 

 talk on topics uppermost in our minds at 

 that time. He gave us some brotherly ad- 

 vice, and we became fast friends there- 

 after. Whenever he came to Chicago he 

 would always call on us, and it was our 

 pleasure to be in his home for a night 

 when on our way to the National conven- 

 tion at Toronto, in IS'Jo. Mr. Hutchinson 

 accompanied us from his home to that 



" He Taught Us To Keep More Bees " 



meeting. We had a long and very pleas- 

 ant journey together. (By the way, that 

 was the lastconvention attended by Father 

 Langstroth, and also Thomas G. Newman 

 who preceded us as editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal.) 



For something like 20 years Mr. Hutch- 

 inson, as editor of the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, Ernest R. Root, as editor of Gleans- 

 ings in Bee Culture, and the writer as 

 editor of the American Bee Journal, have 

 been a trio of friends that have had the 

 best interests of bee-keepers at heart, and 

 have worked harmoniously together for 

 their advancement. In the former days 

 there was considerable unseemly strife 

 among the inventors, dealers and writers 

 in the American bee-keeping world, but 

 in these latter days there have been peace 



and quiet, and, we trust, progress and 

 prosperity throughout the length and 

 breadth of beedom. With perhaps only 

 one or two exceptions during all the past 

 20 years, we three have been such close 

 friends, and our aims have been so nearly 

 parallel, that the sailing on the journal- 

 istic sea of apiculture has been exception- 

 ally smooth, and there have been a steady 

 on-going of the pursuit, and continued 

 increase of the honey out-put. 



Marvelous, also, has been the develop- 

 ment of the manufacturing end of the 

 business, as well as the improvement in 

 every line, particularly that of the litera- 

 ture of bee-keeping. We may, perhaps, 

 be pardoned for thus expressing ourselves, 

 but we want to accord to our departed 

 friend the larger share of credit for ^his 

 later development and advancement. He 

 was ever ferreting out the best and largest 

 honey-producers, and inducing them to 

 reveal the secrets of their success. In the 

 later years of his life he not only kept up 

 his publication to a high standard, but he 

 even launched out into the practical work 

 of the apiary, and hence his advice, " Keep 

 more bees," was born of personal experi- 

 ence and faith in the pursuit. He was 

 thus in a position to exemplify in actual 

 practice what he advised on the printed 

 page. 



In the Bee-Keepers' Reviewfor January, 

 ]!)11, is an editorial paragraph written by 

 Mr. Hutchinson, which shows him a 

 prophet of inspiration, faith and hope for 

 bee-keepers, and also suggests the kind of 

 epitaph he hoped to deserve when he had 

 passed from earth. The item is this : 



Have Faith in Your Business 



I have a feeling of kind regard; in fact. I might 

 almost say. affection, for bee-keepers. I like to 

 see Ihem succeed. Iain doing all in my power 

 to help them succeed. I wish to drive from 

 their minds all doubts and fears, and hesitancy 

 1 wish to inspire them with faith in their busi 

 ness, so that they will dare to go ahead and in- 

 crease their business, and start an apiary here 

 and another one there, and make money, so 

 that they can ride out to their apiaries in an 

 automobile. 'V\'hen I am dead and gone I wish 

 to deserve the epitaph; " He taught us to keep 

 more bees." 



Fqr a number of years Mr. Hutchinson 

 was Secretary of the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, and often had it not been 

 for his ability to write shorthand in those 

 earlier days, many of its annual proceed- 

 ings would never have been preserved. 

 He was also President of the Association 

 for one year, and was always interested in 

 its progress and up-building. 



The bee-keepers of the Eastern United 

 States recently assembled at the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, 

 Mass. There they learned for the first 

 time of the unexpected death of Mr. 

 Hutchinson. Alter several of the bee- 

 keepers had expressed their sympathy for 

 Mrs. Hutchinson, and had spoken of the 

 (Concluded on page 21s.) 



