GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



365 



I remember him as one of the brighest types of 

 a genial, good-natured representative of Ger- 

 many — a man of the most strict integrity and 

 honesty. He was born at Haienbrunn, Ger- 

 many, March 18, 1838, and died April 20, 1893. 

 His home for the last thirty years has been at 

 Jefferson, Wis. A. I. R. 



STATISTICAL REPORT ON WINTERING. 



In response to our inquiry in our last issue, 

 for reports on wintering, we have received 

 about 100 letters. I was surprised at the good 

 showing. Scarcely one had lost over 33 per 

 cent, and there was a very large number who 

 had lost absolutely none whatever. As was 

 to be expected, inexperienced and slipshod bee- 

 keepers did not winter as well as those who 

 read bee-journals. But before these reports 

 came in, quite a number of our agents who are 

 selling our goods wrote that they would not be 

 needing the usual amount of bee-supplies, as 

 bee-keepers had lost pretty heavily all around 

 them. I have wondered whether they, the 

 agents, were not guessing that the losses would 

 be much greater than they really were. «The 

 fact of the matter is, that, although we have 

 had very severe winter, the spring and fall 

 were unusually favorable; and experience has 

 shown, time and again, that it is much harder 

 to " spring"' bees than to winter them. After a 

 severe winter and a moderate spring, bees will 

 come out from their winter quarters in very 

 much better condition than when the reverse is 

 true— a moderate winter with a prolonged cold 

 spring. 



HAS "he done and GONE AND DONE IT?" 



" Observer," in Progressive Bee-keeper for 

 April 1, gives expression to the. following: 



We knew Ernest Root was Incubating- something 

 to take us in with some time ago, and now he's 

 "done and gone and done it." That twelve-frame 

 hive is what's the matter now. Say, friend R., 

 can't you give us a rest ? We don't want any more 

 new hives for a while yet. What we want is more 

 honey, and more money for the honey. Will the 

 twelve-frames give us that ? 



If I have advocated the twelve-frame hive i n 

 preference to the eight or ten, I did not know 

 it. I believe the most I have ever said in its 

 favor was that there was a possibility that 

 large hives would give better results. I knew 

 our sixteen-frame colonies at our basswood 

 yard last summer had done better than the 

 eight-frame; but this was only one straw. A 

 short time ago, from the testimony that came 

 in I concluded, and so expressed myself on these 

 pages, that sixteen was too large, and that, if 

 we must have large hives, the twelve-frame 

 was the extreme limit. The substance of this 

 opinion is given in several different numbers, 

 and I do not see how from this I have "gone 

 and done it" or how I was " incubating some- 

 thing " to take in the unsuspecting. I have 

 written the hive matter in our catalog; and 



while admitting that ten and twelve frames 

 may be preferred by a few, I urged strongly 

 the use of the eight frame — see second para- 

 graph, page 4. Dear mel Some one else has 

 been saying that I am an advocate of a double 

 brood-nest. I did not kno^v it before. I am 

 simply open to conviction, and have been 

 trying to call forth the truth, no matter 

 whether it favors supply-dealers or anybody 

 else. If we ever adopt the twelve-frame as the 

 standard it will be much against our will and 

 our pocketbooks, as well as the pocketbooks of 

 bee-keepers who might be foolish enough to 

 follow every such fad. Take it all in all, Ob- 

 server, if I am not very much in error we stand 

 on about the same footing, and I therefore in- 

 dorse your two last sentences heartily; but at 

 the same time do we want to shut our eyes to 

 the value that there may be in other systems 

 and in other managements '? It is a publisher's 

 business to dish up the truth impartially. Am 

 I not right? 



WHAT I THINK ABOUT PATENTS. 



What do you think I have on my desk, in a 

 prominent position? A patent - binder — not 

 something that I patented myself, but a binder 

 containing copies of patents of all important 

 apicultural inventions. We have made ar- 

 rangements whereby we now receive a copy of 

 all patents on apicultural inventions as soon as 

 they are issued from the Patent Office. Some 

 of them, I feel sure, will never bring their own- 

 ers any return; others give promise of being 

 useful, and perhaps will be of some advantage 

 to their owners in a pecuniary way. I hope so. 

 Whatever may have been the opinions of my 

 respected parent in the past, the more I look 

 into the patent system in the United States 

 the more I feel like admiring it. Although it 

 has its defects, the system in our country, I 

 believe the world acknowledges, is the most 

 perfect in the world. And the fact that some 

 of the greatest and most useful inventions have 

 emanated from this land is evidence along this 

 line. 



Are we going to patent any of our recent de- 

 vices? No— that is, we have no intention of 

 doing so now. But I have advised one or two — 

 yes, several — to secure their ideas by patent, 

 even when I knew that such a patent might 

 compel us in time to pay royalty. As examples 

 of this I would refer to the Crane smoker and 

 the Porter bee-escape, both now well-known 

 and useful implements. I believe most thor- 

 oughly in the idea that inventive genius, and 

 the product of the brain in this line, should be 

 rewarded. On the other hand, I believe that 

 our patent system should be so modified as to 

 restrict some of the fearful abuses connected 

 with some of these patent-monopolies. I am 

 glad to see that the Supreme Court has recently 

 made some much-needed and substantial limi- 

 tations. 



