GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jax. 15. 



It is really vei-y impressive, and seems to dignify 

 the subject we are striving to advance, to see how 

 much has heen written ahout it hy many of the 

 soundest thinliers and clearest writers of the world. 



Next in interest to the books was a collection of 

 microscope drawings and plates, and papier-mache 

 medals of tlie bee and kirdred objects. I was made 

 very happy by a gift of a jiliotograiiliic representa- 

 tion of foul brood, which I will try to have reacli 

 you in time for the meeting. As a study of the 

 true disease and its dire results, it is most valuable. 



There was also a collection of sample bottles of 

 honey— tiny bottles they were for the most part, 

 from a quarter-pound to a pound each, carefully 

 labeled to show the place of production— some from 

 Africa, from Palestine, Italy, and from different 

 parts of Great Britain. 



We spent an hour or so in tasting and discussing 

 the relative merits of each, and the development of 

 the industry in the v;irious countries of the world. 



Mr. Cowan spent a number of .\ear8 in Africa, and 

 in Asia and Russia, and is wonderfully well versed 

 in the subject in all its bearings. 



[Perhaps we should explain that the writer 

 of the letter above. Mrs. M. Louisa Thomas, is 

 ex-treasurer of the National Council of Women. 

 She is a member of the Russian Famine Relief 

 Committee of the United States, and her name 

 appears alongside of that of senators of the 

 United States, and the governors of the various 

 States. We infer that she has been on an in- 

 spection-tour in Russia, and if so she can speak 

 from actual observation. We hope we may be 

 favored with her letter on Russian bees and 

 bee-keeping. 



We have long known that Mr. Cowan had a 

 most extensive library; and it is a gratilication 

 to us that we are able to give our readers an 

 inside glimpse into it as it were. It will be re- 

 meniheicd he honored us with a visit in 1887, at 

 which time he exhibited one of the linest mi- 

 croscopes in the woi'ld. togeiher with a valuable 

 collection of microscope-slides relating to api- 



NOKTH AFRICAN BEE-KEEPERS MANIPULATING A HIVE OF PUNIC BEES. PHOTOGRAPHED BY 

 MR. COWAN DURING HIS VISIT TO TUNIS IN 189:.'. 



While in every room of his charming house I saw 

 evidences of his earnestness in his life pursuit. I 

 found one large room specially set apart, tilled with 

 tools of every description, all so orderly and so 

 carefully arranged as to seem like a poem in ma- 

 chinery. 



I was sorry not to be able to accept his kind invi- 

 tation to visit some of the large apiaries in Great 

 Britain, bxit was obliged to defer the pleasure to 

 some future visit. 



Mr. Cowan hopes that the bee-keepers of America 

 will not fall to imi)rove the great opytortunity of 

 making an exhibit at the Columbian Exposition in 

 Chicago next year. I also join in tliis hope. The 

 science as an industrial pursuit never .seemed to me 

 so important as it does to-day, and no part of the 

 world presents so many favorable conditions as does 

 the United States of America. We must not let the 

 opportunity pass. 



1 will reserve my report of the Russian bee and 

 bee-keepers for another time. 



M. Louisa Thomas. 



New York, 4.53 W. 144th St., Dec. 10. 



culture. These latter were of Mr. Cowan's own 

 preparation, many of the specimens being rare 

 and valuable; and the instrument, while made 

 entirely by its owner (presumably in that 

 unique workshop), would fully rival in beauty 

 of finish and workmanship that turned out by 

 any maker of optical goods. While he was here, 

 we were Impressed with the fact that the edit- 

 or of the BritisJi Bee Journal was not only a 

 scholar and a scientist, but an extraordinarily 

 fine mechanic. 



Some days ago we received a photograph, 

 illustrating the temper of Tunisians (Funics) 

 taken by Mr. Cowan himself while in Tunis. 

 As it was taken by the instantaneous process, 

 the shadows were a little too deep to be illus- 

 trated by the half-tone process. Nearly all 

 photographs, unless they are extraordinarily 

 clear in detail, lose something by Wils process 

 of reproduction. We accordingly Instructed 



