1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



355 



"Owing to the preponderance of local bee- 

 keepers, many of whona are not very well up in 

 the business, our time has been occupied in ex- 

 plaining to tyros what even beginners in bee- 

 keeping may be very properly supposed to be 

 familiar with." 



Now, these are pretty severe assertions; but 

 it will be noticed that they are merely asser- 

 tions on your part, without a shadow of proof 

 given — no attempt at giving a single instance 

 to prove your position. If the association has, 

 for the most part, been a mere school for begin- 

 ners, then the programs will contain, for the 

 most part, such topics as are interesting only to 

 beginners: the discussions reported will be, for 

 the most part, those that would be instructive 

 only to beginners. Such being the case it will 

 be easy to cite instances, and I will ask you to 

 refer us to a North American convention of any 

 one year, and quote the topics for the most 

 part, all the topics quoted being such as are of 

 interest to beginners only. As the list of topics 

 is never long, that ought not to be a hard thing 

 to do. To comport with your statement, the 

 "most part" of the discussions reported will 

 agree with the topics, and it would be asking 

 too much to ask you to quote a majority of the 

 discussions; but I hope you will not consider 

 me unreasonable when I ask you to quote five 

 sentences in the discussions, that would be in- 

 teresting only to beginners. Then when you 

 have done that, will you kindly quote from five 

 places in the report, showing that the informa- 

 tion given was for the benefit of those "who 

 would show plainly that they had never read a 

 book on bee-keeping in their lives"? And if I 

 may tax your patience in just one more thing, 

 please give us, from the report of that same 

 year, five instances where the time was occupi- 

 ed explaining to tyros what beginners are fa- 

 miliar with. 



If it be too much of a tax to do what I have 

 asked, then give us part of the desired proofs; 

 in fact, give us any sort of proof that you have 

 been speaking the words of truth and sober- 

 ness. 



You speak of dislike to thoughtful papers in 

 such connection as to make the impression that 

 weak papers without much thought might be 

 welcomed. What proof for this? If there be 

 any guilt in that direction, I come nearer being 

 the guilty person than any one else I know of. 

 I have thought for years that essays were of no 

 benefit to a properly conducted convention of 

 bee-keepers; but my objection was not special- 

 ly against thoughtful papers, for the less of 

 thought the more the objection. 



You say, " There has always been a strongly 

 marked dislike for . . . really able discus- 

 sions.'' Will you give us, not five, but just one 

 tiny item of proof for this? Name just one 

 man or woman, who has ever had any thing to 

 do with controlling a North American conven- 



tion, who has always shown, or ever shown, a 

 marked dislike for really able discussions. 



You say, " My idea was and is, that at a rep- 

 resentative bee-keepers' meeting we have a right 

 to look for what we don't get in manuals of bee 

 culture; namely, a face-to-face discussion of live 

 questions that have arisen in the practical part 

 of our pursuit." Just my idea exactly. Now it 

 will be in order for you to explain to us why in 

 all these years you never before said any thing 

 about the things that you have so plainly seen 

 were all wrong. What topic did you ever pro- 

 pose that would lift us from the elementary 

 plane, that topic being rejected ? 



Will you kindly give us now a few specimen 

 topics upon which we could have "really able 

 discussions " ? for I suppose that your objec- 

 tion was mainly to the topics. At the different 

 conventions there were always some of our very 

 ablest men You were at some of them. Those 

 able men gave us, I think, the best they had 

 upon the topics discussed. Whatever may have 

 been the program, there was always room, I 

 think, for them to introduce other topics through 

 the question-box. 



Or, if the topics were not at fault, please tell 

 us where the trouble was, and show us the rem- 

 edy. There will be many more conventions, 

 larger or smaller, all over the land — State, dis- 

 trict, and county conventions. They have, no 

 doubt, been taking the North American con- 

 ventions, more or less, as models. Give them 

 something better to model after. 



Marengo. 111. 



S, I. FKEEBORN. 



IN THE REMINISCENT VEIN. 



By Knott A. B. Keeper. 



When I first knew the late Mr. Freeborn, of 

 Ithaca, Wis., in 1868, he had about 80 colonies 

 of black bees in Gallup-frame hives. The 

 frames were about a foot square, placed cross- 

 wise of the hive, about a dozen in each. The 

 hive had movable top ar.d bottom boards, and 

 was very handy. His bees were allowed to 

 swarm naturally, and required a good deal of 

 watching during swarming time. One day he 

 had eighteen natural swarms. I was greatly 

 interested to see him handle them in swarm- 

 ing. At that time smokers had not been much 

 used, if invented, and, as a substitute, he 

 rags wound on sticks and set slowly burning, 

 to produce smoke to control the bees where de- 

 sired. 



He had a honey-box about five inches square 

 and a foot long, open at one end. There was a 

 hole in the other end, through which he in- 

 serted his thumb to grasp it by. When he dis- 

 covered a colony start to cast a swarm he got 

 the box, went to a cluster of bees, put a few 

 into the box. and held it up above his head 



