u NOVICE'S" GLEAHINGS 15* BEE CULTURE. 



HER KEEPERS' CONVEXTIOXS. 



»EE KEEPERS' CONTENTIONS 

 zMiy where organized in your own im- 

 mediate vicinity, without doubt, should be 

 attended, and those large affairs, which 

 we are expected to travel over whole 

 States to reach, may be a good idea for 

 those possessing ample means; but to 

 the masses, those who keep bees as a 

 source of income, and not for pastime 

 merely, we should unhesitatingly recom- 

 mend some other investment of the 

 money, so far as money is concerned. 

 How much real good have conventions 

 accomplished ? The National Conven- 

 tion at Cincinnati was well worth the in- 

 vestment to see Mr. Langstroth and hear 

 him speak, but a vast amount of time 

 was wasted in useless controversy scarce- 

 ly pertaining to bee culture. At Cleve- 

 land we really cannot find that all the 

 good accomplished, was sufficient to 

 overbalance the injury done by the pro- 

 mulgation of erroneous theories ; and at 

 Indianapolis there seems to have been 

 nothing left but patent hive men and 

 theorists who had as little acquaintance 

 with bees or bee culture, as the late N. Y. 

 Farmers' Club had with farming, and still 

 worse, no one seems to have discovered 

 their mistakes ia time to prevent their 

 going out before the world through the 

 press. Candor compels us to go so far as 

 to state of the numerous reports of dif- 

 ferent conventions sent us, (for which we 

 hereby tender our thanks), that we have 

 found nothing contained in them suf- 

 ficiently new or important to entitle it to 

 a place in "Gleanings," unless we except 

 the address of Mr. Qninby, alluded to in 

 ou* March number. The expense of at- 

 tending distant Conventions would gen- 

 erally much more than cover the cost of 

 all the Bee Journals published — perhaps 

 Langstroth' s andQuinby's work besides — 

 and we must think a careful perusal of 

 these wouid be a more profitable invest- 

 ment of the money. 



Ose of the health journals has an arti- 

 cle on the adulteration of sugar. Now 

 the only part of it that concerns us is the 

 possibility that our A coffee sugar may be 

 other than chemically pure, say ninety- 

 nine per cent. pure. We can eoneeive of 

 no substance with which it could be 

 adulterated, having the taste of sugar or 

 no taste at all, having the appearance of 

 sugar, and being at the same time per- 

 fectly soluble in water ; and shall accord- 

 ingly consider it safe bee food, for all 

 times, places and under all circumstances. 

 Some of these "Health Journals" in their 

 anxiety to secure patients for their "Insti- 

 tutes " make queer discoveries. 



Perhaps it may be as well to state that 

 our article on Conventions was written 

 and sent to the printers for last month's 

 Journal, but was crowded out. Mr. 

 King's report of the Michigan Bee Keep- 

 era' Association, in some respects, would 

 rather corroborate our opinion of their 

 value. If there is no misprint about it. 

 Pres. Bingham in his address said : 



"Patent right men were that class of 

 persons who have made bee culture what 

 it now is, as a pursuit, and were the first 

 to demonstrate the possibility of profita- 

 ble bee keeping. Yet they are misrepre- 

 sented, abused and maligned by a class of 

 persons of which is the represen- 

 tative type, who are a hundred times 

 more unprincipled than the patent right 

 men themselves." 



And before he gets eight lines further, 

 in the same strain, he eloquently sums up 

 thus : 



"And what has been the result ? Sim- 

 ply this, that bee culture as an occupa- 

 tion, is a failure. This is no idle assump- 

 tion. Statistics afford ample proof of 

 this. Ninety, ef every one hundred per- 

 sons, who keep bees, have utterly failed. 

 Nine out of the other ten, will no more ' 

 than pay expenses, while the remaining 

 one is moi-eor less successful." 



Mr. B. was certain!}' driving vehement- 

 ly at some idea, and we should gn*e it as 

 above to our readers as Problem No. 19, 

 were we not in doubt as to whether it re- 

 lates to bee culture at all. If patent 

 hive men have made our pursuit what it 

 now is, and ninety-nine out of one hun- 

 dred (bee keepers not "patent" men) 

 "don't pay expenses," why — — , but we 

 give it up; our readers will have to 

 "puzzle" it out for themselves. 



The first subscriber on our books, 

 for 1874, is Adam Grim, who has 

 netted $22,000 in fire years. The 

 next is R. Wilkin, Cadiz, Ohio, we 

 don't know how much he baa realized 

 from bees, but do know he has a pleasant 

 way of paying cash down on some pretty 

 large bills for queens, etc. Now as we 

 have no idea that our pages would contain 

 the list of successful ones, we would re- 

 spectfully solicit the names of all of our 

 subscribers who have lost money in bee 

 keeping during the last five years. Tell 

 us all about it and we'll give you a depart- 

 ment, and call it "Repository of Blasted 

 Hopes." If it don't unfold some tales of 

 "deeds to make and use," our name ain't — 



"Now, Mr. Novice, if you don't stop, 

 there won't be any room for 'Heads of 

 Grain' this month.' 



"Never mind we are soon to have our 

 paper larger, to make room for those 

 'Blasted Hopes.' and then ," 



