90 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



give one man so much room in these 

 reminiscences, we will answer that 

 there is not another man living, to my 

 knowledge, in the bee-business in any 

 part of the world who can show as 

 long, as steady and as active a record 

 as Mr. Kretchmer, the next one to him 

 being our old acquaintance, A. I. Root. 



Beekeeping began to be considered 

 as a possible profitable occupation 

 when Adam Grimm, in the June, 1871, 

 number of the American Bee Journal, 

 made a report of $5,742.80 secured in 

 honey, queens, beeswax, and increase 

 of colonies during the previous year. 

 He was then selling 240 colonies of 

 bees for shipment to Utah for $2450. 



In 1872, Samuel Wagner, the editor, 

 died. His son continued the publica- 

 tion only a few months longer, and 

 in January. 1873, Rev. W. F. Clarke 

 assumed the management of the maga- 



E. Kretchmer 



zine. He retained it only about a year, 

 when Thomas G. Newman became 

 manager, and later proprietor and edi- 

 tor. 



Meanwhile, beekeeping in Europe 

 was progressing also. The American 

 methods, described and praised in the 

 French publications by Charles Dadant, 

 very soon overcame the stubborn op- 

 position of the obstinate Haroet, who 

 at first called Mr. Dadant " an Ameri- 

 can Barnum." The flood of progress 

 compelled him to accept the modern 

 hives as well as the honey extractor, 

 which he had first ridiculed as a "use- 

 less toy." This writer would not be 

 worthy of mention had he not been a 

 practical teacher in the management 

 of straw-skeps and the publisher of an 

 influential bee-magazine, still existing, 

 although Hamet has been dead many 

 years. Charles Dadant wielded a ready 

 pen, and his criticisms of Hamet in the 

 European periodicals of that day were 

 appreciated on the Continent. 



In Switzerland and Italy, beekeeping 

 also made great strides. The Italian 



journal " L'Apicoltore," began its pub- 

 lication in 1868, with strong support of 

 the new methods. For that reason 

 beekeeping in Italy has long been prac- 

 tical among the educated classes. 



In the year 1872, an open and bitter 

 fight was made against the doctrine of 

 parthenogenesis by an Italian curate, 

 Parroco Giotto Ulivi. It lasted until 

 1880, and was based principally on ill- 

 made experiments. From time to time, 

 even in our day, adepts are found who 

 sustain the opposition to a doctrine 

 which is now a well-proven fact, and 

 try to establish the theory that sex de- 

 pends upon the food supplied to the 

 hatching larva. Ulivi was irate and 

 abusive. His doctrines have never 

 been taken seriously by the students. 



In England, the British Bee Journal 

 began in 1873. Although some of our 

 British cousins have been unwilling to 

 acknowledge the beneficial influence 

 of American ideas, many readily con- 

 cede the practical help secured from us 

 in results. 



About 1873, Moses Quinby devised 

 the." bellows smoker," on which he 

 later made improvements. (See Quin- 

 by's "New Beekeeping" by his son-in- 

 law, L. C. Root, page 90.) This imple- 

 ment was a great help to the easy han- 

 dling of bees. 



A few years later T. F. Bingham in- 

 vented the " direct draft " smoker which 



has some very good points, but the 

 principal part of it was a copy of the 

 Quinby smoker. So the original credit 

 must be given to Quinby. Up to his 

 day the bee-smokers were clumsy af- 

 fairs for the use of which both hands 

 were needed. The Germans, however, 

 already used a large pipe with tobacco, 

 for smoking their bees. Up to this 

 day, nothing is used but the pipe or a 

 cigar in many parts of Germany and 

 Switzerland. 



The one-pound section now used so 

 universally was the result of divers at- 

 tempts at the production of honey in 

 small frames. The first boxes used by 

 Langstroth were square Spound glass 

 boxes which allowed so little ventila- 

 tion that the bees did not work in them 

 readily in hot weather. Then, in the 

 early seventies, patents were granted to 

 several inventors of sectional boxes, 

 the leader among them being Gen. 

 Adair, of Kentucky, who was at that 

 time the publisher..of "The Annals of 

 Bee Culture." His super box was com- 

 posed of frames, the top and bottom 

 bar of which overlapped on the end 

 bars to form the box, held together by 

 a wire, with glass at both ends. 



In 1873, Kretchmer was granted a 

 patent on a honey-box "consisting of 

 little frames holding about a pound of 

 honey which were clamped together 

 with strips of tin folded at right angles, 



THE LATE JOHN HARBISON. OF CALIFORNIA 



