1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



199 



mate to her husband, and always did 

 her best to make their visits pleasant. 

 It is, therefore, not surprising that on 

 M. Bertrand attaining on May 16, 1912, 

 his 80th birthday, the day was celebrated 

 in a manner befitting the occasion. 



M. Bertrand was an honorary mem- 

 ber of numerous societies in Europe 

 and America. He was frequently asked 

 to judge at exhibitions, and at the 

 Swiss National Exhibition held in 

 Zurich in 1883 and other places, when 

 we had the privilege of being members 

 of the same juries, it was with particu- 

 lar satisfaction that we noticed the 

 careful attention he gave to details and 

 the justice with which he made his 

 awards. The acquaintance which we 

 made with M. Bertrand 33 years ago 

 had grown into an intimate friendship, 

 which had lasted to the day of his 

 death. Together, frequently accom- 

 panied by Madame Bertrand, we have 

 made many a mountain excursion, and 

 many apiaries have we visited, and 

 have always found him a charming 

 companion, fond of nature, and taking 

 an interest in the rich flora of the 

 mountains. 



Our correspondence was frequent 

 and regular, and just recently we re- 

 ceived a letter from him, dated Dec. 20, 

 when he wrote in good spirits, and it 

 was a severe shock and grief to hear of 

 his having passed away so soon after- 

 wards. He was taken ill towards the 

 end of the year, and succumbed to 

 affection of the heart and old age, pass- 

 ing away peacefully in his sleep on Jan. 

 16. Thus we mourn a good and emi- 

 nent beekeeper, and we are sure that 

 beekeepers in this country will join 

 with those on the Continent in their 

 sympathy with Madame Bertrand in 

 her bereavement. A devoted wife, she 

 encouraged her husband in his work, 

 and shared his labors on the Journal 

 and in publishing his books. 



" Wax Craft " was translated into 

 French by Madame Bertrand, a work 

 of considerable difficulty owing to its 

 technicality, but it was satisfactorily 

 accomplished. She also translated arti- 

 cles from English, American and Ital- 

 ian papers, and in other ways shared 

 his literary activities. It will be some 

 consolation for her to know of the 

 great respect entertained for her hus- 



liand, that the seed he had sown had 

 germinated well and borne good fruit, 

 and to feel that he was the means of 

 doing a great and valuable work, not 

 only for his country, but also for Euro- 

 pean beekeeeping, and that his name 

 will be handed down to posterity as 

 one of the eminent bee-men of the I'Jth 

 century. 



The War Conference 



BY AN ONLOOKER. 



IN future years, the recorder of bee- 

 keeping history may mark April 23, 

 1917, as the beginning of a new 

 epoch for the industry. On that day a 

 little band of earnest men gathered in 

 Washington in prompt and patriotic 

 response to a call sent out by the 

 Bureau of Entomology. Three days 

 before, telegrams had flown over the 

 country summoning these men to a 

 war conference, and to those farther 

 West, it meant an immediate dropping 

 of work, at considerable sacrifice, in 

 order to be present on that memorable 

 Monday morning. 



The conference was held in the big, 

 white suburban house, known in the 

 neighborhood as the " bee office," 

 whose only sign of officialdom is the 

 modest Department of Agriculture tab- 

 let on the front, and the American flag 

 flying from an upstairs window. The 

 shade trees half hiding the wide porch, 

 the sweeping grass dotted with white 

 hives, the quiet house itself, all seem 

 symbolic of peace and happy family 

 life, but upon opening the front door, 

 one enters immediately a different at- 

 mosphere. The wide hall is lined with 

 filing cases, and one corner that day 

 was piled high with envelopes already 

 addressed to the beekeepers of the 

 country. During the day, two colored 

 porters shuffled in and out, carrying 

 reams upon reams of paper. In the big 

 office overlooking the apiary, sat the 

 war conference, presided over by the 

 President of the National Beekeepers' 

 Association, most of the discussion 

 being led by Dr. E. F. Phillips, whose 

 prescient mind had been preparing for 

 weeks for the emergency now upon us. 

 Every one of the faces was grave and 

 earnest ; the twelve men there had 



THE BERTRAND SUMMER HOME 



come with one idea — service. At one 

 table sat Prof. Jager from Minnesota, 

 his face lit with enthusiasm as he talked 

 of the possibilities of bee-culture to Mr. 

 Cale, .Maryland's representative to the 

 conference. Near him sat Dr. Gates of 

 Massachusetts, whose intellectual atti- 

 tude of mind was offset by the practical 

 business acumen of Mr. Bacon from 

 Wisconsin. Here was .Mr. E. R, Root, 

 eager to enlist the great machinery of 

 the Root Company's plant into the 

 country's service, here sat Dr. Jones, of 

 the Bureau of Crop Estimates, anxious 

 to help; beside him. Dr. Nelson and 

 Mr. Sturtevant, both scientific investi- 

 gators of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 ready to put microscopes aside and do 

 their bit. Mr. Demuthand Mr. Sechrist, 

 also of the Bureau of Entomology, 

 were prepared to add their valuable 

 practical knowledge to the wide scope 

 of the discussion. 



From early morning the conference 

 wrestled with the problem, not only 

 of making the slogan " A hundred mil- 

 lion pounds of honey extra " come, 

 true, but also of getting supplies and 

 honey containers to the men who will 

 produce that honey, and of marketing 

 the hundred million pounds after it is 

 produced. There was a sudden cessa- 

 tion in the work when a swarm issued 

 from one of the winter cases just out- 

 side the windows! Even war must 

 wait — nothing is more compelling than 

 a swarm ! Instantly these dignified 

 men became simply enthusiastic bee- 

 keepers who must see where the swarm 

 would light. Their only interest in the 

 world now seemed to be the tiny whirl- 

 ing specks against the sky, and the 

 only conversation was on methods of 

 wintering which could produce colo- 

 nies strong enough to swarm so early. 

 Mr. Demuth with swarm-box and veil 

 gave a demonstration of his ability to 

 climb a ladder, amid encouragement 

 and jeers from the rest, and the swarm 

 was safely hived. There was only one 

 calamity — -Mr. Cale was stung on the 

 tip of the nose! The excitement over, 

 the war conference went back to work 

 indoors, out of the warm sunshine, like 

 school-boys after a recess. 



In the meantime, anxious wives in 

 the kitchen — now Mr. Sturtevant's lab- 

 oratory — wished they would " hurry 

 and get through talking before the cof- 

 fee would get cold." At last Mr. Sturte- 

 vant came out, ostensibly to say that 

 the conference had adjourned for lunch, 

 but in reality to seethatthe five women 

 in his precious laboratory were not 

 using his utensils or breaking his test- 

 tubes. 



After lunch, the men fell upon the 

 war program once more with renewed 

 vigor, but the afternoon discussion was 

 broken by a visit from Dr. L. O. How- 

 ard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, who came from the city to wel- 

 come the visitors, and by a short talk 

 by Mr. J. W. Fisher of the Office of 

 Markets, who outlined the proposed 

 work of that office in marketing honey. 

 Mr. W. D. Bentley of the Office of Ex- 

 tension Work in the South, also came 

 to tell how his office would assist bee- 

 keeping, and to urge that the regular 

 extension work be utilized in spreading 

 the news to beekeepers more rapidly. 



By dinner time, without having begun 

 to exhaust the topic, the conference 

 had a program well mapped out for the 

 mobilization of the beekeeping indus- 

 try, and recomtP^ndstions were drawn 



