54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan 15 



of use would be something as follows : Squeeze 

 the rubber bulb, insert the glass point in the 

 royal food, allow the bulb to expand, when 

 the food will be taken up iuto the glass tube ; 

 then for the purpose of grafting, squeeze the 

 bulb a trifle, and a small drop would be exud- 

 ed into a cell cup. This operation could be 

 easily repeated on cell cup after cell cup. It 

 looks pretty in theory, but it may be poor in 

 practice. 



SHAI,!. THERE BE A JOINT MEETING OF BEE 

 AND FRUIT MEN ? 



The suggestion was made at the Geneva 

 convention that the National Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation meet at the Pan-American Exposi- 

 tion at the same time as the American Pomo- 

 logical Society ; that now a great interest hav- 

 ing been stimulated in the matter as to wheth- 

 er bees puncture fruit, it would be of great im- 

 portance to have a joint session of the bee and 

 fruit men, of one day, say, at which time the 

 two interests could discuss these matters dis- 

 passionately, with the view of getting at the 

 actual facts. 



The place as to where the next meeting of 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association will hold 

 its convention has not been decided as yet. 

 There was a rumor, apparently unfounded, 

 that the Grand Army of the Republic had 

 completed arrangements for holding its next 

 encampment at Denver, and that a rate of a 

 cent a mile had been secured ; but in some of 

 the later papers I see this has been contradict- 

 ed. 



WHAT THE NATIONAL BEEKEEPERS' ASSO- 

 CIATION DID FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 

 The following letter, received , from a sub- 

 scriber who, I judge, has not been a member 

 of this Association, explains itself : 



Mr Root .—I wish to congratulate you on the inter- 

 est 3'ou have taken, and the results oL)tained, in regard 

 to the Utter vs. U ter bee-suit. Hurrah for the Nation- 

 al Bee-keepers' Association ! I atn glad my eyes have 

 been opened sufficiently to cause me to send in my 

 name and a dollar to General Manager Secor, a.sking 

 to become a member of the very best order bee keep- 

 ers ever had. I wonder if bee men in general realize 

 what the results of the Utter suit means to them, and 

 what it would have meant had the opposite decision 

 been the result. I learned of the result through the 

 Rural .Xe2u- Vot ker. Suppose, for once, that the lower 

 court's decision had bet-n .sustained ; whei e would bee- 

 keepers stand? All the ignorant fruit growers in the 

 country would have ground us into the tarth. and we 

 should have had to grin and bear it. So, again, I say, 

 " Hurrah for the National Bee-keepers' Association ! " 

 It has laid the cornerstone of a very solid founiation 

 upon which we, as bee keepers, can build our hopes 

 in regard to having our rights protected. 



Kingston, N. Y., Dec 31. Aaron Snyder. 



There ought to be five thousand more bee- 

 keepers who would see and feel the same way. 

 What could we do if we had such a member- 

 ship? But with only five hundred we have 

 been able to bring about a verdict in favor of 

 the bees that will be worth to the bee keepers 

 of this land thousands of dollars. Already, 

 as I understand it, a case that was about to be 

 tried, of a similar nature, was dismissed as 

 soon as it was known how the Utter trial had 

 been decided at Goshen. We do not know 

 how manv more c ises would hive sprung up 

 if the verdict had been for the fruit-men. 



But I wish it distinctly understood that this 

 was not only a case of bees versus fruit, but a 

 case which showed that the two interests, so 

 far from being antagonistic, are in entire har- 

 mony with each other ; that fruit, at least, is 

 dependent for its proper fertilization, to a 

 great extent, on the work of the bee. 



I would suggest that our subscribers send 

 in short articles for their local agricultural pa- 

 pers, giving the result of the trial at Goshen, 

 N. Y. Let us spread the news far and wide. 



Strange as it may seem, and yet not very 

 strange, the progressive fruit-men, with per- 

 haps one or two exceptions, are very much 

 pleased with the verdict. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



On page 47 of this issue we are able to pre- 

 sent a very natural likeness of our old friend 

 and correspondent — Mr. O. O. Poppleton, of 

 Stuart, Florida. There are very few bee-keep- 

 ers in the United States who have had a more 

 extended and more varied experience in dif- 

 ferent climates than our friend. He is familiar 

 with the conditions necessary to success in 

 bee culture in Iowa, Florida, and in Cuba. 



The first we know of him as a bee-keeper 

 was in Iowa. Here he began the business 

 moderately, but made the few he did keep 

 yield large averages. But poor health on the 

 part of his wife finally compelled him to seek 

 a more favorable climate, which he found in 

 Florida. Here he engaged in his favorite pur- 

 suit, but at this time it appears that he took 

 up with what is known as the " Long Idea " 

 hive. The frames were 12 inches square, and 

 anywhere from 20 to 24 frames to the hive. 

 Instead of piling the hives one on top of anoth- 

 er, on the tiering-up plan, the hive proper was 

 extended in a horizontal line. If the bees re- 

 quired 10 or 12 frames of brood they were al- 

 lowed to have them. Then the surplus frames 

 were placed on either side of the brood. But 

 the Long Idea is primarily intended for the 

 production of extracted honey. Mr. Popple- 

 ton himself believes that the hive first devised 

 by Mr. Langstroth 50 years ago has not been 

 improved upon, so far as shape and propor- 

 tion of frames are concerned, for the produc- 

 tion of comb honey. But the production of 

 extracted honey is so different, he thinks it is 

 doubtful if the same style of hive and frame 

 can be best for both. While he is using a 

 special extracting hive, frames 12 inches 

 square, yet if he were going to start over he 

 would keep the same depth but lengthen the 

 frames 2 inches. This would more nearly ap- 

 proximate the proportions of the Jumbo frame, 

 or what is in reality the Langstroth, but 2% 

 inches deeper. 



Mr. Poppleton is a practical, conservative 

 bee-keeper. While not a voluminous writer, 

 yet what he does write always finds its way 

 into the bee-journals. My father once said, 

 when he had the editorial management of this 

 journal, " Whenever \ou see any thing from 

 that man Poppleton " (showing me manuscript 

 he had just received from him), " just hand it 

 right in to the printers. It is alzvays good 

 copy. He is sound and p'^actical." During 



