1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



151 



mission men — yes, take a good bee-paper and 

 consult its price current ; then, knowing the 

 ruling figures, not to sell lower. He had no 

 objections to producers selling to grocers di- 

 rect, but he had no patience with the fool pol- 

 icy of some of the small producers who would 

 rush otT and sell the first of their crop at two- 

 thirds the regular market price, thus smash- 

 ing prices right and left. 



HAtL'S WIT AND McEVOY'S " BLARNEY." 



Mr. J. B. Hali., of Woodstock, Ont., Can- 

 ada, whose picture appears elsewhere in this 

 issue, is one of the live spirits of Canadian 

 conventions. From what little I could gather 

 from the Canadians themseves it would seem 

 to me that a convention without Hall would 

 be pretty nearly like Hamlet with Hamlet left 

 out. This year I think he said he could not 

 afford to be present. As soon as the officers 

 knew this they immediately wired him that 

 he " must come, expenses guaranteed," and 

 so we had the pleasure of Mr. Hall's presence. 

 He has an inimitable vein of spontaneous good 

 humor that bubbles over every now and then. 

 Never long- winded, he has a happy faculty of 

 telling sound hard facts from a long experi- 

 ence, in a few words that delight and edify 

 every one. 



WM. m'evov, foui, brood inspector. 



— Ca nadia n Bee Jon rnal. 



At the close of Wm. McEvoy's report as 

 foul-brcod inspector, Mr. Hall, in comment- 

 ing on the inspector and his work, spoke of 

 him after this fashion : " He can get along 

 with cross old men and crooked old women. 

 It is his Irish blarney that gets him through." 

 I did not hear any of this ' Vjlarney " that our 

 facetious friend tells about ; but on every 

 hand I learned that Mr. McEvoy's success lay 

 in the fact that, while he rigidly enforced the 

 foul-brood law, he did it in such a nice splen- 



did sort of way that, so far from being the 

 cause of oflFense, he was invariably inviled to 

 " call again." 



VICIOUS LEGISLATION IN WISCONSI.V. 



During the session of the Wiscoubin con- 

 vention we learned that a bill had been intro- 

 duced in the Legislature, then in session, had 

 been printed, passed to its second reading, 

 was then in the hands of the House committee 

 for recommendation. The bill starts out with 

 a very innocent preamble, but winds up with 

 the provision that whenever an apiarist finds 

 it necessary, by increase in the number of 

 bees, or lack of pasturage, to move his bees to 

 some other locality or township, he shall pay 

 a tax of $1.00 per colony per month during 

 the time that such bees are in the new loca- 

 tion. As bees are liable to be kept at their 

 out-yards some four months, it would mean 

 that many bee-keepers would have to pay 

 $4.00 for every colony of bees kept out of their 

 immediate locality. This would amount to 

 the practical prohibition of much of the out- 

 yard business. 



But the bill was drafted by some one who 

 evidently did not know his business, for it 

 provided that such tax could be collected when 

 the bees were run " for the purpose of extract- 

 ed honey." If any one desired to move his 

 bees to a field where they would be run for 

 comb honey, or for the purpose of raising bees 

 or queens, the law could not touch him. It 

 was suggested that possibly some one had foul 

 brood taken to his locality, and to prevent the 

 further spread of that disease he had had ihis 

 bill introduced ; but it was later learned that 

 it really was fathered by a bee-keeper who 

 had a few bees, and who had a little spite 

 against a man who had moved some other 

 bees to his locality ; and for the purpose of 

 " getting even " with this neighbor he pro- 

 posed to handicap the bee-keeping interests 

 of the entire State. 



The matter was thoroughly discussed at the 

 convention, and was condemned on every 

 side. A resolution was passed condemning it 

 as a piece of vicious legislation. A committee 

 was also appointed, consisting of Pres. France 

 and two others, who were to wait on the com- 

 mittee of the House that had the bill in charge; 

 and before I came away, Pres. France had 

 gained the ears of two or three of the commit- 

 tee, and explained the whole animus that was 

 back of it. The "other side," however, had 

 in the mean time learned of the action of the 

 convention, and were going to put up a fight ; 

 but at the last talk I had with Pres. France he 

 said, " I shall stay until the bill is killed." 



Pres. France had a good deal to do in secur- 

 ing the passage of the very excellent foul- 

 brood law now in force in Wisconsin. He is 

 familiar with legislative tricks, and knows 

 thoroughly how to pull the legislative wires ; 

 and I think the bee-keepers of Wisconsin may 

 feel sure that he will not allow the interests of 

 the State to be jeopardized in any such man- 

 ner ; but for fear he may not be able to kill 

 the measure in the committee it will be well 

 to write to the representatives and senators, 

 protesting against the measure. 



