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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 4, 1903. 



take the supers ofE again. If there are empty cells in the brood-cham- 

 ber you need not expect any storing in sections till after the brood- 

 combs are filled. 





Sketches of Beedomites 



J 



MORLEY PETTIT. 



Mr. Morley Pettit, the youngest son of Mr. S. T. Pettit — one of 

 Ontario's most successful veterans in bee-culture — was born amid api- 

 cultural surroundings, and reared, as it were, in the apiary. His 

 earliest recollections do not include the time when he first " watched 

 the bees ''in the swarming season, nor when he got his first sting 

 (only that neither was considered agreeable). But a day came when 

 he was considered big enough to "blow smoke" while his father 

 "operated on some hives," and when he could " get stung without 

 crying." 



The smoker of earliest memory was one made by A. I. Root, with 

 short, upright barrel, and a tube in the center reaching nearly to the 

 end of the nozzle. The bellows originally had a valve, but at that 

 time the valve was not working, and the smoke was drawn into the 

 bellows and blown out again through this tube. In the side of the 

 barrel was a hole for lighting and giving air to the tire. Coals used 

 occasionally to drop from this hole on the hands of the inattentive 

 bellows-boy, and that, coupled with an occasional sting, and a con- 

 stant desire to be at anj' but a useful occupation, did not fire him with 

 enthusiasm to become a leader in apiculture. 



After attending public school, and passing the High School En- 

 trance Examination, Morley entered the St. Thomas Collegiate Insti- 

 tute, passed in succession all the annual examinations set for High 

 School pupils by the Ontario Educational Department, and matricu- 

 lated to Toronto University with First Class honors in mathematics. 

 He next spent a couple of years teaching, then entered upon his 

 University course, completing his second year with honors in Philoso- 

 phy, in May, 1899. 



During these years he had spent his summer vacations, with one 

 exception, assisting in the apiary, forming a liking for the business 

 and learning its possibilities. He also learned to contrast the conflne- 

 raent of professional life with the freedom and probably equal finan- 

 cial remuneration of bee-keeping. Accordingly, when in the fall of 

 1899, his father, being then 70 years of age, wished to retire from 

 business, he assumed control of the apiary. Since then he has met 

 with financial success which has quite warranted him in his choice. 

 The one apiary has been increased only to two as yet, but there is pros- 

 pect of more to follow. 



While he has been almost as successful in producing fancy comb 

 honey by the S. T. Pettit system as his father, present prices make it 

 seem advisable to run almost exclusively for extracted honey. For 

 this purpose a brood-chamber equivalent to the 10-frame Langstroth is 

 used, and, at the beginning of the honey-flow, sufficient super-room is 

 given to contain 80 to 100 pounds of honey. The brood-chamber may 

 also be enlarged at that time, and this, in an ordinary season, reduces 

 swarming to a minimum. 



At the close of the white honey-flow screens are slipped into por- 

 ticoes permanently attached to the hives, they are loaded, 40 at a time, 

 on a specially constructed spring-wagon, and moved about 35 miles 

 for buckwheat. They are afterward moved home and wintered, some 

 in clamps, and some In a well-ventilated cellar. This year's loss was 

 between 3 and 4 percent of the number of colonies, and prospects are 

 bright for a good honey-flow. 



It was our good fortune to meet Mr. Pettit at the last meeting of 

 the Chicago-Northwestern convention. He is an excellent convention 

 bee-keeper, ready at all times to contribute his part in discussions. 

 Speaking of conventions, he finds them of great value, and attends 

 every one he can reach, for the inspiration of them as much as for the 

 many useful points which can be gleaned. As he heard Mr. Cogg- 

 shall say once, " It spurs you on." He says about the Chicago con- 

 vention, that which stands out most clearly in his mind, after the pleas- 

 ure of meeting all the bee-keepers, is Mr. N. E. France's matchless 

 description of the symptoms and treatment of foul brood. 



Mr. Pettit is a contributor of no mean ability to the apicultural 

 press. He is on the regular contributors' staff of the Farmers' Advo- 



cate, of Ontario, now the third year out of the four since he left the ■ 

 University ; he contributes at intervals to the Montreal Herald, and 

 regularly reports every convention which he attends. He finds the 

 reporting very helpful, as it allows no superficial attention to discus- 

 sions, and by the time the good points are put in shape for publication, 

 they are well fixed in mind. 



It affords us pleasure to present to our readers, both in picture 

 and in word, our young bee-keeping friend from across the northern 

 border. We wish him all success in his chosen vocation, as well as 

 long life and much happiness all along the way. 





Association Notes 





Stealing from a National Member. — General Manager France 

 reports having caught three persons guilty of stealing from an apiary 

 of one of the members of the National, on Saturday, May 10. They 

 were given until 6 p.m., May 25, to make satisfactory settlement, or 

 take results of the enforcement of the law. Two of the three, before 

 the day was gone, came and settled, and it was thought the third 

 would do so very soon. 



Over 1200 Members of the National Bee-Keepers' Association 

 are now reported by General Manager France. And still they are 

 joining. There ought to be 200O members within the next three 

 months. Why not ? You can send your dues of SI. 00 either to N. E. 

 France, Platteville, Wis., or to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 as we are the Secretary of the Association, and it is one of our duties 

 to receive membership dues from all who may send. We then forward 

 them to the General Manager and Treasurer, Mr. France, who sends 

 the receipts. We should like to have several thousand bee-keepers 

 among the readers of the American Bee Journal send us their dues 

 within the nest 60 days. 



The National in Los Angeles. — Prof. Cook, of Los Angeles 

 County, Calif., on May 16, wrote us as follows regarding the holding 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Convention in Los Angeles this year : 



The bee-keepers of Southern California are greatly rejoiced that 

 the National convention is to come to our Southern metropolis. Los 

 Angeles is not only one of the most beautiful and prosperous cities of 

 the country, but its hospitality is second to that of no other city of 

 the Union. We have had a year of exceptional rain, and unless 

 the weather is too cold (this has l3een one of the coldest seasons 

 known up to date) we shall have an immense crop of honey. Thus, it 

 is to be expected that our apiarists will be exceedingly good-natured 

 the coming summer, and will do their best to entertain our visitors. 

 It will certainly be a surprise to Eastern bee-keepers to find apiaries 

 numbering hundreds of colonies, and each colony of bees securing 

 hundreds of pounds of honey in one season. 



I have been asked to present a paper to the convention. I will 

 take the subject which seems to me by all odds the most important 

 now before our bee-keepers, that of co-operation in marketing. This 

 ball was set rolling at the last annual meeting. It is a matter which 

 can not too generally engage the attention of our bee-keepers. 

 We can never secure a just price for our honey until we have control 

 of distribution in the markets. The fact that bee-keepers are so scat- 

 tered will make it a long and tedious matter to secure general co- 

 operation, but it must come, and it will be a good day for all labor 

 when it arrives. 



All kinds of business are united except manual-labor pursuits. It 

 is a bright omen that there is so much thought and effort at present 

 in the line of union in these last-named occupations. Until people 

 become entirely unselfish — and that we fear is not very near — there 

 can not be justice between man and man till all classes are equally 

 organized and equally successful in securing fullest co-operation. The 

 success, then, of labor unions and of co-operation among all producers 

 is to be encouraged at all times and places. There may be some 

 trouble, some wrong, some injustice, yet the trend is and should be in 

 the way of more perfect — aye, most perfect — co-operation. 



A. J. Cook. 



We have no doubt that California's big-hearted bee-keepers will 

 give the National the grandest — well, if they go ahead of Denver, or 

 Buffalo, or Philadelphia, or — oh, Chicago — in their entertainment of 

 the National, they'll have to get a Golden Gate hustle on themselves. 

 But we have heard that California is a great State, that it has great 

 bee-keepers — and lots of them ; and we have been privately informed 

 that they are going to give the National this year such a welcome, and 

 such a grand, good time, that it won't be so long before it holds a 

 I meeting there again. 



