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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



J^ov. 12. 



Mr. Kretchmer — Mr. Stewart does not understand the 

 question. I understand that the question is, the size of the 

 notch in the side of the section. 



Mr. Masters — Mr. Whitcomb misrepresents me ; the colony 

 that built the comb on the outside built some of the nicest 

 sections I ever saw. So I want to correct his idea that my 

 bees do not build in the sections. 



Pres. Root— We will now listen to a paper by Mrs. J. N. 

 Heater, of Columbus, Nebr. [Applause.] 



The Pa§t and Future of Bee-Kecping. 



From time prehistoric bees have been kept with varying 

 degrees of scientific intelligence and corresponding success. 

 The Bible mentions honey in many places, though it leaves us 

 entirely in the dark as to the methods of obtaining it in those 

 times; but we fear no challenge to the assertion that they 

 lived in the primitive way in rocks and cliffs, and the honey 

 was secured either by strategy or nerve, and possibly the 

 method would furnish a valuable suggestion to intelligent 

 scientists of to-day. We read, not long since, of recent dis- 

 coveries in Pompeii, of jugs of well preserved honey having 

 been found in the ruins of the buried city, during ofBcial e%.- 

 cavations ; giving evidence to us 1800 years later that honey 

 was an article of commerce at that time, though that of itself 

 gives us no idea of their methods of producing it. 



We are indebted to the Old World scholars for our first 

 treatises on this interesting study, but " they builded better 

 than they knew," in that they awakened an interest on the 

 subject in the minds of thinking men on our shores, who, com- 

 bining their own research and experiments with the delving of 

 the foreign masters, have given to the world some of the most 

 valuable and practical knowledge of our time. 



In the " good old days " of our grandfathers' time, men 

 contentedly plodded along with their ox-teams, their crude 

 farming implements, and their native black bees in log gums 

 or straw skeps. "Work, never ending work," was their 

 watchword, and, the dear old souls, by frugal economy and 

 patient industry, succeeded in accumulating wealth. But 

 their sons, whom we may style " our fathers," came upon the 

 field of action with a new watchword, for on every hand was 

 heard the cry of "Progress." One invention succeeded 

 another ; the people themselves were astonished at their own 

 achievements. The Ox was sent to the stock-yards and the 

 horse given his place in the fields to operate the wonderful 

 new machinery. Bee-keepers were making a mighty effort to 

 keep up in the race, and it is with interest we follow the prog- 

 ress of thought and experiment and see the first attempt to 

 domesticate the native bees in the original log gum, being 

 but a section sawed out of the tree in which they were found. 



Next we see them transferred to the crude straw skep. 

 Genius saw the possibility of further achievement, and the old 

 bnx-hive was evolved ; but it was reserved for our beloved 

 Father Laugstroth to improve upon all former efforts, and 

 give to the bee-keeping fraternity the most practical movable- 

 frame hive the world has ever seen, and which to the present 

 time remains standard. Naturally this gave a strong impetus 

 to bee-keeping as a business, but at that time no bees had ever 

 been imported into this country, and every experiment had the 

 disadvantage of having to be practiced upon the little black 

 native. 



In 1848 our German brothers introduced the Italian bees 

 into their country, and in 1859 they were shipped into Eng- 

 land. During the same year our brother across the line im- 

 ported the first Italian bees to the shores of America. Then 

 began a period of experiments, development and improvement 

 in bees and bee-culture such as we have never bad a record of 

 before nor since. America, we are proud to note, took the 

 lead of all nations in expensive reseach in foreign fields. Bees 

 from all the countries of the East, Including many of the 

 islands where distinct races were found, were sent to us for 

 inspection or experiment ; then was scientific work begun in 

 earnest. The specialist bred for size, he bred for color, he 

 bred for trait, till the poor thing hardly knew what it ought 

 to be when it did emerge from the cell. The surprising thing 

 was, that the workers being of the feminine gender, they were 

 even bred for length of tongue, and those found with the 

 longest tongue, and the greatest activity of the same, were 

 the ones most sought after. (Happy bees !) 



Truly scientific bee-keeping, then, we may say, dates back 

 not more than 40 or 50 years, yet what gigantic proportions 

 it has assumed, representing millions of dollars in the annual 

 production of honey alone, to say nothing of the capital repre- 

 sented in stock, factories, etc.; and, not least of all, we as a 

 body are recognized in the commercial world. 



We see, then, that the past has but fitted us for the future 

 of our work, and we feel that while we have appliances so 

 admirably adapted to their uses, our attention in the future 



should be given more to the practical management of bees, to 

 reduce the labor and expense to the mimimum, and the more 

 the work is simplified, the more we shall feel we are advanc- 

 ing. We believe that " mixed farming," so to speak, in the 

 apiary will prevail in the near future. Better results are ob- 

 tained from working for both comb and extracted honey, and 

 even a queenless nucleus can be made to care for extra queen- 

 cells. If the manipulation of bees shall be as much improved 

 upon in the next half century as the general knowledge and 

 appliances have for the same length of time in the past, we 

 can but wonder what we, as bee-keepers, will be doing 50 

 years hence. 



Time has brought us the comb foundation, the extractor, 

 the smoker, and many other appliances which we could not 

 dispense with ; but shall we feel that our calling has reached 

 its zenith, and be content with what we have and what we 

 know ? So far we have kept pace with the other agricultural 

 pursuits; but we look about us, and, behold! in many places 

 the horse is driven from the field by the traction engine, and 

 again we see a monster machine cutting, threshing and sack- 

 ing the grain at one operation ; and we ask ourselves, what 

 are we bee-keepers going to do to keep up in the race? Are 

 our geniuses sleeping, or are they thinkingout some marvelous 

 thing in silence with which to surprise us? 



Is it reserved for some one present with us today to make 

 his life a blessing to humanity, and his name immortal, by 



Mrs. J. N. Heater. 



telling us for a certainty how to secure satisfactory crops of 

 honey without increase of bees ? how to keep extracted combs 

 from one season to the next, safe from the ravages of the 

 moth? and how to gain the best general results with the least 

 expense and labor ? for since we of the present day have 

 taken for our watchword " Protection and Reciprocity," we 

 have no fears but we shall receive reasonable prices for our 

 product if put upon the market in proper condition. 



Mrs. J. N. Heater. 



Pres. Root — Our time is rather short. Is there anything 

 to be said on this excellent paper ? 



Dr. Miller — Mrs. Heater asks how to keep a set of ex- 

 tracting-combs from one season to another. I would like to 

 ask what is the trouble in keeping combs over? 



Jlrs. Heater — I have had some trouble with moths getting 

 into the combs. I have tried putting them into the cellar, but 

 some of the hives standing next to the window, where the 

 light reached them, were filled with moth-worms. 



Dr. Miller — Put them where they will freeze. 



Mrs. Heater — That is where I kept them, but they were 

 filled with moth-worms? 



Pres. Root -I have had no trouble in keeping them. Pile 

 your extracting-combs under the brood-chamber, and set the 

 colony on top of the combs. 



Mr. Abbott — A very simple way to keep extracting-combs 

 is simply to make a rick with two parallel bars as far apart as 

 the length of the combs, and hang the combs on these 2 or 3 



