THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



53 



Kor tha Amerlciin Bee JuumaL 



Are Patents Necessary ? 



JAMES nKDDON. 



I have no interest in patents ; 

 neitlier are any of my inventions 

 patented. Why not? Because I do 

 not wish to prohibit the manufacture 

 and use of them by any honey-pro- 

 ducers who may thiiil< them worthy, 

 and wish to make them for their own 

 nse. 



I do wish that manufacturing deal- 

 ers would respect the natural rights 

 of any and all inventors, by not rush- 

 ing into the manufacture and sale of 

 their inventions without first getting 

 the inventor's consent so to do. I 

 claim that every inventor has a nat- 

 ural right to the exclusive manufac- 

 ture of his own inventions— the prod- 

 uct of his own labor. I believe this 

 principle is recognized by all civilized 

 nations, and these nations make pat- 

 ent laws to force those to respect such 

 rights, whose moral status is thus low 

 that they will not respect them unless 

 forced to. 



On page 620 of Oleaninga for 1884, 

 the editor says : " I am very glad in- 

 deed to note the disposition among 

 bee-keepers of forbearing to copy the 

 works of each other, patent or no 

 patent. Tlie supply dealer who would 

 unhesitatingly copy sometliing well 

 known to be the propertv of another, 

 without getting the privilege of doing 

 so, by purchase or otherwise, would 

 very likely lose more than he made, 

 so strong is the disposition of our 

 people to give honor to whom honor 

 is due." I like this just sentiment, 

 and the general idea of a bee-keeper 

 honoring the inventor's right, better 

 than the patent system. 



A patent-right contemplates not 

 only reward of merit, but inducement 

 to benefit mankind by invention. The 

 same is true of this proposed bee- 

 keepers' honorary, respect-for-inven- 

 tors'-rights, system. By the latter, 

 expense of patenting is' avoided, en- 

 abling the inventor to give the public 

 all individual rights if he wishes. All 

 expense of litigation is avoided. We 

 can force a stealer of others' mental 

 labor to stop, by the quiet, inexpensive 

 system of neglect. Public sentiment 

 now prevents more wrong doing 

 (nearly all small acts) than law, and 

 without a particle of cost. Cannot 

 this matter of inventor's natural 

 rights be put into this latter system of 

 government I* Let bee-keepers set 

 the example. Let the prior inventor 

 remember that such priority is not 

 enough for a claim of right. We 

 have no money or time to spend set- 

 tling complicated claims of secreted 

 priority. The first man who benefits 

 us all by publishing, thus giving to 

 us the advantages of his invention, 

 let us hold entitled to all the lionorary 

 and financial benefits accruing from 



such discovery, and the exclusive 

 right of the manufacture of the same 

 for a reasonable length of time. 



Many inventions prove to be worth- 

 less. Finally the inventor begins to 

 suspect this truth ; the cost of patent- 

 ing is lost to him, unless he can find 

 aiu)ther mistaken man to sell out to, 

 and this is often done by moral cow- 

 ards who fear Iniaucial loss more than 

 moral degradation. The moral-right 

 system tempts to no such immorality. 

 It brings no unjust expensive law- 

 suits for infringements by innocent 

 parties, who, many times, have been 

 deceived and induced to so infringe 

 by the very ones who expected to 

 prosecute for that infringement. 



Another point is, that no man has 

 as much pride in the excellence of the 

 construction of an article as does the 

 inventor — he who has a pride and in- 

 terest in its introduction. It is not 

 he, but the imitator who is ignorant 

 and careless of the proper bearing, 

 adjustment and construction of the 

 new article. His only aim is profit ; 

 to-day's profit, regardless of the 

 profits of the future. He cuts the 

 price 20 per cent., and the quality 40 

 per cent. If this honorary system of 

 protection is sustained, then I am in 

 favor of sucli system, vs. the patent- 

 law. If not; if the morality of "our 

 people " is so low that the expensive, 

 and in many other ways bad patent- 

 law is the only thing we can rely upon 

 to protect a man's natural rights- 

 then let us have that, and depend 

 upon it. 



I have every reason to believe that 

 there are now several bee-keepers in 

 our land who have valuable newly 

 devised fixtures and methods, but 

 they keep them in secret, because they 

 see so little disposition among bee- 

 keepers to recognize their natural right 

 to their inventions, or even to " give 

 honor to whom honor is due;" but a 

 little something to be gained in mo- 

 nopolizing their use. Let us now and 

 here determine to " give honor to 

 whom honor is due," to protect in act 

 and speech the natural rights of bee- 

 keepers and others, and to increase 

 the quality and quantity of the future 

 honey crop all we can by aiding those 

 already in the business to obtain better 

 and larger yields, but never by in- 

 ducing those of other callings to enter 

 our already "over-done " business. 

 Dovvagiac, ? Mich. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Pollen, First Cause of Winter Loss. 



A. J. ISrOERIS. 



I have read the articles on the ef- 

 fects of brood-rearing and pollen, and 

 I think that they are of much impor- 

 tance to owners of large apiaries ; yet 

 I have been undecided in regard to 

 the cause of the losses of winter and 

 early spring, but Mr. Doolittle's arti- 

 cle on page .5, now puts me on the 

 side'of the pollen theory. Mr. Doo- 

 little, in the beginning of his article, 

 says : " I have claimed, for years, 

 that pollen cannot be the prime cause, 

 etc.,'' but he seems to bring in pollen 

 as a secondary cause; but I think 



that he brings out the fact very 

 plainly, that pollen is the first cause. 



We all know, when bees have fre- 

 quent flights, that pollen can do no 

 harm, only to stimulate brood-rearing 

 out of season ; but here in the North, 

 bees are confined from four to ten 

 weeks, and will rear brood when pol- 

 len is present, and tliey will suffer 

 more or less. Now, why not remove 

 this cause of brood-rearing {prime 

 cause of spring dwindling and death)? 

 But there is one thing of which I do 

 not feel assured, i. e., if the bees are 

 robbed of the necessaries with which 

 to rear their young, will the old bees 

 live long enough in the spring to 

 build up strong, especially when they 

 are cut short by drouth in the fall ? 

 Will the life of the old bees be pro- 

 longed by the absence of pollen and 

 the required labor of rearing young ? 



In the fall of 1881, I fed one colony 

 of Italians on sugar syrup that was 

 short of both pollen and honey ; they 

 wintered with scarcely any loss. 

 Again, in the fall of 1883, I trans- 

 ferred several colonies from Ameri- 

 can hives to Langstroth hives, and I 

 gave them empty combs containing 

 considerable pollen, and fed them 

 sugar syrup. They dwindled badly, 

 and some were entirely lost. 1 agree 

 with both Mr. Doolittle and Mr. Hed- 

 don that pollen is the cause of bee- 

 diarrhea and spring dwindling. Mr. 

 Doolittle gives it as a secondary 

 cause, but I think that he very clearly 

 proves it to be the first or prime cause. 



I have 316 colonies in winter quar- 

 ters. With me the past season was a 

 fair one for honey, and I think that 

 the prospect for the coming season is 

 good. Our principal crop is white 

 clover. 



Cedar Falls^ Iowa. 



TOT tne American Bee Journal. 



Hibernation of Bees. 



W. F. CLAPKE. 



Mr. Heddon has again discussed the 

 hibernation theory. At the start he 

 says: " I fail to see anything in it 

 yet." This is not surprising, because 

 his vision is obscured by the pollen 

 theory. In his reference to bees that 

 have their habitat in the woods, there 

 is nothing new, except the dogmatism 

 with which he asserts that " no one 

 can admit that bees generally do well 

 in trees during the winter, and yet 

 tell the truth." There is no use in 

 attempting to meet a statement like 

 that with argument ; yet it remains a 

 stubborn fact that most people do 

 make the admission in question, and 

 so prove themselves in his estimation 

 — what V 



Mr. Ileddon admits that it does 

 seem as though he ought to get clear 

 on the subject of hibernation " with 

 so clear a writer to expound and ex- 

 plain." I thought I made it " clear " 

 that we were to " fix " the outside 

 protection of the bees, give them a 

 supply of pure air without draft, and 

 leave them to " fix " the inside tem- 

 perature, which I claimed they would 

 do, if the hive were not too large ; but 

 it seems I did not. However, I really 



