THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



55 



the apiary are perhaps worth more than any 

 convention can be. Such meetings are held, 

 at least annually. Will some brother please 

 give us his opinion, who belongs to some 

 such gathering? 



The papers read, and report of our Con- 

 vention, will no doubt show your readers 

 that there is in apiculture, as in politics, 

 two parties whose interests are as varied as 

 to have a post-office or not to have one. We 

 all seem to possess enough of the "first law 

 of nature" to work for our own interest. 

 The practical producers seem to desire good 

 prices and ready sale. This may seem 

 strange but it is a fact. They also " smell 

 danger from afar" as well as at home. This 

 "danger smelling" is not much of an epi- 

 demic, but is as contagious as small-pox. It 

 is spreading among practical honey pro- 

 ducers, like the sweep of "that bee disease" 

 but has exactly the reverse effect on their 

 purses. 1 have seen several cases of it, and 

 will describe its cause, symptons and cure: 



Cause.— A sudden discovery of the true 

 way to manage an apiary, or large yield of 

 surplus honey, or botli. 



Symptoms.— Weakness in the thumb and 

 two first fingers of the right hand, which 

 disables the patient too much to hold a pen. 

 Loss of memory; he can't recollect how 

 much surplus honey he did get. Gets too 

 poor to take more than one bee journal, and 

 in his delirium decides that the American 

 is the only one strictly devoted to his inter- 

 est. The stomach gets weak, and the sight 

 of tin corners, kettle feeders, and kindred 

 fixtures produces nausea. 



Cuke. — A sure cure can be found in any 

 one of the following remedies: A dose of 

 patent hive, or a mixture of Italian (lueens, 

 honey extractors, queen nurseries, etc.. also 

 a salaried situation. I will here adtl that it 

 is with great difficulty the patient can be 

 persuaded to take any of the above doses, 

 so probably the disease will spread in the 

 future as it has in the past two years or 

 more. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Dec. 36, 18T6. 



Various Matters. 



read before the MICH. B. K. ASSOCI- 

 ATION, DEC. 21, 1876. 



Qentlemen of the Michigan B. K. Associ- 

 ation : 



Our object in choosing a theme so indefi- 

 nite in its bearing upon apistical science in 

 general, for your consideration, may not at 

 first sight be apparent. In canvassing the 

 main topics that are at present of more than 

 ordinary interest to us as individuals, and 

 as a representative body of American api- 

 culturists, representing as we do, one of the 

 fairest commonwealths of our conunon 

 country, we found a desire to say a word or 

 two in regard to many of them; and so we 

 have chosen a topic that will allow us full 

 latitude to ramble at will o'er the broad and 

 diversified fields of modern apiculture, cul- 

 ling here and there a flower whose beauty 

 and fragrance may delight the eye and 

 please the finer senses of the soul. While 

 for the most part we have to deal with 

 facts, and hard, stern facts many of them 

 are, yet we cannot but admit that our 

 chosen field of labor calls into play the 

 higher mental faculties — a happy combina- 

 tion of the real and the ideal — in a marked 



degree; while the mental effort necessary 

 to the successful solution of many a knotty 

 problem, sharpens the perceptive faculties, 

 enlarges the reasoning powers and strength- 

 ens the intellect. This much of the poetic, 

 now for a little prose. If our heading be a 

 little ambiguous, we propose to make our 

 meaning unmistakable. 



First of all we shall address ourselves to 

 the task of a brief consideration of that 

 very delicate subject— artificial comb foun- 

 dation. Many years ago, Mr. Samuel Wag- 

 ner, the founder, and until 1872 the able 

 editor, of The American Bee Journal, 

 conceived the idea of making comb founda- 

 tion, to be accepted and lengthened out by 

 the bees, and obtained a patent thereon. 

 For a time but little came of it, at least so 

 far as the bee-keeping public was concern- 

 ed. The subject was revived, however, in 

 later years, and samples of Mr. Wagner's 

 foundation were sent out to bee-keepers re- 

 siding in ditferent States, on trial. It was 

 our fortune to test several of these sample 

 sheets; but in each and every instance they 

 proved an utter failure. In the mean time 

 Mr. Quinby constructed sheets of comb 

 made of metal, the cells being of full 

 natural depth and coated with beeswax, but 

 owing to the expense of construction, it 

 never came into general use. From this 

 period until about two years ago, there was 

 a lull in the foundation business, when a 

 certain John Long appeared upon the scene 

 of action and anh(junced in clarion tones 

 that he had attained the summit of success 

 in the manufacture of artificial comb. Be- 

 fore the close of 187.5 his advertisements 

 contained testimonials, the mere perusal of 

 which was enough to convince the most 

 skeptical, that here at last was a grand dis- 

 covery pointing out the " royal road to 

 wealth.'' Time rolled on and ushered in 

 the Centennial, whose shining car of (apis- 

 tical) progress contained a new factor in 

 this foundation problem. From an atten- 

 tive perusal of a spicy little sheet that is de- 

 voted only to bees and honey, we gleaned 

 the fact (no guess work) that "pure yellow 

 wax," when pressed between two rollers 

 was ever so much better than the "clumsy, 

 awkward comb" made by the bees. As we 

 perused this glowing tale in a "paraffine" 

 sheet that never recommended anything, 

 the value of which had not been most 

 thoroughly established, we mentally resolv- 

 ed to " invest." The result is already 

 known to many of you. Mr. J. P. Moore, of 

 Binghamton, N. Y., has in an article pre- 

 pared for your consideration,most thorough- 

 ly canvassed the value of comb foundation 

 for surplus honey, so that we pass this por- 

 tion ot the su1)ject, and confine our remarks 

 to its value in the brood chamber. 



We experimented quite largely with this 

 object in view, and under a great diversity 

 of circumstances, with a full determination 

 to satisfy ourselves in regard to the claims 

 made for this much-lauded article. The 

 result was anything but gratifying. A 

 frame of foundation placed in the brood 

 nest of a full colony, would be lengthened 

 out in from ;3 to 6 days, provided the 

 weather was warm and honey was coming 

 in freely; while an empty frame would be 

 filled with natural comb by the same 

 colonies in one-half that time. During cool 

 weather or when honey was being gathered 

 in small quantities, the foundation was, in 

 almost every instance, utterly neglected by 



