148 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



a new variety of bees, a new smoker, or 

 even a new queen-cage is no sooner 

 announced than bee-keepers are ready, 

 some of them eager, to invest their hard- 

 earned dollars. 



To a certain extent this may be an 

 evidence of enterprise in another way. 

 It might be called an exhibition of folly, 

 in believing that all neiv things are 

 best. 



We live in a fast age. An invention 

 is no sooner made than it is improved 

 upon. It is folly for the bee-keeper, or 

 any one, to ignore these advances. It 

 is only by the use of the best that a man 

 can hold his own, in these days of close 

 competition. But in the great mass of 

 new things continually spread out in 

 a tempting way, a man must choose 

 wisely, or the expense and loss of time 

 will outweigh the gain. 



To an experienced bee-keeper, a de- 

 scription of an article is often all that is 

 needed, to enable him to decide whether 

 or not he wants it. Sometimes the 

 article is of such a nature that it is im- 

 possible to decide in regard to its merits 

 without an actual trial. The bee-escape 

 is an illustration. 



Again, an implement may be correct 

 in principle; yet will work only under 

 certain conditions not easily describable; 

 hence, nothing should be accepted nor 

 rejected upon insufficient trial. One of 

 the "besetting sins" of bee-keepers, is 

 that of jumping at conclusions. New 

 things should be tried upon a sufficient 

 scale, and for a sufficient time to be of 

 some value. 



New things are often extravagantly 

 praised, particularly by those interested 

 in their sale and introduction. There is 

 always somebody ready to try new 

 things, hence it is usually well to await 

 favorable reports from disinterested 

 parties. 



But when new things are tried, as I 

 paid, let it be on sulficient scale to be of 

 some value, but not upon a larger scale 

 than failure can be afforded. 



Upon the recommendation of inter<'St- 

 ed parties, some have introduced new 

 varieties of bees into their apiaries, only 

 to bitterly repent of the act. Tlu! trial of 

 a new variety of boos, even upon a small 

 scale, is liable to introduce a taint of 

 blood that it will take years to eradicate. 

 If new varieties of bees are tried, let 

 drone-traps bo faithfully used, and the 

 new variety not be allowed to mix with 

 the other bees. 



Upon this point of trying new things, 

 I think the old saying in regard to the 

 adoption of fashions in wearing apparel 



is quite pat. I cannot quote it exactly, 

 but the idea is : 



Be not the first to wear the new, 

 Nor the last to lay aside the old. 



In closing, I might say that the pat- 

 enting of an article puts a check upon 

 its too hasty adoption. If a man must 

 pay even so small a sum as $5 for the 

 privilege of making and using an article, 

 it induces him to more thoroughly in- 

 vestigate before adopting it. 



On the other hand, a few are preju- 

 diced against patents, and spend their 

 time, money and energy in trying to see 

 how near they can make something like 

 the patented article, and yet evade the 

 patent. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



President Taylor thought Mr. Root 

 should Ivnow something of the new 

 things; both patented and unpatented. 



Mr. Root said he had started some 

 things, and some of them had proven 

 failures, and that the views of the Root 

 establishment was considerably modified 

 in regard to patents. 



President Taylor thought that many 

 of the new things could be tried with, or 

 in, the mind. He had decided, without 

 trial, that he wanted no self-hiver in his 

 yard. The objection to the self-hivers 

 was the preparing of all colonies, when 

 as a rule we had only one swarm from 

 3 colonies. He 'thought that a queen- 

 catcher or trap was preferable to a self- 

 hiver. 



Apicultural Discussions. 



A. J. Acker described a swarm-catcher 

 made of a wooden rim, covered with wire 

 cloth, that had been successful with him. 



President Taylor asked who had tried 

 the bee-escapes ? 



W. Z. Hutchinson had tried about a 

 dozen successfully. 



J. P. Berg had found them a success 

 in comb-honey supers, but they had not 

 been a success with extracted supers. 

 They workcid better witli him if put on 

 in the morning, rather than in the even- 

 ing. The bees also left them better 

 when the nights were cool. 



J. H. Larrabee thought the escape 

 most valuable in working for extracted- 

 honey, as it prevented robbing, and 

 facilitated the handling of the combs. 



M. H. Hunt said that the advantages 

 of escapes with comb-honey was that 

 they avoided the biting of the cappings. 



R. E. Ashcraft had tried them on 

 about a dozen colonies, and they had 

 proven a success. The bees were practi- 

 cally all taken out, and the cappings 

 were not molested. 



