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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 9, 190S. 



that any one can make them from the material in which his locality 

 abounds. At the present prices of honey bee-hives must be cheap. 

 Expensive hives and complicated fancy implements are a hindrance 

 of apiculture. The system of bee-keeping must be simple, cheap and 

 efljoient. The Department of Agriculture at Washington, in its re- 

 port last January, stated that bee-keeping in the United States was 

 yielding 100 percent profit annually on its investment. This state- 

 ment, and not the advance in price of lumber, caused supply-dealers 

 to double their prices. A sort of union or trust sprang up. A few, 

 however, have withdrawn and are again quoting supplies nearer what 

 they should be. Look up the advertisements of supply-dealers and 

 find out where you can do best. 



Part of the foregoing is truth, and a good deal of it is 

 error, according to views entertained " in this locality". 

 Bee-keepers will not be compelled to make their own hives 

 so long as they can buy them for less than they can make 

 them. The probability is that the case is very excep- 

 tional in which a bee-keeper finds he can make a hive 

 cheaper than he can buy one at present prices. If he can, 

 of course that is his privilege. If he can make them as 

 cheap as he can buy them when making only enough for 

 his own use, it follows as the night follows the day that by 

 making them on a larger scale he can make them for still 

 less, in which case there is no law to prevent his making to 

 sell to others. 



But is it true that " hives may be made by any one who 

 understands how to handle tools "7 The average carpenter 

 or cabinet-maker is generally supposed to understand how 

 to handle tools, but give him an order to make a hive, and 

 see if it will be satisfactory. Exactness of measurement 

 beyond that to which he is accustomed is demanded in the 

 making of a hive, an exactness more easily attained where 

 expensive machinery is carefully adjusted to cut pieces by 

 the thousand, than where each piece is separately measured 

 and cut by hand. 



It is true that no patent stands in the way of making a 

 hive that most bee-keepers would prefer. 



The statement that a report emanating from the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture should cause manufacturers to double 

 prices is rather amusing as a specimen of logic. Do the 

 supply manufacturers depend upon reports from Washing- 

 ton to estimate the profits of bee-keeping ? Could they not 

 give those Washingtonians points in the matter 7 Suppose, 

 however, that the Washington estimate could be relied on 

 as absolutely correct, what should be its effect 7 Would it 

 not be a lowering rather than a raising of many previous 

 estimates of profits, and should that not lower rather than 

 raise prices ? 



In any case, how much do the profits of bee-keeping in- 

 fluence the price of hives 7 If it should be found that the 

 earnings of a woodchopper were 1500 percent of the amount 

 invested in his ax, would that at once send the price of axes 

 skyward 7 



But is it true that prices have doubled 7 Will The 

 Farmer give a single instance of a case in which any manu- 

 factory lists a hive at double the price at which it listed it 

 at any previous time 7 



The closing sentence is good advice, although hardly in 

 keeping with the first statement. Reading advertisements 

 is good business, and the man who watches them closely 

 need have little fear but that competition will keep prices 

 somewhere within reach. If there is " a sort of union or 

 trust", and if it is a fact that " a few have withdrawn" 

 from that union, it seems quite clear that the union has not 

 the power to crush competition, and hence can not be ex- 

 pected to hold prices above a somewhat reasonable figure. 



Judging from the way some other editorial opinions 

 that have appeared in this Journal have been construed, we 

 doubt not that some of our readers will conclude that the 

 foregoing opinion is wholly in the interest of the bee-sup- 

 ply manufacturer. But we really believe that any bee- 

 keeper who has the sense and ability to make a hive as 

 good as, and cheaper than, he can buy of the manu- 



facturer, will go ahead and make it, no matter what any 

 one says about it. This is still a free country, we under- 

 stand, and there is no law against any bee-keeper making 

 all his supplies, if he so desires. No one is compelled to 

 patronize the bee-supply dealers. But we notice that about 

 nine-tenths of the bee-keepers of this country seem to be 

 glad to patronize them. 



Truly, we don't believe there are any bee-keepers that 

 would want to see all the reliable bee-supply dealers and 

 manufacturers shot just yet. They are a necessity to the 

 best success of bee-keeping in any land. Scarcely any one 

 will disagree with us on that, we think. 



Using Strong Language. 



Referring to Editor Root's expression, " A stick claws 

 the contents over ", Editor Abbott upholds it as giving 

 strength, saying : 



"Claw " means " to scrape, scratch or dig with a claw, 

 or with the hand as a claw ", and " stir " would not be a 

 strong enough word in this case. 



If two darkies got into a fight and one " clawed " the 

 other's eye out, you would not think of saying that the fel- 

 low had his eye " stirred " out. Stir would be tame. You 

 might stir syrup, but you must claw beeswax refuse. 



" In this locality " one would not say an eye was 

 stirred out, nor rubbed out, nor coaxed out, nor a whole lot 

 of other things, because those words don't mean the thing 

 that was done ; more likely it would be said the eye was 

 punched or gouged out, because those words convey the 

 right idea. 



So we are to understand that " claw '" means the same 

 thing as " stir", only stronger. You stir mush, so long as 

 you go slowly, and when you go fast enough you claw it. 

 You stir up strife if you get two men to jawing each other ; 

 if you get them to blows then you claw up strife. The gen- 

 eral principle seems to be that when you want to make your 

 language stronger, just use another word that doesn't mean 

 what you're trying to mean I , 



Itttscellaneous 

 rietps ^ 3 terns 



J 



The Wisconsin Convention held at Madison last 

 week was fairly well attended considering the 20-below 

 weather. We were present and enjoyed both the conven- 

 tion and meeting the good bee-keepers of that cold region. 

 The following were the re-elections of officers : President, 

 N. E. France ; vice-president, Jacob Huffman ; secretary, 

 Gus Dittmer, of Augusta ; and treasurer, Franklin Wilcox. 



Two Indianapolis Bee-Supply Dealers.— Last fall 

 we visited some of the bee-supply manufacturers and deal- 

 ers, among them being Messrs C. M. Scott & Co. and Wal- 

 ter S. Pouder, both of Indianapolis, Ind. 



We called on Mr. Scott first, and found him located in 

 a very good store filled with a stock of supplies made by the 

 G. B. Lewis Co. Mr. Scott also deals in honey, and is 

 developing a large trade in it. While we were there he was 

 handling considerable honey, as it was just at the begin- 

 ning of the honey-dealing season. 



After leaving Mr. Scott's establishment we looked up 

 Walter S. Pouder, who handles the A. I. Root Go's brand 

 of supplies. Mr. Pouder is also a honey-dealer, and has 

 lately taken up the manufacture of peanut butter. He has 

 all the necessary machinery for making a very fine article, 

 and will mail a sample of the butter to any one upon re- 



