July 20, 190S 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



503 



tern of management larger crops of honey can 

 be secured. 



Mr. Dadant has promised to write a series 

 of articles on their hive and management for 

 the readers of the American Bee Journal in 

 good time for the season of 1906. To the bee- 

 keeper who desires to make a financial suc- 

 cess of producing honey, those articles will 

 be worth hundreds of dollars. There will be 

 no theory about them. The Dadants produce 

 the honey, and can give a good reason for the 

 faith that is in them regarding this matter. 



It may not be known to all our readers, but 

 Chas. Dadant & Son were among the very 

 first to make successful the importation of 

 Italian bees on a large scale. They received 

 as high as 400 queens a year, and sold them 

 at $10 each, or $30 for a colony of bees with 

 an imported qneen. Of course, this was long 

 ago— in the early 70's. Mr. Chas. Dadant 

 made a trip to Italy at a cost of $400, in order, 

 if possible, to discover a method whereby a 

 large number of queens could be safely 

 shipped to this country. FiniiUy a plan was 

 devised, each queen being put in a very small 

 nucleus box, then 22 of the boxes were packed 

 together and shipped. Often the whole 22 

 queens, or at least 20 of them, would arrive 

 safely; then, again, all would arrive dead ex- 

 cept 2 or 3 in a shipment. The business con- 

 tinued successful and profitable until com- 



petition, and unfaithfulness on the part of 

 their Italian shipper, put an end to it. 



Mr. Dadant is fortunate in his family. Be- 

 sides his good ^^ite (who, by the way, is a 

 most faithful and excellent mother, cook and 

 housekeeper), he has three sons and four 

 daughters. Louis and Louisa, the two oldest, 

 are married, the son living on the old home- 

 stead which is located only two or three rods 

 from the main factory, and the daughter about 

 a half mile away. Henry and Maurice are the 

 other two boys. Louis and Henry are gradu- 

 ates of the University of Illinois, and Maurice 

 has still three years of work there. The 

 daughters at home are Valentine, Clemence 

 and Harrietta, the last being the " baby " of 

 the family, about 10 years old. Miss Valen- 

 tine, who has also attended the University, is 

 president of the Hamilton Library, an organi- 

 zation formed three years ago through her 

 efforts, and of which the town is justly proud. 

 It is open to the donation of good books, and 

 has now almost lOOO volumes. 



Last year Mr. Dadant built a most beauti- 

 ful and substantial brick house, from which 

 at the rear the majestic Mississippi River can 

 be seen for nearly 14 miles. It is just oppo- 

 site Keokuk, Iowa, from which city it looks 

 like a young college in the distance. He and 

 his family moved into it last December. 



Hamilton, the home of the Dadants, is just 



across the riv^r from Keokuk, a fine railroad 

 and driving bridge, three-fourths of a mile 

 long, spanning the Mississippi at that point. 

 Hamilton is a city of 1300 inhabitants, and 

 Keokuk about 15,000. 



Mr. Dadant is vice-president and director of 

 the State Bank of Hamilton. Louis C. is also 

 a director. Mr. Dadant's property interests 

 in and about Hamilton are extensive. He is 

 the leading business man of the city, and one 

 whom all respect and delight to honor. 



We shall not soon forget our very enjoyable 

 visit with the Dadants. We were royally en- 

 tertained, Mr. Dadant devoting himself 

 wholly to us from the time of our arrival un- 

 til we departed. We understood how he 

 could thus absent himself from the business 

 when we saw how his sons, Louis and Henry, 

 made things hum in the ofiloe and factory. 

 They are taking right hold of the work, so 

 that Mr. Dadant is required only occasionally 

 during the day or week simply as counsellor, 

 his advice aud experience often being of in- 

 estimable value. 



In next week's issue we will complete the 

 account of this trip, telling of a visit to the 

 old city of Nauvoo, and also of an 11-mile 

 carriage drive to see Mr. E. J. Baxter, a 

 brother-in-law of Mr. Dadant, who is another 

 large and very sucoessful bee-keeper. 



-V Contribiiteb -f 

 Special Ctrticles 



=\ 



Light-weight vs. Full-Weight Sections 



BY L. V. RICKETT8 



FOLLOWING my article on light-weight sections being one 

 cause of the small demand for section honey, on page 229, 

 1 will say that with the sections now iij general use, a 24- 

 section case of No. 1 separatored honey will weigh not more 

 than 22 pounds, on an average, which is 14=3 ounces per sec- 

 tion, q 



» As stated by M. A. Gill (page 213), these sections were at 

 first intended to hold one pound of comb honey, which they 

 did, on an average, as they were used without separators, but 

 since separators have come into general use, and as by their 

 use the holding capacity of sections is reduced, we find that 

 the original 16-ounce section of honey has been reduced to 

 approximately 14;3 ounces ; yet it is being sold to the c<in- 

 sumer as a pound of honey. 



This reminds me that for many years, and until about a 

 decade ago, a well-known soda company put up their soda in 

 two different sizes of packages, one size contained 12 ounces, 

 and the other 16 ounces. For many years the lighter weight 

 package was the one generally sold, but finally some of the 

 more enterprising of our grocerymen adopted the heavier 

 package. For a long time both sizes were sold, one grocery- 

 man selling the 16-ounce, while his competitor across the 

 street sold the 12-ounce size, yet the price was exactly the 

 same — 10 cents per package. But this state of affairs has 

 changed by the light-weight packages being forced out of the 

 market. 



I predict that within 10 years from to-day the average 

 weight for a 24-section case of No. 1 separatored honey will be 

 24 pounds, or 16 ounces per section. This change will at first 

 be made by a few bee-keepers adopting a section large enough 

 to hold 16 ounces of No. 1 separatored honey, thereby increas- 

 ing the sale of their product and finally forcing others to fol- 

 low in their foot-steps. 



Imagine a butter manufacturing company producing 

 bricks of butter weighing only I473 ounces coming in direct 

 competition with a company producing bricks weighing 16 



ounces. Would they not soon be forced to increase the weight 

 of their product, or be driven from the market? A "pound 

 of comb honey " and a " section of honey " are synonymous 

 terms in the minds of the average consumers of section honey, 

 yet they are learning to their dissatisfaction that when buy- 

 ing a section of honey they seldom get a pound. 



Leo F. Hanegan (page 268) says in his locality they have 

 trouble in getting 4>ixl% sections to weigh 22 pounds to the 

 case of 24 sections, on an average, when used with separators 

 when being filled, while across the country 8 miles from his 

 locality the bee-keepers must use sections of 1^4 inch width 

 in order to keep them from weighing over 23 pounds per case 

 of 24 sections. He says : "Our market demands an average 

 of 22 pounds per case of 24 sections of No. 1 honey," and asks 

 me to name one size of section for those two localities. My 

 answer is to use a section a little larger than the largest one 

 mentioned by Mr. Ilanegan — one that will average 16 ounces 

 to the section of No. 1 separatored honey. No one expects to 

 have each and every section weigh exactly 16 ounces. 



The idea is to have them average that amount as nearly 

 as possible. I don't believe the old man, " Locality," will 

 assert himself so forcibly as to make it necessary to use two 

 different sizes of sections in order to have them average 16 

 ounces each. 



As to Mr. Hanegan's market demanding 22 pounds per 

 case, I think he meant the wholesale market or commission 

 houses, and not the real market, which is the consumer. It 

 is this market that we must endeavor to please with regard to 

 the weight of sections, and not the large buyer, for if we have 

 plenty of those who buy and consume our product, there will 

 be no difficulty in finding the large buyer. There is where a 

 great mistake is made by bee-keepers trying to please the 

 large buyer instead of the consumer. 



Perhaps the principal argument advantage by the advo- 

 cates of light-weight sections is, that the consumer often pre- 

 fers them, as they cost (when sold by weight) a cent or two 

 less than one of full weight. With reference to this I will say 

 that a customer who is too poor to buy 16 ounces of honey at 

 one time is too poor to be reckoned as a purchaser and con- 

 sumer of honey. And a family that can not use 16 ounces of 

 honey before it goes to waste is tint to be considered as a con- 

 sumer of honey. The facts arc that those light-weight sec- 

 tions are preferred by some for the purpose of some one to 

 receive pay for something they nrver possessed. This ' some 

 one " may be either the producer, wholesaler, or retail mer- 

 chant, but it is never to the bisi interest of the consumer or 

 the bee-keeper at large, as it tends to decrease the demand 

 for honey, and also its consumption. 



Whitman Co., Wash. 



