1903. 



slat in the honey-board comes directly 

 over the space between the top-bars 

 and this prevented the building of 

 brace-combs anywhere above the honey 

 board, while at the same time admitting 

 freely the heat and odor of the brood- 

 chamber, as well as the bees them- 

 selves. 



Next came the queen-excluding met- 

 al, invented by Father Langstroth, I 

 guess, but pushed prominently to the 

 front by D. A. Jones and others of Can- 

 ada. This metal added to my honey- 

 board by sliding strips into saw cuts in 

 the edges of the slats, and a perfect 

 honey-board resulted, and how any one 

 can be content to handle bees without 

 this honey-board is more than I can 

 conceive. That it does not have the 

 least tendency to dissuade bees from 

 entering the surplus receptacles just as 

 soon as there is any surplus honey, is 

 something that I know from repeated 

 demonstration. I have placed honey 

 boards on one hive, jogged side-ways 

 to make all brake-joints with each oth- 

 er, and had the bees enter the surplus 

 receptacles just as readily as where no 

 honey-board was used. One season in 

 one apiary of eighty colonies, I used 

 honey-boards on about half, and the 

 others without any, and there was no 

 difference perceptible in the quick and 

 successful working of the bees. I am 

 confident that no kind of top-bars can 

 ever take the place of the honey-board 

 where the latter is properly made and 

 manipulated, and I am astonished that 

 such a question should remain under 

 discussion at this late date. 



I wish you would say in your journal 

 (a monthly visitor I prize very much) 

 that the patent on my hive expired last 

 September and so all are free to make 

 and use it. I furthermore wish other 

 journals would copy. 



Dowagiac, Mich.. Dec. 31, 1892. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 27 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 



''''The Atner'can Bee-Keef>e-r kas {mpr<nied luon- 

 derfully during the last year.'' — J. B. Hall. 



To die without having w-on a friend — ■ 

 a true and loved heart comrade — is to 

 die a failure. No am'ount of fame or 

 wealth or power can make up for this 

 lack. To be without a friend is to be 

 without the seal of highest success. 



Propositions ol a New York Member as to Me*ns 



Whereby Its Greater Usefulness May 



Be Effected. 



(Frederick B. Simpson.) 



IN the first place, the name of this 

 association should be a guide as to 

 who should conduct it. Probably 

 the quickest way to realize what might 

 be, is to imagine a board of directors 

 and all officers, chosen solely from 

 among those members who are bee- 

 keepers in the largest and broadest 

 sense of the word, that is, specialists 

 whose main or entire business consists 

 of the keeping of bees, during the time 

 they are holding otifice. 



With such a body there would be no 

 doubt of quick action in the matter of 

 co-operation, as the interests of all 

 would be similar and directly so; and 

 such a board could pass on many ques- 

 tions from local boards, that could not 

 be passed on by any board consisting 

 in the majority of men who make their 

 living by selling something to the bee- 

 keeper; or who sell his products on 

 commission. 



Suppose, in the recent antagonisms, 

 no man who could take advantage of 

 the second-class pound rate of postage, 

 had been in a position of candidacy or 

 ofBce; but that all editors had main- 

 tained a position of total equality to- 

 wards all members acting as editors 

 only. Then if the board of directors 

 had published a verbatim report of all 

 their proceedings and had further in- 

 vestigated all claims to the utmost, giv- 

 ing all facts to the membership with 

 some promptness, the membership 

 would be in a position to act intelli- 

 gently. 



The report of the annual convention 

 should also be in the hands of all mem- 

 bers before an election, so that they 

 might be able to judge in what manner 

 the meeting was conducted, and also 

 that they would have a permanent rec- 

 ord of what was accomplished. With 

 bee-keepers only as officers, there 

 would be a greater incentive for local 

 associations to send representatives, 

 and there would still be a large enough 

 number of commission men and supply 

 dealers and editors there in their own 



