90 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April, 



usually long; there beign much inter- 

 est in the topics beforethe house. We 

 had several with us from a distance, 

 including Mr. Loverin^ of Greenfield, 

 Mass. A committee was appointed to 

 secure a field day and convention at 

 the earliest opportunity this summer. 



FOUR VETERAN BEE-KEEPERS 

 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



John T. Gould, No. 2, Ipswich. 



BY GEO. W. ADAMS. 



HALE, HEARTY and full of en- 

 thusiasm although well past 

 90, Deacon Gould is easily the 

 Nestor among Essex Co. bee-masters. 

 It would seem that the old North 

 Shore must be a healthy place when 

 one meets a man of past four score 

 and ten tramping the frozen marshes 

 on a zero morning carrying his shot- 

 gun as lightly as a boy and chatting 

 pleasantly of how Henry Alley, now 

 the veteran among queen breeders, 

 worked with him as a boy and learned 

 from him the first principles of bee- 

 keeping. 



The good deacon formerly lived in 

 Wenham. and sent from there to Bos- 

 ton the first one-pound sections of 

 honey ever sold there. In those early 

 days he cleared in one year over one 

 thousand dollars from his little apiary. 



At present his apiary is small, as 

 his farm, one of the most productive 

 in Ipswich, is situated at the head of 

 tide water and the salt meadows afford 

 no pasturage; but he is as skillful in 

 handling bees as he was three-quarters 

 of a century ago. I wonder if a story 

 of his boyhood, told me by a family 

 connection, is true. He was not a 

 deacon then, and it shows a bee-mas- 

 ter is born, not made. 



The story goes like this: When 

 about eight years of age he had some 

 trouble with the person who presided 

 over his mother's kitchen — whether 



he had been experimenting in "stim- 

 ulative feeding" among the preserves, 

 or had "travel stained" a newly- 

 scrubbed floor, I am unable to say, 

 but he was summarily ejected and 

 told to keep out. "The boy is father 

 to the man," so his steps naturally 

 turned toward his father's little row 

 of hives under the cherry tree; and 

 arriving there he found a swarm 

 clustered upon a current bush, while 

 not far away the family cat basked 

 peacefully in the sun. 



It was the work of a moment to 

 catch the feline and while she was 

 caressed in his arms the bees were 

 gently persuaded to leave the bush 

 and cluster on her tail. All went 

 well, and a goodly portion of the 

 swarm having attached themselves to 

 this novel support, and puss becom- 

 ing restless, the kitchen door was 

 pushed open, the cat turned loose and 

 — things happened. 



As told the writer, the foxes of 

 Sampson in the Philistine corn were 

 slow and cool despite their fire brands, 

 compared to that cat in the kitchen. 



This veteran bee-master has always 

 stood staunchly for temperance and 

 clean civil government, and through 

 a long life has been a power for good 

 in the community. 



This is the second in a series of 

 four biographical sketches, the first of 

 which appeared in March together 

 with portraits ofthe gentlemen includ- 

 ed. — -Editors. 



We wish to thank our readers for 

 their cordial help in introducing the 

 Bee-Keeper. The subscriptions are 

 flowing in splendidly. (M.) 



The American Bee-Keeper Three 

 Full Years $1.00. To New Subscrib- 

 ers, Three Full Years for Ninety 

 Cents. Is that Cheap Enough? 



