100 



TPIE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April, 



job of excavating, they would roove 

 "an awful pile of dirt" in a day — not 

 because of the extraordinary activity 

 of each individual, for there would 

 surely be lots of "loafing" done by 

 some, and none of the gang might be 

 particularly spry; but the great num- 

 ber employed would, by shear num- 

 bers, overshadow the great amount of 

 laziness and shirking that is bound to 

 be present in such an aggregation of 

 men. (H.) 



THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIE- 

 TY. 



The Worcester County (Mass.) 

 Bee-Keeper Society held its second 

 annual Institute at the rooms of the 

 Worcester Horticultural Society in 

 Worcester, Februay i6th. The meet- 

 ings were under the auspices of the 

 Massachusetts State Board of Agri- 

 culture, which body co-operates with 

 and intelligently assists all such or- 

 ganizations which are conducted for 

 the benfit and in the interests of the 

 farmers. Mr. J.Ellsworth, secretary 

 of the board, presided. 



The first speaker of the morning 

 session was Mr. Geo. W. Adams, his 

 topic being the Mind of the Bee. He 

 handled the subject in a most enter- 

 taining way and kept the close at- 

 tention of his audience by his array 

 of facts and by his witty and amus- 

 ing illustrations. While the subject 

 was necessarily more or less specula- 

 tive the speaker nevertheless was 

 able to show its bearing on practical 

 bee culture. 



Dr. Porter, of Clark University, was 

 the next speaker and he treated the 

 same subject from the standpoint of 

 the scientist, pointed out some of the 

 common errors of deductions from ap- 

 pearances and told how the scientist 

 tried to avoid them. He very dis- 

 tinctly explained the relations be- 



tween the scientist in his laboratory 

 and the practical bread winner among 

 his bees. 



Following Dr. Porter there was a 

 general discussion until noon when the 

 meeting adjourned for the banquet. 

 About 100 persons partook of this. 

 After the dinner and until the assem- 

 bly at 2 o'clock there was a period 

 of chatting and discussions, so dear 

 and often so profitable to the bee en- 

 thusiasts. 



The first speaker of the afternoon 

 was Dr. Kuhlmann, of Clark Univer- 

 sity, who spoke on Idleness among 

 Bees. He held his audience enthrall- 

 ed to the end and when he was 

 through they were quite willing to ac- 

 knowledge that the bee as an individ- 

 ual was anything but a model of in- 

 dustry. Dr. Kuhlmann devoted a 

 long period of time and much pains- 

 taking labor to the gathering of the 

 facts on which he based his conclu- 

 sions. 



Mrs. Richardson, secretary of the 

 Massachusetts Society of Bee-Keep- 

 ers, told of her trials in getting a 

 start in apiculture and gave her hear- 

 ers frequent occasion for merriment. 

 Her remarks were the more entertain- 

 ing in that she had surmounted the 

 difficulties and has made a financial 

 success of bee-keeping. 



Mr. Goodell, of Worcester, a mem- 

 ber of the society, spoke at some 

 length on the Sense Organs of Bees. 

 He was followed by Mr. A. C. Miller 

 of Providence, R. I., who told of the 

 Conditions Within the Hives. 



At an early date we will give to our 

 readers several of these addresses in 

 full. 



As has been before mentioned here, 

 the Worcester society is wonderfully 

 wide awake and progressive and its 

 members freely admit that no small 

 part of their progress as a society 

 and their advance as bee-keepers is 



