THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



stating that Capt. Hetherington, 

 probabl)' the largest producer of 

 comb hone}^ in the world, uses the 

 New Quinby hive in his extensive 

 apiaries ; and that Chas. Dadant, 

 the largest producer of extracted 

 honej in the West, uses the same. 

 I call particular attention to the 

 last named because it has been said 

 that the hanging frame is far superi- 

 or for the extractor — a statement 

 that after another year's experience 

 I most emphatically deny. Let 

 those who consider the hanging 

 frame hive the onl}^ fit domicile for 

 the honey bee recall this list of 

 names, — Quinbj^, Dzierzon, Ab- 

 bott, Hetherington, Dadant, and 

 then acquaint themselves with the 

 merits of this new hive before con- 

 demning it. The invention of the 

 honey extractor was followed b}- 

 Quinby's invention and intro- 

 duction of his upright bellows 

 smoker. Without the last, we 

 could hardly use the first, 

 and if we had to do with- 

 out either, the most of us would 

 choose the Quinby smoker. The 

 upright bellows in combination 

 with a parallel fire-box, etc., is un- 

 doubtedly Mr. Quinby's invention, 

 and we should call all such Quinby 

 smokers whether made bj' A, B, or 

 C. No smoker before had this com- 

 bination and no good smoker since 

 is without it. Indeed so closely 

 are all first-class smokers copies of 

 the first smoker made by Quinby, 

 that were they all shown to a dis- 

 interested person he would quickly 

 pronounce them Quinby smokers 

 differing but slightly in construc- 

 tion. He gave us a smoker and 



we will call it by his name. Mr. 

 Thomas, editor of the Beekeepers' 

 Instructor, a paper too good to live, 

 speaking of buncombe claims of 

 originality, says that "had not Mr. 

 Q. made the first smoker we proba- 

 bly should never have heard of any 

 made b}' Mr. B." Any future at- 

 tempt to rob Mr. Quinby of the 

 well deserved honor of this inven- 

 tion will meet with a well deserved 

 rebuke from the beekeepers of this 

 countr}'. A quotation ahead}'- 

 made in his first book, "Its (the 

 bees) food being liquid nearl^^ all 

 will be exlialed,"shows how near he 

 came at that early date to his later 

 discovery that bees in common with 

 some other insects may avoid dry 

 faeces. Any observing beekeeper, 

 after his bees are well wintered, can 

 see this on setting them out in the 

 spring. We know that some of 

 our entomologists have not spent 

 time enough to learn the truth of 

 Mr. Quinby's discover^', but some 

 of them perhaps might to their own 

 advantage as well as ours, spend 

 more time in original investigation 

 and less in writing "scientific pleas- 

 antries" and in recommending the 

 poisoning of our bees for punctur- 

 ing grapes, when, as Mr. Quinby, 

 who owned a vineyard, told them 

 many years ago that the bees were 

 not the guilty parties, a fact that 

 the}' have not been able to disprove. 

 Not one of this class can tell us 

 anything reliable about the winter 

 temperature of the bee hive and if 

 they are as proficient and exact in 

 their teachings on other insects, it 

 certainly is time they set about 

 enlarging the horizonof their know- 



