1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



23 



to represent the industry at all of the 

 institutes of the State. Failing to 

 bring it about in this way, then let 

 bee-keepers see the secretary, who as 

 I said above, generally employs the 

 speakers, and get him interested iu 

 in apiculture, and then the rest of 

 the work will be comparatively easy. 

 If he cannot be prevailed upon to em- 

 ploy a bee-keeper as one of the regu- 

 lar speakers, than let local bee-keepers 

 in each community where institutes 

 are held attend all of the meetings, 

 and when an opportunity offers, talk 

 bees the best he or she knows. 

 Where there is a will, there will be 

 found a way. Of course, no cranks 

 on special lines, nor venders of patent 

 hives should be permitted to repre- 

 sent the industry, for if they are, the 

 institute people will soon shut down 

 on the whole business. If the bee- 

 keeper can talk poultry, as I have at 

 the institutes in Missouri this year, 

 or any other branch of agriculture, 

 he will be that much more likely to 

 get a hearing and get employed by 

 the State. The secretaries, or those 

 who engage the speakers, are always 

 looking out for good men, and one 

 may be assured, if he has something 

 of value to say, and knows how to 

 say it, and when to stop — a very im- 

 portant point — he will not want for a 

 chance to tell what he knows. T. B. 

 Terry spends all of his time during 

 the winter in this kind of work, and 

 is in constant demand, simply be- 

 cause he has something to tell of real 

 value to the farmer, and the States 

 are glad to pay him for telling it. 



I may say further, that it will be 

 better if the man who talks bees at a 

 farmers' institute does so from the 

 standpoint of apiculture on the farm. 



and not as a speciality. If he does 

 not believe that the farmer and hor- 

 ticulturist should keep bees, he would 

 better stay away from the institutes, 

 in my opinion. 



If all these plans fail in securing a 

 hearing, then I think it would pay 

 the State Societies of each State to 

 employ a man at their own expense 

 and send him to all of the institutes, 

 held in the State. But if Ave can 

 make the members of the various 

 Boards of Agriculture feel that bee- 

 keeping is an industry of some im- 

 portance to the farmer, and that we 

 as bee-keepers are ready to co-operate 

 with them under all circumstances, 

 then I do not think there will be any 

 trouble to get a hearing. — E. T. 

 Abbott in Bee- Keepers' Review. 



APIARY CONVENIENCES. 



Some bee keeper have ' ' passed the 

 stage of lugging around a tool box." 

 I would inquire where they keep their 

 small untensils. In the shop, I ex- 

 pect. Then when a queen is balled 

 and they want a cage, they make a 

 special trip to the shop. Of course 

 the queen is secure. The bees will 

 hold her. But suppose a colony has 

 swarmed out and united with another 

 colony, or is trying to enter a neigh- 

 boring hive. The visiting queen is 

 likely to be on the outside of the hive 

 and the other inside, but in the midst 

 of a ball of strange bees. On arriv- 

 ing at the shop the cages are not so 

 soon picked up as they might be. A 

 short search gives time for both queens 

 to get inside the hive and become 

 balled. Then when they are caged, it 

 is impossible to tell which from which. 

 Then when the intruding bees miss 

 their queen, they will take wing again 

 and perhaps try to join another col- 



