THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



51 



willing to lie down and die wlien 

 kindly requested to do so. 



However, I would be ungrateful 

 if I did not publicly thank ail those 

 parties for putting themselves on rec- 

 ord as to the time they invented, or 

 claim to have invented, theu- Swarm- 

 ers that did not v;ork. By hanging 

 them up in out-of-the-way places 

 where no human eye could see them 

 is sufficient evidence of then* worth- 

 lessness. I shall not claim that I 

 have had the Swarmer in use over 

 twenty-nine years, yet I think no one 

 is likely to antedate my claim. 



There is one thing that no one 

 will dispute, and that is the fact 

 that I first described and brought to 

 the public notice the only practical 

 Swarm-hiver, and I do not believe 

 there are many people who believe I 

 am not the original inventor of the 

 same. 



To show how bad some people feel 

 about the invention of the Swarmer, 

 I clip the following qiiotation from 

 the Canadian Bie Journal. 



" Well, I've seen Henry Alley's pa- 

 tent 'catch-ein-all-alive,' 'never-lost- 

 a-swarm ' hive. That is, I've seen an 

 engraving of it. It's just about what 

 I expected, and I just shouldn't won- 

 der if he gets upset in getting his pa- 

 tent. That scheme (the principle of it 

 I mean) is as old as the hills. A lead- 

 ing Canadian beekeeper, when looking 

 at it a few days ago, remarked that 

 he had tried the plan almost twenty 

 years ago. It looks j)retty on paper 

 but don't work out just that smoothly. 

 I wish it would with all my heart. 

 — Observer.'''' 



There! dear reader, do you blame 

 the fellow who wi'ote the above for 

 not placmg his name to such an ef- 

 fusion of misrepresentation? The 

 idea that any one ever used the same 

 thing twenty years ago! There are 

 not half a dozen beekeepers in Amer- 

 ica who do not knoT\- that it was not 

 over ten years ago that the first per- 

 forated metal was introduced into 

 America by D. A. Jones. I cannot 



find just the words to express my 

 opinion and contempt of a i^erson who 

 wilfully lies about a small matter. 



"Observer" is one of those know- 

 it-all beemen; he writes for j)ublica- 

 tion and of com'se he considers him- 

 self one of the big "uns," and yet he is 

 one of those fellows who can see at- 

 no-sight-at-all right though any in- 

 vention, and is able to give an intel- 

 ligent {I) opinion of how it will work, 

 more especially whether it can be pa- 

 tented or not. AVonderful man he. 

 Those fellows who have had no expe- 

 rience in patents better keep in the 

 backgi-ound and not expose theu- ig- 

 norance upon such matters. I am able 

 to handle the patent pai't much better 

 than those pai'ties who are trying to 

 frighten me. I don't frighten worth a 

 cent. So, gents, be ready to put out 

 yoLU- money when the proper time 

 comes as we are sure to obtain a pa- 

 tent on the Swarmer. 



"Observer" has told us what he 

 knows about Swai-mers. Now let me 

 show what a practical and a well- 

 known beekeeper has to say about it. 



In the January notes I mentioned a device to 

 be bi-.)u,i,'lu out in the Apicultukist to cause 

 bees whan ttiev sw;irm. to hive themselves. Well, 

 it has appeared, and it i-^ perfectly practicable, 

 too. In fact, after Mr. Alley had mentioned it in 

 connection with his drone-trap. I commenced to 

 study the matter, and had thought out, and de- 

 scrilled to my family, ihe identical device now in- 

 tiodu-ed by Mr. Alley. From what I have learned 

 about bees at swarming time, I know it will work, 

 and there is no chance foi- the bees to abscond 

 unless otiier swarms are in the air. Of course, if 

 all the hives in an apiary have the swarm-hiver 

 on them, they could or would not leave witliout 

 a queen. It will require some after manipulation 

 su'-h as removimr the swai-mers at the right time, 

 cuttinirout queen cells, etc. It will be a grand 

 thing for the small beekeeper or laboring men, 

 wlio keep a few colonies to help along, as they 

 M'ill no longer need to be constantly watching 

 them. 



The author of the above is C. H. 

 Dibbern of MUan, 111., and ]Mi-. D. is 

 not ashamed to i:)lace his name to any 

 article of which he is the author. ]\Ir. 

 D. has written volumes upon bee mat- 

 ters and probably has moi-e solid 

 knowledge on bee culture to the 

 square inch, than some other person 

 (whose name I cannot call because I 

 don't know it) has to an acre lot. 



The Swarmer wOl live and thiive 



