78 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



he saw the clover and basswood 

 blossoms opening, and sweet was 

 the music of the 1mm of industry 

 upon which wife and child depended 

 for food and raiment. Shall we 

 never experience such anticipations 

 again ? In those days it seemed as 

 though every one, whether dealer 

 or consumer, wanted honej'. Now, 

 the tables seem to be reversed. 



In these da3's, no doubt, such a 

 system, if practised at all, would 

 replace a part of the narrow brood- 

 frames with wide frames contain- 

 ing sections. 



The theory as taught us at that 

 time, we carried out here, in the 

 following manner : I made thirty- 

 two hives, 41 inches long, calculat- 

 ed for twenty-eight to thirty brood- 

 frames, 91 by 14J- inches outside 

 measure. Frames run crosswise, 

 and entrance was at the end. These 

 hives were run for extracted honey, 

 and the most of our combs had to 

 be built in the frames the first year. 



We placed nine or ten combs 

 with brood and queen at the ex- 

 treme back end of the hive and the 

 theory was that to prevent swarm- 

 ing we must always keep empty, or 

 partially empty frames, or empty 

 or partially empt}' combs, between 

 this brood-nest and the entrance. 

 Now, this seems to be the vital 

 point of Mr. Simmins' method. 

 Our three j^ears' experience here 

 proved that, with the addition of 

 shade and a large entrance, such 

 space given in such manner proved 

 to accomplish all that was claimed 

 for it in the way of prevention of 

 swarming. I think I never knew 

 of but one colony casting a swarm 

 during the entire time, while other 

 colonies were swarming freely. I 

 am not positive whether in the 

 above practice I exactly followed 

 Adair and Gallup, for Mr. Herbert 

 A. Burch and other prominent 

 honey-producers were writing upon 

 the subject and giving us pointers 

 at the time. I haven't time to look 



over the old files of mj' bee papers 

 nor need I do so, for you and all 

 of your old-time subscribers will 

 remember it. 



Now the question will naturally 

 arise. If this system of hive-con- 

 struction and manipulation will 

 really prevent swarming, why did 

 it become obsolete? Well, it did, 

 and is almost forgotten, and I will 

 answer that question as far as I 

 am concerned. 



I found so many drawbacks and 

 disadvantages necessarily con- 

 nected with the horizontal s^^stem 

 and manipulation required to pro- 

 duce the result as compared with 

 the tiering or vertical system, that 

 the game wasn't worth the candle. 

 In fact, I found much more to lose 

 than gain. So far as I know, all the 

 rest who used the system arrived 

 at the same conclusion ; at least, 

 they arrived at a conclusion which 

 led to its abandonment. 



I have given the above as my ar- 

 gument against the non-swarming 

 system, that I understand Mr. Sim- 

 mins to present. What I have 

 given are well-known facts. I have 

 by no means presented this in an- 

 ticipation of Mr. Simmins' discov- 

 ery or invention ; far from it. If 

 Mr. Simmins' proposed plans are 

 not good, as this essay claims, what 

 earthly objection can there be to 

 his having the ciedit of them, or a 

 patent covering them ? If they are 

 good, surely he has invented some- 

 thing different from what we had 

 before, and perished upon our 

 hands. We weighed the system on 

 the scales and found it wanting. 

 Weigh it again, if you please, and 

 again I believe you will find it 

 wanting, but if not it will certainly 

 be because it weighs more now than 

 then ; and if such proves to be the 

 case, surely there has been some- 

 thing added, and true it is that he 

 must be morally blind or crimi- 

 nally selfish who could not see or 

 would not admit, that to Mr. Sim- 



