176 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Professor Alive ! 



Gallup lias been hitting the Professor pretty 

 hard. In the first place, the object was to find 

 out whether the Professor was alive, &c. lie 

 says that Gallup' a assertions in regard to him, 

 are not true. I sincerely hope they are not. 1 

 am aware that "hearsay is not evidence." 

 Therefore I wished to call out the Professor. 



Within the last two years I received about a 

 score of letters unsolicited, asking my opinion of 

 Mr. Flanders — the writers stating that they had 

 been badly cheated by him; that they supposed, 

 as he raised his queens on an island, they con- 

 sequently must be pure, &c. ; but that he palm- 

 ed off impure ones on them. Now, as it is my 

 wish always to say publicly, what I have to 

 say, I can tell what I have been informed about 

 the Professor ; and then he can have a good 

 chance to make all necessary explanations. 



Two years ago, last spring, I received a flam- 

 ing circular from the Professor, setting forth 

 the advantages of his Kelley's Island Apiary, 

 the purity of his queens, and the advantages of 

 his Beekeepers' Institute, &c, &c. In a few 

 days after I received another circular, from 

 another party located on the above Island. 

 Both circulars claimed that each was the only 

 party having bees on said Island, and both were 

 certified to by a Mr. Carpenter aud others. Be- 

 ing personally acquainted with persons residing 

 on said Island, I took the trouble to inquire in- 

 to matters and things. It appeared from that 

 inquiry, that the Professor did, in the previous 

 season, employ or enter partnership with a Mr. 

 Aaron Benedict, the party from whom I re- 

 ceived the second circular. Mr. Benedict went 

 to the Island and raised the queena. The Pro- 

 fessor was secretary and treasurer; shipped the 

 queens raised on the Island ; and at the same 

 time shipped hybrids or anything that happen- 

 ed to be convenient, from the mainland. When 

 remonstrated with by Mr. Benedict, he replied 

 that "tlie parties receiving the queens in all 

 probability never saw an Italian bee, and if 

 they received a queen in any respect different, 

 or that produced bees differently marked from 

 common black ones, they would be satisfied," 

 or language to that effect. Furthermore, Mr. 

 Benedict raised some seven hundred (700) or 

 eight hundred (800) dollars worth of queens, 

 and the said Secretary of the above-mentioned 

 Beekeepers' Institute pocketed the money — Mr. 

 Benedict receiving "nary red" or "greenback," 

 for his services. In the following season he 

 went to the Island on his own account, and the 

 Professor still sent out his Kelley's Island circu- 

 lar. This accounts for my receiving tioo circu- 

 lars almost at the same time. At this period 

 the Prefessor had no bees on the Island, and 

 consequently his (the Professor's) circular was 

 a sell. 



Last season, and the season before, the Pro- 

 fessor sent out circulars into the west, stating 

 that he could furnish queens raised from im- 

 ported mothers by Mrs. Tupper. in this State. 

 In that circular there was a certificate purport- 

 ing to come from Mrs. Tupper, stating that his 



queens were as pure as any in the country, &c. 

 At this time, if I have been rightly informed, 

 Mrs. Tupper had never imported any queens; 

 but the way the Professor obtained queens from 

 Mrs. Tupper, was not the most honorable, in 

 my way of thinking. It appears that he sent a 

 line to Mrs. Tupper requesting an exchange of 

 queens; and Mrs. T. forwarded to him two 

 queens, for which, in course of time, she re- 

 ceived in return one drone laying queen and 

 one hybrid; and she had the satisfaction of pay- 

 in a,- the express charges and taking their heads 

 off! 



I will state to the readers of the Bee Jour^ 

 nal that I have no personal spite against Mr. 

 Flanders — not in the least. If any one wants 

 to make further inquiries, he can apply to Mr. 

 Aaron Benedict, Bennington, Morrow county, 

 Ohio. Further, if the Professor bad signed M. 

 D. to his name, I never should have called it 

 mule driver. Again, I have never teen any of 

 his graduates of the famous Beekeepers' Insti- 

 tute; and Mr. Benedict is the only one I over- 

 heard of. If I am rightly informed, he gradu- 

 ated with all the honors, and the Professor got 

 all the money. 



About the Bee Journal's being good to 

 take, I never heard any person say to the con- 

 trary. But, what about the Bee-charm ? Is 

 that good to take? Now to all those asking my 

 advice about procuring queens from the Profes- 

 sor, uiv reply is, if I heard nothing else than 

 only of his selling a bottle of Bee-charm for 

 fifty cents, that, in my estimation, would have 

 been sufficient to condemn him as a man of 

 honor. Elisha Gallup. 



Osagb, Iowa. 



P. S. — I have received three letters enquiring 

 whether I do not think that the Professor has 

 been into Kentucky with his Bee-charm, and 

 taken the bees away en masse. If he has, and 

 should attach M. D. to his name in his next cir- 

 cular, it would be an easy matter to interpret 

 it. E. G. 



Bees are exceedingly susceptible of atmos- 

 pheric changes ; even the passage of a heavy 

 cloud over the sun will drive them home ; and 

 if an easterly wind prevail, however fine the 

 weather may otherwise be, they have a sort of 

 rheumatic abhorence of its influences, and abide 

 at home, of which I have had sometimes awful 

 experience in long unfruitful journics. 



The cause would seem to be a deficiency of 

 electricity in the air; for if the air be charged 

 and a westerly wind blow, or there be still a 

 sultriness with even an overcast sky, they are 

 actively on the alert, and extremely vivacious. 

 They are made so possihly by the operation of 

 the influence upon their own system "coujuctive- 

 ly with the intensity of its action upon the veg- 

 etable kingdom, and the secretions of the flow- 

 ers, both odorous and nectarian. — Shuckard. 



In spring particular care must be taken to 

 keep bees from famine, and robbing by other 

 bees. 



