the old adage : " Never put off until to- 

 morrow what can be done to-day." 



The actual time spent in gathering 

 the bulk of our honey crop is of so short 

 duration, leaving so many months to 

 prepare, that we have no valid reason 

 for being behind with our season's work. 



My experience in managing an apiary 

 for a man in this State (X. Y.) under 

 his supervision, will give a good illus- 

 tration of the point. I took charge of 

 it in March. I at once urged the ne- 

 cessity of being in readiness for our sea- 

 son's work as soon as possible, but he 

 answered : " There is no need of hurry ; 

 there is plenty of time.' 1 We had 65 

 colonies, which had been neglected ; the 

 hives were filled with drone comb, 

 crossed combs, etc. We had a work 

 shop to saw out the material for 75 new 

 hives, 8,000 boxes, 1,000 cases, 500 

 frames and nail them together ; we had 

 to move the bees some distance by 

 hand to our new yard, which had been 

 used the year before for a corn held, 

 and it had to be fixed up andleveledfor 

 the hives. We transferred all the bees 

 to the new hives, took apart and made 

 over 50 old hives, and clipped nearly 

 all the queen's wings (black queens). 

 Our supplies were ordered late, and our 

 foundation was not all at hand on July 

 4. When swarming was at its height, 

 I was obliged to be nailing up boxes 

 and cases, putting in starters, etc., 

 when I should have been in the bee- 

 yard. I might say much more, but any 

 reasonable person can predict the result 

 of such a season's work. That fall we 

 had 119 colonies, if I remember right, and 

 1,000 lbs. of extracted and about 400 lbs. 

 of comb honey. 



I relate this only to substantiate the 

 statement that a large majority of bee- 

 keepers are troubled with the same 

 fault. That season's work taught me a 

 lesson which I never shall forget, as 

 regards the ordering of supplies. 



Already white clover is opening its 

 fragrant petals, filling the air with 

 sweet fragrance, and invites the willing 

 bees to its vast storehouse of the nec- 

 tar. And yet orders for hives, boxes, 

 etc., come pouring in to the factories 

 and supply dealers, each bee-keeper 

 wanting his goods at once ; goods which 

 should have been ordered and made up 

 before the bees had left their winter 

 quarters. A large corps of hands are 

 working as hard as men can work to fill 

 the orders and yet too much blame is 

 heaped on the heads of all supply deal- 

 ers which might be obviated by a little 

 system and forethought on the part of 

 bee-keepers. 



Such men as Capt. Hetherington, Ju- 

 lius Hoffman, (}. M. Doolittle and oth- 



ers, have learned the importance and 

 value of system, and their apiaries and 

 bank accounts attest its beneficial re- 

 sults. Show me a man who lays on his 

 oars (so to speak) and neglects to order 

 his supplies and put in shape his hives 

 and surplus arrangements and prepare 

 for his honey harvest until his swarms 

 hang upon the tree tops, and I will show 

 you the man who finds the most fault- 

 How much time could then be devoted 

 to the individual wants of our little 

 pets and industrious workers, and to 

 building up strong, active colonies, to 

 gather from nature's vast storehouse 

 the nectar often wasted on the air, the 

 gathering and saving of which has be- 

 come such a great industry ? 



I will close by repeating the words : 

 "System is a secret of success." Let 

 us adopt it as our watchword. 



Canajoharie, 1ST. Y., June 8, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Resolutions of the Utica Convention. 



AV3I. E. CLARK. 



I have read several articles written 

 by different persons and published in 

 the Bee Journal reflecting upon the 

 action of the Utica Convention of the 

 " Northeastern Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion," where resolutions were offered 

 by Mr. Betsinger, and passed, relative 

 to establishing a co-operative bee pa- 

 per, and censuring Mr. Newman for 

 some supposed mismanagement of his 

 paper. 



I was a member of that body, and did 

 all I could to prevent the Conven- 

 tion from passing those resolutions. I 

 believed then, as do now, that any ac- 

 tion was uncalled for and not for the 

 best interest of bee-keeping. Mr. New- 

 man's paper is his own private prop- 

 erty ; he has a right to publish such as he 

 pleases ; he is responsible for it and not 

 N. N. Betsinger nor G. W. House ! I 

 suppose he is publishing it to make 

 money, the same as all of us are doing 

 in different trades and professions ! I 

 would ask, what right has any one to 

 dictate to Mr. Newman and say he 

 must publish such and such things, 

 or to Mr. Betsinger that he must 

 make his " tin-points" out of such and 

 such material ? I believe that, shoiild 

 the bee-keeping public ever make up 

 their minds that Mr. Newman's paper 

 is of no use to them- they will request 

 him to discontinue sending it to them, 

 and to Mr. Betsinger they will say we 

 have no use for your L ' tin-points!" all 

 resolutions of bee conventions to the 

 contrary notwithstanding. 



