AMERICAN BKE JOURNAL. 



49 



Upon motioH of Prof. Cook, a commit- 

 tee consisting of W. Z. Hutchinson, R. 

 L. Taylor and Geo. E. Hilton was ap- 

 pointed to look after the matter. 



Bee-Escapes and Their Use. 



An essay was expected upon this sub- 

 ject, but neither it nor its author 

 "showed up." A discussion followed 

 however, if unqualified praise from every 

 one who had used the escape could be 

 called a discussion. The Porter was 

 considered the best escape, but Mr. Hed- 

 don called attention to the fact that to 

 Mr. Reese belonged the honor of the 

 original bee-escape from which sprung 

 all the others. 



Shall We Go Out of the Bee-BusinessP 



T. F. Bingham led in the discussion of 

 this topic. He said that he had always 

 advocated that the farmer keep a few 

 bees on the same principle that he keeps 

 fowls, hogs, sheep, etc. He may not be 

 quite so successful as the specialist, but 

 he will have a fair success with all, and 

 a poor season for bees does not pinch 

 him as it does the specialist. It is not 

 necessary that the farmer bee-keeper 

 should know all the fine points of bee- 

 keeping, that a bee's sting is composed 

 of three parts, etc. ; he simply needs to 

 know something of the ordinary princi- 

 ples of bee-keeping. He can engage in 

 nothing on the farm that will pay him 

 as well as the keeping of the bees. 



James Heddon — I differ from Mr. 

 Bingham. Each and every branch of 

 farming is more related to one another 

 than is that of bee-keeping to any one 

 branch of farming. Bee-keeping is more 

 like manufacturing than like farming. 

 A man may stay inside high walls and 

 never see the surrounding country, and 

 yet make a success of bee-keeping. 

 Shoe-making or wagon-making would be 

 better than farming to combine with 

 bee-keeping. Bees swarm just when 

 the farmer is the most busy. The spec- 

 ialist is always at the head in any busi- 

 ness. Specialty is ' what makes the 

 prices on the bargain counters. A man 

 cannot easily change from one business 

 to another without loss. Prof. Matthews 

 well illustrates this in his book, " Get- 

 ting on in the World," when he says that 

 the different professional paths do not 

 lie parallel ; they start from a common 

 center like the spokes in a wheel, and 

 the distance between them widens the 

 further we get from the hub. We can- 

 not step from one spoke to another, but 

 must go back to the hub and start anew. 

 There is a law that he who produces at 



the minimum cost will succeed, while he 

 who produces at the maximum cost will 

 fail. 



J. A. Pearce — I have bees and fruit. 

 I should nbt like to drop either. One is 

 an advantage to the other. When we 

 have a poor fruit season it often happens 

 that the bees help us out, and vice versa. 



Few Bees and Much Attention vs. 

 Many Bees and Little Attention. 



This topic had been assigned to Byron 

 Walker, but as he was not present, Mr. 

 Heddon said that was the topic that he 

 would have preferred to the one that was 

 assigned him, viz.: "How Can We 

 Stimulate the Market ?" as he did not 

 believe that any stimulation was needed. 

 He was asked to give his views on this, 

 his favorite topic, and spoke in sub- 

 stance as follows : 



The wise bee-keeper first looks out for 

 a good field — one that is well stocked 

 with the different plants that furnish 

 the main honey harvests, and that is 

 not already stocked with bees. Having 

 found the field, the next question is how 

 to gather the nectar — how to " drain the 

 field " — so to speak, and get the results 

 in the market with the least expenditure 

 of capital and labor. That is the ques- 

 tion. It is not a question of how many 

 pounds per colony can be secured. That 

 has nothing to do with it. I say, keep 

 enough bees to get the honey with the 

 least labor to the apiarist. Labor is the 

 great expense in honey-production. 

 Have enough bees so that it will not pay 

 to fuss with weak colonies. When the 

 Western cattle-raiser with his thousands 

 of head of cattle hears one of his men 

 say, "One of the steers is sick," does he 

 stop and dose that animal with medicine 

 and try to cure him ? Not much. He 

 says: "Knock him in the head ; takeoff 

 his skin, and come on ; we can't fuss 

 with a sick steer." That is the way we 

 should keep bees. Have enough of them 

 so that when we lose some of them in 

 winter, we can save the hives and combs 

 and keep right on and lose no time. 



Prof. Cook — For once I must agree 

 with Mr. Heddon. I think that he is 

 nearly correct. We are now working 

 bees with much less labor than in the 

 past. I think that we are learning to 

 work more bees with less labor. 



Geo. E. Hilton — Years ago, in conven- 

 tions, we used to hear people say that 

 one man could care for 75 or 100 colo- 

 nies of bees. Now the talk is of hand- 

 ling 200 and 300 colonies. I, myself, 

 believe that I could care for 500 alone. 



J. A. Pearce — I hope Mr. Heddon 



