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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



part of our nature, and the benefits to 

 be derived from a closer personal con- 

 tact with those who have achieved suc- 

 cess in the same line of work. 



INVENTIONS IN APICULTURE. 



Our meeting in this city is opportune. 

 We are enabled by the records and 

 models in the Patent Office to learn what 

 science and invention have done in the 

 last forty years for the pursuit which 

 we represent. Indeed, it will not be 

 boasting if we assert that in the period 

 named, more progress has been made in 

 the field of practical apiculture than in 

 all previous recorded time. Some inter- 

 esting and important facts relating to 

 the natural history of the honey-bee had 

 been known for a long time, but they 

 were facts which were not particularly 

 valuable to the honey-producer until the 

 invention of the movable-frame hive. 

 The improvements which followed in 

 rapid succession made a new era in bee- 

 keeping. Until then it was an uncer- 

 tain and unremunerative employment. 

 When the caravans of the East took 

 honey as an article of merchandise from 

 the land of Assyria to Egypt, they prob- 

 ably got their supply from the mountain 

 caves, where the wild bees, in favorable 

 years, had stored a suplus. But I have 

 no idea that any one in the great cities 

 of the ancients ever got a taste of it ex- 

 cept the rich. 



Following the invention of the Lang- 

 stroth hive came the extractor, the sec- 

 tion honey-box, and comb foundation, the 

 last two, in my opinion, as important as 

 anything ever given to bee-keepers. The 

 section-box has popularized honey to an 

 extent little known or dreamed of a half 

 century ago. Instead of the large, un- 

 wieldy boxes of honey which our grand- 

 fathers took to market, or the tubs of 

 broken honey so familiar in those days, 

 the grocer can now supply his customer 

 with a neat package of almost any de- 

 sirable quantity, without so much as 

 soiling his fingers. 



The queen-cage, also, and the ability 

 to send queens by express and mall to 

 the remote parts of the earth, gave an 

 impetus to bee-culture never before felt. 

 And be it said to the credit of American 

 inventors and breeders, they are never 

 content with mediocrity. Bee-keepers' 

 meetings and our excellent bee-litera- 

 ture have awakened Interest and en- 

 quiry, the mechanical genius of the age 

 has been stimulated to meet the demand 

 for improved appliances, and queen- 

 breeders have spent much time and 

 money trying to Improve the honey-pro- 



ducing qualities of the bee first intro- 

 duced into this country. In the desire 

 for improvement (or novelty), in the 

 latter direction there have been un- 

 desirable importations in my judgment, 

 but, on the whole, progress in the right 

 direction. Indeed, it may be said, too, 

 that not all our inventions are improve- 

 ments, but they mark the milestones on 

 the road to success. Bee-keeping, like 

 our civilization, is yet in a state of 

 transition, but as Paul advises, we are 

 going on toward perfection, although we 

 may never reach it. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



The bee-keepers of the country belong 

 to that great army of producers whp are 

 feeding the world, and at the same time 

 are trying to solve the problem how to 

 feed themselves — in other words, how to 

 make an honest and decent living from 

 the natural resources which the Creator 

 has placed within their reach — resources, 

 too, the use of which do not impoverish 

 but inrich the earth. 



Were the honey-bee blotted out of the 

 book of nature, few people realize the 

 loss to agriculture, horticulture and 

 floriculture that would result. These 

 kindred industries are slow to acknowl- 

 edge the benefits derived from the bees, 

 as an Important aid to complete fertili- 

 zation in many plants, as positively 

 necessary to others, and beneficial to all 

 flowers visited by thera. Cross-fertiliza- 

 tion is Nature's method of progress. The 

 bees are Nature's assistants in this work. 

 No other known agency can be sub- 

 stituted. Instead of hostility, the bee- 

 keeper should receive the thanks of the 

 agriculturist and fruit-growers, and the 

 fostering protection of the Government. 

 Its entomological experts should not only 

 spread abroad knowledge regarding in- 

 sects injurious to vegetation, but also 

 correct information as to those which 

 are helpful to the farmer. 



If bee-keeping be a lawful and neces- 

 sary pursuit, the Government should 

 throw around it the same protective 

 legislation that is granted the dairyman 

 and pork-raiser. We can no more com- 

 pete against glucose honey with an 

 honest product than the farmer can 

 against oleomargarine butter or cotton- 

 seed lard. 



ADULTERATION OF HONEY. 



I wish right here to express my disap- 

 proval of a method of adding to the in- 

 come of the honey-producer (which has 

 been recently much discussed) by feed- 

 ing a substance not distilled in Nature's 



