132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



from one of our best cross-bred queens, 

 we have bred the most satisfactory stocks 

 we have ever kept. 



In the penning of this article, we have 

 no axe to grind, we have heretofore bred 

 queens only for our own use, and that of 

 our immediate neighbors, but on the 

 other hand we have had an earnest desire 

 to reach the facts in the premises stated 

 in our caption, and so far as we could, 

 present a method by which future losses 

 might be prevented. Should any of our 

 brotherhood differ with us, or if agreeing, 

 point out a clearer remedy, we should be 

 heartily glad to learn it. 



Should this hastily written sketch meet 

 your approval, we shall at an early date 

 write an article on "Improved breeding 

 of the Italian bee." We aflirm without 

 fear of successful contradiction, that the 

 Italian can be improved in a more marked 

 degree than can any of our native bees. 

 Wm. S. Barclay. 



Beaver, Pa., April 4, 1876. 



MOSES QUINBT, 



A MEMORIAL ADDRESS DELIVERED BE- 

 FORE THE N. E. BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIA- 

 TION, FEB. 3rd, 1876, BY P. H. ELWOOD. 



In the history of every profession or 

 occupation we find the names of a few 

 who have outstripped all competitors ; 

 men possessed of that rare gift, power of 

 original thought; pioneers who have ex- 

 plored an unknown wilderness and 

 mapped it for future possessors. In the 

 history of bee-culture there are four 

 names that stand out prominently beyond 

 all others: Huber, Dzierzon, Langstroth, 

 and Quinby. Huber, the blind apiarist, 

 who by his great ability and untiring per- 

 severance, discovered more of the interior 

 workings of the bee-hive than any other 

 man that ever lived: Dzierzon, the Quinby 

 of Germany, who confirmed the hitherto 

 unbelieved statements of Huber, and 

 added that equally surprising one of par- 

 theno-genesis: Langstroth, our own coun- 

 tryman, inventor of the movable comb- 

 hive (without which there would be no 

 occasion for gatherings like this) and 

 author of a work on bee-culture, that for 

 scientific accuracy and beauty of expres- 

 sion, is not only unsurpassed, but almost 

 unsurpassable: And last, but not least, 

 our own Quinby, who, adding largely to 

 the knowledge of his predecessors, com- 

 bined the whole into a system of practical 

 management, unequaled in simplicity 

 and feasibility, and finally', as the crown- 

 ing act of a lifetime spent in the service 

 of others, gave to the world his celebrated 

 discovery, that the liquid part of honey 

 was, under favorable circumstances, en- 

 tirely evaporated within the body of the 

 bee, a discovery second to none ever 

 made in the natural history of this insect. 

 As very many do not, as yet, accept his 



conclusions on this subject, I will say 

 that I have obtained from the body of the 

 bee, granular masses that under a micro- 

 scope of low magnifying power, appear 

 to be identical in composition with simi- 

 lar masses found upon the hive bottom. 

 And notwithstanding the fact that Mr. 

 Quinby is the author of our most practi- 

 cal work on bee-keeping, and, in my 

 opinion, the inventor of the best movable 

 frame hive, bee-smoker, and originator of 

 other devices, too numerous to mention, I 

 yet venture the assertion, that in future 

 years he will be best known as the dis- 

 coverer of the true nature of the accumula- 

 tions found beneath the cluster in seasons 

 of repose. 



Mr. Quinby '3 life work was to elevate 

 bee-keeping to the dignity of a pursuit 

 among men, and he has accomplished his 

 missifm. Bee-keeping as a specialty will 

 date from his time, and if Huber has 

 earned the title of "Prince of Apiarists,"' 

 certainlj^ Mr. Quinby is entitled to that of 

 Father of Practical Bee-Culture. He 

 sowed that we may reap. He labored 

 without fee or reward, often, indeed, with- 

 out an appreciative public. Now that he 

 is gone, bee-keepers will miss his coun- 

 sels and think more highly of his work. 

 He had not, it is true, the advantages of a 

 liberal education, but he largely supplied 

 the deficiency, by his great observational 

 powers and native common sense. 



While he was anxious that the millions 

 of pounds of honey now lost, might be 

 gathered, he had no fearsof an overstocked 

 market and often narrated the historj^ of 

 the cheese trade as an illustration, saying 

 that while this industry was in its infancy 

 prices were lower than at present, and 

 that the market was really in more dan- 

 ger of being overstocked than now, as the 

 facilities for disposing of the products of 

 the dairy have increased faster than the 

 production. The history of this business, 

 he thought, would be tlie history of ours. 

 And after watching the honey trade 

 closely for a few years past, visiting the 

 principal eastern markets, etc.. I am com- 

 pelled to accept Mr. Quinby's conclusions 

 as correct. Tliere may be temporary de- 

 pressions in this market, as there are in 

 all others; prices may fall below the cost 

 of production ; but this will be, not be- 

 cause more is produced than can be con- 

 sumed at remunerative prices, but be- 

 cause the facilities for handling the crop 

 are undeveloped. Our greatest enemy to- 

 day (outside of those who sell glucose for 

 honey, and paraffine for beeswax) is the 

 old fogy bee-keeper, who brings his honey 

 to market in the most unattractive and 

 undesirable packages. I find that a very 

 small quantity of his honey will supply a 

 larger town, and that the prices he estab- 

 lishes often prevents the introduction of 

 the better goods. It is to our peeuniar^ 

 interest to make better bee-keepers of such 



