THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



161 



to double the profits of the apiary, etc. ; 

 or furnish bee-keepers' supplies — " Please 

 send stamp for circular." 



Of books he has no need ; his bees are 

 rich in stores and limitless in numbers. 

 He surveys them like a monarch, and 

 feels that they adore him. 



He hears their pleasant note, and 

 breathes the incense of a hundred bloom- 

 ing fields. His heart is full of gratitude 

 and his head chock-full of pride. 



Pride — yes, pride! He is proud and 

 great — his sulajects are legion — he rules as 

 if by Divine right. 



Who shall question his authority? 

 Whence came the subtle art? 

 He alone can tell : — 

 His grandfather had that rare gift, the 

 divination of water and the precious 

 metals. His father that more than art, 

 the gift of second sight! While he, majes- 

 tic in his pride, rejoices that he is the 

 seventh son. Then what must one be and 

 what must one really know to keep bees? 

 It takes a peculiar kind of sense, or extra 

 sense — or something which common peo- 

 ple don't possess. 



Bee craft belongs with second-sight and 

 water divinations, and the seventh son. 

 It is a kind of knowledge that cannot be 

 acquired. It transcends logic. It is in- 

 dependent of education. It is a gift. A 

 man must be born to it. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Who is to Blame? 



Not many miles from this place a very 

 pious old gentleman is selling patent 

 right territory in a certain bee hive 

 which is a side, end, and top opener, with 

 various nails and wires to hold the frame 

 in certain supposed desired positions. 

 As near as I can learn, the pious old gent 

 has sold nearly $4,000 worth of territory 

 to different persons, besides very many of 

 these every-side opening hives. Probably 

 there never was such a favorable time as 

 just now to sell any kind of an apiarian 

 humbug. Why is this so? Because too 

 many of us have put only the bright side 

 of the question out, and more than all, 

 because only till recently in this country 

 has apiculture been adopted as a speci- 

 alty, and many farmers and bee-owners 

 generally, are disposed to think that they 

 are as capable of producing large yields 

 of honey as the specialist, and when they 

 are reassured that they may, "by just 

 purchasing one of these quincuplexal 

 bee palaces" of course they " draw their 

 weasel skins" and " shell out," thereby 

 expecting to make money out of bees, 

 like their neighbor, Mr. A., (who does 

 nothing, and thinks of nothing else,) be- 

 sides reaping the same profit from their 

 vegetables, grain, fruit, stock, etc., as be- 

 fore. While these parties are meeting 



with this disappointment and loss, they 

 are at the same time dragging down those 

 who are struggling to "get on" in the 

 business. 



In May, B. K. Magazine, a writer cites 

 us to the time when honey sold for 12J^ 

 cents per gallon, while brown sugar sold 

 at 25 cents per lb. This proves what I 

 have many times said in convention, that 

 we must look the matter square in the 

 face and recognize the fact, that cane 

 sugar is in every way vastly superior to 

 honey, except for sauce. Not a great deal 

 of honey will be required to overstock the 

 market for the last named purpose. Our 

 only hope is that some plague will an- 

 nually decimate the numbers of colonies 

 of bees as fast as they increase in sum- 

 mer. If all bees would winter well, as 

 many desire, in the near future every rod 

 square in America would contain a col- 

 ony of bees, and then couldn't we sell 

 "Peter Funk," hives, "yaller" queens 

 and "sich" though? I do not object to the 

 making and vending of all kinds of need- 

 ful apiarian supplies, but let those do it 

 who are not only situated where they can 

 offer goods cheapest, but who have 

 proven by their success as honey pro- 

 ducers, that they know wTuit is needful 

 and what is not. After all, perhaps no 

 one is more to blame for the fictitious 

 condition of apicultural affairs than our- 

 selves. 



What reader of this article does not 

 know that every man who has helped 

 pile up this $4,000 above referred to, has 

 just thrown away his money? Yea, even 

 worse, his time and attention, while the 

 fever is having its run. Jas. Heddon. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., May 9, 1876. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Buzz-Saws. 



I have had enough experience with 

 buzz-saws to know what we want. I will 

 give my experience, feeling confident it 

 will be the means of saving much useless 

 expense. I had been using a one-horse 

 power and found it was too unsteady ; the 

 motion would run down, so I would have 

 to quit sawing for a few seconds. 



Last fall, I concluded to try the " V. 

 M." gearing, made by the Combined 

 Power Co., New York. They claimed it 

 had leverage, run very easy, etc., but 1 

 soon found it was a humbug. The fact is, 

 leverage cannot be obtained on a vertical 

 cog wheel, or any other. A man cannot 

 stand it to run their machine an hour 

 without sawing. To do good work, I had 

 to hitch two horses to the power. I 

 bought the No. 2 "V. M." gear, price 

 $75.00; forty turns of crank gave my 

 saw 3,000 revolutions. Finding this too 

 fast, even for a horse, I took off three- 

 fourths the gearing, so I could run the 

 saw from 700 to 1,000 revolutions per 



