THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



H. OhI yes, I used to think so, but since I 

 have perl'ected my new scheme for bee- 

 keeping, I intend disposing of all of my 

 old fogy "tixins,'' such as movable comb 

 hives, honey boxes, Italian bees, section 

 boxes, frames, honey extractors, wax ex- 

 tractor, etc. Why, just come over here and 

 see my new hives and ground for my new 

 apiary. I wt-nt and n^narked, why, jNIr. II. 

 you are returning to the old box-hive 

 system. No. sir, do you not see this hole in 

 the bottom of the hive? Now that just lits 

 on the toj) of that stake — placing the hive 

 on top of a stake about two feet from the 

 ground. You see that forms a pivot and 

 Ihe hive turns on that, so the entrance al- 

 ways faces the sun. But, Mr. II., how is 

 that done? Do you not see I have this 

 large box nailed fast to the top of the hive? 

 Oh, yes, I suppose that is for surplus honey. 

 Mr. II.— no; I till it with dirt and plant sun- 

 flowers in it. They face the sun in the 

 morning and move around until sunset, 

 thus keeping the entrance facing the sun all 

 day. 



I suppose that row of post-holes running 

 past the ash-house is for nutting up a fence 

 to protect your bees? Mr. H.— No; they 

 are my sulpliur pits for taking up bees in 

 the fall, and tliat little house is where I 

 keep my brimstone. I don't intend to fence 

 in my apiary with a board fence; do you 

 not see I have planted out a lot of hollow 

 trees? As soon as they get large enough 1 

 intend to throw away my box hives and 

 keep bees more natural. But do you not 

 think those trees too close to each other? 

 Mr. 11.— Yes; but you see I will have to cut 

 some every fall for honey, and that will 

 thin them. How can you sell bees if you 

 have them all in trees'? Mr. H. — I will cut 

 up the hollow trunks of the trees I "fall," 

 make gums of them; and use them for 

 swarms to sell. Do y(m see I will grow my 

 own hives in that way? Do you not mash 

 your honey in "falling" your trees? Oh, 

 yes; but honey is not worth much now; 

 one pound of wax is worth three of lioney; 

 so I just put it all into a kettle, boil it and 

 the wax all raises to the top, 1 let it cool, 

 lift off the wax and dip out the honey which 

 is thick honey, not thin, sour, extracted 

 stuff, worse than sorghum syrup. Thus 

 ended a very pleasant visit with Mr. H. 



^ A Canadian Bee-Keepek. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



A Protest. 



On page 21!) of the August number of the 

 JouBNAi. I find an article taken from the 

 N. Y. Grocery and Provision Review, 

 which to my mind militates against the in- 

 terest of every practical apiarian in the 

 land. 1 refer more particularly to this 

 paragraph in the article alluded to: 



"Why should not our governments— na- 

 tional and State— stock our fields with the 

 •busy little bees' as well as our streams 

 with fish?" 



Now in the matter of fish I am not direct- 

 ly interested, but in that of the "busy little 

 bees" I am. Of course it is to the interest 

 of publications of this class to bring as 

 much of an article as possible upon the 

 market and thus cheapen it. but in tliis case 

 it is certainly detrimental to those who 

 have devoted their best years probably to 

 the cultivation of the honey bee, thus de- 



priving them of the fruits of years of toil. 



Did you ever see an individual, engaged 

 in any branch of business, no matter what, 

 throw his intluence in favor of our govern- 

 ments-national and state— opening in every 

 town in our country a business in direct op- 

 position to that in which he is engaged? 

 For instance, did you <!ver see a man en- 

 gaged in the grocery business who would 

 be willing to have the (Jovernment start a 

 grocery stent; in his town? 1 think not. it 

 IS not human nature. But laying aside the 

 fact that the abov(; publication advocates 

 this idea, let us look a little farther, and we 

 find men i^ngaged in bee-culture who, un- 

 like the grocerymeu or dry-goodsmeii or 

 any other man, will urge upon clergymen, 

 and upon widows, and in fact upon men 

 and women of all states and conditions in 

 society, the necessity of engaging in bee- 

 culture if they would line their pockets 

 with greenbacks and heap up riches against 

 the day of governuu;ntal bee-culture. But 

 we find almost invariably that such men 

 have some kind of a patent or other that 

 they wish to dispose of, and the more men 

 and women they can prevail upon to enter 

 the lists as bee-keepers, the more they will 

 realize from the sale of their patents. 



Now this it seems to me is all wrong. By 

 far the greater number of apiarians in the 

 country are not interested either directly or 

 indirectly in these patents and should not 

 be made to suffer for it. 



The demand for honey is not at present 

 equal to the supply and consequently low 

 prices prevail. What will be the condition 

 of things when our Government starts a bee 

 shop in every field, and but one in fifty are 

 prevailed upon by our enterprising patent 

 venders to embark in an enterprise in 

 which it is all income and no outgo accord- 

 ing to their showing. 



Now I do not wish to be understood as 

 throwing a wet blanket upon the ardor of 

 any one who is about starting in the busi- 

 ness. Such will find in time that every 

 cloud has its dark side as well as its silver 

 lining; but if any individual, of his own 

 free will and accord, and in the presence of 

 certain facts which he will find out sooner 

 or later, wishes to embark in the business, 

 I can bid him God speed, but would for 

 his own good say, "Don't believe all the 

 good things you hear of it. Every business 

 has its ups and downs, and if you will pay 

 close attention to our bee journals I think 

 you will find as many downs as ups re- 

 corded by men far advanced in the science 

 too. It is not all gold that glitters." I 

 think I may saj; of myself, and I don't want 

 to seem egotistical, that I have in the main 

 been successful, but where one has suc- 

 ceeded hundreds have failed 



Take an apiary properly located and 

 handled by a man who understands his 

 business and there is a fair chance of suc- 

 cess, but tile man who without any practic- 

 al knowledge of the business embarks 

 largely in it will probably be obliged to 

 step down and out before he realizes any of 

 the profits said to accrue to those who have 

 but to start and be made happy. 



San Jose, 111. O. W. Spkar. 



[We hardly suppose that any one contem- 

 plates the plan of having the Government 

 establish apiaries in all the towns of our 

 country for the purpose of supplying those 



