276 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apk. 1. 



left home without having given any further at- 

 tention to his bees. After an absence of about 

 three weelis, on his return home he found his 

 united colonies had filled the hive with comb 

 and honey. They had then begun on top of the 

 frames and about the T tins of the super, and 

 built combs upward, as shown in the picture. 

 Some of these combs are about three inches 

 thick at the base, and ascend in pyramid form 

 to within a bee-space of the cover, but in no 

 case did they touch the cover. To old bee-men 

 this may be no curiosity, but to us boys it is 

 quite new. 

 Canon City, Colorado. 



[Here is an interesting case of how the bees 

 will sometimes build combs it/jward. As a gen- 

 eral rule, the woik is commenced at the top 

 and gradually extended doivnwnrd. In the 

 case before us burr-combs evidently were start- 

 ed, and as the honey season progressed these 

 same burr-combs elaborated into good-sized 

 combs. In time they would have been extended 

 to the cover.— Ed.] 



HEDDON'S REPLY, 



CONCERNING THE ANALYSES OF HIS HONEY. 



Dear Mr. Root:— As a brother bee-keeper, 

 brother-publisher, and brother-man. standing 

 under the law which certainly should not be 

 more charitable than social and commercial 

 judgment, and being always innocent until 

 proven guilty, I crave space at your hand to 

 make some statements and arguments in refer- 

 ence to the damaging matter which has appear- 

 ed from time to time in your journal, culminat- 

 ing in the very serious charges implied, al- 

 though not positively preferred, against me on 

 pase 240 of your last issue. 



Taking up the matter on that page, consecu- 

 tively. I desire to first call your attention to the 

 fact that there is an element by far too preva- 

 lent in human nature. |)rompting a desire to in- 

 jure our fellow-men. Yon are not forgetful (if 

 yon are I am not) that I have before been called 

 foolish for advocating natural vs. artificial 

 swarming; that honey would never become a 

 staple product, but that we must look on it as a 

 luxury for all time, and that we could make its 

 production pay as a luxury as easily as or easier 

 than as a staple; that the " Simplicity " hive 

 of your devising was not as good a hive as my 

 modification of the Langstroth; that close fit- 

 ting frames were best, when properly adjusted; 

 that the consumption of pollen was the imme- 

 diate cause of bee-diarrhea; that a bee keep- 

 ers' union for the defense of our inalienable 

 rights would be a virtuous and effective or- 

 ganization, etc. All the above, however, has 

 proven true, and most of it is now admitted; 

 but this is not all: I have been called selfish 

 and criminal for complying with the laws of 

 my country in procuring a patent to defend my 

 right to the results of my labor. These "re- 

 ports have come to me." That I am wicked. 



unwise, and foolish, is nothing new. You state- 

 that "complaints kept coming." I can not im- 

 agine whom they came from, when nineteen- 

 twentieths of my customers (as what I inclose 

 indicates, and I will send you the original man- 

 uscript to absolutely prove it, if you will pub- 

 lish it) praised the honey I shipped them, to 

 the highest standard. I here and now call upon 

 every person who has purchased honey of me 

 during the last two years in question, or at any 

 other time, for that matter, to send to this jour- 

 nal (Gleanings) for publication, a statement 

 of their opinion as to its purity and quality, and 

 why that opinion, and what satisfaction said 

 honey gave to their customers, to the best of 

 their knowledge. The list of my bee-keeper 

 customers, which includes nearly every one of 

 them, is as follows: Joseph Johantges, J. G. 

 Lehde, C. P. Call, Jos. Bargehr, E. Frost, J, W. 

 Chapin, W. Vermillion, F. M. VanEtten. O. 

 Rudd, Jacob Shumm, Chas. E. Cook, Dwight 

 E. Squire, W. Z. Hutchinson, Rev. C. Franke, 

 Jos. K. Shnltz, John Sunderman, F. R. Daven- 

 port, Desenberg & Schuster, Walter Jenman,. 

 L. B. Bell. Geo. Schook, Mary A. Bncklin. Jos. 

 Myers, Mrs. F. M. VanFleet. James A. Min- 

 nich, H. Sparks, and A. C. Masson. 



I believe that the above are all of my 1893 

 customers. If there are any more let them re- 

 port. Following are the names of nearly all 

 of my new customers of 1894. You will under- 

 stand that most of my 1893 crop was aNo sold 

 to the persons named above: 



J. S. Yoder, John Senff. Fred Underwood, 

 Thomas H. Mills, O. H. Lintner, W. T. J. Far- 

 rington, H. M. Hampton, W. T. Zink. But in 

 the list of 1893aretwoother names I wish to spe- 

 cially refer to. One is F. Minnich. Noi'th Free- 

 dom, Wis. He said my honey was not as good 

 as his own, and didn't give good satisfaction, 

 and then added the following: "You got a ter- 

 rible blowing-up at our State convention, in re- 

 gard to sugar honey, which served you just 

 right." Here it will be seen that I lost a custom- 

 er who discovered inferior quality in my hon- 

 ey because of what Prof. Cook said and wrote, 

 and what, Mi'. Minnich had been informed, by 

 " reports coming in," was said by me. The oth- 

 er one is Geo. G. Willard, who was arrested, as 

 you state on page 240. Under date of June 2, 

 1893. Mr. Willard wrote me as follows, in re- 

 sponse to my solicitation for his testimonial: 

 "Some of your honey has given satisfaction, 

 some not. I have had better. Some of the 

 late made honey was strong and poor." Mr. 

 Willaid had been one of my best customers, 

 and I was surprised at his nisponse to my solici- 

 tation for his testimony. However, on the ."Jth 

 of the following August he ordered three (iO-lb. 

 cans, and. on the 24th of the same month, five 

 mori'fio lb. cans; then on the l.'Sth of the fol- 

 lowing November, 10 cans more, every drop of 

 which was strictly pure, and 13 cans of which 

 have been returned and re-remitted for, less the 



