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AiMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Jan. 9, 3 902 



that time, so as to kill the bees. Some 

 men are so perverted that they see a 

 wrong and coddle it as a "personal 

 right." These laws have helped the 

 fruit-grower more than the bee-keeper, 

 because they have led the scientific 

 men to investigate and tell us why it is 

 a mistake to spray too early. 



It appears to have been settled that, 

 before the law, bees are to be consid- 

 ered domestic animals — not naturally 

 inclined to be offensive. A fair synop- 

 sis of the bee's legal status is about as 

 follows : 



1. Bees kept by a regular bee-keeper 

 have become absolute property as 

 domestic animals, and therefore enjoy 

 legal rights. 



2. The bee is not naturally savage. 

 It is no more likely to commit serious 

 damage and mischief than dogs, cats, 

 cows or horses. 



3. The law looks with most favor 

 upon the animals which are most use- 

 ful to man. No animal is of more ac- 

 tual service to man in proportion to his 

 size and the mischief it commits than 

 the bee. 



4. After bees have been kept in a cer- 

 tain situation for a reasonable time 

 without serious injury, it can not be 

 said that it is dangerous to keep them 

 there. 



5. The bee-keeper becomes liable for 

 injuries done by bees, only on the 

 ground of actual or presumed negli- 

 gence. 



This seems to give the bee a clear 

 field to go ahead about his business in 

 his own waj'. It must be said that this 

 strong legal position of the bee is 

 largely due to the fact that bee-keepers 

 have picked up some of the strong 

 traits of the bees. When one of their 

 number is attacked, they do not sew up 

 their pockets and run off with their 

 share of the honey, and as much more 

 as they can get. They fly at once to 

 the defense of their comrade, and 

 make, not an individual, but a society 

 matter of it. 



The fruit-grower will obtain little 

 satisfaction in a lawsuit against the 

 bee or the bee-keeper. The bee is too 

 good a friend of the judge. The rela- 

 tions between these two classes should 

 be settled, not by the scales but by the 

 Golden Rule. Every man who receives 

 a benefit should remember where the 

 benefit comes from. The beekeeper 

 might say with truth : " It is true that 

 my bees feed upon my neighbor's trees ; 

 but they have not injured his farm, be- 

 cause they took no fertility away ! He 

 has no reason to kick, because they 

 kick life into his fruit-buds." 



This is all true enough, but it isonly 

 one side. The fruit-grower may say : 



" These bees have increased my crop 

 of fruit, but have they not been well 

 paid for their work? I fed them, and 

 the money in their owner's pocket 

 comes from my farm I " 



Two classes of men with interests 

 which lap and nick in this way should 

 never fight ; for when one of them hits 

 the other in the nose he is sure to 

 blacken his own eye. They should 

 recognize their mutual dependence, 

 and treat each other fairly. The bee- 

 keeper may say that the law gives him 

 a right to put his hives close to an- 

 other's dwelling. Still, if that location 

 is offensive to his neighbor, the law 

 which is higher than the decision of 

 any human judge should lead him to 

 put them elsewhere. I have heard of 



an old farmer who insisted on keeping 

 an old, brindled calf tied on his lawn. 

 The calf was in every way offensive to 

 his neighbors, and he had ample space 

 for it behind his barn ; but he thrust 

 that calf under the very noses of his 

 neighbors, because the law said he had 

 a right to do as he pleased with his 

 own. That man, like many others, 

 figures that such magnifying of his 

 legal rights gave increased dignity to 

 his personal rights : and what a foolish 

 mistake he made ! The man who will 

 use his legal privileges as an offensive 

 weapon against others, when it should 

 be drawn only in defense of true prin- 

 ciples, is not a true pomologist or bee- 

 keeper. 



I regard the raising of fine fruits, and 

 the training and rearing of bees, as 

 the highest types of soil culture, and 

 hence of human industry. He who can 

 direct and watch the slow development 

 of the perfect fruit, and lovingly guard 

 it from plant disease and injurious in- 

 sects through the long road to perfect 

 maturity ; and he who can patiently 

 and skillfully guide and train the 

 honey-bee through its long summer's 

 work — such men ennoble and dignify 

 labor. 



Their work may be hard and con- 

 stant. Their hands may be hard and 

 rough ; but the callous on the palm is 

 not a badge of servitude, but an honor- 

 able scar from labor's battlefield. Such 

 men are not mere drudges, with body 

 and spirit broken on the hard wheel of 

 labor; but, dealing with the fine and 

 most delicate problems of Nature, they 

 keep step with the Creator; they are in 

 direct partnership with God himself; 

 and, as such partners, they, of all men, 

 should be guided by the wisdom and 

 justice of the Golden Rule. 



H. W. COLLINGWOOD. 



R. M. Kellogg, of Michigan — I am 

 not unmindful that it is now 11 o'clock. 

 I was intensely interested in the last 

 address, not so much at what has been 

 revealed to us, as to the work that is 

 going on. AVe do not know so much 

 about pollination of fruit as we should, 

 but we are learning fast. It is not so 

 many years ago, if we were to go to a 

 well-informed farmer and tell him that 

 the plants that he cultivated were male 

 and female, he would open his eyes and 

 say. " Is that so ? " He knew nothing 

 about the organism of plants; but I 

 might say that within the last four 

 years that subject has made more 

 rapid strides than in the previous many 

 years. I have never owned a bee, but, 

 fortunately, my neighbors have. Now, 

 I have never seen an insect so well 

 fitted for the work of helping the 

 pomologist as that little, busy bee. 

 Why did God create the bee and arm it 

 with that little fuzz all over its body 

 and its eyebrows '! Why was this done? 

 And why did he put the nectar down 

 in the bottom among the pistils, where 

 the bees must dig to get it ? Why was 

 all this done, if it were not that 

 there must be some agency to carry the 

 pollen from one flower to another ? I 

 know of no other agency. They tell 

 us that the wind does that. Will you 

 tell us, then, how this pollen can be 

 supplied in sufficient abundance, unless 

 there is a magnet to draw it to that 

 particular flower ? (Jod made the bee 

 for that particular ]jurpose. Now I 

 suspect that we don't know as much 

 about pollen as we should. I notice 



that lately a large number of postal 

 cards were sent to different fruit-grow- 

 ers inquiring about self-fertilizing 

 ability of the Kieffer pear, and the 

 answer came back that this pear is 

 self-fertilizing in some instances, and 

 not in others. I apprehend that this 

 is a mere physical condition of the 

 trees, and in the meantime we must 

 have something to carry the pollen. 

 The bee always carries its pollen- 

 brush. It will throw its arm over and 

 brush it all off and put it on its thigh, 

 and as it digs down it gets it all over 

 its eyebrows. Now, on mv farm, I had 

 within three miles of me, colonies of 

 bees. I never had any fruit injured by 

 the bees. I have stood there and seen 

 them at work, and the whole trees per- 

 fectly roaring with the bees at work 

 all through the spring, but where I 

 now live, I am sorry to say,^ I do not 

 know of a colony of bees within miles. 

 I had never seen, until the other day, a 

 honey-bee on the farm, and I know 

 that our fruits are not perfectly polli- 

 nated as they would be if bees were 

 there. I am going to secure the pres- 

 ence of bees. I know that they cut a 

 figure. I want to tell you one thing 

 about spraying plants in bloom. I 

 never spray my trees in bloom, but I 

 did have a little misfortune. You have 

 all learned that it is absolutely neces- 

 sary' to tell a hired man at least six 

 times what you want done, and then 

 go and see that he does it. Now, I 

 have a patch of strawberries which I 

 take great pains to make perfect, and 

 every spring we spray our strawberries. 

 I have a cart fixed up that sprays three 

 rows at a time, and it sprays them very 

 thoroughly. I set the hired man to 

 spraying, and he also sprayed my speci- 

 men patch, and of all the knotty, de- 

 formed fruit that you ever saw, I got 

 them off that patch. The spraying 

 had killed the pollen. I think there is 

 no question but that the bees are killed 

 by spraying. 



Dr. Miller— T think, Mr. President, 

 that, considering- the charges made 

 against the bees, we are ready to rest 

 the case. 



Pres. Watrous — I will say for the 

 benefit of some who have thought the 

 bee-keepers hadn't had a fair show, it 

 was my understanding that the pro- 

 gram was arranged through a friendly 

 consultation of the officers of the two 

 societies, and that everything has been 

 just as fair as possible. I want to say 

 that I believe the results have been 

 very good. I hope so. 



Dr. Mason — I think the bee-keepers 

 feel that we have made no mistake in. 

 selecting these gentlemen who talked 

 to you to-night, to present our case. 



Pres. Watrous— I think not. 



Adjournment of the joint session. 



After the adjournment Pres. Root 

 called for a meeting of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association present to 

 finish up the business of the conven- 

 tion. 



Fifth Annual Report of General Man = 



ager of the National Bee=Keep- 



ers' Association. 



THE UTTBR VS. UTTER CASE. 



In my last annual report I stated 

 that the celebrated case of Utter vs. 

 Utter, in Orange County, New York, 

 had been appealed to the County Court. 

 It will be recalled by most of the mem- 



