1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



11 



As my hands were full at that time, 

 I did not attempt to make one until 

 the next spring, when I used a small 

 molasses hogshead for a tub, with 

 wooden shaft and reel and a large 

 wooden wheel with a strong cord 

 running from the wheel around the 

 shaft. Well, it Worked! and I took 

 from one hive that season 240 pounds 

 of extracted honey. That fall I vis- 

 ited Moses Quinby, with whom I had 

 quite an amount of correspondence, 

 and purchased several hives, for one 

 of which, containing an imported 

 queen, I paid $35. He told me he had 

 made an extractor the previous 

 spring, using the gearings of an old 

 farm fanning mill to secure the neces- 

 sary motion, but as the season was 

 poor he had been unable to use it. 



I was delighted with Mr. Quinby, 

 for he seemed to be a large-souled 

 man, as well as an extensive bee- 

 keeper. Nothing seemed to delight 

 him more than to be helpful to oth- 

 ers. Through him I learned of his 

 brother in New York, a commission 

 merchant of the old type, as honest 

 as the day was long. He told me 

 later that every pound of white honey 

 sold that year in Vew York for 50 

 cents a pound; that is, honey, glass 

 box and all, wholesale, which would 

 make it about the same as this year. 



Moses Quinby was the first to sug- 

 gest and use a hand bellows smoker. 

 I believe it impossible for the younger 

 generation to realize the difficulties 

 attending the rapid manipulations of 

 hives without a smoker. We used for 

 the most part a stick of dry rotten 

 wood, setting one end on fire by the 

 kitchen stove. If it was not suffi- 

 ciently decayed, it was likely to go 

 out, and if too rotten it burned too 

 fast and our face and eyes grew red 

 as we blew the smoke among the 

 bees, and sparks, too, and our clothes 

 were sometimes set on fire. So I have 

 no disposition to say that the former 

 times were better than today. 



Soon after the honey extractor 

 came into use, extracted honey was 

 shipped to the city, and I remember 

 very distinctly D. W. Quinby's letter 

 in, I believe, the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, asking beekeepers not to send 

 any extracted honey to New York, as 

 there was no demand for it. Some 

 different todayl 



There was no comb-foundation in 

 those early days, and we saved very 

 carefully every scrap of white comb, 

 cutting it into small pieces one inch 

 or more square, if we had enough of 

 it, and dipping one edge into melted 

 wax and sticking it into our supers 

 for starters and guides. 



It was about 1880 that comb-foun- 

 dation first came into general use, 

 perhaps a little earlier, and has been 

 a great help in developing the busi- 

 ness of beekeeping, giving us straight 

 combs of even thickness, with a great 

 saving of wax. 



Sixty years ago the wintering of 

 bees was but little understood, and 

 largely shrouded in mystery, while to- 

 day the principles of succesful win- 

 tering are quite generally known. 



Brood diseases have been carefully 



studied, the symptoms fully described 

 and best methods of treatment given, 

 so the average beekeeper may not 

 long be in ignorance as to the condi- 

 tion of his bees. This alone is a 

 tremendous gain over our knowl- 

 edge of a few decades ago. 



The scientific rearing of queens has 

 become a well established business, 

 enabling the small beekeeper to se- 

 cure queens at a reasonable price or 

 enjoy the fun, himself, of rearing 

 enough for his own use. 



Magazines devoted to the inter- 

 ests of beekeepers have multiplied, 

 some of them to meet with an un- 

 timely end; yet they have, perhaps, 

 been the most efficient means for the 

 spread of a correct knowledge of suc- 

 cessful beekeeping. 



A large number of books on arti- 

 ficial queen-breeding and beekeeping 

 have been published, all of which 

 have been most helpful. 



Outyards have become common in 

 many parts of the country and the 

 auto-truck has been pressed into the 

 service of the enterprising beekeeper 

 and found almost as much a help as 

 movable combs, the honey extractor, 

 or a reliable smoker, in increasing 

 the products of the hive. Little was 

 known of the honey resources of the 

 country 60 years ago, while today 

 we have a very general idea, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from 

 Manitoba to the Gulf. Some sources 

 of honey have nearly disappeared, as 

 basswood; while others, then almost 

 unknown, have become of great im- 

 portance, as alsike clover, sweet clo- 

 ver and alfalfa. 



We did not have, in the former 

 years any houses for the sale of bee- 

 keepers' supplies, while now you can 

 buy anything from a three-eighths- 

 inch nail to a $50 extractor, hives, 

 foundation, sections, smokers, queens, 

 cages, etc. In fact, everything a 

 practical beekeeper wants, and a 

 great many things he has little use 

 for. 



It was not my good fortune to 

 become acquainted with many of the 

 extensive beekeepers of sixty years 

 ago. I have spoken of meeting Mr. 



Quinby; I also met Mr. Harbison in 

 Sacramento about 1875. He was at 

 one time very extensively engaged in 

 beekeeping on the Pacific Coast, and 

 was perhaps the most successful pro- 

 ducer of comb honey in California. 

 He seemed an exceedingly modest, re- 

 tiring man, for one who had met with 

 such success, and 1 doubt if his life 

 and work were fully appreciated by 

 American beekeepers. 



Capt. J. E. Hetherington began bee- 

 keeping on an extensive scale soon 

 after the close of the Civil War. He 

 was an exceedingly active man and 

 soon became one of the most exten- 

 sive beekeepers of the east. His life 

 and work were a great stimulus to 

 keeping outapiaries here in the East. 

 It was a great pleasure to have 

 known him. 



What a wonderful period have the 

 past sixty years been in developing 

 the business of beekeeping in Amer- 

 ica I And yet, perhaps, we should not 

 feel too much elated over what has 

 been accomplished, when we remem- 

 ber that today, probably, not more 

 than one beekeeper in four takes a 

 bee journal, or one in three who has 

 bees in a movable-comb hive, ever 

 handles them any more than if they 

 were in box hives. There is still 

 work ahead if we would reach the 

 high level to which we aspire. 



Vermont. 



Sweet Clover in Canada 



"Its presence this year in quantity 

 has dispelled some of the notions for- 

 merly held by many beekeepers. Lack 

 of acreage must have been the cause 

 of the claims being made that it is a 

 slow yielder. A friend of mine near 

 me had a very strong colony on 

 scales, and in one day they gained 23 

 pounds — nothing slow about that. 

 One very strong colony at one of our 

 outyards stored just about 500 

 pounds in five weeks, and fully one- 

 third of the days were unfavorable 

 for bees working. But this colony 

 has during the last three years stored 

 about double the amount of any oth- 

 ers in the yard." — J. L. Byer in Octo- 

 ber Canadian Beekeeper. 



Mendleson's famous Piru apiary 



