94 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



may arouse suspicion on the part of 

 the honey dealer and supply manufac- 

 turer that he is not welcome, or is 

 an interloper. The motive behind the 

 movement to make it entirely a bee- 

 keepers' organization i the suspicion 

 that some beekeepers have of hcney 

 dealers. Some think that their inter- 

 ests are not identical. The largest 

 and most successful honey dealers 

 and bee supply manufactiwers are 

 those who are most intimately con- 

 nected with honey production. In 

 fact, they develop intoi the handling 

 of honey and the manufacturing of 

 bee supplies for the reason that they 

 were first successful beekeepers. 



The movement will encounter oppo- 

 sition unless it is all-inclusive and 

 unless the competitive elements can 

 be united in co-operation. One of 

 the unfortunate features of all bee- 

 keepers' organizations is that good 

 speakers, intelligent men, but who are 

 very distantly related to the bee- 

 keeping industry, join the associa- 

 tions, probably for the reason that 

 they seek the opportunity to push 

 ahead and think there is an oppor- 

 tunity for creating a position for 

 themselves. They are doubtless at- 

 tracted first to- the beekeepers' or- 

 ganizations because they own a few 

 colonies of bees and became inter- 

 ested in them in this way. They at- 

 tend the beekeepers' conventions, 

 have a good time, make friends, and 

 the first thing you know they have 

 been elected to some office and im- 

 mediately propose a lot of new ideas 

 which have been brought up every 

 year during the last ten or twenty 

 years, but eventually play out or are 

 turned down by the beekeepers' or- 

 ganizations upon mature considera- 

 tion. 



I believe we would do well if in our 

 beekeepers' organizations we would 

 elect no one to an office who had not 

 been a member of some beekeepers' 

 organization for at least five years. 

 It would be preferable if he had been 

 a member of some organization for 

 ten years. We would have more sta- 

 bility in our as'^ociations and would 

 try to pull off less fool stunts than 

 have bec'n done in the past. 



There is no doubt that the honey 

 produced during the next twenty 

 years is going to be very much larger 

 in volume than has been produced 

 during the last twenty years, and new 

 means for distribution will undoubt- 

 edly need to be developed. However. 

 we should bear in mind that we have 

 new well-developed channels of trade 

 that are valuable and have taken a 

 great deal of time to develop and 

 they should not be discarded until 

 something better has been found. 



The entering of beekeepers into 

 actual marketing operations !s going 

 to increase, and the officers of these 

 organizations should realize that the 

 distributor is in the business as well 

 as they and that he has to have pay 

 for his services or he cannot continue 

 in business. The beekeepers' organi- 

 zations will, of course, have a steady- 

 ing influence on the trade and 

 wherever unfavorable conditions are 



developed or where any one dealer or 

 bottler is taking an excessive profit 

 they can stop this through proper 

 means, and the marketing organiza- 

 tions of beekeepers will be strong 

 enoiugh to accomplish this. However, 

 honey dealers are a distinct benefit to 

 the beekeeping industry, and it would 

 be very detrimental to the honey 

 .trade if they should cease their op- 

 erations. 



An unfortunate idea that seems to 

 be quite prevalent in the beekeeper's 

 mind is that the honey dealer is mak- 

 ing an undue profit. If he could real- 

 ize the conditions that confront the 

 honey dealer and bottler, he would 

 not fee! as he does, but the idea is ex- 

 pressed at nearly every beekeepers' 

 convention. The average beekeeper 

 does not understand the difficulties, 

 and his lack of imderstanding is the 

 reason for his suspicion. If he knew 

 more of the other fellow's business 

 he would be much less likely to com- 

 plain. 



Boulder, Colo. 



We believe an American organiza- 

 tion requires a union of all who are 

 interested in bees and honey and all 

 that pertains to these. So we should 

 hear from every side. Let it be borne 

 in mind that the American Honey 

 Producers' League does not propose 

 to be a commercial honey-selling 

 agency, leaving the question of sales 

 to State and local organizations and 

 dealers. It should be beneficial to all 

 who keep bees or handle honey. Mr. 

 Foster is both a beekeeper and a 

 honey dealer, therefore doubly inter- 

 ested. — EditoT. 



NEW TEXAS APICULTURIST 



Lloyd R. Watson, who has been for 

 some time past an assistant to Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips at Washington, has 

 taken up his duties in charge of the 

 experimental apiaries at College Sta- 

 tion, Texas. Mr. Watson takes up 

 his work under favorable circum- 

 stances, as he is especially well 



equipped by training and experience 

 for work of this kind. 



After graduating from Alfred Uni- 

 versity in 1905, he taught for a time, 

 serving as principal of the high 

 school of Alfred, New York. He tlien 

 engaged extensively in beekeeping in 

 Pennsylvania for three years, when 

 he returned to Alfred University as 

 professor of chemistry and beekeep- 

 ing. In 1918 he became extension 

 specialist in beekeeping and profes- 

 sor of apiculture in the Connecticut 

 Agricultural College. From Con- 

 necticut he went to Washington, 

 where he has since remained. 



We look forward to much practical 

 good to the beekeepers of the south- 

 west as a result of the Texas experi- 

 mental work. We believe that in 

 Mr. Watson, Texas beekeepers have 

 found a man who brings both scien- 

 tific training and practical experi- 

 ence to bear upon their problems. 



Lloyd R. Watson, the new Texas Apiarist. 



SMOKING AND SMOKERS 



By Arthur C. Miller 



The last sixty years have brought 

 many advances in bee culture and in 

 appliances, the extractor, comb-foun- 

 dation, excluders, escapes, etc., but 

 above all, the smoker; and for this 

 latter we are indebted to the Father 

 of Commercial Beekeeping, Moses 

 Quinby. 



Think of taking a lot of black bees 

 in box hives and handling them suc- 

 cessfully and profitably year after 

 year with only smoke from a pan of 

 smouldering wood or smoke blown 

 from a roll of rags, and those were 

 all that Quinby had for years. Just 

 try it some time with your modern 

 Italians in frame hives with perfect 

 combs. It is no pleasure, as you will 

 soon discover. Oft does an inspector 

 in an emergency have to resort to the 

 roll of smouldering cloth and blow till 

 his head reels. If he chances to be a 

 user of tobacco, the pipe, cigar or 

 cigaret does fairly well. I was relat- 

 ing this at a bee meeting recently 

 when one charming young lady spoke 

 up, "Yes, a cigaret does nicely in an 

 emergency," and then, in a sudden 

 panic added, "I borrowed one of 

 fathers at times.' How fortunate to 

 have a father who smokes. No, I 

 won't tell who it was, and though 

 Gates knows, he doesn't tell. 



Quinby found tobacco more effica- 

 cious than rags or rotten wood, and 

 he devised a little tin tube with a 

 perforated wooden plug in each end 

 for burning the tobacco, for he was 

 not a smoker. The little tube was but 

 S inches long and only a little over 

 half an inch in diameter. One of the 

 wooden plugs was flattened like a 

 pipe stem and was held between the 

 teeth and blown tlirough as smoke 

 was needed. Just think of handling 

 a big yard of cross hybrids with no 

 better device than that, and yet get 

 along with it for years. 



If you like diversion, make such a 

 smoker and try handling your bees 

 on the rapid fire system, brushing the 

 bees from the extracting combs, etc. 

 And that reminds me that a genial 



