Vol. XIV. 



JUNE 1, 188(>. 



No. 11. 



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MH. JAMES HEDDON. 



A SHORT BIOGRAPHY, FROM THE PEN OF PROF. 

 COOK. 



T AM very glad to accede to the request to give a 

 ^ brief account of the life and work of Mr. Hed- 

 ^l don. True merit should always be rewarded; 

 '*' and as I am acquainted with no more able, 

 thoughtful, studious, and hard-working- bee- 

 keeper in the United States than Mr. Heddon, it is 

 with no little pleasure that I call attention to his 

 life, his work, and to the valuable results of his 

 careful experiments and thoughtful, studious la- 

 bors in the apiary. 



Mr. Heddon was the first specialist in beo-kcep- 

 iug in Michigan, and one of the first in the country, 

 and thus his fertile, active mind has ever been di- 

 rected toward the pocket-book side of bee-keeping; 

 and so, as we should expect, all his work, experi- 

 ments, and influence are right in the spirit of this 

 intensely practical age. Best of all, from a long and 

 intimate acquaintance with him I feel assured that 

 all his labor, both of hand and mind, has ever been 

 impelled by an honest purpose and sincere desire 

 to advance the vocation of his choice. 



It has often been remarked, that Michigan owes 

 much of her reputation for push and enterprise to 

 the fact that most of her inhabitants came from 

 New England, many gaining wide experience from 

 a short stay in New York. Mr. Heddon took advan- 

 tage of one of these New- York sojourns, as he was 

 born in the rich Genesee Valley of Western New 

 York, Aug. 28, 184.5. Thus he is now forty years of 

 age. Like Patrick Henry he had no irresistible 

 thirst for book-learning, much preferring his fish- 

 hook, his gun, and a stroll in the fields and forest. 



Very likely this was owing largely to the faulty 

 methods of the schools. Had the dull books of stu- 

 pid text-book writers been replaced by the interest- 

 ing things fresh from nature, how eagerly would 

 this schoolboy have probed them to their very 

 depths! No one can know Mr. Heddon without 

 recognizing at once that he is a natural student. 

 Given the right mental food, and how eagerly 

 would he have swallowed, digested, and assimilat- 

 ed it : 



In stature, Mr. Heddon is below the average, 

 while his form is slight and wiry. He is extremely 

 nervous, and his keen, intense expression, and 

 spare, almost pinched features, would lead Mi-s. 

 Harrison to remark that he was fed on mince pie, 

 ham, and sausage. But let me say that I have been 

 there, and I know that excellent sense and the best 

 taste and judgment rule in the Heddon kitchen. 

 Mr. Heddon is gaunt and lean because he has a 

 twenty-horse-power nervous organism in a ten- 

 horse-power physique. His nervous tension and 

 mental energy have always been vexed that their 

 dwelling-house were not bigger and stronger, and 

 are determined to destroy it; and it behooves our 

 good friend to look sharply or they will succeed. 



Mentally Mr. Heddon is exceptionally vigorous 

 and gifted. The Rev. Mr. Gage once told me that 

 he was especiallj' interested in a certain young man 

 in his village, who, with an opportunity, would cer- 

 tainly make a scientist. Years after, I became ac- 

 quainted with this same promising young man in 

 Mr. Heddon. 



As a speaker, Mr. Heddon is unusually vigorous. 

 His sentences are always to the point, and his fig- 

 ures and illustrations are often irresistible. I have 

 known him at our State conventions to hold every 



