18&4 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



much to many of us. I fear we are in dan- 

 ger of misunderstanding each other. Let 

 me illustrate : A good old friend and 

 neighbor of mine came into the office a few- 

 evenings ago and made the remark, that 

 with his SU-acre farm he had not for the past 

 two years made a living, and yet he had 

 worked hard all the time. Now, would this 

 be a valuable statement for the agricultural 

 papers V or would you think it best for him 

 to get up and announce this fact at one of 

 the farmers' institutes now being held all 

 over our land ? Would you advise him to 

 discourage our young men from going into 

 farming 'i or has farming ever been present- 

 ed in too attractive colors co individuals of 

 ordinary good common sense? I should 

 consider bee-keeping one branch of farming. 

 We have tried to teach that bee-men must 

 succeed by earnest, hard work, just as farm- 

 ers must succeed by hard work. xVnother 

 thing, friend II. I have been pained by 

 some remarks you have made, because they 

 seemed almost like complaining of God's 

 mercy and providence in having placed you 

 just where you are to-day ; and I think that 

 our good friend C. C. Miller needs rebuking 

 for his expression, *■' I should be better off in 

 this world's goods to-day if I had never kept 

 bees." How does friend Miller, or anybody 

 else, know that this is the case V Had he in- 

 serted the word " probably,'' it would have 

 been quite different. Another thing, he did 

 not explain that he had a profession that 

 yielded him quite a large salary before he 

 began keeping bees. Had he kept on in his 

 profession, he might have been worth more 

 money than he is now, providing his health 

 would have permitted it. He came to pay 

 me a visit just about as he was thinking of 

 giving up his profession, and made a remark 

 something like this: '' Mr. Root, I should 

 be just happy if I could give up every thing 

 but bees, and work with them all day long.'' 

 At Toronto I reminded him of it, and he re- 

 plied, " Brother Root, I am happy and thank- 

 ful." And I am sure every one who saw 

 him thought that his looks showed it. Now, 

 friend H., ought not you and I to be happy 

 and thankful too, right where we stand ? 

 and ought we not to be careful about saying 

 or doing any thing that should give any one 

 any reason to think to the contrary V 



ACROSS THE OCEAN. 



SOMETHING FROM FRIEND JONES HIMSEIjF IN RE- 

 GARD TO MAILING QUEENS. 



fRIEND ROOT: — I think friend Benton carries 

 off the palm. He has mailed me, during the 

 ■ last season, many queens. Snmc of them 

 were received before I heard of it about any other 

 person. Friend Doolittle's devising a similar cage, 

 only shows how great minds sometimes run in the 

 same channel. See how nearly the late lamented 

 Quinby agreed with father Langstroth on many im- 

 portant points. How often one invents something 

 which, perhaps, was used by others long before! and 

 until they have found this all out, they believe that 

 they were the first to invent the new plan or system, 

 whatever it may be; whereas some two or three or 

 more before them may have discovered the idea. 



I showed you, friend Root, and thousands of oth- 

 ers, at the Toronto exhibition , the cages in which 1 

 received the queens from Benton. I also showed 

 them at the convention in Flint, Mich., as well as to 



j scores of visitors at my place during the summer. 

 Here let me say, thai Mr. Benton has, during the 



I past season, been doing business on his own ac- 



] count, I having previously sold my Beyrout, or Mt. 

 Lebanon apiary, to Mr. Baldensperger, talting my 

 pay in queens. I have now given my Cyprus apiary 

 to Mr. Benton, so that I am entirely out of that 

 speculation, which, by the way, was a losing one. 

 Mr. Benton's locating himself at Munich, in Ger- 



! many, is a good thing for all the bee-keepers here, as 

 any one wanting a choice imported queen, of almost 



I any race, can send to him and get just what he 

 wants. Queens comiog from him are sure to be just 

 whit he recommends them to be, as he is exceeding- 

 ly careful in selection, managment, shipping, etc., 

 and I hope he will receive the patronage he deserves, 

 as he can not afford to stay there without a liberal 

 patronage from America. And even with that, I 

 fear his expenses will leave him very little for his la- 

 tor, at the prices he is asking. The course he is 

 pursuing is likely to test the mailing business. The 

 mailing of queens seemed lo be one of Mr. Benton's 

 hobbies. Many hours we spent in the East, talking 

 over the matter; but the postolBce regulations seem- 

 ed always to stand in the way. Mr. Benton is very 

 enthusiastic in the business, so that, if he does not 

 make it a success, I shall have poor hopes of anyone 

 else succeeding. 



Let me say to those sending him boxes of bees, not 

 to send any correspondence with them, for fear they 

 may share the same fate as mine. Let the corres- 

 pondence be sent in the regular way. I received a 

 large number of Syrian queens from Mr. Balden- 

 sperger last season. They were sent to Mr. Benton, 

 thence to me. They were packed in boxes about ti 

 Inches square, with two combs in each box, supplied 

 with sugar and water, similar to that in his mailing- 

 cages. There was a very striking difference In the 

 loss of bees that accompanied the queens. In some 

 of the boxes, Mr. Benton had put aU fresh bees, and 

 in others a part were fresh. I found a much larger 

 proportion of the blacks dead than of the others, on 

 arrival. In the boxes that had part black and part 

 Syrian (though the Syrians came all the way from 

 Beyrout to Munich), I found a larger proportion of 

 the blacks dead. This will illustrate the superiority 

 of the yellow race for shipping purposes. 



I will reply to friend Doolittle's article soon, and 

 you need not fear that we shall fall out; because if 

 we can not agree, we will agree to disagree; but no 

 doubt when all is known on the matter, friend Doo- 

 little will be pleased with the result. 

 Beeton, Ont., Jan. 18, 1884. D. A. Jones. 



Many thanks, friend Jones, for your kind 

 letter. I am astonished to hear you say you 

 showed me the cages that brought queens 

 across the ocean alive. Now, either yon or 

 I am absent-minded. Are you sure it was 

 not somebody else to whom you showed these 

 cages? One reason why lean not think it 

 Avas I. is because I was on the alert for that 

 very thing, and I do remember asking you 

 ho\v Mr. Benton got queens to New York 

 for such a very moderate price, and even 

 single queens at that. No wonder some of 

 us forgot something, or overlooked a few 

 matters, with the din and hurry and bustle 



