lS88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



67 



January from one of the best conventions I 

 have ever attended in my life. The attend- 

 ance was not very great, it is true ; but we 

 had some of the best bee-men and lioney- 

 producers that we have in the United 

 States. Not only that, but I believe more 

 bee-keepers, with their iciccfi also, were in 

 attendance than we often find. I am sure 

 this is as it should be. The women got ac- 

 (jnainted witii each other, and the men got 

 acquainted with each other. More than 

 that, many of the women got acquainted 

 witli some of our leading men, and learned 

 to love and admire them. I know this is 

 true, because I heard them say so. I also 

 feel certain that we men-folks, many of us, 

 got acquainted with go ul women we had 

 uevei- known before ; ;ind although I did not 

 hear them say so, that I remember, I am 

 quite safe in saying ivc learned to love and 

 admire these good women. You know I 

 have s;i id a great deal during the few years 

 past, about the impoitance of getting ac- 

 ({uaiuted with eacli other. This convention 

 resulted like a great many otiiers I have at- 

 tended. Sometimes we got so well ac- 

 <iuaiuted that we felt free to make expres- 

 sions something like this ; and it is just what 

 a very dear friend of mine said to me : " Mr. 

 Hoot, [ want to confess, that, before I knew 

 you and got well acquainted with you, I 

 thought I didn't like you. You have some 

 queer ways iind notions that I didn't use to 

 sympathize with ; but since I have seen 

 you face to face, and know and understand 

 you, 1 have changed my mind." Now, al- 

 though I have not paid the same thing right 

 out. I have felt it in my own heart a great 

 nuiny times. I want to" tell you that any 

 thing that comes up, be it at conventions or 

 anywliere else, tliat makes us think better of 

 our fellow-men is hopeful and should be en- 

 couraged. Uncharitableness grows of it- 

 self, without any effort to encourage it ; but 

 the spirit that '' thiuketh no eviU' does 

 not often grow without some encoui'age- 

 ment and some hard work. 



Our convention owed a vote of thanks to 

 l)r. Mason for coming Irom a remote cor- 

 ner of our State to help us in our proceed- 

 ings, and I guess the doctor got a vote of 

 tlianks a good many times during recesses 

 and our otlier little social chats, even if it 

 was not said right out during the proceed- 

 ings. He is a large man every way— a man 

 known and respected by the leading minds 

 of our State ; and in his large-hearted chari- 

 ty and fund of cheerful good humor, coup- 

 led with earnest, honest Christian princi- 

 ples, he is a bright example for a good many 

 of us. I don't mean to say by the above 

 that he is always smooth and yielding in 

 every thing. That is not Dr. Mason at all. 

 He thoroughly believes in every thing good, 

 and just as thoroughly detests everything 

 bad. He knows himself, and he knows his 

 influence too well to nuike a mistake in that 

 direction. 



Dr. G. L. Tinker, of New Philadelphia, 

 also contributed much of value to our meet- 

 ing. The doctor is not only a bee-keeper, 

 but lie is one of the finest workers, both in 

 wood and metal, that we have in our State. 

 He exhibited some beautiful samples of 



cases for sections, honey-boards, perforated 

 zinc of his own manufacture, etc. Dr. Tink- 

 er is a firm advocate of sections open at the 

 sides as well as top and bottom. He also 

 gave us an account of his experiments with 

 the shallow sectional brood-chamber. At 

 present his decision is that we dont want 

 them. 



Mr. 11. R. J3oardman gave us so many val- 

 uable points in regard to the prodnction of 

 comb honey that the convention certainly 

 owes him also a vote of thanks. A good 

 friend told me at the Chicago Convention 

 that he was surprised to find that I had 

 made such an improvement, not only in 

 wisdom and experience, but in my ability 

 and readiness to impart to others what I 

 know. Well, I can say the same in regard 

 to friend Boardman. It did not seem to me 

 that he could be the same man whom I knew 

 some years ago. Many of our readers will 

 remeniber that he is the man who has for 

 yeiirs wintered his bees almost without loss. 

 Well, he does this still; and he has been 

 quietly at work, until he has his bees scat- 

 teied here and there in different apiaries, 

 amounting, perhaps, to 400 or 500 colonies. 

 During this past season, when everybody 

 else has been lamenting about tlie utter 

 failure .of the honey crop, he has secured 

 enough to pay all expenses and a little more ; 

 and a great part of his crop has been sold 

 for 20 cts. a pound, cash down. Now, friend 

 B. is peculiar. He uses a frame about the 

 dimensions of the Gallup; and instead of 

 using cases he hangs to the. wide frames, as 

 he told us not very long ago. Well, these 

 wide frames hold three sections wide and 

 three sections deep, or nine one-pound sec- 

 tions in all. Enough frames are put into a 

 hive to make a regular cube ; and when he 

 wants to make a hive two stories, it has two 

 cubes, one on top of the other. I tried to 

 reason with him in regard to the advantages 

 of shallow L. frames when he wished to use 

 hives two stories higli. He admitted that 

 the theory was very good, but he said that 

 he could liot discover that it was verified by 

 actual practice. He even at times used the 

 hive three stories high— the first one for the 

 brood, and the two upper ones filled Avith 

 sections. Said I, " But, friend B., you sure- 

 ly do not mean to say you find it just as well 

 to put on a whole upper story containing o-J 

 sections all at one time, especially if your 

 colony is rather weak when the honey-flow 

 begins ? " 



He declared he didn't find any bad results 

 from so doing. 



" But," said I, "the bees can not occupy 

 this cube containing 54 sections, and so they 

 must lill only as many sections as they can, 

 working at a disadvantage on account of all 

 this open space above and around them." 



He assented, but still declared he could 

 not discover in practice that it did any harm. 

 I was somewhat astounded at this, as you 

 may be, dear reader, but I saw at once a 

 point in his favor. His bees always have 

 room. Even with all his apiaries, it is not 

 very likely that any colony will get their 

 sections full, and be crowded for room to 

 work to advantage, so as to luing out on 

 hive during a honey-flow. He prefers the 



