586 



GLEANINGS IN BEE ClILTUEE. 



July 



Gleanings in Bee Cdlture, 



I*uhlished Senii-lMon thly, 



.£^. I. I^OOT, 

 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, 



3yrE3Dinsr-a., omo. 



TERMS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POSTPAID. 



8 - ♦ - i 



For Chilling Sates, See First Page of Beading Matter. 



nivi:EiDinsr.u5^, jxjXj"^ is, laes. 



Happy is the man that flndeth wisdom, and the man that 

 gettetJi understanding.— Phov. 3: 13. 



HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. 



As considerable has been said of late in regard to 

 those to whom we are indebted for advances in bee 

 culture, I should like to make mention of the name 

 of Alex Fiddes, of Centralia, Marion Co., 111. Mr. 

 Fiddes, as our older readers all know, made the 

 first one-piece section box. Not only that, he at 

 once communicated his experiments to the bee- 

 journals, and thereby effectually cut off anybody 

 at any future time from trying to monopolize this 

 truly valuable invention. Determined efforts and 

 a good deal of money were expended in trying to 

 break dowQ or evade friend Fiddes' simple, honest 

 statement, but it could not be done. As friend 

 Langstroth is the father of practical movable 

 combs for bee-hives, so friend Fiddes is the father 

 of one-piece section boxes; and when we reflect 

 that millions upon millions of these honey-boxes 

 are now used yearly. I think we owe a vote of 

 thanks to friend F. Others may have made section 

 boxes before he did, and, in fact, we well know that 

 different men in different parts of the nation were 

 experimenting at the same time on this idea; but 

 Fiddes made them, and secured a honey crop, and 

 promptly re])orted it, and had it put in print; and 

 we certainly owe him a vote of thanks for this lat- 

 ter operation. 



VISITING BEE-KEEPEKS. 



As our dull season approaches, it is our purpose 

 to have some one representing Gleanings make 

 calls on the prominent bee-raisers and honey-pro- 

 ducers of the United States. These visits will prob- 

 ably be made by A. 1. Koot himself, Ernest, or Mr. 

 Calvert. I suppose that I might explain that Mr. 

 Calvert is the husband of Ernest's sister Maud. 

 That makes us all one family, you know. Well, the 

 first visit of the series has already been made. Mr. 

 Calvert has made a very pleasant and I trust profit- 

 able call on Dr. C. C. Miller, and our good friends 

 the Dadants. It was my wish that he make his re- 

 port for this issue; but as he wishes to have it il- 

 lustrated by cuts it will have to stand over a little 

 time. AVe hope this new arrangement will not onlj' 

 prove profitable to the readers of Gleanings, but 

 better prepare the editorial staff of our journal for 

 their duties and responsibilities. As they become 

 better ac<|\iainted with the bee-keeping world at 

 large, the more ably will they be prepared to ex- 

 I»ound orthodox bee culture. A part of the pro- 

 gramme is to send A. 1. among the bee-men of Cali- 

 fornia, toward the latter part of the year. He is al- 

 ready getting a little stubborn in the matter, how- 

 ever, and begins to intimate that he does not want 



to go. If we succeed in getting him started, how- 

 ever, we think he will probably do very well. 



OUR NEW $8.00 TYPE-WRITER. 



Fifteen of these machines have been unpacked 

 in our office, and now every clerk who formerly 

 used a pen is rejoicing in a type-writer of his own 

 or her own. No more bad writing— no more indis- 

 tinct figures and letters; no more troubles, at least 

 on our part, in any of these different ways. Of 

 course, we don't write very fast yet, and a great 

 deal of the writing bears evidence of having been 

 amended. But we are on the high road to improve- 

 ment. An amusing story just came to my ear, 

 illustrating the need of type-writers: A man who, I 

 believe, was in the employ of Barnum, at one time 

 had occasion to order a couple of monkeys, to fill a 

 vacancy in the menagerie. In making his order, 

 instead of spelling it t-w-o, indicating that two 

 monkeys were wanted, he got it to-o, and then 

 omitted to cross the t, so the order went to Africa 

 or South America, or somewhere else, for 100 

 monkeys. Knowing that P. T. Barnum was good 

 for what he ordered, the natives put out into the 

 jungles, and chased monkeys for all they were 

 worth. They could not quite make out the num- 

 ber; but imagine the consternation of our friend 

 who spells badly and writes worse, to get a reply 

 something like the following: " We have succeeded 

 in capturing, so far, only 77 of the 100 monkeys, and 

 will ship the rest of them as soon as we catch 'em." 

 Now, you see this little type-writer would have 

 saved a tremendous expense, and may be some 

 hard words and hard feelings— rspfc(«77.v on the part 

 of the monkeys, our " stenog" adds. 



the annual report OP THE BEE-KEEPERS' 

 UNION. 



The Third Annual Report of the General Man- 

 ager of the Bee-keepers' Union has just come to 

 hand. In it we learn that "the Union has been 

 successful in every case it has undertaken in de- 

 fense of the pursuit of keeping bees." Although 

 the object of this Union is to protect the interests 

 of bee-keepers, it does not necessarily advise going 

 to law. In several instances the manager has ad- 

 vised conciliatory measures, and thus an expensive 

 lawsuit has been averted. In two cases where the 

 bees were really an injxiry to neighbors, the bees 

 have been removed by the advice of the manager. 

 "In other cases, compromises have been advised, 

 and the wisdom of such has been seen in the amica- 

 ble relations now existing, where troulile had been 

 brewing." It is wise to avoid lawsuits as far as 

 possible, and we take pleasure in noting the fact 

 that the Union has done so. Among the cases tak- 

 en to law was one in which H. W. Rich, of Hobart, 

 N. Y., was sued for $1200 damages. Although the 

 judge was evidently against the defendant, only 

 6 cents damages was awarded the plaintiff by the 

 jury. The Arkadelphia nuisance case will come to 

 trial about July l(i. The defendant, Mr. Clark, on 

 account of the alleged nuisance of his bees, and 

 his refusal to remove them from the city limits, and 

 also his refusal to pay a daily fine for so doing, has 

 been remanded to the city jail. The Union has 

 agreed to ])ay the Hon. S. VV. Williams .f2,50 for de- 

 fendingthe case in the Circuit Court. At present 

 then^ are only about 300 members in the Bee-keep- 

 ers" Union. In order to work to advantage there 

 ought to be a much larger number. The Advisory 

 Board of the Union has decided that it can not de^ 



