388 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



success, history shows that its incorporation 

 into the N. A." B. K. A. is and has been a good 

 thing. 



We mentioned editorially in the last issue, 

 that three patents liad been granted on a cer- 

 tain implement to be used in the apiary. We 

 have since learned tliat tliere are now four 

 patents on this one tiling, all within a year. 

 Nay, further: Two otliers have written us, asli- 

 ing whether we thought it would pay them to 

 issue a patent on this same thing. We replied 

 that tliere were already four patents on it, and 

 advised them not to be in a hurry to waste 

 their money. 



The Review suggests that we call frames not 

 closed-end. opejf -end /nn/ics. That might do. 

 But there are some open-end frames that are 

 fixed or spaced at regular distances: for in- 

 stance, the Van Deusen. There are two kinds 

 of frames in use — those that are fixed and those 

 tliat are not fixed. We want to distinguish the 

 two in some way. Call the former "fixed" and 

 the latter " loose "' frames. " Unspaced "' frames 

 would perhaps be more accurate, but it is a lit- 

 tle awkwai'd. and not as short as " loose " 

 frames. Our industi-y is progressing, and ac- 

 curate short names is \\hat we want. Sugges- 

 tions are in order. 



FOLLOWING ITI" SLANDEROUS REPORTS. 



The lioney-business is still being slandered 

 to a considerable extent in the newspapers, and 

 it is the duty of the subscribers of said papers 

 to send in a mild and gentlemanly protest. If 

 an editor were to receive a couple of hundred 

 of such, immediately after the issue of liis pa- 

 per containing such slander on our industry, he 

 would begin to think there was sometliing 

 wrong: and if he did not insert one or more of 

 them he would be careful that such stories did 

 not find a repetition in his columns. The comb- 

 honey yarn appeared in tlie Nat'Kinal Tribune, 

 under date of Feb. 19. One of its subscribers, 

 however, sent a vigorous protest, which was 

 publisiied in the next issue of that paper. To 

 show the falsity of its position, he sent them 

 one of our cards, to the effect that we offer 11000 

 to any one showing a sample of artificial comb 

 honey, and then added that this offer has been 

 out for several years, and has not yet been 

 taken up. Individual bee-keepers can do more 

 than editors; and a hundred protests from sub- 

 scribers will have a wonderful effect. Don't 

 foi'get to follow them up. 



HANDLING HIVES INSTEAD OF FRAMES: LOWER 

 COST, NOT HIGHER PRICES ON HONEY. 



A COKKESPONDENT. A. F. Brown, of Hunting- 

 ton, Fla., writes: 



1 keep bees for money, not for the pleasure, as 

 some do; therefore I take advantage of all short 

 cuts. I find to-day I do not do the work on a dozen 

 colonies that I did on one, tlve years ago. I handle 

 hives now; then T handled /rames, and other things 

 in the same waj'. You see the point. It is like a 

 plow taking the place of a hoe. 



Friend B. hits the point exactly. There is a 

 good deal more good sense in trying to reduce 

 the f'O.st of a pound of hoiu>y than in trying to 

 raise the seUhuj price. Sooner or later bee- 

 keeping has got to resolve itself into the han- 

 dling of hives more, and frames less: and Mr. 

 Heddon deserves no little credit for helping to 

 start this idea. But in order to carry it out it 

 is not necessary to have shallow brood-cham- 

 bers. A Langstroth hive with fixed distances 

 can be manipulated in such a way as to virtu- 

 ally handle hives instead of individual frames. 

 It may be truthfully said, that old l)ee-keepers 

 do not spend the time they once did over their 



bees; and we think it is equally true tliat, as- 

 our industry progresses, bee-keepers os a class- 

 to-day. or in the near future, will not spend 

 tlie time over tlielr bees they did a few years 

 ago; in other words, they will get a thousand 

 pounds of honey with less labor. We have [jot 

 to handle hives more and frames less, to stand 

 the prices. We liave got to do things more in a 

 wholesale way. in order to meet competition. 



GOOD WORK IN THE ILLINOIS STATE LEGISLA- 

 TURE FOR THE BEE-KEEPER. 



We observe by the American Bee Journal. 

 that the foul-brood bill, introduced into the 

 Illinois State Legislature by the Hon. W. S. 

 Smith, of Macon, will probably become a law. 

 Good I Let other States go and do likewise. 

 The bill introduced by J. 'M. Hambaugh, see p. 

 3*2(5, to prevent the spraying of fruit-trees when 

 in blossom, is also about to become a law. Mr. 

 H. writes to the American Bee Journal as fol- 

 lows: 



Hip, hip. lunrah '. We have carried the " Spraying- 

 Bill" through the committee, flying. My speech, 

 with letters, etc., have been ordered printed, and a 

 copy placed on eacli member's desk. Tally one for 

 bee culture. J. M. Hambaugh. 



Springtield, 111., April 11. 



We want the moral effect of tliese laws, ev<Mi 

 if we do not have to enforce them. 



GREAT INVENTIONS; HOW DO THEY* COME'' 



The most valuable discoveries do not always 

 come by hard study, with the view of arriving 

 at a definite end. No, they sometimes come by 

 accident; and the one who met the accident is 

 l<een enough to recognize that in it there is a 

 principle. .Mr. Hruschka, who invented the 

 extractor, did not study it out. His little boy, 

 you remember, by chance happened to whirl a 

 basket containing a piece of comb, around in 

 tlie air. Drops of honey flew out. Hruschka 

 was sharp enough to see in this tlie workings of 

 centrifugal force, and that this same force 

 could be made to extract honey from the combs. 

 The invention of the steam-engine — that is, its 

 main principle— was not studied out, but was 

 largely the result of accident — or, if you please, 

 lucky blundering. There is not so much in 

 studying out a thing as there is in the ability 

 to grasp a good thing when it presents itself. 

 There is a great deal of folderol about lying 

 awake nights, wasting strength and losing val- 

 uable sleep in developing a great (?) invention. 

 Tlie best ideas do not usually come to us when 

 we are tired and worn out, and when sleep is 

 the order of the moment. Wlien they do ap- 

 pear they usually come in the freshness of the 

 morning, after a good sleep, and then they 

 come forth with almost startling suddenness. 

 Would-be bee-hive inventors, instead of mak- 

 ing a hive conform entirely to the habits of the 

 bees, should consult a little the habits of the 

 genus homo. 



DEAD BEATS, AND WHAT IS A DEAD BEAT? 



Perhaps many of you may say, "A man who 

 does not pay his debts." Not exactly, friends". 

 Very good men. sometimes, in consequence of 

 sudden ari'idcnts or sickness, are unable to pay 

 their debts: and where a man is unable to do as 

 he would like, it is not fair to conclude that he 

 is a dead lieat. It is like calling a man a liar 

 because he told one lie; or, if you choose, tell- 

 ing a man he lies because he tells something 

 that is not true. In all these tilings it is the 

 state of the heart rather than the act. Some 

 little time ago I spoke of people who buy honey, 

 and then, after a while, excuse themselves 

 from paying for it by claiming that it was not 

 pure. Such men I should call dead beats, 

 and I think dead beats should be advertised far 



