696 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sei'T. L 



could not do this. I suggested . that he write 

 something for print by svaj' of explanation of 

 his son's conduct, to which he replied as below: 



LETTER FROM LUTHER GRAYS FATHER. 



Dear Sir:— I don't .see wliy you are under obliga- 

 tions to adverti.se a sick niaii as being- a fraud be- 

 cause be failed in Iju.siiu'ss because of being- .sick; 

 neither do I .see liow it will benefit you or Luther's 

 creditors eitlier. There never was a nioi'e lionest 

 boy tlian Lutlier, and more ui)7-i.t!-lit-in all his -ways, 

 and no doubt lie intended lo fill his contracts, and 

 will, if lie .trets well enoucli to attend to business. 

 He started to Flcn-ida last fall, or wintei- (where he 

 has some bees yet), but g-ot worse before he got to 

 his journey's end. and came back and has not been 

 able to do any thing yet. He .seems to be better 

 now. I never beard the name of fraud used in his 

 case, or ai)plled to him before. Universal sym- 

 pathy is expi'essed by all wlu) knt)w him. Many 

 fail in business wlio are not sick, and are not always 

 advertised as fraudulent. I do not think it would 

 be pleasant or profitable for a man who has plenty 

 of business, to say. in a public document, that 

 Luther obtained money fraudulently. In fact, I 

 kiKjw it would not. He has bought many lots of 

 supplies from you. and some are here no-w— honey- 

 extractor and other things. You can have them if 

 you want them. He sliipi)ed them here from Flori- 

 da, a?id paid more freight on them than they are 

 worth. He used it but very little; but that is not 

 your fault. I knew nothing of it. 1 suppose he did 

 not like to ask us for money to pay back, hoping to 

 he able to fill the orders, and perhaps will yet; if 

 not, we may assist him. Wji. Gray. 



ZanesvlUe, O., 19 N. 4th St., June 10. 1891. 



Now. friends, let us try to take an unbiased 

 view of this whole matter. Is Luther Gray a 

 fraud or is he not? Can a man say honestly 

 that he failed in business when he put in an 

 advertisement like the one sent by f'-iend Gray, 

 and then kept or used the money when lie 

 found, on account of ill health, that he could 

 not furnish the queens"? Perhaps those who 

 have lost money by him will have more decided 

 opinions than others. My impression is, that 

 an even SlOO would come pretty near settling 

 all claims, and leaving friend txray square with 

 his fellow-men. The account has been sent to 

 an attorney, but he replies that Mr. Gray is 

 posse.ssed of hut little means, and is in poor 

 health, so that nothing can he recovered by 

 law. By the way. this whole transaction re- 

 minds me of a remark once made by our friend 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, editor of the Review. He 

 said the money he received for queens was 

 never used until the qtieens had been put into 

 the postoffice: therefore when the weather was 

 unpropitious, or if poor health intervened, the 

 money was at hand, ready to go back with an 

 apology. I am afraid, however, that we have 

 not very many who are as conscientious as this. 

 Now, we do not undertake or agree to be re- 

 sponsible for all delinquencies of our advertis- 

 ers: but in the present case I wish all who lost 

 money by friend Gray would tell us how much. 

 We do not want long details — just tell ns brief- 

 ly how much money you sent liim for which 

 you received no equivalent. His father sug- 

 gests, in his closing sentence, that he may as- 

 sist him some: and if our brother who is out of 

 health is really desirous of making good those 

 he has unintentionally wronged, shall we not 

 turn in and hel]) him ? He who has poor health 

 certainly should have our sympathies. I know 

 a little more about it than I did a week ago. for 

 I have been having a touch of the grij) myself. 



There. I have tried to treat this whole matter 

 in a Christianlike way. and in a fair way to all 

 parties concerned. Have I been too severe or 

 too easy with our delinquent friend? Perhaps 

 some of the friends may be able to take the ex- 

 tractor his father mentions: and where the 

 amount he owes is sufficient to cover it. I would 

 advise corresponding with him direct. A. I. R. 



MR. EDOUARD BERTKAND. 



A BKK-KEF,PKR. EDITOR, AND AUTHOI! 



Among the foremost bee-keepers of Europe, 

 and one who stands high in apicultural circles, 

 is Mr. Edouard Bertrand. editor of the Reinie 

 InternntUmale d' Apiculture. While the rest 

 of France has rather held to the old-fashioned 

 straw skeps. Mr. Bertrand. with the assistance 

 of Mr. Dadant. has been slowly infusing into 

 the bee-keepers of that country progressive 

 ideas; and he is therefore, perhaps, the most 

 distinguished bee-keeper of that country or 

 Switzerland. He it was who gave material aid 

 to Mr. Dadant in translating " Langstroth on 

 the Honey-bee," revised by Dadant, into the 

 French language, at the same time adapting it 

 to French people. Some time ago there ap- 

 peared in the British Bee Journal a biographi- 

 cal sketch, accompanied by a half-tone engrav- 

 ing. At our request. Mr. Charles Dadant fur- 

 nished us with a photograph from which we 

 made a new portrait. The following is taken 

 from the British Bee Journal for Nov. 7. 1889: 



We have much pleasure in presenting to our 

 readers this week the portrait of one of the 

 most advanced bee-keepers on the continent of 

 Europe, and who is one of the pioneers of mod- 

 ern bee-keeping in Switzerland— that land lit- 

 erally flowing with "milk and honey." 



Ed". Bertrand was born in 183? in Geneva, 

 where he was educated, and resided until he 

 was nineteen years of age. Like many other 

 Swiss he left his native home to make a living 

 abroad. Paris was the chosen place. He re- 

 mained in business there until 1873. The anxi- 

 ety he went through during the insurrection of 

 the Commune in 1871 told seriously upon his 

 health, and. not having any childreii. he decid- 

 ed to retire from business and return to his 

 native land. Here he purchased a property on 

 the shores of Lac Leman. where he could de- 

 vote himself to his favorite pursuits of horticul- 

 ture and arboriculture. 



It was not long before he became possessed of 

 two skeps of bees with straw caps, such as are 

 used by the villagers, which a friend of his had 

 oifered to him. and with these he commenced 

 bee-keeping. Having no other ideas about 

 bees than those he gathered from the work of 

 his compatriot F. Huber, in his Nouvelles 

 Ohsenmtions. he found that the knowledge 

 acquired was not sufficient for practical bee- 

 keeping. The first two or three years of his 

 novitiate were passed in trials and failures 

 without ever harvesting a single pound of 

 honey. He tried, one after the other, hives 

 with supers, such as the Varembey, Ribeau- 

 court. Carey. Christ, etc.: then hives with small 

 frames, like the Berlepsch. Vaudoise, Bauverd, 

 Jarrie. etc.. always with the same unsatisfac- 

 tory results. The neighborhood of Nyon is not 

 very favorable for bee-keeping, and no ai)iary 

 had succeeded there before him. The honey- 

 flow is of short duration, and therefore more 

 than in other places it was necessarry to have 

 strong colonies, an impo.ssihility with the small 

 hives he was using. He became at last ac- 

 quainted with the works of G. de Layens. Ele- 

 vage deft Abeillefi. and of C. Dadant. Petit Cours 

 d'Apiculturc. The methods there described 

 were a revelation to him. and in 1877 for the 

 first time he obtained a good harvest of honey 

 from a Layens hive, which he had placed in an 



