r.i,i:AxiNGS IN BKiv citlturk. 



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busiiit'ss fanners — at least I ju(l<;e IIkmii to In- 

 such tVuTU the jjeiieral thrift and ajjpearaiice 

 of every thiiitj ujion their jireinises. There 

 were no broken - down ijates, tnnil)le - down 

 fences, no poor excuses of l)arns, or houses 

 sadlv in need of paint. 



At Mr. Cog^shall's left is Mrs. IMason, wife 

 of Dr. A. B. Mason, the enterprisinj^ secretary 

 of the I'. S. II. K. I'. The doctor is one of 

 those whole-souled, happy, good-natured men 

 wlu)in it is a pleasure to know ; and while his 

 face beams all over with smiles, he is quite 

 lialile to say somcthinsj: that will hit yon, if 

 you do not look out. If you do not like it — 

 well, he is too fat and happy, he says, to worry 

 very much about it. Mrs. Mason is one of 

 those quiet, pleasant women, whom it is a plea- 

 sure to meet. She very often goes with her 

 husband to bee-conventions, and the doctor 

 says he takes her along to keep /u'lfi straight. 

 In front of Mrs. Ma.son, with his arm resting 

 upon the railing, and sitting down, is the 

 kindly face of Dr. Miller. He is another 

 .strong convention man. Without him, a con- 

 vention to me always has something lacking. 

 The doctor has a happy faculty of throwing 

 in jokes and short pithy speeches that help 

 very much to enliven a convention. 



jiist back of Dr. Miller, and next to Mrs. 

 ]Mason, is Geo. \V. York, president of the U. 

 S. B. K. U., and editor of tlie .li/ierica/i Bcc 

 Journal. He was again honored with the 

 office, and will probably be our presiding 

 officer at the next meeting at Cincinnati or 

 Omaha, or wherever it may be held. Mr. 

 York is a little chap ; but what he lacks in 

 stature is made up in energj' and hard work. 

 If he loves his friends he loves them with all 

 his heart. He never believes in doing any 

 thing half way. 



At Mr. York's left, and in the background, 

 a little to the right of the middle pillar, is Mr. 

 E. A. Wander, gf Hartford, Ct. I made his 

 acquaintance at the Buffalo convention, and 

 had the pleasure of his company at Niagara 

 I'alls. He is roval good companv. 



In front of ^Ir. Wander is Mr. O. O. Pop- 

 pleton, a bee-keeper of national reputation, of 

 wide experience in the North and the South 

 — one who, while he does not write very much 

 for the journals, yet, when he does write, has 

 something to sav-. He is a very careful, 

 thoughtful bee-keeper. So careful and con- 

 servative is he that he has been engaged to 

 make some experiments for us for a year or so 

 back, in testing varioi;s articles that we were 

 about to put on the market, but which we 

 could not do in our northern climate. 



Next to Mr. Wander, and back of Mr. Pop- 

 pleton, almost too much in the shade to be 

 seen distincth-, appears Mr. P. H. Elwood, of 

 Starkville, N. Y. He is a large man of fine 

 appearance; nor does this exterior belie his 

 real heart. With the possible exception of 

 Mr. W. L. Coggshall, just in front of him, 

 and a little to his left, he owns and operates 

 the largest number of colonies of any bee- 

 keeper represented in this view. In general 

 characteristics he and Mr. Poppleton are a 

 good deal alike — careful, conservative. He is 

 too busy to write much for the journals, and 



too modest to .say iiuich in conventions. But 

 when he does express him.self he gives us 

 something to think about. 



Ju.st in front of him, with his elbow resting 

 on the railing, is Mr. W. L. Cogg.shall. In 

 our previous issue I referred to the rapid wav 

 in which he and his helpers handle bees; and 

 as I expect to write up more in detail in future 

 in regard to Mr. C.'s methods, I will not sav 

 more about him at this time. 



The next face that I recognize on the porch 

 is that of Mr. Miles Morton, of Groton, N. Y., 

 who is the "brother-in-law^" of Mr. Niver. 

 Mr. Morton has been for years the local 

 supply-dealer in Tompkins Co. During my 

 recent visit to New York State I called at his 

 place. Like the Cogg.shalls he has a beautiful 

 home, and in the rear a nicel}- equipped shop 

 for making hives, sections, etc. "Mr. Morton 

 must be another Dr. Tinker, for it is easy to 

 see he is a born mechanic. Every thing turn- 

 ed out from his shop is beautifully smooth 

 and accurate. He is a man of original ideas, 

 and in his quiet way he has been using and 

 advocating certain devices which, in my 

 humble judgment, wnll in the near future 

 come to the front. But more of this at an- 

 other time. 



Getting off from the porch, and just in 

 front of the pillar on the right, with his hands 

 behind him and his hat on, is the Hon. E. 

 Whitcomb, vice-president of the U. S. B. K. 

 U. He had come all the way from Friend, 

 Neb. For years he has been one of the active 

 bee-keepers of his vState ; and the handle to 

 his name shows that he has dabbled more or 

 less in politics. I took a walk with him 

 through the streets of Lincoln, Neb., and 

 found that he is known familiarly pretty well 

 over the city. He introduced several of us to 

 Senator Thurston, of the U. S. Senate; and I 

 could not help noting on all occasions that 

 one and all seemed to feel that Mr. Whitcomb 

 was a man of influence. 



Just in front of Mr. Whitcomb, and a little 

 to the right, with his back against the railing, 

 and his head between two flags, stands R. F. 

 Holtermann, editor of the Canadian Jiccjonr- 

 na/, and api cultural experimenter of the On- 

 tario Agricultural College. Mr. Holtermann, 

 althougli a young man, has been honored with 

 the office of president of the North American 

 Bee-keepers' Association, and has also been 

 its .secretary. For one and possibly two years 

 he has been president of the O. B. K. A., 

 and for years has been recognized as one of 

 the leading bee-keepers of Canada. He is 

 active in conventions, and writes to a consid- 

 erable extent for the agricultural press. . 



Just in front of Mr. Holtermann, and a little 

 to his right, stands Mr. Frank Benton. This 

 gentleman has probably traveled more miles 

 after big and little bees, passed through more 

 real hardships, and has probably seen more 

 of the apicultural world in this and other 

 lands, than any other living man. It was he 

 who accompanied D. A. Jones, and acted as 

 interpreter for that gentleman in a trip 

 through Europe and to the Holy Land after 

 eastern bees, the result of which trip was the 

 introduction of Syrian and Cyprian bees into 



