178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. L 



W. L. COGGSHALL, of West Groton, N. Y., 

 whose biography appeared in our Feb. 1 issue, 

 has recently bought more bees, so that now he 

 has 16 different apiaries, embracing something 

 like 1400 colonies ; and yet he admits that his 

 health is not quite as good as it used to be. 

 How perverse some business men are ! When 

 they are overworked, then they go forthwith 

 and add to their burdens by increasing the 

 amount of their regular labors. Siy, Lamar, 

 you will have to be content hereafter to use 

 your brain for other people, and let them fur- 

 nish the muscle. 



THE NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' UNION MERG- 

 ED INTO THE NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' 

 ASSOCIATIO.v; AN EXPLANATION. 



The accompanying letter from Thomas G. 

 Newman, General Manager of the old National 

 Bee-keepers' Union, which has now been merg- 

 ed into the National Bee-ketpers' Assoc. ation, 

 has this to say : 



The National Bee-keepers" Union, having almost 

 unanimously adopted the new constitution, as well as 

 the U. S. Bee-keepers' Association, that constitution 

 takes effect at once. 



Article 4, Section 3, says that the President, Vice- 

 president, and Secretary must be elected at the annual 

 meeting. As that does not occur until next fall, a va- 

 cancy exi.sts in these offices. Article 7 says that "any 

 vacancy in the Executive Committee, which is com- 

 posed of these tiiree officers, may be filled by the 

 Board of Directors." It will be in order now for the 

 Board of Directors, by mail or otherwise, to elect the 

 President, Vice-president, and Secretary, to fill the va- 

 cancies, which were elected bj- the U. S. .Association at 

 Philadelphia, of which, I believe, you were President, 

 with, of course. G. M. Doolittle, Vice-president; Dr. 

 Mason, Secretary, or any person else that they may 

 agree upon. 



You will readilv see that the constitution, not going 

 into effect until after its adoption, could not recognize 

 the officers elected by either organization, prior to amal- 

 gamation. It was my intention to have inserted on the 

 ballot the same officers that were elected at Philadel- 

 phia ; but, not being able to see, I had my clerk look 

 at the Bee Journal, where a list of the officers of the 

 U. S. Bee-keepers' Association was given each week, 

 and copy them into the ballot, not remembering that 

 the new ones did not take office until the first of Jan- 

 uary, so we got the officers of the previous year on the 

 ballot by an oversight on account of tny lack of vision. 



This, however, makes not the slightest difference, 

 and was intended only as a compliment, for we were 

 voting on the officers called for by the old constitution 

 of the National Union, which was President and five 

 vice-presidents (not one only), etc. 



My physical health is improving slightly, but ray 

 vision does not appear to have itnproved at all, I am 

 sorry to say. I had hoped that the improvement in 

 health woilld restore the sight ; but I must wait, using 

 all the remedies within my power, and hope for the 

 best. Thomas G. Newman. 



San Francisco, Cal., Feb. 14. 



A NEW BEE-GLOVE. 



The illustration herewith shows a bee-glove 

 devised by C. I. Graham, of Los Banos, Cal. 



There are quite a number of practical apia- 

 rists, among whom may be named the Cogg- 

 shall brothers, who wear heavy gloves with 

 the ends of the fingers cut off. It is well 

 known that bees at a sudden onslaught are 

 more liable to attack the back of the hand or 

 wrist than any other portion of that member. 



Cutting off the finger-tips gives one the advan- 

 tage of protection from stings as well as the 

 convenience of the natural touch of the fin- 

 gers. 



Mr. Graham has gone one step further, and 

 devised a glove something on the principle of 

 the Congress gaiter. The wrist portion of th^ 

 article is made of some stout strong cloth and 

 an elastic material the same as shown in shoes. 

 Instead of shortened glove-fingers every oth- 

 er finger passes through small iron rings ; and 

 these are said to be suiScient to keep the pro- 

 tector tightly over the back of the hand. The 

 elastic rubber causes the wrist portion to fit 

 tightly, preventing any bees from getting up 

 the sleeve, and the rings give the freest possi- 

 ble use for the fingers and palms of the hands. 



I have not tried these protectors any more 

 than to put them on. I don't know, but I 

 think I would not on a hot day like to have a 

 pair of tight corsets, so to speak, around my 

 wrists. I have used with a great deal of satis- 

 faction a pair of loose straw cuffs to prevent 

 soiling of my sleeves, and to keep bees from 

 crawling up my arms. 



THE SPRAYING LAW IN NEW YORK IN DAN- 

 GER. 



Mr. W. F. Marks, of Chapinville, N. Y., 

 president of the New York State Association 

 of Bee keepers' Societies, writes that a bill has 

 been introduced in the legislature, amending 

 the spraying law so that experiments may be 

 made at experiment stations, and by individu- 

 als. While this is innocent enough on its face, 

 yet the measure was framed by the opposers 

 of the spraying law, who, having been unsuc- 

 cessful in having this same law repealed at 

 the last session of the legislature, are now 

 taking this apparently innocent but neverthe- 

 less effective method of taking the very teeth 

 out of the law. Mr. Marks says that the ex- 

 periment stations or the experimenters have 

 none of them asked for such an amendment ; 

 and he desires all the bee-keepers of New York 

 to write to their senators and representatives 



