1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



225 



just as I did, that the sections shown below 

 are upside down ; but Mr. Marks assured me 

 that this was the way they came from the su- 

 per. If you look very closely at No. 2 and 

 the No. 1 you will see there is a dip to the 

 cells. 



There is just one difficulty with this picture- 

 grading. It is very difficult to select three 

 sections, the poorest of their grade, each of 

 which shall be an average of the poorest. For 

 example the No. 1 and No. 2 below, for in- 

 stance, are rather unusual in that the first few 

 TOWS at the top instead of the boiioin are not 

 filled out. As a rule the exact opposite is the 

 case. 



It will be seen that the sections above are of 

 the slotted or beeway sort. In this matter of 

 grading it will not do to grade square sections 

 \)y tall ones ; and neither would it do to grade 

 the beeway from plain ones. The conditions 

 of size, shape, ard general appearance, should 

 l)e as nearly alike as possible, so that the only 



named — Mr. Porter — during my sojourn in 

 Denver. If there is a family in all Denver 

 who know how to entertain a bee-man, and to 

 do it right royally, it is the Porter people, 

 every one of whom is a bee-keeper, from the 

 youngest up. Mr. Porter's family consiss of 

 wife and three children, the oldest iJ^ and the 

 youngest 14 ; and before I tell you veiy much 

 about these people, I wish to introduce them 

 to you. After some persuasion (why is it that 

 bee-keepers are so provokingly modest ?) I got 

 the family out on the front lawn in the morn- 

 ing, and, at this time, there was with us Mr. J. 

 E. Lyon, of Longmont, another specialist, 

 and of whom I shall have something to say at 

 another time. I got them out on the lawn as 

 best I could, and pressed the button. The re- 

 sult, shown on page 212, is not all that I could 

 desire, but fairly good for the conditions. 

 The sunlight of early morn is not altogether 

 the most favorable ; but as the girls were to be 

 away at scho!)l I determined to have a shot. 



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GRADING ADOPTED BY NEW YORK BEE-KEEPERS. 



item to be considered is that of the honey it- 

 self. 



One scarcely realizes how much an outside 

 condition has to do in affecting his judgment. 

 For example, of two combs equally well filled, 

 an admirer of a tall box will give his prefer- 

 ence to the honey in that box, scarcely realiz- 

 ing that his choice was based on the shape of 

 the section rather than by its filling. 



W. I.. PORTER, ONE OF THE SPECIALIST BEE- 

 KEEPERS OF COLORADO. 



On getting off the train at the Union depot 

 at Denver, and not seeing any one whom I 

 knew, I made some inquiries as to how to get 

 to the State Capitol, in which the Colorado 

 bee convention was being held. As I was 

 about to take the car, some one called out in 

 familiar tones, " Hello, Ernest ! here we are ! " 

 The speaker was R. C. Aikin, the Pre.sident of 

 the Colorado State Bee-keepers' Association. 

 He had with him Mr. W. L. Porter, to whom 

 I was then introduced. We three boarded a 

 car, and were very soon ushered into the con- 

 vention. 



It was my very good fortune to be entertain- 

 ed at the home of the gentleman I have just 



With a good deal more arguing I finally suc- 

 ceeded in getting permission to use the picture 

 after it was finished. 



I said that every member of the family was 

 a beekeeper. Mr. Porter is what may be call- 

 ed a specialist bee-keeper in the strictest sense 

 — that is to say, I take it that his sole means 

 of livelihood is derived from bees. He has 

 had as many as 700 colonies, but I believe he 

 is now operating only 500, located in five 

 or six different apiaries. He produces both 

 comb and extracted — about an equal amount 

 of each. In extracting, his daughter Mary, 

 the oldest, the one shown in the center of the 

 picture, runs the extractor, vvhile her father 

 and brother bring in the combs and do the un- 

 capping. The younger daughter helps her 

 mother, and occasionally both assist in the 

 yard when the bees are especially crowding. 



Mr. Porter has had a varied experience in 

 bee-keeping. Born in West Virginia in 1850, 

 he migrated with his parents northward to 

 Michigan in 1864. His parents assumed the 

 life of pioneers, clearing off the forests. 

 Young Porter, with the rest of the boys, was 

 detained from school to help the father, and 

 the consequence was their early school advan- 

 tages were limited. 



