1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



259 



and letting those inside get out. These sim- 

 ple contrivances have saved me a great deal of 

 backache and many bee-stings. 

 Mancos, Col. 



[I have already referred to the fact that Mrs. 

 Barber is one of the most extensive bee-keep- 

 ers of Colorado. She is not only engaged in 

 business extensively, operating a large num- 

 ber of colonies, but she makes a real success of 

 the business, or at least it was so reported to 

 me when I was visiting in that State. Hear- 

 ing of her everywhere I went I wrote her on 

 my return, asking if we might have the plea- 

 sure of a series of articles detailing her meth- 

 ods, and how she managed to do so much of 

 the work herself. The one above is the first 



point for shoving through the planer. All 

 this may seem a little aside from the subject 

 of bee-keeping ; but it shows that Mrs. Barber 

 and the Root Co. have been working on the 

 same principle — the one to handle heavy loads 

 that are converted into hives, and the other to 

 handle heavy loads that come out of those 

 same hives. 



One who can use his head as well as his 

 hands is worth three of one who can use his 

 hands but has no ability or faculty for econ- 

 omizing, labor. Mrs. Barber seems to know 

 how to use both her head and hands. There 

 are a good many people who have good heads, 

 but never think of trying to discover a short 

 cut. The difference of working with hands 

 alone, and working with hands and head, 

 makes all the difference between success and 

 failure in almost any business, and this is espe- 

 cially true of bee-keeping. 



This Mrs. Barber is the one who told our 

 readers, about a year ago, how to produce 

 both comb and extracted honey at the same 

 time, off from the same hive, and how to use 

 extracting-combs for baits to draw bees up in- 

 to comb-honey supers. The article was com- 

 mented on very extensively, and copied in 

 nearly all the bee-journals, and now is given 

 a permanent position in our A B C of Bee Cul- 

 ture. — Ed.] 



A BEE-KEEPING TRUST PROPOSED. 

 Trust against Trust ; Fighting Fire with Fire. 



BY W. Z,. COGGSHAI,!,. 



MRS. A. J. BARBER. 



one of the series, and it is so intensely practi- 

 cal that I know our readers will be especially 

 pleased to learn of her methods from which, 

 no doubt, a large part of her success comes. 



Her method of taking off honey without do- 

 ing heavy lifting I know is practicable for we 

 use the same plan in handling lumber. Rail- 

 road tracks run all around among our lumber- 

 piles. A large push-car is placed in front of 

 the lumber-pile. On this car is another small- 

 er one with small wheels. On it the lumber 

 is piled. The two cars, one riding on the oth- 

 er, are then pushed up to the end of one of 

 our large buildings, and the car on top of the 

 lower one is pushed off, as it were, on gang- 

 way planks, which land it on a platform in 

 front of a big door. This opened, and the 

 whole load is pushed in front of the big planer, 

 making one handling of the boards, for the 

 pile can be moved to the most convenient 



Brother Bee-keepers: — Combinations seem to 

 be the order of the day. The object is to get 

 a better price for their output, and that is 

 what the bee-keepers ought to do. If we can 

 not do that, do the next thing best — corres- 

 pond or give our bee-journals the opportunity 

 to know what the yield is in your location. 

 I am aware that the California association has 

 done a great deal of good in that direction. 

 I will give you a little of my observation I 

 made this year. 



I knew from the bee-journals I read that 

 the honey-crop was light all over the country. 

 Therefore early in the season I wrote several 

 letters to the leading bakeries, offering my 

 honey, buckwheat extracted, at 6 cts. F. O. B. 

 What was the result? They all wrote me 

 back, offering me 434 delivered, saving they 

 were restricted to pay only so much (baker's 

 combination or trust, if you please). I tried 

 the same scheme six weeks later. Well, the 

 bakers had fonnd out that the honey market 

 was higher, and they were willing to pay 5 

 cts. a pound. Mind you, the prices were ex- 

 actly the same at each bakery, and they were 

 instructed to pay that and no more. Combina- 

 tion again. 



Brother bee-keepers, I only wish we were 

 business men enough to keep our heads to- 

 gether and form a combination, or do the 

 next best thing — keep each other posted on 

 the yield. I should like to get the experi- 

 ence of the bee-keepers. Perhaps some of 

 the old heads might map out a way by which 



