736 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



Editorial 



t-*^ BY ^^ 



There was an interesting and spirited dis- 

 cussion on the subject of square tin cans ver- 

 sus barrels, for shipping extracted honey, at 

 the Chicago convention. I will tell you some- 

 thing about it in our next. 



Many of our readers will be interested to 

 learn that his Highness, the Bey of Tunis, has 

 conferred on Mr. T. B. Blow, of England, the 

 decoration of the order of Nichein Iftakar, 

 with the rank of officer, in recognition of his 

 services as adviser on apiculture to the Tunis- 

 ian government. 



At the Chicago convention a committee on 

 the preparation of a score card, consisting of 

 N. E. France, Herman F. Moore, and W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, was appointed. Heretofore there 

 have been no settled rules as to how many 

 points should be allowed for general display, 

 how many for quality of the honey, how many 

 for color, how many for evenness of cappings, 

 and how many for the weight of sections, etc. 

 I have no doubt that the new score-card will 

 be of great assistance to the judges. 



EUGENE SECOR FOR CONGRESS. 

 We have just received the Forest City Press, 

 in which we learn that Eugene Secor, of For- 

 est City, la., General Manager of the National 

 Bee-keepers' Association, has been finally pre- 

 vailed on, through the pressure of friends and 

 admirers, to stand as a candidate for Congress 

 for his district. The above-named paper, in 

 speaking of Mr. Secor for the position, says, 

 " He is a man whom to know is to respect and 

 admire — a man of genuine morality and of 

 ripe experience. . . In public and private 

 life Mr. Secor is a model citizen, possessing 

 that manly poise of individuality that gains 

 for him a hearing. ' ' Another paper, the Buffa- 

 lo Center Tiibioie, s&ys : " As to his ability, 

 no one even questions that." The Forest City 

 Suuiinit speaks of him as " a man of sterling 

 character, broad culture, scholarly attain- 

 ments, and a large iniiuential acquaintance 

 throughout the district. . . He is a man of 

 ardent literary tastes, and a writer of marked 

 ability." We congratulate Mr. Secor, and 

 sincerely hope that the bee-keepers of the 

 country may have so earnest an advocate as he 

 would be in the halls of Congress. 



THE LANGSTROTH MONUMENT. 



A SHORT time ago I announced that the 

 Langstroth monument had finally been bought, 

 paid for, and erected over the last resting- 

 place of the remains of the father of Ameri- 

 can bee-keeping. In pursuance of a promise 

 made to our readers, that we would show a 

 picture of it as soon as it was erected, I now 

 take pleasure in presenting it in half-tone on 

 page 721 of this issue. 



If I am correct, this monument was pur- 



chased wholly by the funds of grateful bee- 

 keepers in this and other lands. It cost $300, 

 is of granite, and, while it is simple and plain 

 in general appearance, like the life of the 

 remarkable man for whom it stands, it is a fit- 

 ting memorial of the one who first placed bee- 

 keeping on a new substantial and commercial 

 footing. 



A good many, previous to the time of Lang- 

 stroth, saw the desirability of mova'>le combs; 

 and two or three came very near solving the 

 problem, among whom may be named Huber, 

 with his leaf hive ; Debeauvoys, and Mr. 

 Munn. But none of these conceived the idea 

 of having the one thing lacking — a bee space 

 all around the brood frame, between it and 

 the hive itself. Without this bee space, Lang- 

 stroth would have taken no advanced step 

 over those who preceded him. By the same 

 invention — the bee space — he also made it pos- 

 sible to separate the several stories of a hive. 



If no granite shaft stood for his memory 

 there would still be the movable frame, which 

 would be an everlasting monument in itself ; 

 and that he was the first one to make movable 

 frames practicable has been conceded by 

 bee-keepers all over the world. Prominent 

 among those who have made this acknowledg- 

 ment are such men as T. W. Cowan, editor of 

 the British Bee Journal ; Edward Bertrand, 

 editor of the Revue Internationale, of Swit- 

 zerland ; C. J. H. Gravenhorst, late editor of 

 Illustrierte Bienenzeitujig — all representa- 

 tive editors and bee-journals of England, 

 France, and Germany. That such an acknowl- 

 edgment so freely conceded abroad should be 

 bestowed on an American, is an honor of 

 which we may all feel proud. 



The inscription, at my suggestion, was pre- 

 pared by General Manager Secor. As it can 

 not be read very easily in the half-tone, I re- 

 produce it here in plain type. 



INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF 



REV. L. L. LANGSTROTH, 



"FATHER OF AMERICAN BEE-KEEPING," 



by his affectionate beneficiaries in the Art ; who, in 

 remembrance of the services rendered by his persist- 

 ent and painstaking observation and experiments 

 vpith the Honey-bee. his improvements in the Hive, 

 and the charming literary ability shown in the first 

 scientific and popular book on the subject of Bee- 

 keeping in the United States, gratefully erect this 

 monument. 



Rest thou in peace. Thy work is done. 



Thou hast wrought well. Thy fame is sure. 

 The crown of love, which thou hast won 



For useful deeds, shall long endure. 



BEES AND PEACHES. 



With a large crop of peaches in many local- 

 ities, and not much for the bees to get, as 

 sometimes happens in some places, it is not a 

 little strange that ill feeling has come up be- 

 tween the promoters of the two industries, 

 although many of them seem to be unaware 

 that this question has been pretty well dis- 

 cussed and settled. Bees seldom if ever pay 

 any attention to sound peaches. When they 

 are overripe, and beginning to rot, or when 

 they are punctured by birds, wasps, or hor- 

 nets, the bees are often on hand to suck out 

 the sweet juices. They va&y be annoyance to 

 the pickers sometimes, but I think we can 



