1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



49 



S. Davenport, Indian Fields, as secretary, 

 and M. A. Kingman, East Greenbush, as 

 treasurer, were reelected to their respective 

 offices. Audubon Johnson, Delanson, was 

 elected first vice-president, and C. W. Hayes, 

 Brookview, second vice-president. 



S. Davenport and W. D. Wright were 

 elected delegates to the annual convention 

 of the New York State Association of Bee- 

 keepers' Societies. 



The contents of the question-box were 

 quite limited; but there was animated dis- 

 cussion of the few questions presented, in- 

 terspersed with wit and humor to the enter- 

 tainment of the audience. 



In answer to one query, the i^resident 

 stated that the best time to put bees in the 

 cellar, from his experience, was from the 1st 

 to the 10th of November. 



The question was asked, if a larger hive 

 than the eight-frame Langstroth were not 

 more desirable. This led to a lengthy con- 

 sideration of the subject of the be>t hive for 

 practical use, during which the Adams hive 

 of 16 Gallup frames parallel with the en- 

 trance was suggested and described by G. 

 H. Adams, of Schenectady. He had used 

 this h.\e for twenty-five years with the best 

 results, and has had but little swarming. 

 Th.? '.lerits of this hive were ably advocated 

 by X Lansing, nf Troy. It seemed to be 

 fu 'v conceded that a larger hive than the 

 ei,t.'t-frame Lancstrolh is more desirable. 



It was decided that the next semi-annual 

 convention should be held in Albany in the 

 spring. 



There had been repeated disappointments 

 in the efforts to secure addresses or papers 

 on specific subjects for this occasion, and 

 much anxiety was felt for the success of the 

 convention; but it proved to be one of the 

 most enjoyable conventions in which the 

 association had ever assembled. 



Indian Fields, N. Y. 



LIFE SKETCHES OF NEW CONTRIBUTORS. 



A Brief Outline of the Career of 0. B. Metcalfe, 

 " The New Mexico Chap." 



BY H. H. ROOT. 



This year we have planned to give brief 

 sketches, by way of introduction to our 

 readers, of some of our newer contributors 

 who have been engaged to prepare special 

 articles for 1911. The subject of this sketch 

 first began writing for Gleanings under 

 the nom de plume of "The New Mexico 

 Chap," but later came out under his true 

 name. He has been engaged to prepare a 

 series of illustrated articles on bee-keeping 

 in Mexico, and also to make extensive con- 

 tributions to our series of "moving pic- 

 tures." 



Mr. Metcalfe was born .Tan. 2, 1878, in 

 New Mexico, and was raised in that Terri- 

 tory and in Colorado. From the age of ten 

 to seventeen he worked with sheep, cattle, 

 and goats, later trying the poultry business, 



following modern practices. Now that he 

 is in the bee business, he frankly says he 

 would never think of changing back to any 

 other occupation. 



In his seventeenth year he entered a spe- 

 cial class in the preparatory department of 

 the New Mexico College, witti a previous 

 training of six months in a private school, 

 and some work at home where his sister 

 taught him, as best she could, between in- 

 tervals of his sheep-herding and working on 

 the farm. During his college life he did all 

 kinds of odd jobs to earn his way, and in 

 1903 graduated with a debt of some seven 

 hundred dollars which he paid off by col- 

 lecting botanical specimens the summer 

 following. Having been awarded the schol- 

 arship from the scientific department at the 

 same time he received his degree of B. S., 

 he returned to New Mexico College in the 

 fall of 1903 and took up graduate work with 

 soil, jihysics, and forestry as major subjects. 

 After receiving the degree of M. S. he be- 

 gan another plant collection, which he fin- 

 ished in the summer of 1905, having served 

 during the year 1904-'5 also as an assistant 

 in the scientific department of the college. 



In 1907 he joined forces with his present 

 partner, Mr. H. L. Parks, and 300 three- 

 frame nuclei were bought by way of a start 

 in the bee business. Five dollars each was 

 paid for these, the money being borrowed at 

 ten per cent. 



The season of 1908 was the first honey sea- 

 son for the 300 nuclei. These were built up 

 well, and quite a bit of surplus taken from 

 them. That fall, 1200 colonies were bought, 

 the money to pay for them being borrowed, 

 as before, at ten per cent. At the present 

 time the young men are doing well, for they 

 have kept the interest paid up, and have 

 paid a good part of the principal as well, be- 

 sides putting several thousand dollars' worth 

 of improvements into the bees and outfit. 

 This speaks well for the bee business, be- 

 yond question; but during the same years 

 and in the same locality others have had 

 more or less of a failure, so that the record 

 speaks even better for the ability of these 

 two who have chosen the bee business as 

 their life work. 



Mr. Metcalfe says that, while he would 

 not quit the bee business for that of a pro- 

 ducer in any other line, headvises beginners 

 not to go into bees on an extensive scale un- 

 less they expect to get back of the proposi- 

 tion with lots of courage and energy, and a 

 large supply of optimism to tide over bad 

 years; for he thinks that there are perhaps 

 few other lines of business which look so 

 gloomy one week and so much like getting 

 rich quick the next, or vice versa. 



With the above short outline our readers 

 will better appreciate the writings of this 

 newer contributor to our columns. The ar- 

 ticle which follows is the first of the series 

 on Mexican bee-keeping, the other "chap- 

 ters" that will appear later being well il- 

 lustrated, for Mr. Metcalfe has a faculty 

 of making not only good word pictures, but 

 good i^ictures with his camera as well. 



