148 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mab. 1 



the quality of our product could be assured 

 to the public, our honey would not only sell 

 for more to the consumer, but it would ac- 

 tually be worth more. 



This problem is one involving a great 

 many obstacles, perhaps the greatest of 

 which is the question of getting the bee- 

 keepers organized; but the profits are sure 

 if we can once get a proper organization. 

 How do I know this? Simply because the 

 history of every successful institution has 

 proven it. We are a fraternity of specialists 

 who are thinly scattered, and who, I believe, 

 are representative of more than the ordinary 

 amount of intelligence. An organization of 

 farmers would be impossible and impracti- 

 cal, but not so with bee-keepers. . We have 

 already proven the practicability of organi- 

 zation for selling, in several of our States. 

 If we will now give the matter national 

 prominence 1 am confident that bee-keep- 

 ing can be put on a much more profitable 

 basis in a short time. We know that the 

 world is in ignorance as to our profession, 

 and it is time that we blow our own horn 

 and let every one know what kind of people 

 we are, for it is certain that the glucose trust 

 is not going to tell the world any thing to 

 our benefit in their advertisements. 



In writing the above I realize my limited 

 knowledge of advertising. I do not claim 

 to be an advertising man, but a bee-keeper; 

 and I am trying to put forth this idea from 

 a bee-keeper's standpoint. One thing we 

 can all do; and that is, to look and see all 

 around us the wonderful institutions which 

 have been built up through persistent ad- 

 vertising alone. The advertising of a su- 

 perior article will build up an enormous 

 business. The question is, what are we go- 

 ing to do about it? and are we willing and 

 ready to take advertising on its merits, judg- 

 ing from what it has done for other lines of 

 business? If we commence advertising we 

 must continue it on an extensive scale, for 

 there is no use in shooting elephants with a 

 pop-gun. Such an association is going to 

 require some money and backing; but the 

 final results will much more than justify 

 the outlay, and will increase the demand for 

 the association article and raise the price 

 far in excess of the initial cost of such an 

 advertising campaign. 



As I am one of the committee to look in- 

 to this matter I feel the need of suggestions 

 from practical bee-keepers everywhere. 

 Write your ideas to me personally or to 

 your association, with which I shall eventu- 

 ally confer. Will you do at least this much 

 for the present promotion of a national ad- 

 vertising campaign? Will you give your 

 hearty support to the movement when the 

 time comes that bee-keepers will see and 

 embrace this opportunity to enlighten the 

 world as to our product, as to its purity, 

 heathfulness, the facility with which they 

 can be served — to sell our honey everywhere 

 to everybody, and to place our industry 

 deservedly high in the estimation of the 

 American people? 



Hebron, Ind. 



INSTINCT ALWAYS THE SAME. 



BY J. E. HAND. 



Considerable space in bee-journals is be- 

 ing devoted to the subject of eliminating 

 the swarming instinct of bees by careful se- 

 lection and judicious breeding. While ex- 

 amples are not wanting to prove the wonder- 

 ful possibilities along the line of selection 

 and breeding, there is a limit to man's pow- 

 ei in this direction. He may, by careful se- 

 lection and judicious breeding, establish a 

 strain of bees that will unerringly transmit 

 to their posterity characteristics of a highly 

 desirable nature, such as gentleness, hardi- 

 ness, industry, etc., but he can not take one 

 iota from the nature of one of God's crea- 

 tures. Every female that is born into the 

 world in a normal state is endowed from on 

 high with the mother instinct; that is a part 

 of her nature, and no amount of selection 

 and breeding can rob her of it. We hear a 

 great deal about Leghorn fowls having been 

 bred for egg production for centuries, until 

 finally a non-sitting strain has been propa- 

 gated. 



The writer has been interested in poultry 

 all his life, and especially in Leghorns for 

 commercial egg production. He has not al- 

 lowed hens to incubate their eggs, and from 

 their roaming disposition and their wonder- 

 ful power for egg-production they are not as 

 prolific breeders as some other kinds; yet 

 the mother instinct is as highly developed 

 in Ijeghorns as in any other breed of fowls. 

 Let no man delude himself with the idea 

 that he can propagate a non-sitting strain 

 of fowls or a non-swarming strain of bees. 



In this connection I wish to quote the 

 words of Moses Quinby, a man of wonderful 

 intellectual powers, and an authority on api- 

 cultural subjects: "Let us fully understand 

 that the nature of the bee, when viewed un- 

 der any condition, climate, or circumstance, 

 is the same. Instincts first implanted by 

 the hand of the Creator have passed through 

 millions of generations unimpaired, to the 

 present day, and will continue unchanged 

 through all future time till the last bee passes 

 from the earth. We may, we have, to grat- 

 ify acquisitiveness, forced them to labor un- 

 der every disadvantage; yes, we have com- 

 pelled them to sacrifice their industry, pros- 

 perity, and even their lives have been yield- 

 ed, but never their instincts. We may de- 

 stroy life, but can not improve or take from 

 their nature. The laws that govern them 

 are fixed and immutable as the universe." 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



Information Wanted in Regard to Conditions in 

 Virginia. 



I have read considerable about different bee lo- 

 calities, but I have never read any thing about the 

 possibilities of bee culture in Virginia. I should 

 like to hear from some of the bee-keepers from that 

 State. What part of the State is considered the 

 best locality lor bees? Will sweet clover grow 

 there? and what is used mostly for honey produc- 

 tion? Wm. Fitterling. 



Palisade, Colo., Feb. 6. 



