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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



Fellowship in Zoology in Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N Y. , where he also taught vertebrate 

 zoology, then for two years devoted his 

 time to the Directorship of Nature Study in 

 the Ithaca public schools. In 1900 he accept- 

 ed the Chair of Zoology in the Pennsylvania 

 State College, which he is now about to re- 

 sign in order to devote all his time to his 

 State work at Harrisburg, in which he has 

 been engaged over three years. 



In his apiary, which was on the grounds 

 of the State Experiment Station at State 

 College, but has very recently been moved to 

 his new home at Harrisburg, he has all the 

 various races of bees that are to-day kept 

 on the American continent. By the use of 

 queen and drone traps he keeps the different 

 races absolutely pure, or effects such crosses 

 as he desires. He is thus testing them, as 

 well as certain select mated crosses, side by 

 side, in the same region, and the results will 

 be of interest and value to all bee-keepers. 



Mr. L. R. White, B. S., who is one of 

 Prof. Surface's scientific assistants at Har- 

 risburg, was recently elected Secretary and 

 Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Bee-keepers' 

 Association, and they are preparing a com- 

 plete card catalog list of all the bee-keepers 

 of that State, as referred to elsewhere. 



Professor Surface has also charge of the 

 Agricultural Zoological Museum in the new 

 capitol building at Harrisburg, and in this 

 are being placed exhibits of various honeys, 

 honey-producing plants, specimens of vari- 

 ous races of bees, apiarian supplies of all 

 kinds, including different kinds of hives and 

 tools, and all possible journals and books on 

 bee-keeping. He has recently prepared an 

 illustrated lecture on bee-keeping, and gives 

 this at farmers' and teachers' institutes and 

 elsewhere. He and Secretary White are al- 

 so giving public demonstrations of methods 

 of transferring bees from old boxes to mod- 

 ern hives, and also demonstration in meth- 

 ods of handling and manipulating bees. He 

 is also doing his full duty as a member of 

 the Press Committee of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association, and we may soon ex- 

 pect to see results of great benefit to the 

 28,000 bee-keepers in the Keystone State. 



THE BIG FIELD DAY OF THE MEETING OF 

 BEE-KEEPERS AT OUR JENKINTOWN API- 

 ARY NEAR PHILADELPHIA ON 



JUNE 26th. 



The field-day demonstration work given 

 at our Jenkintown apiary last September 

 gave such general satisfaction to so many 

 of our eastern readers that we decided to 

 have another one, this time holding it near 

 the close of the white-clover honey harvest, 

 when actual demonstrations can be niade 

 showing the various manipulations practiced 

 by expert bee-keepers just as they are con- 

 ducted by themselves in their own yards in 

 their everyday work. 



Last year there was an attendance of be- 

 tween 300 and 400 bee-keepers — as large a 

 number as was ever gathered together in 

 this country at any one place, of persons in- 



terested in btes, if I mistake not. Our peo- 

 ple in the East, from the advices already 

 received, feel that possibly there will be 

 1000 bee-keepers present this year. We 

 have issued invitations to Doolittle, Alex- 

 ander, Pratt, Phillips, Coggshall, Lyon, 

 Bigelow, Morrison, and other prominent bee- 

 keepers, to attend this meeting and show 

 some of the "tricks of the trade." If Mr. 

 Alexander is sufficiently recovered from his 

 illness he will give personal demonstrations 

 of how he does his work. Mr. Doolittle, if 

 he can get away, will do likewise, and so 

 will all the rest whose names have been 

 mentioned. An opportunity will be given, in 

 an informal way, to ask questions at each 

 step of the work. While in one sense of 

 the word this will be like a convention, yet 

 it will be entirely different in that the actual 

 things described in the bee- journals and at 

 conventions will be shown step by step with 

 bees in a bee-yard. For example, E. L. 

 Pratt, or Swarthmore, will show some of his 

 difficult stunts that others have failed in 

 performing, such as cell-forming, grafting, 

 forming nuclei with a teacupful of bees, 

 etc., etc. Others will show the different 

 methods of shook swarming, how to hold 

 the frames, how to avoid stings, how to 

 open the hive, how to clip queens, how to 

 put them up for export and domestic mail, 

 besides a lot of other manipulations too nu- 

 merous to mention. A. I. Root, as well as 

 one or two other members of the Root 

 Company, will be present to help in the 

 work. Mr. W. K. Morrison, lately from the 

 tropics, where he secured two very fine col- 

 onies of stingless bees which produce large 

 quantities of fine honey, will be on hand to 

 show these bees, explain their peculiarities, 

 possibility of domesticating them in this 

 country, how to handle them, etc. 



In a word, we hope to make it one grand 

 field day where bee-keepers can get togeth- 

 er and visit, ask questions and see how oth- JJ 

 ers handle bees. They will, no doubt, form ^ 

 in little groups around some .Gamaliel of 

 bee fame, at whom they can fire questions 

 and get direct replies by word of mouth. 

 This meeting will differ from a regular bee 

 convention, as there will be little formal- 

 ity, but an unconventional conclave of kin- 

 dred hearts and souls to meet and show each 

 other little tricks we have learned. 

 Those who come will be our guests. 

 While, unfortunately, the date set will be 

 in the busy season, yet in order to demon- 

 strate properly all the different processes it 

 must be held at a time when there will be no 

 robbing, when the hives may be opened up 

 for the accommodation of a dozen bee-keep- 

 ers at a time if need be. 



There will be lunch at noon- and supper in 

 the evening will be furnished, free of cost 

 to all who come and are provided with 

 badges which will be furnished. See an- 

 nouncement on another page with particu- « 

 lars. Reduced railroad rates wil be announc- a 

 ed later. Those who desire to stay over ™ 

 night can be accommodated at the rate of 

 $1.50 to $2.00 at nearby hotels. 



