122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



opticon-operators a long time. It has not, 

 to my knowledge, been employed to show 

 live bees in this country until lately. The 

 great difficulty is to get the bees to perform 

 properly. At Chicago they showed off as if 

 they kyiew they were on exhibition. It seems 

 Mr. France, in putting the live bees into the 

 glass cage, was stung by several of the 

 bees. Some of the stings were lost entire- 

 ly, and others were only partially torn loose 

 from the bees. As noted by Mr. Hutchin- 

 son, the other bees seemed to be very much 

 disturbed by the fact that their mates had 

 lost their stings, and proceeded to "fix 

 them up " by pulling away the torn tissue 

 protruding from the end of the abdomen of 

 the bees. One bee in particular must have 

 gotten a dose of the bee-sting poison, for it 

 immediately began to rub its eyes and nose 

 with its fore legs, and seemed to be in great 

 distress. Its peculiar antics on the screen 

 were comical in the extreme. 



It is the intention of the Root Co. to show 

 not only live bees in the manner described, 

 but actual moving pictures by the latest 

 model of the Edison kinetoscope at other 

 places. A series of exhibitions has just 

 closed at the bee institutes in York State, 

 H. H. Root doing the operating, and Mr. N. 

 E. France the talking. So far as I can 

 learn, these took well. Another series of 

 exhibitions will be given in the Eastern 

 States by Rev. D. E. Lyon, before alluded 

 to. These will all be free, the Root Co. be- 

 ing satisfied to take its chances on returns 

 through the distribution of printed matter 

 which is given out at the close of each lec- 

 ture. Public schools, farmers' institutes, 

 and bee conventions, when the distance is 

 not too great, may secure the entertainment 

 by writing Mr. Lyon. Many dates have al- 

 ready been booked, and in some cases we 

 may not be able to give the exhibition, be- 

 cause there is only a Mmited number of 

 dates available. ^ 



WALTER S. POUDER, THE INVENTOR, BEE- 

 KEEPER, AND SUPPLY-DEALER. 



Mr. Pouder's name is one that has come 

 to be a household word in almost every bee- 

 keeper's family in the land. He has sold 

 bee-keepers' supphes at Indianapohs since 

 1889 ; but his experience with bees goes 

 back to 1877. In 1884 he brought out a form 

 of bee-escape on the flood-gate principle, 

 that came very near being a perfect device; 

 and even to-day, were it not for a little dif- 

 ficulty in the matter of propolis interfering 

 in its operation, it would be a close compet- 

 itor and a strong rival of the Porter. But 

 it shows that Mr. Pouder, as long ago as 

 1884, saw the need of a bee-escape. If the 

 times had been ripe for Mr. Pouder's inven- 

 tion then, as they were later on for the Por- 

 ter, it probably would have had a large sale. 



Again, we find him considerably ahead of 

 the times when he brought out his open- 

 corner section, which is really a close cousin 

 to what is called the plain section. This he 

 brought out in 1888. Strange we did not ap- 



preciate and understand its value away back 

 in those early days. I am of the opinion he 

 could have had it patented, and it would 

 have had a large sale if it had been properly 

 pushed. 



Later on, Mr. Pouder developed one of the 

 most successful methods of bottling honey 

 that was ever devised. I refer to the plan 

 which we have adopted, of pouring cold 

 honey into the bottles from the filling-tank, 

 then heating the same in a vat of hot water, 

 the water reaching up to within one inch of 

 the top of the jar. When the proper tem- 

 perature is reached, the bottles are taken 

 out and sealed. A feature of his plan that 

 is valuable is that it enables one to reliquefy 

 the honey in these same bottles. Indeed, 

 we even go further and heat the bottles in 

 a bath of hot air, so to speak, without using 

 any water at all. The honey can be re- 

 liquefied without even disturbing the labels 

 or corks. I believe Mr. Pouder is using 

 practically the same method. 



In 1882 he came to work for the Root Co. , 

 taking a clerical position in our office. Later 

 on he struck out for himself, and the next 

 thing we knew he was selling bee-keepers' 

 supplies in Indianapolis. He is now located 

 in a new store, large and well lighted, where 

 he is prepared to serve his patrons with 

 honey in all its various forms, and bee-sup- 

 plies. But the supply business is liable to 

 be quite dull in mid-winter, and then there 

 is a rush in warm weather. To take up his 

 time in the off part of the year, Mr. Pouder 

 puts up a superfine grade of peanut butter. 

 The members of the Root Co. have all sam- 

 pled the goods, and consider them to be the 

 very finest. If any of our subscribers wish 

 to get a really fine gilt-edged article they 

 should write to our friend Mr. Pouder. 



As a dealer in supplies, I doubt if there is 

 another man in all the country who has giv- 

 en more prompt service or more general sat- 

 isfaction to his customers. I will go further, 

 and say that, in all the years that Mr. Pouder 

 has been identified with the trade, he has 

 never, so far as 1 know, had a dissatisfied 

 customer, and that is saying a good deal 

 when we consider that some people are very 

 hard to please. 



The little half-tone plate is a very good 

 likeness; and when I learned that our friend 

 was living in "single blessedness" I was 

 much surprised. Good-looking, honest, and 

 an excellent business man, he ought to fol- 

 low the example of our friend Mr. Wilson, 

 whose picture we showed on page 72 of our 

 preceding issue. Mr. Pouder is hereby au- 

 thorized to secure the pictures, and we will 

 pay the bill. Perhaps I had better be care- M 

 ful. A certain young lady of very prepos- *| 

 sessing appearance whose picture I showed 

 in Gleanings— well, I will not say when- 

 received several direct proposals of mar- 

 riage. Perhaps— perhaps— well, perhaps I 

 had better not tell the rest. The young la- 

 dy's hand had already been taken, and it is 

 possible that friend Pouder's may be also, 

 for I conveyed to him, when I last visited 

 him, A. I. R.'s advice. 



