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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN HETHERINGTON. 



Owing to a lack of space we were not 

 able to make mention before of one of the 

 notable double numbers of the American 

 Bee Journal for Feb. 23, which was also a 

 memorial of the late Capt. J. E. Hethering- 

 ton. The facts gathered in regard to this 

 eminent bee-keeper are interesting and val- 

 uable. The main article is written by the 

 captain's life-long friend P. H. Elwood, of 

 Starkville, N. Y., also an extensive bee- 

 keeper of many years' experience. For 

 many years the captain ran almost continu- 

 ously some 3000 colonies. He made his own 

 supplies, and well he might, for he was a 

 fine mechanic. Not only that, but he was 

 the inventor of many of the useful appli- 

 ances now generally recognized as valuable 

 and in some cases indispensable throughout 

 the bee-keeping world. I have already 

 stated in these columns that he was the in- 

 ventor of the no-drip shipping-case; of the 

 tall section; the super-spring which has late- 

 ly come into use, and now it appears that he 

 was also first to make use of wires for stay- 

 ing up foundation, and subsequently secured 

 a patent on the method. He was quick to 

 see the value of inventions made by others; 

 and while he was not a contributor to any of 

 the bee-journals he was familiar with all 

 that was written, and there was not an idea 

 or method of value that he had not tested 

 most thoroughly. So extensive was his 

 business that it was simply impossible for 

 him to write for bee papers, and, what was 

 more, if he had the time to write such arti- 

 cles he could not afford to assume the re- 

 sponsibility of the voluminous correspond- 

 ence that would naturally follow later on. 



A few things in regard to the captain's 

 life that have never been made public be- 

 fore are given in the American Bee Journal. 

 Here are a few of them : 



He introduced Carniolan blood simply to 

 fight off the ravages of black brood. The 

 prolificness of the queens, he said, kept up 

 the strength of the colonies so that they 

 were more able to ward off the disease. 



For the last twelve yeays it is further re- 

 corded that he wintered his bees as well as 

 farmers winter any kind of live stock. A 

 year ago he took out one lot of bees num- 

 bering over 800 colonies, without finding a 

 single dead one. If any one else has the sci- 

 ence of wintering down as fine as that, the 

 bee-keeping world has never heard of it. I 

 consider the performance but little short of 

 the marvelous, and yet that is a good deal 

 the way this "prince of bee-keepers" did 

 things. Perhaps a partial secret of his suc- 

 cess may be explained by the fact that the 

 captain believed in ventilation and lots of it. 

 A picture is shown of one of his latest win- 

 ter repositories, having two large ventilat- 

 ors at the top, communicating with openings 

 through the floors over the bees. These 

 ventilators were open except in the coldest 

 weather. Mr. Elwood says of him that "he 

 believed in abundant ventilation for bees." 

 Certainly if ventilation were detrimental 

 there would have been at least a few dead 



colonies out of the 800 last spring. This feat 

 is so very remarkable that I hope Mr. El- 

 wood, if he knows the exact method the 

 captain employed from start to finish, kind 

 of cellar, size, ventilation, etc., will commu- 

 nicate the results to the public. 



Again it is said of Hetherington that "he 

 found bee-keeping dependent on luck for a 

 passing existence: he left it a specialty 

 founded on the rock of science, the peer of 

 any branch of agriculture. ' ' 



There have been various opinions as to 

 the virulence of foul brood as compared with 

 black brood. It is interesting to note that 

 Capt. Hetherington said that he thought 

 the latter was "twenty times as bad as 

 foul brood." He has often been styled 

 "the prince of bee-keepers, " a title that 

 was particularly appropriate, and certainly 

 fairly won. Well, now, if the prince of 

 bee-keepers thought that black brood was 

 twenty times as bad as foul brood, no won- 

 der the bee-keepers of York State have had 

 a problem. The fact that they have accom- 

 plished such marvelous results in eradicating 

 It is greatly to their credit. 



Captain Hetherington was a man of the 

 finest executive ability. Without fuss or 

 flurry he would so manage his help that an 

 enormous amount of work would be done in 

 a given time. 



He was a charming conversationalist, and 

 one of the most genial men I ever met. 

 I doubt if there ever was a man in all our 

 ranks who could bubble over with such ef- 

 fervescing enthusiasm as he. 



I will not attempt to go over his record 

 as a soldier, brilliant though it was, because 

 that has already been given in our columns. 

 One of his comrades through the American 

 Bee Journal, speaks of him in the most 

 glowing terms. 



MORE PERSECUTION FOR BEE-KEEPERS- 

 MANUFACTURED COMB HONEY. 



This time it is that otherwise excellent 

 farm paper the Philadelphia Farm Journal. 

 ' ' Aunt Harriet ' ' says, in her talk about 

 employment for women, as follows: 



Bee-keeping is pleasant and profitable work, and real 

 honty is hard to get, in these days. Not only is the 

 "honey" manufactured, but the wax cells, as well, are 

 imitated; so that, even though you buy your honey in 

 the "comb," you are as likely to get glucose as not. 

 Therefore, fragrant honey, the real pxoduct of the bees, 

 will always find a good market, and my women readers 

 might be able to sell it through the Woman's Exchanges. 



The above is simply astounding, especial- 

 ly when we recollect that this journal has a 

 very ably conducted department for apicul- 

 ture. Friend Selser, who lives in the same 

 city, has explained to the Farm Journal 

 people the damage they have done, and no 

 doubt in their next issue they will do what 

 they can to undo it. It is bad enough to be 

 misrepresented by our enemies, but ever so 

 much sadder when such blows come from 

 our friends. May God help us in this never 

 ceasing fight, for such it seems, against 

 misrepresentations in regard to our indus- 

 try. -A. I. R. 



