206 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October, 



He said that lie, together with Mr. Ben- 

 ton, settled the whole problem of mail- 

 ing queens. Yet, as a matter of fact, 

 not one single suggestion in the way of 

 form of cage, the food, or any other 

 point suggested by Mr. Hewitt was 

 either practical or available in the 

 final settlement of that problem, and" I 

 hold in my possession a letter written 

 by him in which he criticizes me for 

 "not being willing to adopt any single 

 suggestion which he made on the sub- 

 ject." I cite this merely for compari- 

 son to show with what a large grain of 

 salt, and. in fact, with how many 

 gi-ains of salt we must take such wild 

 statements as appear over the signa- 

 ture of Mr. John Hewitt. 



Washington, D. C, September, 7, 

 1904. 



SCIENTISTS FROM ABROAD. 



Russian and German Commissioners Investigate 



IVIethods of Bee Culture in the United 



States. 



By M. F. Reeve, 



THE Russian Government, in the 

 midst of "war's rude alarm," 

 still finds time to pursue scien- 

 tific researches. All summer, Profes- 

 for A. Tethof, a distinguished scientist, 

 has been traveling in the United States, 

 investigating the American method of 

 bee culture. He has made a particular 

 specialty of the production of comb 

 and extracted honey. 



He will probably remain in the 

 United States another year, continuing 

 his quest for information. This is 

 embodied, from time to time, in reports 

 to the Minister of Agriculture at St. 

 Petersburg. The government will 

 avail itself of the results of these re- 

 ports for the general benefit of the 

 agricultural classes of the great Rus- 

 sian empire. 



M. Tethof. who is a scholarly looking 

 individual of German aspect, has im- 

 pressed those with whom he has come 

 in contact with the breadth of his 

 knowledge on the special subject which 

 he has been pursuing. 



He has visited all the large apiaries 

 during the summer, particularly those 

 conducted by the A. I. Root Company, 

 of Ohio, and the plants of the Cogg- 

 shalls and Alexander, the extensive 

 producers of extracted honey in New 

 York state. 



He has been wonderfully impressed, 

 and astonished even, by the up-to-date, 



rapid-fire methods of the Yankee bee 

 man and has made voluminous notes 

 which will be of service to him later 

 on. 



M. Tethof has also secured many 

 photographs illustrating the various 

 stages of handling bees and their pro- 

 ducts. 



He says Russia is such a vast coun- 

 try, with such a diversity of climate, 

 that he can compare his to no other 

 countvry except the United States. 

 Enormous stretches of forest and plain 

 exist on which a bee-hive, or even a 

 bee, can not be seen. Even Siberia, 

 formerly supposed to be the land of 

 snow and ice has a genial climate dur- 

 ing certain months, when many plants 

 capable of yielding honey abound. Yet 

 colonies of bees are few and far be- 

 tween and throughout Russia the ap- 

 pliances for housing and handling bees 

 and honey are of the most primitive de- 

 scription. There are more log hives 

 than anything in use. Y'et, in spite of 

 all drawbacks, honey is an important 

 article of food, and millions of pounds 

 of chunk honey are consumed every 

 year. 



The Government desires to introduce 

 American methods and American ma- 

 chinery into the bee industa-y as much 

 as possible to increase production and 

 a campaign of education will follow M 

 Tethof's investigation. 



He was recently the guest of E. L 

 Pratt, the queen breeder of Swarth- 

 more. Pa., who gave him every facilitj 

 for taking notes of his method of breed^ 

 ing queens in nuclei of a handful or so 

 of bees. The Russian was astonishe6 

 at the results. He will probably takp 

 up his residence in Philadelphia for the 

 winter and attend a special scientifio^ 

 course at the University of Pennsyl 

 vania, having been very favorably im* 

 pressed by the cordiality shown to him 

 everywhere and anxious to improvf 

 the opportunity afforded by his stay. 



Another distinguished visitor whoj 

 will make his appearance in this couni 

 try soon, is "W. A. Hass. attached t« 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences ai 

 Berlin, Germany. He comes as l 

 special commissioner to investigate 

 Yankee methods of bee culture. 



It seems that the German bee-keepi 

 ers are awakening to the fact that th« 

 Americans by their superior methods 

 of housing and handling bees for pro 

 ducing comb and extracted honeyi 

 have captured much trade which th«| 

 Germans formerly monopolized. 



