374 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in answer to this that Mr. Lang- 

 stroth and Ids contemporaries intro- 

 duced, and advertised a radically new 

 system of bee-keeping which was 

 essential to the use of the new hive. 

 No such causes as led Mr. L. to adopt 

 that method of making his invention 

 known to the public could possibly 

 exist at the present day. There is no 

 more probability that 'there will ever 

 be a radical change in the present 

 system of bee-keeping than there is 

 that the farmers of this period of time 

 will in the future grow their corn and 

 wheat with the "other end "down; 

 so much faith do I have in Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's system. Of course we must 

 have improvements to keep pace with 

 the progressive age, but they will only 

 be improvements, not radical changes. 



I have worked in the apiary this 

 season with renewed interest and 

 pleasure, and Dr. Miller's little book 

 has contributed somewhat to this 

 state of things. The season so far- 

 June 5— has been moderately good, 

 though we have had very cool nights 

 for nearly ten days past. This has 

 given me the opportunity to test sev- 

 eral new devices now under trial in 

 my apiary. A plan to operate a 

 queen-nursery heated by two strong 

 nuclei has been a hobby of mine for 

 some time, and the very changeable 

 w-eather we have Lad of late has put 

 the device to the severest test. Night 

 after night the temperature has g(me 

 down to .5(P— und one night to 44^ 

 and with this severe trial my new 

 queen-nursery has performed its part 

 admirably, hatching the cells with 

 proQiptness. 



The new queen-nursery is made like 

 a common Langstroth hive, but wide 

 enough for a wire-cloth department 

 ■n the centre that will hold three or 

 |our combs, and room for two four- 

 frame nuclei, one on each side of the 

 wire-cloth department. It is so con 

 structed that either of the depart 

 ments can be opened without inter- 

 fering with the others. Tlie nuclei 

 are kept crowded with bees and fur- 

 nish plenty of heat for all practical 

 purposes ; besides, they are engaged 

 in nursing queens all the time ; thus I 

 heat my nursery as nearly as possible 

 without cost. 



• 4i,'^^'^^°^® °^ '^ nursery-cages hangs 

 m the nursery, and the young queens 

 as fast as they hatch are introduced 

 to nuclei. If they are ready for them ; 

 It not, they are transferred to the 

 cages where they are kept until the 

 nuclei are ready for them. 



I had quite an interesting experi- 

 ence the other day in connection with 

 the queen-nursery. While I was ab- 

 sent from the apiary a short time a 

 young queen liatched and proceeded 

 to bite the top off of a cell, leaving 

 the white back of the nymph exposed 

 to view. I removed her before she 

 could stmg her victim. I just left the 

 cell as It was, and to my surprise the 

 young queen matured all right, and 

 was as lively as any of her sisters. 



Christiansburg,5 Ky. 



►» The next aDnual meeting of the Micblgan 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association will be held In 

 Ypsilanti, Mich., on Dec. 1 and 2. 1HS6. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Our "Union" for Defense, 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Upon reading the report, on page 

 3.57, of this yet " young " and small 

 organization, I felt that we were 

 lifted one more notch in the scale of 

 dignity to which our pursuit belongs. 

 1 realize that the day is nearin^ when 

 bee-keepers will be credited for the 

 ardent work they are now doing to 

 bring the honey product before the 

 public, and also for defending the 

 rights and privileges that justly be- 

 long to them. 



Being confident that even a ma- 

 jority of the members of this Union 

 do not realize all their rights, I will 

 give my views, hoping that it may 

 help to enlighten them on the subject: 



The history of any country where 

 one phase of politics or religion over- 

 whelmingly swallowed up all others, 

 shows that the people long associated 

 therewith, became incapable of dis- 

 cerning what were the natural rights 

 of the small minority. This same ele- 

 mentary principle is today bearing 

 against the natural riglits of bee-keep- 

 ers. Very many lines of legitimate 

 business, as well as legitimate pleas- 

 ure, necessarily carry with them more 

 or less annoyance to the neighbors 

 thereof. Our wealthy neighbor's 

 horse stable will occasionally waft a 

 disagreeable odor into our open door. 

 Mr. I5iown's saw- mill whistles are 

 disagreeably loud, and attract our 

 children into dangerous places, be- 

 sides presenting a cluttered and un- 

 inviting scenery. Eailroad.s neces- 

 sarily come too close to many dwell- 

 ing houses to be pleasant, and thus 

 depreciate the value thereof. And so 

 we might go on, until the dullest in- 

 tellect could not fail to plainly see 

 that in nearly all of our relations 

 with each other, compromises are not 

 only right, but absolutely necessary. 



Acknowledgement of this fact is 

 universal among our people, regard- 

 ing such kinds of business as are fre- 

 quently met with. We have learned 

 that we must respect that calling 

 which supplies its follower and his 

 family with the necessaries of life, 

 and helps in furnishing mankind at 

 large, a greater variety of these nec- 

 essaries. Certainly, both custom and 

 law protect such industries, over- 

 looking annoyances arising from 

 them, and further, lending substan- 

 tial encouragement to them. All who 

 vote for the laws protecting these in- 

 dustries do not comprehend the prin- 

 ciple of justice in such laws ; perhaps 

 very few do ; but they realize on a 

 broader and more selfish basis that 

 interest dcnands them. The farmer, 

 standing at the base, is the honored 

 and protected of all. Injure his call- 

 ing and you injure all; destroy it, and 

 we all perish together. 



Honey has been a luxury ; tee-keep- 

 ing one of tlie unimportant side-issues. 

 Honey-producing, as a business, is yet 

 an infant. The general public have 

 scarcely yet heard of its birth. It has 

 not yet become old enough, or large 



enough, to command the respect it 

 deserves. 



I presume that the laws against 

 stealing and murder were not en- 

 acted because of any keen sense of 

 right and justice existing within the 

 minds of the originators, but because 

 they seriously objected to parting 

 with the results of their labor, with- 

 out receiving an equivalent, or to 

 being killed. So it is with our young, 

 little, minority pursuit. We will not 

 be respected until such respect is en- 

 forced ; and no one will enforce it, if 

 we do not. The National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union is the speaking trumpet 

 through which v*'e are to be heard and 

 felt. 



As carefully as we would avoid 

 usurping the rights of others, we will 

 as determinedly maintain our own. 

 We do not ask for charity, we ask for 

 justice. So illy respected have always 

 been the rights of minorities that I 

 have heard, even bee-keepers, make 

 statements showing that they did not 

 realize how far their natural rights 

 extended. 



If a neighbor's wife is canning 

 fruit, and the odor attracts, daubs and 

 scalds your bees unto death, you must 

 not ask her to desist in tliat which 

 destroys your property, but you must 

 buy wire screen to put over her win- 

 dows to keep out your bees for a few 

 days (and flies for a few months). If 

 you do not, she will ask you to move 

 ihem into the country, and when your 

 country neighbor's wife begins to 

 boil cider, she will ask you to move 

 them into the realms of space. Some 

 women, and some men too, are not so 

 exacting ; they say, " If you don't 

 keep your bees away from here, they 

 will get scalded." 



Bee-culture is new ; it is respectable, 

 but not respected. The same neigh- 

 bor has a little worthless, snapping 

 poodle-dog; in your back yard you 

 have discovered a rat-hole. The yard 

 is yours, the rat-hole is yours, and 

 the rat belongs to nobody else (but 

 you wish it did), and you take some 

 of your arsenic, and some of your 

 meat, and place it on your own laud 

 close by the entrance to your own 

 rat-hole, to destroy that rat, in order 

 to save valuable piopeity that it is 

 destroying. Now this neighbor says, 

 and the law says, that you shall not 

 leave this poison where it may tempt 

 his dog to destruction. Dog culture 

 is old ; it is respected, but not al- 

 ways respectable. There are many 

 more people directly interested in 

 dogs, than in bees. It is not a ques- 

 tion of good sense or justice, but of 

 majorities; of habit. 



Some jealous neighbors say to bee- 

 keepers, " You get your crop from 

 others' land." But we do not harm 

 the owner of that "others' land," by 

 so doing. We benefit him by our bees 

 fertilizing his blossoms. But, friend 

 and neighbor farmer, why do you 

 raise and plow under red clover ? 

 " IJecause it is a great fertilizer." 

 How so ? " Well, in its growth it 

 receives only 15 per cent, of its sub- 

 stance from my ground, the other 8.5 

 being absorbed from the atmosphere." 

 Ah ! from whence does the atmos- 

 phere receive its substance V " Oh ! 



