THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



455 



cause her luisband did not love her 

 well enough to give her a sound 

 thrashing, though they had been mar- 

 ried three weeks. 



Here bees are not taxed, and I 

 should " howl " if they were ; for the 

 avocation is only in its infancy and 

 has not only many obstacles to over- 

 come, but much prejudice to combat 

 and ignorance to destroy. Where I 

 first commenced bee-keeping, in Mis- 

 souri, not only bees were not taxed 

 but land planted to fruit was also ex- 

 empt. So far as custom should guide 

 or govern, the general rule has been 

 not to discourage any new industry 

 by taxing it, and certainly upon this 

 ground alone, bees should be exempt 

 from taxation. But a custom how- 

 ever venerable is not always based 

 upon justice, and Mr. Demaree to the 

 contrary notwithstanding ; it is viola- 

 tion of the principles of human rights 

 to tax bees or any other product of 

 human labor ; for there are but two 

 things we can tax, and common sense 

 tells us that labor should not be taxed 

 and that land alone should be taxed. 

 I would not give a snap of the linger 

 for all the laws against adulteration, 

 so long as we continue to set at deti- 

 ance the very principles upon which 

 the prosperity of all human society is 

 based, and we shall continue to do 

 this so long as bees, or anything that 

 is the fruit of human care and indus- 

 try is taxed anywhere in this broad 

 land. 



We have worn threadbare many of 

 the themes which occupy the columns 

 of our bee-periodicals, yet we have 

 hardly touched our calling with a view 

 of finding out its true relations to all 

 others. If I wanted an illustration 

 in disproof of the Malthusiau theory, 

 the silly, superficial idea that Heaven 

 puts more human beings in this world 

 than it can support, I should refer to 

 the improvements in apiculture for 

 the last ten years only. Every mouth 

 to be fed,andeverybacktobeclothed, 

 that comes into this world, bring with 

 them two hands and a brain, hence the 

 limit of human intelligence and hu- 

 man endeavor. Look at our vocation 

 for the last decade only, and who is 

 bold enough to state where that limit 

 is y " Well ! well !" exclaimed a gruff 

 old farmer the other day as he looked 

 through my honey-room door, " Why, 

 here are thousands ot pounds of stulf 

 that makes a man's mouth water to 

 look at, all out of these little blossoms 

 too, where I did not think there was 

 a drop I " " Yes " I replied, " there 

 is more in your land, more in nature's 

 bounty everywhere than we have ever 

 dreamed of in this scramble to live." 



One of the things that attracted me 

 to bee-keeping was that I could enjoy 

 my natural rights, and not have my 

 labor forestalled by some one laying 

 claim to that which would have been 

 here if he had never been born, anc^ 

 compelling me to pay for the pastur- 

 age of my bees. 



" Look here ! neighbor," said a 

 large land-owner to me one day, 

 " your bees suck on my white clover, 

 and I have never received anything 

 for it. Why don't you bring me some 

 honey ?" 



" There are several hundred pounds 

 in my honey-house waiting for you 

 to come andget it," said 1. 



" Yes, yes, but you'll charge me for 

 that," he replied. 



" Only what it is worth to gather 

 it," was my rejoinder. 



" You w'ould not have saved one 

 drop of it, for you kept no bees, and 

 you surely do not expect me to work 

 for nothing and board myself because 

 your pasture lies in the way of my 

 bees." 



Of course that man was silenced, 

 and perhaps set to thinking ; for bar- 

 ring improvements, made by the 

 landlord and used by the tenant, it 

 applied as much to producing corn or 

 wheat on his land as it did to gather- 

 ing honey. But while I enjoy im- 

 munity in this respect from that curse 

 that circles the earth, as the fabled 

 girdle encircled the' waist of the 

 mythical Pandora, yet I found it of 

 no real advantage to me unless my 

 customers enjoy their rights in their 

 vocations as 1 did in mine. In other 

 words, I found myself, after all, " in 

 the same boat " with my fellow- 

 laborers, and with them must either 

 float or sink. 



Following the advice so constantly 

 given, I tried to make a home market 

 for my honey. The community was 

 almost a purely agricultural one, and 

 even the towns within reacli were 

 supported by the farmers. When I 

 went to a man who was reputed 

 wealthy, he was almost sure to be 

 close-fisted, and nine out of ten were 

 sharp at bargaining, and not over 

 scrupulous, for these were mainly 

 the qualities that had enabled them 

 to distance their fellows in the 

 acquirement of wealth, and they 

 would try to Jew me down without 

 shame. Moreover, in the struggle for 

 money they had contracted habits 

 and tastes that were coarse and 

 cheaply supplied. When I went to 

 laboring men, who were far my best 

 customers, they could not always buy 

 if they would. " It's too high, though 

 I love it." " My wages do not justify 

 me in buying it." " I do wish I could 

 afford it " — were common expressions, 

 and I soon found that I must come 

 down to the level of their wages, and 

 work for as little as others. 



Agricultural labor is more poorly 

 paid than any other ; and upon it all 

 the mistakes and burdens in other 

 classes are ultimately, yet inevitably, 

 thrown; hence so many are driven 

 into town and city, into trade and 

 trickery ; hence so many have to live 

 like the Anglo-Saxon lived under his 

 Norman master, when "bacon" re- 

 mained Saxon, while " beef " and 

 "mutton" became Norman, and I 

 have an article for sale which they 

 have long learned to do without. 

 Wheat, too, has gone from 80 to 50 

 cents a bushel ; butter is down to 5 

 and 8 cents a pound, and spring 

 chickens 9 cents a pound ; so honey 

 must come down to a bare living on a 

 good season, and less on a bad one. 



I may speak reprovingly, but earn- 

 estly, and in the friendliest manner 

 to all my brother bee-keepers — we 

 must unite with others in changing 

 conditions that make failures the rule 



and successes the exception, or the 

 natural advantage we enjoy in ob- 

 taining honey will be lost in disposing 

 of it. 

 Murrayville,*o Ills. 



For tbe American Bee JonrnaL 



Hive Construction and Manimilation, 



.JAMBS HEDDON. 



If I am not mistaken but little has 

 yet been placed before the public in 

 any periodical concerning the merits 

 and methods of using the new double 

 brood-chamber hive. Most of the 

 space given regarding the invention 

 was relative to who owned the results 

 of my labor, and as that is now pretty 

 well settled, and it has been voted to 

 sustain that settlement in the United 

 States courts rather than bee-papers, 

 I have only to deal with ^ the merits 

 and manner of properly constructing 

 and manipulating the hive. 



As near as I can estimate, about 

 200 bee-keepers are now using it to a 

 greater or less extent, but of course 

 no one's experience reaches back of 

 the present season, except that of 

 Mr. Hutchinson, my foremen, my 

 students and myself. As we are now 

 well into our third season's use of the 

 hive, having been brought face to face 

 with nearly or quite all of the advan- 

 tages and disadvantages connected 

 with its construction and use, and as 

 I am almost daily in receipt of letters 

 asking questions relative to the sub- 

 ject, I presume I am qualified to pen 

 this article, which seems to be de- 

 manded, and is quite appropriate. 



As the majority are already aware, 

 the central points of invention are, 

 having the brood-chamber divided in 

 two or more parts horizontally, and 

 the use of one-half bee-spaces for the 

 purpose of inverting. A " bee-space " 

 is known among bee-keepers as that 

 space which will not only pass a 

 drone, queen or worker, but in which 

 the workers are less liable to place 

 brace-combs and propolis, and which 

 measures % of an inch, or that a trifle 

 scant, and these correct spaces are all 

 formed throughout by constructing 

 the brood-cases, surplus-cases and 

 honey-board with a half bee-space 

 (3-1 G of an inch) on each side, so that 

 all are invertible, and at all times all 

 bee-spaces are correctly maintained ; 

 all of which is fully described in my 

 book. 



My object in writing this article 

 was to speak more fully of the 

 ftemerits than merits of the new hive. 

 Like all other hives, it is not without 

 its faults. In the use of it in the 

 apiary I do not know just what to 

 mention as objections. Whatever 

 they may be, they are so small when 

 compared to its superiority over any 

 other hive that I have ever used, that 

 it seems like " straining at a gnat " to 

 attempt to name any. This is, how- 

 ever, by far from being the case, 

 when we are considering the con- 

 struction of the hive. It costs at 

 least 25 per cent, more than our modi- 

 fied Langstroth, and to successfully 

 carry out its peculiar and most useful 



