THE AMERICAJS BEE JOURNAL. 



823 



world. One day last summer when I 

 was in my little apiary, and he was 

 working in his garden near by, he 

 suddenly exclaimed, " There's a bee 

 after me I" " Don't Qght it !" I said. 

 But I was too late with my advice. 

 He had struck at the bee, and the bee 

 had struck back, hitting him in the 

 face. I was very sorry, told him what 

 to do, and though his face swelled 

 somewhat, he took the mishap very 

 pleasantly. I gave him some honey 

 as a solatium, and he has several times 

 referred to his sting in the best of 

 humor, always blaming himself for 

 not knowing how to act when a bee 

 threatened him. I have repeatedly 

 said to him that I would move my 

 bees to the farm if they were an an- 

 noyance to my neighbors, and he in- 

 variably replies that they are no 

 trouble to him, although they have 

 several times swarmed on his apple 

 trees which adjoin my bee-yard. We 

 often make our own difficulties by fail- 

 ing to act on the wise injunction, " If 

 it be possible, as much as lieM in you, 

 live peaceably with all men." 



Mr. Harrison says : " As regards 

 moving bees to try and please people, 

 I tried that on this summer. I had 

 scarely got them moved before an 

 ignoramus came out of the church 

 near by, and exclaimed : ' It will 

 never do to put those bees there ; yes- 

 terday they were in the church by 

 thousands.' I could not see what 

 there was to attract bees into a place 

 of worship, so I went to see if I could 

 find out, and I could not find any bees 

 nor anything to entice them there, so 

 I concluded that the man was lying ; 

 so you see by trying to please every- 

 body you will please no one." He 

 adds : "If such people are to be al- 

 lowed to get injunctions to restrain 

 their neighbors from keeping bees, 

 and trying to make an honest and 

 honorable living, farewell to our liber- 

 ties in Canada. We shall have to 

 seek a home where people are a little 

 more advanced in civilization. Since 

 the suit I have been burned out and 

 lost nearly all of my nice bees, and 

 other things connected with the busi- 

 ness, so that they will not require an 

 injunction now. Parties were over- 

 heard to threaten to burn me out if I 

 gained the case, but they have not 

 waited for the final result, but have 

 done it already. So you may judge in 

 some measure what sort of people I 

 have had the misfortune to live 

 among. It is a deplorable state of 

 things for the 19th century." 



Yes, it is, but I doubt if the fault 

 is all on one side. It is evident there 

 has been a lot of contention and ill- 

 feeling, resulting in exasperation. It 

 is not strange that Mr. Harrison feels 

 bitterly the loss of his little all, and 

 his fellow-bee-keepers will deeply 

 sympathize with him in the calamity 

 which has befallen him ; but it ought 

 to teach us all a lesson of kindness 

 and conciliation. Though Mr. Har- 

 rison is tempted to think the Are may 

 be traced to revenge, there is no posi- 

 tive proof of this. It may have been 

 accidental, and even if a revengeful 

 spirit has been awakened, there seems 

 to have been some provocation given 

 — perhaps much. 



Another lesson this case teaches, is 

 the duty of insuring property. It is a 

 mournful thing for an aged man to 

 lind himself deprived of house and 

 home. Mr. Harrison says : " I am 

 too. old now ever to make up again. 

 I never expect to have a home of my 

 own in the world now." No wonder 

 he tells us on page 762, " I am in a 

 dilemma— nearly crazed." Notwith- 

 standing any blame that may be justly 

 chargeable to our afflicted fellow-bee- 

 keeper, it seems to me that there is a 

 loud call for a manifestation of prac- 

 tical sympathy, and I hope this will 

 take some tangible shape at the forth- 

 coming meeting of the Ontario Bee- 

 Keepers' Association. At tliat time, 

 also, no doubt measures will be 

 adopted to defend the interests of 

 bee-culture as affected by the suit 

 now pending. 



Guelph, Ont. 



For tlie American Bee Juumat 



THe Season Of m 



R. M. OSBORN. 



Last April I doubled up 12 colonies, 

 which left me 54 colonies from 06. I 

 had 12 empty hives which I filled with 

 bees, by natural swarming,in May. I 

 find that increasing by natural swarm- 

 ing is more successful for producing 

 honey than dividing; but dividing is 

 the best if increase of colonies is de- 

 sired. On the plan of natural swarm- 

 ing we get the bees with theswarra- 

 ing-fever all in the new hive, and 

 leave contented young brood in the 

 parent hive ; and the bees with the 

 swarming-fever, when put into a hive 

 alone, will go to work with great en- 

 ergy. When we divide the colony 

 while the swarming fever is on, the 

 old, feverish bees are divided, and a 

 portion of the feverish bees are in 

 each hive, and they are not contented 

 as well as they would be if all were in 

 a hive by themselves, and no young 

 bees or brood to bother them until 

 they work the fever off, or work to 

 death in a good how of nectar. 



The honey season with me was good 

 only in May and June ; there was no 

 fall surplus crop of honey. As I am 

 not physically able to properly attend 

 and care for 66 colonies as they 

 should be, and labor being high, and 

 honey very low in price, I commenced 

 on June 10 to prepare 54 colonies to 

 be exterminated. On that day I took 

 the queens out of the 54 hives, and on 

 June 20 I took otf all the queen-cells, 

 and in the first week of July I admin- 

 istered sulphur smoke to the 54 colo- 

 nies. I then took off all the comb 

 honey in sections and extracted all 

 the brood combs, and melted the 

 combs into beeswax. I got 2,160 

 pounds of honey from .54 colonies, tind 

 80 pounds of beeswax. 



I had selected 12 choice colonies 

 out of the 66, to keep. From 6 colo- 

 nies of pure Italians I took 349 pounds 

 of surplus honey ; and from 6 colonies 

 of Syrio-Italians, 514. I left in each 

 hive about 30 pounds to winter on. I 

 prepared them for winter on the sum- 

 mer stands on Oct. 23. My honey 



crop was all gathered in two months 

 from white and red clover, tlie whole 

 crop being 3,023 pounds. I expect to 

 increase my apiary next May to 24 

 colonies, that being all I am able to 

 attend to by the aid of my wife and 

 daughter. 



'Our zero weather commenced here 

 on Dec. 2, and it was 8° below zero on 

 Dec. 3. Snow was on the ground 6 

 inches deep. The last good flight that 

 my 12 colonies had, was on Nov. 14. 

 Kane,*© Ills., Dec. 7, 1886. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Lesislation for Bee-Keepers. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The following was written to me by 

 Dr. L. C. Whiting, of East Saginaw, 

 Mich. : 



" As you wish an expression on 

 ' the desirability, and feasibility of 

 obtaining legislation looking to the 

 securing bee-keepers in their location 

 as to territory,' I submit the follow- 

 ing: 



" Legislation should be founded in 

 justice. Justice means equal rights 

 for all. Mr. Heddon's priority of » 

 location only looks to the interest of 

 the man who starts first. Apply this 

 theory to any other business and see 

 how it looks. Suppose, as is usual in 

 a new country, that cattle are allowed 

 to run at large, to graze on the un- 

 occupied lands. One man starts in 

 with stock enough to eat all the grass. 

 If this theory is right, his prior claim 

 (for which he has paid nothing) should 

 be protected from all others desiring 

 the same privilege. It looks to me as 

 though any one coming into that 

 neighborhood has the same right to 

 turn his cattle on the commons, as 

 the first locater had. It is the com- 

 mon right of all. When these cattle 

 or bees injure the private property of 

 the settlers, they (the settlers) make 

 restraining laws to protect their pri- 

 vate interests. A few have to give 

 up their natural rights for the benefit 

 of the community. 



" Our statute books are filled with 

 laws for the protection of one class of 

 people against other classes. A large 

 portion of these laws are unjust. It 

 is claimed by some of our most emi- 

 nent jurists, that all this class legis- 

 lation is unconstitutional. For these 

 and many other reasons, I am opposed 

 to bee-ranch protection laws." 



In securing such legislation as may 

 be considered for the greatest good of 

 the entire community, and I certainly 

 would want no other, it is not neces- 

 sary to concede anything to priority 

 of occupation. Still, is not something 

 almost universally conceded to the 

 discoverer or first" occupant V Prob- 

 ably the Doctor knows more than I do 

 about our pre emption laws, and does 

 not the first man who occupies the 

 laud have the best chance to obtain 

 a title to it i* Going back to our boy- 

 hood days, suppose the Doctor and I, 

 when "little shavers," were out fish- 

 ing together. He was seated on a 

 projecting stump— only room enough 



