Mar. 9, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



147 



b3' the bees consuming honey, the same as the fat of an v 

 animal was produced by consuming' larg-e quantities of food. 

 How the wax exuded in scales from under the segments on 

 the under side of the abdomen, and how it was taken from 

 there with the feet of the bee and carried to the mouth, 

 illustrating- how it was manipulated into comb. 



He then told how Huber. the blind bee-keeper of the 

 past, ascertained that it took 20 pounds of honey to produce 

 one pound of wax. and yet with this knowledge, thousands 

 of pounds of wax in comb form was allowed to go to waste 

 in the land, or to be worse than wasted, by breeding hun- 

 dreds and thousands of the wax-moth to go about to injure 

 the bees of the one who was careful that no bit of comb vras 

 allowed to lie about to breed these pests. And yet these 

 wasters thought they knew as much about bee-keeping as 

 anybody, and could not be coaxt to take a bee-paper that 

 their understanding might be enlightened. He said it re- 

 minded him of a certain poor church that wanted new 

 hymn-books. 



A certain church needed hymn-books badly, but felt too 

 poor to buy them. At last they instructed their clerk to write 

 to certain houses to ascertain the price at which SO hymn- 

 books could be purchast, and adjourned the meeting two 

 weeks to hear the replies. 



When the time came, the clerk read the prices of the 

 different houses, all but one of which wanted $25 for the 50 

 books, or SO cents each. But the exception read, that, if 

 the church did not object to a few advertisements being in 

 the hymn-books, the house would furnish them at 5 cents 

 each, or $2.50 for the lot. After due consultation, it was 

 concluded that a few advertisements, as is often seen on the 

 covers of our Sunday-school lesson helps, would do no spe- 

 cial harm, so the clerk was authorized to procure the books. 



It so happened that Christmas of that year came on 

 Sunday, and the books arrived late Saturday night. The 

 sexton hurriedly distributed them among the pews without 

 taking time to look at them, and the preacher, having his 

 own, or one of the SO-cent books, read the first lines of the 

 hymn beginning, 



''Hark, the herald anjjels sing-. 

 Glory to the new born king' " — 



explaining that the same would be verj- appropriate to 

 Christmas morning, when he sat down. 



The organist played the prelude, but imagine the sur- 

 prise and chagrin of that congregation when they found 

 themselves singing — 



" Hark, the herald a'.igels sing, 



Beecham's pills are just the thingf, 

 Always sure and very mild, 

 Two for man and one for child." 



Here the audience went into uproarious laughter and 

 applause. As soon as a little calm cotild be restored. Mr. 

 Doolittle said, " And just so with the man who allows wax 

 to go to waste, but is too poor or stingy to take a bee-paper ; 

 he really thinks he is singing the praises of God and prac- 

 tical bee-keeping, when he is only singing for BeechamV 

 pills, to the disadvantage of Godliness, himself and hi> 

 neighbors." 



It soon appeared to me that Doolittle had now reacht 

 the part of his theme which he had especiallj' come for. I 

 had wondered that he, only just up from a sick bed, had 

 driven 13 miles over rough roads, and in the cold, to talk to 

 only about 11 persons who were at this time keeping bees, 

 and about 14 others who had at some time in their lives 

 kept bees. How these numbers were ascertained, Mr. D. 

 had taken an expression of the audience soon after he com- 

 menced to talk, by asking all who had bees at present tn 

 rise, and, when they were seated, asktall who had ever kept 

 bees, but had none now, to rise, which showed the above re- 

 sult, or onh- about 25 persons out of an audience of nearly 

 300 or more who had ever been interested in bees to keep a 

 single colony. 



As soon as Mr. Doolittle had made the application of 

 his hymn-book storj-, he continued by asking the farmers if 

 they had ever thought that the bees were the very drs/ 

 friends ///rj and the fruit-growcis had ? And without wait- 

 ing for any reply he told them that such was the case, for 

 \evy much that was raised on a farm could not be raised at 

 all to perfection were it not for the agency performed by 

 the bees and other insects, through their carrying the pol- 

 len on their bodies from one flower to another while in 

 search of honey, from such flowers as are not capable of 

 self-fertilization. None of the flowers which sfcretc nectar 

 will ever bear fruit to anj- degree of perfectioti without the 

 aid of the bees. And jet we find farmers all over the coun- 

 try who are jealous of the bees and their keeper, through 

 their ignorance of the prime reason for which they were 



created and placed upon the earth. Every farmer raising 

 fruit, the clovers, buckwheat, or any member of the vine 

 famil)-, could well afford to pay the keeper of bees a reason- 

 ble sum for keeping them, rather than have the bees re- 

 moved from their locality. Yet they usually growl about 

 and malign their best friends, being jealous of the small 

 compensation the bee-keeper secures from his bees, think- 

 ing the same in some mj-sterious wa)' might have gotten 

 into their pockets, had not the bees carried it off and put 

 it into the pockets of their keeper. 



God created the bee for the especial purpose of polleni- 

 zation of flowers, and so placed nectar in the flowers, which 

 need poUenizing, to attract the bee. And by and through 

 nectar stored in the flowers and gathered by the bees, their 

 wants are supplied, and thej- caused to live, so that in re- 

 turn the)' can fertilize more flowers ; and so the flowers and 

 the bees are mutual admirers, the one helping the other con- 

 tinuously, thus causing both to thrive and be happy. This 

 was the sole purpose for which bees were created, but as 

 they were like some farmers he knew of. a little greedy, 

 they would store much more of the nectar than they needed 

 to sustain life, when there was a plentiful secretion by the 

 flowers, and through this trait of the bee there was often a 

 surplus stored, or more than the bees needed that they 

 might live. Taking advantage of this trait, man had come 

 to understand how he could have a sweet " suitable for the 

 gods," and thus we had not only honey for the bee-keeper, 

 but ship and train-loads for commerce. 



"Can I prove this point?" said Mr. Doolittle. He then 

 went on to show how among the grasses none secreted tiec- 

 tar in this county but the clovers, and proved by the shape 

 of the flowers, how it was impossible for the clovers to be 

 self-poUenizing through the agencj- of the breeze, as were 

 the others, hence honej' or nectar was secreted by each lit- 

 tle flowret to attract the bees, that through their agency 

 seed might be perfected. And to clinch the matter he gave 

 history to show how the Australian government had spent 

 thousands of dollars importing bumble-bees from the 

 United States so that they could raise seed from the red 

 clover, which previous to this importation did not give 

 sufficient seed to pay for the harvesting of the crop. 



He then took trees of various kinds, and proved the 

 same of them which he had of the grasses, and, as a 

 clincher, told how in a certain township in Massachusetts 

 through jealousy bees were once banisht. The next year 

 no fruit came to perfection in the interior of that township, 

 while around the edges fruit perfected as u.^iual, so that 

 through this the jealous people were led to see wherein they 

 had made a mistake, and begged the bees back again, when 

 they had fruit ^s before. 



[Concluded next weeli.] 



Report of the Northeastern Ohio, Western New 



York and Northwestern Pennsylvania 



Convention. 



BY ED JOLLEV, SECKETARV. 



The Xortheastern Ohio, Western New York, and North- 

 western Pennsylvania Bee-Keepers' Association held their 

 annual convention at Franklin, Pa., Jan. 11 and 12, 1899. 

 Owing to the prevailing epidemic, " la grippe," and the ex- 

 tremely cold weather, together with the past discouraging 

 season, the attendance was rather slim. 



Pres. Geo. Spitler delivered the annual address, in 

 which he exprest his pleasure at meeting those present. 

 Altho he had hoped to see a larger number of bee-keepers 

 present, he thought that these small conventions were 

 usually as enthusiastic and fullj- as profitable as the larger 

 ones ; and that it was those who failed to attend that sus- 

 tained the loss. 



SPRING M.\N.^GEMENT OF BEES 

 was the first subject on the program for consideration. Mr. 

 Sutton managed by stimulating weak colonies bj- feeding, 

 and keeping them well packt until all danger of cool nights 

 was past. He never practiced contracting the brood-nest. 

 Mr. Tubbs contracted to the number of combs the bees 



