70 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Now, one word about bee-keeping 

 being in tlie hands of specialists. 

 How many beekeepers are there to- 

 day, who are making the production 

 of lioiiey tiieir wliole business, and 

 getting "rich y Now. please do not 

 head the list with A. Grimm, but let 

 us have another name, just once. The 

 bee-keeper who has a farm, a hennery, 

 a supply trade, or some " bee fixing " 

 in connection with his bees, will in 

 lime get left behind by the specialist. 

 It is so in all oilier brandies of indus- 

 try ; why not in the bee business ? I 

 propose to have bees, hives and fix- 

 tures, etc., so fixed in the near future, 

 to be able to sell honey to those who 

 make the bee business a side issue. 



No. of colonies, 16.5. The production 

 of honey a specialty for the past 6 

 years. Average No. of colonies kept 

 during that time, 100. 



Gleuwood, ilich., Jan. 7, 1884. 



For the American Bee JuumaJ. 



Primary Conventions. 



BY " THREE NOVICES." 



Neighbors. I have called you, to dis- 

 cuss with you, the practicability of 

 organizing ourselves as a precinct 

 society. I am tired of studying alone. 

 I have discovered that I can make 

 better headway when I have some- 

 body with whom to discuss matters. 

 My energy is better concentrated on 

 the subject under consideration, and, 

 in conveying my thoughts to others, 

 it gives force and demonstration to 

 my own ideas. 



C. Do you not know here is only us 

 three bee-keepers in the precinct V 

 And after the heavy winter losses we 

 have had of late, we are not likely to 

 be any more, very soon. What sort of 

 a convention do you suppose we would 

 make up ? 



L. A first rate one ! We are all of 

 us of an inquiring turn of mind, and 

 take a somewhat different view of 

 matters. We could not fail to make 

 it interesting and profitable for all. 



K. I think we bad better try to or- 

 ganize a county association. 



C. With but few exceptions I do 

 not think the State associations have 

 accomplished anything. We often 

 find that the most successful bee- 

 keepers stay at home and leave the 

 work to the novices, who spend most 

 of their time in the recital of matters 

 that lias nothing to do with progres- 

 sive bee- culture ; take it all m all, I 

 do not think they are a success. 



L. Let me tell you why I think they 

 are are not a success. It is as you say, 

 the novices take up too much time in 

 telling how their disorganized bees 

 behave in one way and another. It 

 has nothing to do with a well-organ- 

 ized colony. They ought to learn this 

 at home in oft-repeated practical and 

 theoretical lessons, such as we should 

 endeavor to make our precinct meet- 

 ings. 



C. I am satisfied with the classical 

 works handed down to us by recog- 

 nized authority. I do not think we 

 can improve upon them. 



L. It is only conservative men like 

 yourself who consider their work com- 



plete. They certainly do not want it 

 so understood themselves. They tell 

 us here is a machine that will do 

 the work, but we are aware that it 

 can be improved upon, and it will be 

 for you to do it, even if it should be- 

 conie necessary to alter some of its 

 fundamental principles. When we 

 strive to do so, and then only do we 

 fully appreciate the value of their 

 work, and make it possible to derive 

 the greatest benefit from it, for our- 

 selves and prosterity. 



C. That will be for the bee papers 

 to attend to. 



L. The papers are what the bee- 

 keepers make them. They are doing 

 excellent work, but if we can in any 

 way aid them it will only be our duty 

 to do so. 



C. By what means shall we able to 

 aid them ? 



L. We will keep a record of our 

 works and forward copies of the 

 same to Mr. Newman, and if bethinks 

 them worthy a place in the Bee 

 .Journal, he shall be at liberty to 

 publish them. 



C. They will only laugh at our silly 

 proceedings. 



L. They may, though I think we 

 should be" able to make them intelli- 

 gent enough to merit criticism. We 

 will lay no claim to any defined 

 knowledge, but place ourselves before 

 them as mere novices. There is one 

 thing about the papers which we 

 would try to improve upon. Often 

 have I seen valuable hints given well 

 calculated to elicit inquiry into mat- 

 ters of importance, only to be passed 

 into oblivion without a single com- 

 ment having been made upon them, 

 probably because they were not in- 

 troduced by what you would call 

 "recognized authority." We will 

 make a practice of scrutinizing those 

 points whether they spring from a 

 novice's fancy or a professor's store of 

 knowledge. Our precinct meetings 

 should be the primaries of conven- 

 tions. Here the ground work should 

 be done and materials gathered. Our 

 monthly reports should be collected 

 for the county association, who should 

 meet twice a year to review and con- 

 dense our work and forward copies to 

 the State association, which meet 

 once a year to discuss matters of a 

 more general character; to see that 

 the honey resources of our State are 

 developed, and elect delegates to the 

 National convention. It would be 

 for this latter to perform work of a 

 higher order, and see to it that our 

 industry was placed in its proper 

 light before the commonwealth. Thus 

 you see, if our several conventions 

 were characterized by their special 

 functions, they would be more sensi- 

 tive to their duty, and more likely to 

 accomplish it. 



C. Your plan tor the conventions 

 is good, I admit, but suppose there 

 was only one man in some precints, or 

 some one should be found who would 

 have nothing to do with us, he might 

 foster foul brood in his apiary, and 

 we would know nothing of it until 

 the mischief was done. 



R. We would appeal to the law, and 

 go there and destroy his bees for him. 



C. Now, you always take such radi- 



cal views of things, what would the 

 eccentric man be doing aD this time, 

 or what would he be likely to do after- 

 wards y 



L. We had better let the law alone. 

 I think if he was a man of reason, he 

 would soon concur with us ; if not, we 

 would dispatch a phrenologist to ex- 

 amine the case. 



0. Apropos, foul brood. Do you 

 think we shall ever be able to get this 

 terrible calamity under our control '? 



L. Yes sir ! I am sanguine enough 

 to believe that before 2 years roll 

 around, we shall have it so under our 

 control as to make us laugh at the 

 idea of having allowed ourselves to be 

 frightened by it. 



C. What do you think of the article 

 on foul brood in the Bee Journal, 

 by Mr. De Layens. He seems to have 

 partially succeeded in curing it. 



L. There is a specimen for you. It 

 is the best article on the subject that 

 ever came to my notice. It knocks 

 their contagion theory all in the dust, 

 and it strengthens me in my belief 

 that we shall never have a reliable 

 cure, but what is better, a never fail- 

 ing preventative. He did not succeed 

 in partially curing as much as in par- 

 tially " wearing " it out, though he 

 started on the everlasting cure, he 

 discovers a tolerably good preven- 

 tive, and I hope he is now success- 

 fully pursuing his course to the 

 bottom of it. When we set to 

 work on this subject, which I think 

 we had better do the first thing, the 

 spring is the critical time when bees 

 begin to rear brood, then we will take 

 this article for test, and dissect it 

 from beginning to end. And, now, 

 vou liave heard my views on precinct 

 conventions. When you have made 

 up your mind about it, come over and 

 let me know. If you think favorably 

 of it, we will put the scheme into 

 practice. 



Paradox Apiary, Jan. 1.5, 1884. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Statistics of the Honey Crop. 



C. C. MILLER, 172—2.51. 



I do not know that any one doubts 

 the desirability of obtaining reliable 

 statistics of bee-keeping, but how to 

 do so in a manner that shall inure to 

 the benefit of bee-keepers is as yet an 

 unsolved problem. In 1882, the North 

 American Society appointed a com- 

 mittee, of which I was chairman, to 

 collect statistics. The effort was 

 made in what was supposed to be the 

 best way, and I suppose few will im- 

 agine the many days' labor devoted to 

 the matter with no reward except be- 

 ing accused by some of sinister mo- 

 tives in the matter. Possibly no *uller 

 report was ever obtained, but for 

 practical purposes it was so meager as 

 to be of little if any value. The plan 

 pursued was the very simple one of 

 having each bee-keeper send his re- 

 port to one address, so they could be 

 all tabulated together. But the ma- 

 jority did not send in reports. No ac- 

 tion was taken by the National So- 

 ciety at its last meeting to do any 

 thing further in the matter ; but it 



