228 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Priority of Location. 



lA.MES ilEDDOX. 



As Uiis heading and other pliiases 

 used by liix). Pond, on page 149. Iiave 

 previously been used by me only. I 

 riglitfully infer that his article retets 

 to me. 1 would be far from charging 

 IJro. Pond with "■ selfishness "' as the 

 basis of his widelv differing opinion, 

 though unlike myself, he would liardly 

 be able to clear the charge as I can : be- 

 cause, if I am rightfully informed, he 

 is only an amateur, attaching a little 

 apiculture to a great deal of writing 

 and law practice. Laying aside the 

 self-interest in the matter, Bro. Pond's 

 position is not the best from whieli to 

 form a correct judgment in the mat- 

 ter under discussion, which Is one of 

 great interest to tiie near future: 



Now. to Bro. Pond's arguments. It 

 seems to me he will have a hard time 

 to make the readers see that his Mr. 

 Xo. 1 is more selfish than No. 2. You 

 seldom find an enterprising man. rich 

 or poor, that is less selfish than to say, 

 •• I will do what I can to monopolize 

 this business.'' Is a desire on the part 

 of the poor No. 1 to monopolize the 

 use of the surrounding flowers, that, 

 prior to his genius to make them pay, 

 liave lain adead waste for ages, more 

 selfish than the actual monopolizing of 

 iill the soil they grow upon,for all pur- 

 poses.for " liini and his heirs forever':*'' 



Is it entirely unselfish for the one 

 who already has so much of this 

 world's goods that in consequence 

 thereof some one miii^t be poor and 

 needy, to hang around until he bor- 

 rows, or thinks he has, from the skill 

 of the poor man. and then starts a 

 greedy and destructive opposition ':' 

 But this avaricious No. 2 will fail. He 

 has no better natural or legal chances 

 than his poorer fellow worm. No, not 

 as good, as his mind will necessarily 

 mandy cling to his greater financial 

 problems. The case is worse, how- 

 ever, where both parties are poor, and 

 where the faihu-e scrimps tlie poor 

 wife and little ones. 



Has it never struck Bro. Pond that 

 tlie price of honev must necessarily 

 be a figure intermediate between maxi- 

 mum and minimum cost of produc- 

 tion 'r* That he who produces a maxi- 

 mum cost must fail. That only those 

 w!io produce at a lesser cost can suc- 

 ceed ':' That where two apiarists each 

 ask for a share of one field, they must 

 produce at maximum cost. The ac- 

 tions of thelletheringtons, Oatmans. 

 Grimms, etc., prove this to be true. 

 Has he never been able, from his posi- 

 tion, to look at the apiculture of the 

 near future as a business with the 

 same dignitv, and surrounded with 

 euvironnrents, the same as other lines 

 of business V 



Does he not know that the figures 

 he gives are not average yields, and. 

 consequentlv. figures of exaggeration';' 



That in this exaggeration he has ad- 

 mitted the weakness of his case ':f Re- 

 cent repmts from some of our more 

 practical producers tend to show that 

 our bees go over six miles in each di- 

 rection for nectar. We all know very 

 well that the little workers do a good 

 business when traveling four miles 

 from tlie hive to the flowers. As 

 above quoted, our ablest apiarists 

 agree that we can readily practically 

 overstock a location. An area of 

 eight miles diameter would contain 

 over 20,000 acres of land. 



As Bro. Pond's No. 2 gentleman has 

 hardly succeeded in honestly, and un- 

 selfishly earning more tban a one- 

 hundredth part of that area, and 

 should he embark in bee-keepi"ng,more 

 than nine-tenths of his honey must 

 come from flowers he does not " own.'" 

 will he have the cheek to talk to 'No. 

 1 about the ownership of nectar'? 

 Would it not have been better if Bro. 

 Pond had not mentioned the word 

 ■■ own," and does not the nectar, in a 

 legal and moral sense, class with the 

 air and sunshine, free to all 'f 



As there are so many unoccupied 

 fields where the nectar is never gath- 

 I ered. and as the second half of that 

 numberof colonies that one area will 

 support, can be managed in the same 

 field with less than one-half the ex- 

 pense, they can be equally well hand- 

 led in another, does not "the '• prior " 

 occupant of a field have the '" moral 

 right " to that field '? I still think, yes. 



Bro. Pond cites us to the gush 

 '• across the water." Let us see, 

 there are two distinct classes. Past 

 generations have so arranged it there 

 that those who work most have least, 

 and those who work least have most. 

 The one class consumes the earnings 

 of the other. The consuming class 

 are the ones who are most interested 

 in educating the producers how to 

 produce more. Our own country is 

 not entirely exempt from this condi- 

 tion of affairs ; in which respect it is 

 growing no better from day to day. 



The dabbler who takes one loaf of 

 •■ bread out of the specialist's mouth." 

 will take two out of his own: but this 

 does not pay either party. The 

 " Gusher" who urges on this dabbling, 

 is the one who fills his sack. Every 

 apicultural teacher shirks his most 

 solemn duty, if he fails to teach his 

 pupils these great truths. If he does 

 teach them, the more such-taught 

 apiarists lie sends into the field, the 

 better for the pursuers of honey-pro- 

 ducing. Bro. Pond asks : " Who has 

 given us our improvements— the spec- 

 ialists or professional amateurs ':*" I 

 answer, both. I would be glad to-day 

 if I had such a professional amateur 

 in my field with his 5 or 10 colonies. 

 He could show me some entomologi- 

 cal truths, while I showed him what 

 are the necessary methods and fixtures 

 to make the production of honey a 

 successful speciality. The greatest 

 blight on the fair fruit of apicultural 

 literature has been the presumptuous 

 writings of professional amateurs. 

 Specialists (since there have been any) 

 have done nearly all that has been 

 done in devising practical methods of 

 operation and procedure, as well as 

 improving and adapting the fixtures 



invented by professionals tothe whole- 

 sale honey -production of to-dav. 



By the way, is the rich Mr. No "2 about 

 to become a professionalisty Does 

 the large yield, taken by No. 1. excite 

 his unselfishness to spend his time de- 

 vising improvements for the poor and 

 needy of the following generations ? 

 Why should we not expect good im- 

 plements and methods of operation as 

 the outgrowth of the brain of him 

 who is trying to pile up the largest 

 number of tons of honey, with the 

 least cost and friction. "' Necessity is 

 the motherof invention." And would 

 it be strange, if what is most needed 

 by the specialist should be invented 

 by him':' Does nothing good and 

 wi.se ever evolve from the brain of 

 him whom circumstances have forced 

 to mingle his physical labor with his 

 thoughts ':' Have not most of the best 

 thoughts given to the world come 

 from this source 'f Is not Bro. Pond 

 a little too aristocratically inclined? 



About three years ago. an honest, 

 world-beaten young man, one w'ho 

 looked as though he might have been 

 an orphan at a fender age, came nearly 

 a hundred miles to see and talk with 

 me. He said he was poor : never' had 

 lieeu helped by any person (no doubt 

 he had the reverse), and all he then 

 had was about MO colonies of bees, and 

 his health and strength, without skill 

 with which to support a good wife 

 and two young children. lie asked 

 me to advise him regarding the prob- 

 abilities of his sinking or floating on 

 his apiarian plank. I looked at him, 

 watched his step and manner of 

 speech, and made up my mind that 

 with a little help at the start, and 

 good advice, he could win. I have 

 tried to give him lioth. He is succeed- 

 ing, I believe. Now, reader, you know 

 that this man loves his family as well 

 as you do. I well rememlier when I 

 was anxious ; when it was win with 

 bees or go hungry, and no one to shed 

 one feeble ray of "light. 



You know "that our pursuit is not 

 all gold; that manv fail ; that another 

 bee-keeper in this man's field would 

 more than likely cause failure. How 

 do you feel when one of these 

 " gushers." from the most selfish 

 motives, or blind ignorance, steps np 

 to the neighbor of this young man 

 and says, "Why don't you keep bees '?" 

 " There is lots of money in it." "Why, 

 bees work for nothing, and board 

 themselves." Do you not feel like 

 saying to this class just what they 

 used to say to me. •■ Put him out '?" 



Dowagiac. Mich.. March 24, 1884. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Experiments with Bees. 



l"KAY. 



During the past six years I have 

 been experimenting with five differ- 

 ent strains of bees. They were the 

 light-colored Italians ; the imported 

 Italians; the (ierman or black bees, 

 aiuj a cross between the German 

 brown bee and the imported Italians. 

 I tried them both separately, and side 

 by side ; and for both extracted and 

 comb honey. I prefer the cross. I 



