THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



505 



I bought a queen from an Ohio 

 queen-breeder, last season, which 

 pleases me very much in all respects. 

 A horse can teed dose to the hive, or 

 a person may stand by the hive all 

 day, and wIumi we liandlc the frames, 

 the bees are there, and not in your 

 ■face. 



1 believe that the matter of ([ueens 

 demands the greatest care ; i. e.. if we 

 wish to know what we are getting. 

 If I buy a hybrid, I want to be told 

 so, or at least I want that impression. 

 1 believe as Mr. Root says, tliat " the 

 one who sells the best is the one who 

 will win." It is a great disappoint- 

 ment, after waiting to test a queen 

 in a full colony, to lind that the bees 

 are no iuiprovement over those from 

 the superseded queen, and that we 

 must try again. 



I am more in favor of pure Italians, 

 since I see their kind disposition ; and 

 I almost think that it is best to buy 

 tested queens, if I can get them where 

 other bloods have not been mixed 

 with them. I would be pleased to 

 hear from otliers on this subject. 



In regard to reversible frames, I 

 have reversed all which were not full 

 at the bottom, but which are now. and 

 sucli a full set of brood I never saw ; 

 so much so that the bees have hardly 

 any honey-cells, and must take the 

 supers. 



North Auburn, Maine. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Priority of Location. 



H. J. KENDALL. 



Mr. Pond is a curious man— and his 

 arguments on the above question are 

 curious too. He either cannot or will 

 not see ; and which one it is, I am at 

 a loss to understand. The history of 

 this discussion is brief : Mr. Ileddon 

 wrote an article in which he showed 

 how a practical apiarist could control 

 a honey-field ; how it could be done, 

 and how an intruder could be driven 

 <iut. Mr. Pond wrote an article in 

 which he argued against the rightful- 

 ness of it (not against its possibility), 

 and said Mr. Ileddon was "selfish,"' 

 etc. ; in fact, his article was directed 

 at Mr. Heddon and his motives. 

 With Mr. Pond it was not right to do 

 as Mr. Ileddon proposed. He did not 

 argue against his power or his legal 

 right. Mr. Heddon replied, and so 

 disposed of the morality, the right- 

 fulness of the question, that Mr. 

 Pond immediately shifted his ground 

 and argued tliat a man had a legal 

 right to come into another man's loca- 

 tion. 



I saw the injustice ilr. Pond was 

 doing Mr. Heddon, and chipped into 

 the discussion, saying tliat we were 

 arguing first the moral right of the 

 first locator to keep out intruders if 

 he could ; and secondly, his power to 

 do so, and I said that no one doubted 

 that an intruder had a legal right 

 {and in that sense Mr. Pond was 

 " legally right," and in that sense 

 oidy) to enter another man's location, 

 but he had no moral right, and that 

 even looking upon this as a qiiestion 

 of law. that the principles nf law were 



against Mr, I'ond, and I gave illustra- 

 tions. Mr. I'ond. in his reply, tries 

 to ridicule me as lie did Mr. Iledcion, 

 and asks witli an air of exultation, if 

 he is legally right, how can tlie (irin- 

 ciple of law be against him ? I can 

 tell Mr. Pond veryeasily tlie how, but 

 before doing so, I would point out 

 how in liis manner of asking that 

 question he changes the sense, and 

 makes it bear an entirely different 

 look to the position and point we are 

 discussing. His "legal right" he 

 puts in the sense of being according 

 to the principles of law, wiiereas he is 

 onlv •• legally right "' in the sense that 

 I doubt whetlier any court would 

 issue an injunction to keep the in- 

 truder out ; but I apprehend that the 

 court would soon be convinced (as Mr. 

 Pond himself was, and showed that 

 he was, by changing his position) that 

 the intruder, by intruding, did the 

 settler an injury, and conseijuently 

 did a moral wrong, so far as bees 

 went, and that being so, an equity 

 decision might be rendered, as a 

 precedent, for as yet such a question 

 has not been passed on by any court 

 that I ever heard of. Legal princi- 

 ples are based on equity, they are 

 equity. 



The equity of the matter Mr. Pond 

 has accepted by his silently accepting 

 and not answering the equity argu- 

 ment. He only now contends for the 

 legality, inasmuch as that the settler 

 cannot legally sue out an injunction 

 and prevent an intruder putting bees 

 in his locality. Cannot Mr. Pond see 

 the difference, tlie wide difference V 

 and that he is '■ legally right " in the 

 sense of present special enactments, 

 yet that the principles of law go dead 

 against him V One of the principles 

 or equity is, I think, that " where 

 there is a wrong there is a remedy." 

 In the case we are discussing, the 

 remedy would be an injunction pre- 

 venting the intruder coming into the 

 the settler's field. 



Mr. Pond then goes on to discuss 

 the foundations of titles .and tenures. 

 He says, and .says as a lawyer, " The 

 principles of law, as I understand 

 them, require 20 years of adverse, un- 

 interrupted and exclusive use to get 

 tenure of my estate in fee." Now we 

 all know that while that is true in 

 certain cases, it is not true in all cases, 

 and that it is false in millions of 

 cases. I can get an absolute title in 

 a few minutes, a title as absolute as 

 Mr. Pond's 20 years, and ilr. Pond 

 knows, or should know this ; but there 

 are other ways of getting title as I 

 told Mr, Pond, and discovery and first 

 settlement are two of the very stroug- 

 est titles. Tliis idea was carried out 

 by every one of the discoverers of 

 past days, and recognized by other 

 nations, and is to-day. The idea is 

 recognized by pre-emption, and it is 

 recognized by the cattle and sheep 

 men, and by miners in the West by 

 first entry, and prim'ity of location. 

 Nobody is foolish enough, no one has 

 contended that a man can get a title 

 to land by letting his bees graze the 

 flowers on it for 20 yeais. This is one 

 of the ways Mr. Pond tries to put his 

 opponent into a position he never put 

 up. I do not forget anything about 



bees being in fera naturce, and never 

 raised that question to permit Mr. 

 Pond to force any such position as he 

 again tries to do. on me. 



Mr. Pond says he had determined 

 to quit the discussion, because it had 

 become " more of a personal than api- 

 cultural nature." It was Mr. Pond 

 who made it personal by ridiculing 

 and speaking disparagingly of Mr. 

 Heddon. " Consistency thou art a 

 jewel " indeed. 



I do not know that this discussion 

 will do much good, except that as we 

 have the morality, the rightfulness, 

 the equity of the " priority of loca- 

 tion " theory in bee-keeping recog- 

 nized, it may be a step towards get- 

 ting an eqii-ity decision, and so en- 

 forcing by direct enactment a right 

 recognized but not protected by law. 

 If this is not obtained, let every bee- 

 keeper whose honey is his livelihood, 

 practice :Mr. Heddon's teachings, as 

 set out on page 80 of the American 

 Bee .Jouknal. 



Austin, Texas, 



[This discussion is altogether too 

 personal to be beneficial, and here let 

 it'stop, for the present. Discussions, 

 to be profitable, should be impersonal 

 — confined to measures and not 

 men.— Ed.] 



Rend at the Maine Convention. 



Profitable Bee-Keeping in Maine. 



.1. B. MASON. 



The question of most importance, 

 because the one which affects us most 

 pecuniarily is, "Can we keep bees at a 

 profit in Maine y I answer, yes, I 

 think we can. From a wide range of 

 observation in our own State, and 

 from reports received from other 

 States, I find that bee-culture, syste- 

 matically and understandingly carried 

 on, pays well. Some may say that 

 the Western States possess advanta- 

 ges which we do not. I have traveled 

 some there, and as far as my observa- 

 tion goes, the iioney-flora of Maine 

 compares favorably with those Slates, 

 and nowhere is better honey produced 

 tlian here. And better still, we real- 

 ize better prices here than in the 

 West. I have lately conversed with 

 a man who had formerly lived in Illi- 

 nois, but subsequently moved to 

 Maine, and last season, witli the help 

 of a man and a girl, cared for 140 colo- 

 nies, increased them to two hundred, 

 and produced three tons of honey 

 which he sold for twenty-five cents 

 per lb. at wholesale, thus giving him, 

 for honey, $1400, and the increases 

 Vv'ere valued at $360, making a total 

 income of S1760. While one such 

 individual case does not prove the 

 assumption that bee-keeping is prof- 

 itable in Maine, it is one case pointing 

 in that direction, and by gathering 

 facts from such sources is the voice 

 of the State expressed. 



Mechanics Falls, Me. 



^" Letters for publication must be 

 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



