14 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



through spring preparation, queen- 

 rearing, surplus storing of botti comb 

 and extracted honey, transferring nat- 

 ural and artiiieial swarming, etc., to- 

 gether with all the mechanical labors 

 connected with the production and 

 fitting for market of iiO,00() pounds of 

 surplus honey. While he has yet 

 more to learn, I consider him fully 

 competent to successfullij manage an 

 apiary of 100 colonies, spring count. 

 Signed, " Get There Success." 



The above is the sort of diploma I 

 ■want. 



Is this the firm of Capable & Rich ? 

 Yes sir. You have advertised for a 

 salesman, I believe V Yes sir ; we 

 need one badly. I am here to make 

 application for the place. What tes- 

 timonials of character and ability can 

 you give V lie takes out a document, 

 covered with the seals and signatures 

 of all the officers and committees of a 

 popular commercial college, avowing 

 that the bearer, "Studious S. Slow- 

 motion " is everything that a college 

 professor imagines a young commer- 

 cial man ought to be. It is all lined 

 and trimmed with red tape. The pro- 

 prietor drops his head, looks disap- 

 pointed, and says, I will consult our 

 head salesman, and give you an an- 

 swer in a moment. John ; here is a 

 young man seeking the place, where 

 we so much need help, and here is his 

 testimonials. John reads a little 

 ways, and says : "There is no use to 

 try any more of those commercial col- 

 lege graduates; they usually have 

 less than one-fourth of the native 

 tact of a boot-black, and they have it 

 all to learn after they get here. We 

 don't want any more stupid appren- 

 tices ; we want an experienced man, 

 one who has had practice, and is not 

 all theory." 



About such dialogues as this occur 

 daily in our large cities, I am credi- 

 bly informed. I like the Doctor's 

 ideas, all but the diplomas and signa- 

 tures, which I think entirely useless. 

 The results would show that a bee- 

 man is a bee-man " for a' that, and a' 

 that," and that a failure coulii pass 

 the examination, get the signatures 

 and yet be a failure " for a' tliat." 



On page 43, Mr. Chas. FoUett gets 

 up " another step higher." I like the 

 solid metallic ring oi: " his " short re- 

 ply. I believe he has reached a point 

 where he can defy failure ; but his 

 article gives conclusive evidence of at 

 least two points ; first, that, if after 3 

 years of apprenticeship, he blundered 

 to a loss of $300 to S500, either he did 

 not become a student as well as an 

 apprentice, during the time, or else 

 his teacher was incompetent. Sec- 

 ondly, in any case, it shows the great 

 value of experience before we invest 

 our capital. 



In chemistry, 3-7of A, and 4-7 of B, 

 mixed together, make a healthful 

 nutritive food, but 3-7 of B, and 4-7 of 

 A are together a deadly poison ; so 

 apicultural success will be reached 

 only by a proper mixture of thought 

 and labor. The apiarist, in the back- 

 woods, with no teacher, no reading 

 matter, no thought to clash with and 

 sharpen his own, will fail ; so the 

 commercial student, who is buried 

 under a mass of books and teachers. 



having no store or fabric of merchan- 

 dise with which to practice, soon for- 

 gets even how to " swap jack-knives." 

 Any apiarist, to do justice to student 

 apprentices, must invest a few hun- 

 dred dollars in experimental fixtures; 

 the extra labor, thus incurred, the stu- 

 dents will perform, and should, in jus- 

 tice to them, have that extra labor 

 supplied them. 



Mr. FoUett will think five months 

 (which constitutes a season here, as 

 we unpack about May 1st, and re- 

 pack tlie last days of September) 

 rather a short time to become profi- 

 cient in the art of honey production. 

 My limited experience with students 

 proves that this five months of study 

 and practical experiment puts them 

 on the right track, and prepares their 

 minds for receiving all new truths 

 right end foremost. All of my stu- 

 dents, wht) have commenced bee- 

 keeping, are to-day succeeding; two 

 will begin in apiaries of mine, on 

 shares, this spring. My faith is thus 

 great; with these five months instruc- 

 tion, any reasonably apt man can 

 have of me an apiary of 100 colonies 

 on shares, a position which will pay 

 him more than high wages, one year 

 with another, and one in which he 

 can " blunder " and finish his educa- 

 tion at my expense. Of course I will 

 direct the operations. I shall get bet- 

 ter results than to sell the bees. It 

 will not take five months to convince 

 him that comb-honey production, 

 when properly pursued, pays much 

 better than extracted. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 22, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Small Sections, Best Bees, etc. 



DR. J. R. BAKER. 



We are a great people, but. withal, a 

 little eccentric ; and I think I never 

 saw the latter characteristic crop out 

 more prominently — at least in bee- 

 keepingcireles— than in the half-pound 

 section business. 



Because two or three honey-produc- 

 ers, who believe in the grand principle 

 of ever marching forward, and who 

 like to experiment and indulge in 

 novelties, put a few half-pound sec- 

 tions of honey, in nice shape, on the 

 market, and foimd a good sale for it, 

 why, about half of the bee-keeping 

 fraternity seem to have gotten half- 

 pound section on the brain I 



It seems to me that Capt. L. H. 

 Scudder, of New Boston. 111., Mr. F. 

 C. Benedict, Dr. Miller, James Hed- 

 don and others, in the week or two 

 last past have taken the sensible view 

 of the matter, as expressed in the Bee 

 Journal, and now comes, in the last 

 issue of the Bee Journal, Mr. Frank 

 L. Ripley, of Boston, Muss., with a 

 clincher," which it is hoped will act as 

 a sedative on the over-anxious victims 

 of the half-pound section craze. 



It is contrary to good judgment to 

 expect the half-pound sections to ever 

 become universally in demand : for, 

 there are a few who always seem to 

 think that acting ridiculously is the 

 displaying of wisdom, the majority of 

 honey" consumers will prefer to buy 



just as little wood as possible, at from 

 20 to 30 cts. per pound. The Irishman 

 said that he wanted just as much 

 whisky as possible and as little qui- 

 nine in his prescription as would make 

 it legal. So the most of tlie honey 

 buyers will want as much honey as 

 possible and as little wood for the 

 money. 



In view of this fact I think the ma- 

 jority of bee-keepers had better stick 

 to the one and two-pound sections, for 

 awhile yet, at least. I know one that 

 will, at all events. 



I have looked on with a good deal 

 of interest in the discussion as to the 

 merits of the different varieties of 

 bees, that has been indulged in with 

 so much ability and warmth by some 

 of the apicultural gladiators in our 

 country; and the result of the discus- 

 sion, to my mind, has been a complete 

 routing of the three-band advocates. 

 While the thorough-bred Italians, with 

 their beautiful yellow bands, are, as a 

 rule, very docile, and always pleasing 

 to the eye of one who loves the beau- 

 tiful, I am fully persuaded that for 

 honey-gathering the dark-colored (or 

 hybrids, if you please) are much supe- 

 rior, as a general thing, to the golden 

 beauties. While this seems to be the 

 experience of a majority of our ex- 

 perienced apiarists, it is most decidedly 

 mine. That this is true, I very much 

 regret, for if there is anything that I 

 love to look upon, it is a colony of 

 beautiful yellow bees. 



Now, while what I have said as to 

 the superiority of the dark bees as 

 honey-gatherers, I am much inclined 

 to think there is a remedy for it, and 

 that is, in the selection of the good 

 honey-gatherers from among the yel- 

 low bees as breeders, and the merciless 

 beheading of every queen whose prog- 

 eny prove to be indifferent workers. 

 No difference, if her bees have forty 

 gold bands, let her goto the " block," 

 unless the bees are good for business. 

 I am quite certain that it is the in- 

 breeding of the American Italians for 

 bands, instead of for workers, that has 

 wrought the mischief in the ranks of 

 yellow bees. If the yellow bees are 

 expected to keep abreast of their more 

 homely and irascible neighbors as 

 business insects, they must be judic- 

 iously selected. 



There are good workers among the 

 most beautiful yellow bees, I know, 

 and if the breeders of these would 

 breed from nothing but such, there 

 would soon be lessto say about the 

 yellow bees being inferior to the dark 

 as workers. The trouble has been, 

 that if a queen breeder of Italians had 

 a golden queen whose progeny were a 

 beautiful yellow, she was valued very 

 highly, wi'thout reference to tlie busi- 

 ness qualities of her bees at all. All 

 this must be speedily changed, if the 

 golden-banded beauties are to hold a 

 place in the affections of our best 

 apiarists. 



Let some man well- fitted for queen- 

 breeding give us a good strain of gold- 

 en Italians and he shall be called 

 blessed, by one lover of the beautiful, 

 at least. 



There is no better locality for honey 

 production than near the upper Mis- 

 sissippi. I believe the honey reports 



