378 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



Mr. Massie does not have verA- much pa- 

 tience with those bee-keepers who stick in 

 the old ruts, cling-ing' to standard hives and 

 to standard goods: and he paj-s his respects 

 to such people in somewhat emphatic lan- 

 g-uage. The price of the book is 25 cents. 

 It can be obtained of T. K. Massie, as 

 above, or the Kretchmer Mfg, Co., Red 

 Oak, Iowa. 



THE POLICY OF GLEA>nNGS TOWARD CO- 

 OPERATION DEFINED. 



I AM surprised to notice that I am credit- 

 ed by one of the editorial writers in the 

 Progr-essive Bee-keeper with being- opposed 

 to co-operation. Possiblv* such an ideama}- 

 be gathered from a single quotation, if it is 

 taken separate and apart from all the other 

 things I have said on this subject; but is 

 that a fair way to set forth one's opinion or 

 position? 



I have been heartily in favor of co-oper- 

 ation, and have referred editorially a num- 

 ber of times to the splendid organization in 

 Colorado. In this issue it is with no little 

 satisfaction that I note that California is in 

 a fair way to have a successful State or- 

 ganization for the marketing of its crops of 

 honey. A few wild and visionary schemes 

 have" been proposed: and from a business 

 point of view, if an attempt were made to 

 carry them into effect, failure only could be 

 met. 'with the result that the general idea 

 of co-operation would receive a blow from 

 which it would not soon recover. 



For fear that some may not understand 

 our position, I wish to say this: That we 

 are heartliv- in favor of co-operation, and 

 will do all we can to further and help on 

 any plan that is business-like and practicable 

 in' its general scope. But the talk about a 

 national co-operative body to sell honey 

 would be a little premature, just now. ac- 

 cording to my way of thinking. "^Vhen we 

 can get four or five State organizations at 

 work effectively, we shall then stand a bet- 

 ter chance of launching forth an exchange 

 that will be national in character. Let us 

 go slow; but be sure that what we do under- 

 take would make a sure go. 



Gleanings opposed to organization? I 

 know of no reason why it should be. What 

 is helpful to the bee-keepers at large would 

 be immensely beneficial to the publishers 

 and manufacturers. Certainly the present 

 ruinous price-cutting and lack of co-opera- 

 tion is damaging and demoralizing to every 

 interest connected with the bee-keeping in- 

 dustry. 



the re^■iew editor at medina ; a visit 

 with mr. chalon fowls, of oberlin ; 

 how to make red bees out of yellow 

 ones; that horse that was so badly 



STUNG. 



Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, of the Review, 

 is foul-brood inspector for Michigan. Hap- 

 pening to be in the southeast corner of that 

 State on one of his inspection-tours he de- 

 cided to go a little further and visit some of 

 the bee-keepers in Northern Ohio. We had 



the pleasure of a visit from him on the 23d 

 and 24th of April. Although he is a little 

 past 50, yet he is well preserved for his 

 age. Tall, straight as an arrow, he does 

 not look to be over 40. Those of our people 

 who had never seen him remarked that thej* 

 would have known him at once bj' his pho- 

 tograph. 



Of course, I took W. Z. out on mj' auto. 

 A number of times I ran the machine up to 

 the point where I thought I could make him 

 flinch. When I asked him if he could 

 stand it at a little higher speed, he laugh- 

 ingly remarked that he could stand it if / 

 could. Well, to be frank about it I did not 

 dare to go much above 15 miles an hour on 

 those countrj- roads. As it was, we were 

 jounced or "shook" like beans in a box. 

 What if I should lose m3' grip or head, or 

 run into something? What if I could not 

 stop the thing? What if I should run into 

 a ditch, and the thousand-pound automobile 

 should be piled up on us two editors? We 

 solemnly agreed that t/iat wouldn't be de- 

 sirable or comfortable," and I slowed down. 



I proposed taking our friend to Oberlin 

 and Xorwalk in the machine to see Mr. 

 Fowls at the former place and Mr. Board- 

 man at the latter; but the condition of our 

 Ohio roads, and the general appearance of 

 the sky, made it seem inadvisable. To 

 prolong our "unconventional convention" I 

 finally decided to go with W. Z. H. on the 

 street-car, at least part waj'. I went as 

 far as Oberlin, where Mr. Fowls helped 

 make up our convention. It will be remem- 

 bered that he is the extracted-honev- man 

 who makes a specialty- of bottling his hon- 

 ey, and selling the same at retail. He has 

 now four outyards. and is one of the few 

 who make bee-keeping a specialty*. He re- 

 marked, as he looked toward W. Z. with a 

 twinkle, that he was going to keep "more 

 bees;" and instead of producing extracted 

 honey onU-, and carr\-ing some of it over 

 from season to season, he proposed dividing 

 his crop into fanc^' comb and fancy bottled 

 goods. 



Our readers will recall that, some three 

 or four years ago. Mr. Fowls had quite an 

 experience with a horse that was nearly 

 stung to death, and that he himself escap- 

 ed verv' narrowU'. He had tied the "old 

 mare," as he said, back of the yard near 

 the fence. On the other side of this fence 

 there was a couple of nuclei which he had 

 forgotten all about. During the night the 

 horse in some way broke through the fence 

 and upset one of the hives. In the early 

 morning Mr. Fowls heard a peculiar rack- 

 et. Suspecting what the trouble was, he 

 dressed and rushed out to the horse, bare- 

 footed and bareheaded. M\'. oh mj-1 how 

 the bees pitched at himi He returned, how- 

 ever, in inglorious defeat. Remembering 

 that that seemed cowardlj-, and that the 

 poor horse was tied with a rope, he rushed 

 back, this time in spite of the bees and 

 stings, and untied the rope. But the mis- 

 chief had been done. Almost screaming 

 with pain he called for hot water, which 



