120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



informed as to the yield in general ; 

 aud to benefit producers in any real 

 practical manner, I should certainly 

 give it ray hearty sympathy aud co- 

 operation. 



But, says Mr. B., " When our large 

 honey-producers make up their miuds 

 to organize and pull in one direction, 

 etc., then his one price object may be 

 accomplished. Well, whom does he 

 call " large producers V" Suppose one 

 party producing 20,000 pounds be- 

 comes a member, while in the same 

 place are 20 small bee-keepers pro- 

 ducing each 1,000 pounds who do not 

 join the association, would his 20.000 

 pounds have the effect of raising the 

 price any more than the same amount 

 in the hands of the small bee-keepers 

 would in lowering it ? 1 think not. 



Now, in all candor, Mr. B. had bet- 

 ter leave this matter of a fixed price 

 to the inexorable laws of supply and 

 demand. 



Cambridge,>o Ills. 



in a few minutes that there were 

 more at home than I desired ! 



So it is witli the toad ; it coulil hop 

 every day in the year, but it does not. 

 They can be found in some quiet 

 place taking a little rest. It is the 

 same with the snake, lizard, and all 

 the small reptiles ; even the so-much- 

 talked-of aligator will spend several 

 weeks, and some say here several 

 months in quietude, after obtaining a 

 square meal on a few pine-knots to 

 keep his stomach from collapsing. 1 

 think that we need not doubt but 

 what bees do hibernate, but I think 

 they do so only at times when there 

 is no brood-rearing going on, or very 

 little, at least. 



Altoona,© Fla. 



For the Amencan Bee JoumaL 



ApicuMral Patents. 



A. N. CLARK. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



linterQuietMeofBees. 



JOHN CRAYCRAFT. 



we have the authority of ex-commis- 

 sioner of patents, Benjamin Butter- 

 worth, M.C., of Cincinnati, who says : 

 '•Not to exceed 10 per cent, ot the 

 patents issued by the Government of 

 the United States prove valuable to 

 the patentee. So that besides the 

 expense of time, labor, material and 

 cost of patent, the inventor runs a 

 great risk for which he should when 

 successful be substantially rewarded. 



Mr. Heddon suggests an" Honorary 

 Inventor's Rights System." But does 

 it not appear to the reader that he 

 has too much faith in the honesty of 

 bee-keepers y Would it not leave the 

 honest apiarist to compete at a dis- 

 advantage with the rogue y 



Mv attention has been forcibly 

 calle'd to this subject of patents, by 

 the appearance before Congress ot a 

 bill known as " Bill H. R., ^'o. 4458 " 

 which, if passed, will strike a death- 

 blow to inventors of apiarian imple- 

 ments. . , 



East Le Roy, 9 Mich. 



I think there need not be a doubt 

 but what at a season of cool or cold 

 weather,with no flowers and no brood- 

 rearing, bees take on a state of 

 quietude even in this warm climate 

 of South Florida. It was warm on 

 Christmas day, and the temperature 

 was 72° in the shade, yet I noticed 

 very few bees flying, and not having 

 examined or even opened any hive 

 for some four weeks at a time, I went 

 over them, equalizing the stores of 

 the colonies as to their individual 

 wants ; so that all would have plenty 

 until the flowers come again. 



I opened the hive of a fine colony 

 of Italians, and found them in a state 

 of quiet, almost a death-like stillness. 

 but in a few moments they were in 

 an active state. I continued the ex- 

 amination on other colonies, and 

 found them in almost the same slate 

 of quietude, although at the same 

 time there were a few bees around 

 the entrances, occasionally one pass- 

 ing out and in. At this time there is 

 very little brood, there being no 

 source of honey, and from this I am 

 led to think tliat even in a warm 

 climate like this, when brood-rearing 

 is stopped, and no honey in the fields 

 to gather, even though it may be 

 ■warm and very pleasant, the bees will 

 take on this repose and remain so at 

 intervals of several days at a time, 

 and then come out on a general 

 cleansing flight, re^turn to the same 

 quiet until instinct tells them that it 

 is time to commence their prepara- 

 tions for the propagation of their race. 

 To further confirm my examina- 

 tion, I know of a very strong colony 

 of the common small yellow-jackets 

 that make their home on the ground. 

 I went to it to learn something of 

 them, and I found a few at the en- 

 trance, as it were, on guard, but none 

 passing in or out. I thought I would 

 stir them up a little and see if they 

 were at home. I did so, and I found 



In the article on " Apicultural 

 Progress," the writer says : " Who- 

 ever looks back over the great pro- 

 gress of apiculture during the last 

 two decades, will not fail to discover 

 that inseparably connected with this 

 progress is the one of mechanical in- 

 ventions. Perhaps I might well have 

 said that this invehtiou constitutes 

 the major portion of that progress." 



To the above we may heartily an- 

 swer, yes. But are we to suppose that 

 we would now have all these mechani- 

 cal conveniences without patent laws 

 to protect the inventor ? I think that 

 a great many of our labor-saving de- 

 vices would be unheard of in the 

 absence of governmental protection ; 

 for, in the first place, there would be 

 less inventing, and, in the second 

 place, many inventors would try to 

 keep their inventions a secret in or- 

 der that they might more easily com- 

 pete with others in the same busi- 

 ness. But with proper protection the 

 inventor advertises his new or im- 

 proved utensil. So that every one 

 has an equal chance with his neigh- 

 bor. Again, the proper protection of 

 the inventor induces mechanical 

 knowledge to spread very rapidly; 

 hence, it acts as a great civilizer. 



It is quite generally understood that 

 a great many apiarists are strongly 

 opposed to any one who will protect 

 his property with a patent. There is 

 an indirect and a direct reason for 

 this opposition. First, manufacturers 

 of apiarian supplies,who manufacture 

 more than they originate, advise peo- 

 ple not to patent their inventions; 

 and these probably really considered 

 it unfair to take out a patent, for, as 

 Faraday said, "The force of the 

 temptation which urges us to seek 

 such evidences and appearances as 

 are in favor of our desires, and to 

 disregard those which oppose them, 

 is wonderfully great." "It consists 

 in the tendency to deceive ourselves 

 regarding all we wish for." This 

 error of judgment affects the anti- 

 patent bee-keepers not only through 

 the manufacturers, but in a direct 

 manner also. ^^ . . 



For those who oppose the patent 

 system on the ground of monopoly. 



w 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Tlie Use of Comli Fonndation. 



H. M. GATES. 



"Does it pay to use foundation? 

 is often asked, so I will give my ex- 

 perience with it. My way ot increas- 

 ins mv number of colonies is by nat- 

 ural swarming, and I hive the swarms 

 that issue in June on empty frames. 

 If it should be a good season they will 

 just about fill the brood-chamber of a 

 Langstroth hive. Where I hive 

 swarms on old combs or foundation^ 

 each colony will store from 40 to 60 

 pounds of fine honey, and leave plenty 

 in the brood-chamber for winter. 

 Counting the surplus honey at 20 

 cents a pound (I never sold a pound 

 fofless), I have from $H to $12 per 

 colony; and deducting from 80 cents 

 to $1 for foundation, leaves me a nice 

 profit per colony. I have used foun- 

 dation in sections in half sheets and 

 W-inch guides on the top-bars, and i 

 fSund that it pays just the same in 



^"^The^past" season I placed from 1 to 2 

 frames of foundation in the centre ot 

 the brood-chamber, and as soon as i 

 dared to spread the brood apart, I 

 took out the outside frames that had 

 little or no honey or brood in them, 

 using them to hive swarms on, and 

 getting the foundation drawn out 

 better and more even in that way 

 than in any other I then hived the 

 swarms on but 2 frames of old combs 

 for the first 24 hours, placing a,t the 

 same time on the top (using division- 

 boards, of course) from 8 to 24 two- 

 pound sections ; this forced the bees 

 to occupy the sections immediately. 

 In this way I find that it is best to 

 use only J^-inch guides in sections. 



One thing that I have of ten noticed 

 in hiving swarms on full sheets of 

 foundation is, that in the centre of a 

 hive, especially at the top of the 

 frames, they will often build new 

 comb on top of the foundation, in- 

 stead of drawing out the cells to the 

 proper length. This led me to try 



