246 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



small windows for ventilation, which 

 should be kept open at all times when 

 the mercury would rise above 90° in- 

 side. These are to be secured and 

 made so as to be opened (by sliding) 

 from the outside. On the south side 

 and near the top, 1 would have an 

 ordinary window for light, the upper 

 part of which should revolve to let 

 bees out, which may come in on the 

 honey. The door should be on the 

 north side to correspond with one in 

 the south side of the work-room, and 

 both floors of the two buildings 

 should be on a level, with a plank 

 walk connecting the two. 



For the inside of the honey-house 

 I would have two platforms, raised a 

 foot or 18 inches from the floor, one 

 on the west and one on the east side 

 of the room, to pile the honey on and 

 leave a passage-way from the door to 

 the window, between thtm, tor con- 

 venience in storing and manipulation. 

 The platforms should be made of 

 slats set up edgewise, about li or 3 

 inches apart, so as to admit air freely, 

 and the lumes of burning sulphur, if 

 such is required. Such slats should 

 also form the support for the sides 

 and ends to the piles of sections, the 

 slats being set ofi b inches Irom the 

 inside of the building, so as to allow a 

 free circulation of air in every direc- 

 tion. 



A honey-house fixed as above, to- 

 gether with an oil-stove, will give 

 apiarists complete control of the mat- 

 ter of preserving and ripening honey 

 to their satisfaction. The oil-stove I 

 prefer is the '* Adams & Westlake." 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



For tbe American Bee Jouroal. 



Will Patents Protect Poor Inventors ? 



E. V. MEIGS. 



On page 185, 1 lind an article from 

 Mr. J. £. Tond, of Massachusetts, 

 which is full of splendid sentiment, 

 yet which carries a false and some- 

 what dangerous idea, as I understand 

 our American patent system— a 

 branch of law which I have made a 

 special study for years. 



I refer to the idea that an inventor, 

 if poor, and his device of ready manu- 

 facture, cannot protect his rights, but 

 must become a victim to every one 

 who would infringe his inventions. 

 Such is not the case, and I very much 

 regret that any such idea should have 

 been put forth. We ask nothing bet- 

 ter than a case in patent causes, in 

 which a valid patent has been in- 

 fringed, and that too from an inven- 

 tor without one cent. It is true that 

 the getting of the first decision in the 

 United States courts is sometimes 

 quite expensive, but after a patent 

 has been thus sustained, all further 

 prosecution and collection for in- 

 fringements is, as a rule, quite easy 

 and of little expense to the owner of 

 the patent. The expenses fall much 

 heavier upon the infringer, and his 

 defeat is sure, and even the few- 

 rogues that are inclined to violate the 

 jusi principles so well laid down by 

 Mr. fond, will soon, to their peril, 

 learn better. 



I will not take up valuable space 

 with this somewhat out-of-place sub- 

 ject, so much as to go into any ex- 

 planation, for 1 am sure that all who 

 give the matter their best thoughts, 

 on general principles will at once 

 recognize that our Government has 

 not left our honest inventors without 

 protection because they may be poor, 

 or their inventions relating to manu- 

 factures which are used in a small 

 way by many persons. 



The American patent system is 

 among the cheapest in the world, as 

 well as the best to protect, and the 

 many very valuable inventions of 

 poor but ingenius Americans, who 

 have become rich through patenting 

 them, and at the same time doubly 

 enriched the world, attest the truth 

 of the position taken in this article. 



Detroit,©^ Mich. 



[As there ;has been one article on 

 each side of this question, let it end 

 here. We do not wish to give space 

 to further argue the matter.— Ed.] 



Bees as Pest Carriers. 



A correspondent in California has 

 sent us an article from the Biverside 

 Press and Horticulturist, asking that 

 it be inserted in the Ameeicak Bee 

 Journal with comments. Here is 

 the article : 



I am ready to prove that the setting 

 of fruit is not in the least dependent 

 upon bees. I am a pioneer, and was 

 engaged in buying and selling fruit in 

 1851. The orchards and vineyards 

 about the Missions were as fruitful 

 then as now, or have been since ; yet 

 no bee was seen in' California until 

 four or five years later. The first 

 bees imported into California were 

 brought by a Mr. Sheldon, who 

 placed them in charge of B. F. Ken- 

 nedy, of Santa Clara, and on return- 

 ing across the bay, met his death on 

 the ill-fated " Jenny Lind." These 2 

 colonies were soon under my charge. 

 1 transferred them into Langstroth 

 hives, and sent them on their mission 

 of usefulness. 



Up to that time the orchards and 

 vineyards never failed in their abun- 

 dance of fruit. While the injury 

 done by bees to raisins in the Santa 

 Ana Valley has been great the past 

 year, the injury to oranges has been 

 greater. The bees carry the red scale 

 from tree to tree. This scale is the 

 most destructive and the most diffi- 

 cult to destroy of any that has visited 

 tbe Santa Ana Valley. The young of 

 this pest are almost too small to be 

 visible to the naked eye. The wing- 

 less females are carried from tree to 

 tree by the bees. Simple declarations 

 without the evidence on which they 

 are founded, are valueless. I will 

 therefore give the facts which estab- 

 lish my proposition. 



First, the manner and habit of the 

 bee in gathering pollen makes it 

 practicable to collect these micro- 

 scopic mites with pollen and carry 

 them from one tree to another. That 



they do this, is evident from the fact 

 that the lemon tree, which is always 

 in bloom and covered with bees, is 

 the Urst to be infected with the red 

 scale. 



Second, I planted a small orange 

 orchard two years ago. They were 

 taken from a nursery remote from 

 any red scale, and appeared to be en- 

 tirely free from that pest. Soon after 

 they began to bloom, the scale ap- 

 peared, while those trees that did not 

 bloom at all were free from the pest. 

 Hence, it is evident that the bees 

 visiting the blossoms brought the 

 scale. There has been a remarkable 

 increase of this pest during the past 

 season. Many orange groves have 

 been dug up and burned solely on 

 account of the damage of the red 

 scale. 



There is plenty of room in Califor- 

 nia, as yet, for both industries, but 

 they cannot flourish together. Our 

 valley was once a good sheep-pasture, 

 but when it became evident that it 

 was more valuable for fruit than for 

 wool and mutton, the sheep had to 

 leave. When it becomes evident that 

 our soil and acreage are more valuable 

 for another industry, horticulture wlU 

 modestly and silently retire.— Ifiram 

 Hamilton, of Fomona. 



Our California correspondent de- 

 sired us to send it to Prof. Cook, of 

 Agricultural College, Mich., and ask 

 him to reply to it. We did so, and 

 here is his reply : 



~I am not prepared or disposed to 

 contradict or call in question any of 

 the statements of Mr. Hamilton, ex- 

 cept the first one. In that he un- 

 questionably makes a great error, and 

 this one mistake invalidates all the 

 rest. He says: "I am ready to 

 prove that the setting of fruit is not 

 in the least dependent upon bees." 

 This statement is a serious error, 

 although Mr. H. is not very blamable 

 for making it. He says that previous 

 to 1851, California had no bees, but 

 the crops of fruit were as good as 

 those secured since that time. This 

 is very likely true ; but does it war- 

 rant the other statement V 



There is no truth of science better 

 established, than that bees are of 

 great service in the fruiting of most 

 of our plants, including our varieties 

 of fruit trees. Often the bees are in- 

 dispensable to a partial; not to saya 

 full, crop. Let us see how Mr. H. 

 erred in his conclusions : 



It must be remembered that wild 

 bees and other insects may and do 

 fertilize the flowers just as well as 

 bees if they visit the flowers. There 

 are many such insects, especially in 

 California where there is no rigorous 

 winter to kill off the unprotected in- 

 sects. Here in the North and Last 

 we must have bees for our plants that 

 blossom early, as there are too few 

 wild insects to accomplish the work. 

 I have lived in California, and re- 

 member distinctly the swarms of in- 

 sects—not bees— that I used to collect 

 on the fruit-bloom. We see then that 

 fruitage was possible in California 

 before bees were introduced. But 

 now there are acres of orchard where 



