THE AMERICAJS BEE JOURNAL. 



279 



starters in the frames, than if sup- 

 plied with full sheets of foundation 

 or with empty combs. An extra good 

 season now and then has turned my 

 head in that way ; but when it comes 

 to running an apiary from year to 

 year as a business, comb foundation 

 and empty combs cannot be dispensed 

 with in the majority of the apiaries of 

 the country, and their judicious use 

 must be profitable everywhere. 



Our bee-literature is in a muddled 

 condition, and is likely to get worse 

 since in " book making there is no 

 end." One of the worst and most 

 vicious tendencies in the would-be 

 authors of the times, is to lionize 

 somebody, or some bee-hive, or some 

 theory, instead of writing directly to 

 the matter in fact, as indicated by 

 the title of the book. 



Christiansburg,5 Ky. 



For tue AJnerlcan Bee JoumaL 



Bees anfl Frnit-Remoyal Desired. 



Z. A. CLARK. 



The following appeared in our local 

 paper, the Standard, concerning my 

 apiary : 



" As some dissatisfaction has arisen 

 in this place tending to and developing 

 into a somewhat organized effort to 

 have the apiary of Z.A.Clark declared 

 a nuisance by the city authorities,and 

 forcibly ousted from the city limits, 

 we deem it pertinent to discuss the 

 matter. A veritable howl has been 

 raised against Mr. Clark's bees, and 

 it is said on account of the fact that 

 the little workers were attacking 

 and actually destroying the growing 

 fruit of the town. The idea was 

 really a new one to us ; and besides 

 believing that the man engaged in 

 apiculture on his own premises had 

 rights to be respected and protected 

 as much so as the followers of other 

 avocations, we believed they were 

 mistaken as to the ability of the bee 

 to do the damage it had been charged; 

 so investigation showed that the 

 opinions of the citizens as based on 

 their experience and observation in 

 such matters, were widely divergent. 

 But the matter we feel is fullv set- 

 tled by the official report to the United 

 States Entomologist, by N. W. Mc- 

 Lain. From it will be seen that it is 

 impossible for bees to puncture the 

 skin of sound, unbroken fruit. Let 

 the enemies of the industrious bee 

 read it." 



sequence of the drouth preceding, 

 and followed by rain every day for a 

 month, the bees were starving, and 

 so they took to the juice exuding 

 from the decaying peaches. From 

 ignorance, the populace— the "cranky" 

 part of them— set up a veritable howl 

 that Clark's bees were eating up all 

 the peaches ! One party even went so 

 far as to say they ate up his young 

 ducks. As for this I cannot vouch, 

 as they were not brought into the 

 apiary. 



This is the only move ever heard of 

 this kind in any town or city in 

 Arkansas. Our town has about 

 1,800 inhabitants, not crowded, and 

 bees have been kept here for 50 years. 

 The chronics are a minority, and 

 last year, as soon as the flora grew, 

 the bees left the fruit, and there was 

 no more complaint. They want to 

 have the bees moved this year before 

 fruit ripens. I do not know what 

 steps to take. I have no other land 

 in this county but what my bees are 

 on, and I have no-money to buy any, 

 and want to make a living, if I am 

 allowed to, from my bees. 

 Arkadelphia, p Ark. 



[The Manager of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, by request, has advised Mr. 

 Clark as to what course to pursue. 

 The false accusations against the 

 bees, about their breaking the skin of 

 grapes, when thus refuted, will be 

 advantageous to the apiarist. All he 

 needs is to treat the subject with 

 calmness, be courteous to his ad- 

 versaries,and await the reaction which 

 will surely come in due time.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee JournaL 



The Preyention of Sw armiiii. 



OTIS N. BALDWIN. 



Then follows the report as already 

 published in the Bee Journal. 



No one in this immediate vicinity 

 IS cultivating fruit as a business, and 

 from May 10 to June .3 it was ex- 

 tremely dry, and no rain- something 

 very unusual in this locality— and in 

 consequence, the bloom was all de- 

 stroyed. From Junes until July 1, 

 It rained incessantly, and the early 

 peaches began to ripen when a rain 

 would come. Hot sunshine upon the 

 fruit would cause it to break, rot and 

 collapse, and there being no honey 

 nor bloom for the bees to work upon 

 or gather honey from, and in con- 



This topic seems to be agitating the 

 minds of the wide-awake apiarists of 

 to-day ,and well it might; considering 

 the close competition and prevailing 

 low prices of honey it behooves us to 

 make every " corner cut " in produc- 

 ing the most honey with the least 

 labor and capital expended. It is un- 

 necessary to state that the quality 

 must be gilt-edge to compete now-a- 

 days, for every live apiarist has dis- 

 covered that ere this. But to the 

 point : 



It is a fact beyond dispute that if 

 the bees of a colony can be kept to- 

 gether with all its increase, and made 

 to work in the sections from the com- 

 mencement of the harvest, and produce 

 an impulse for gathering honey equal 

 to a swarm just hived, without de- 

 stroying any of the fundamental 

 rules necessary to produce harmony 

 in the hive, more honey can be ob- 

 tained by such a non-swarming plan 

 than is possible to obtain by letting 

 the bees increase naturally. But some 

 will say that such a thing is im- 

 possible ; that the greatest entomolo- 

 gist, and the most learned apiarists in 

 the world have not discovered it, and 

 therefore it is impossible ; and should 



a common bee-keeper proclaim that 

 he could accomplish it, he would be 

 at once put down as a fraud, trying to 

 swindle the fraternity out of a few 

 dollars. 



In this day of frauds and humbugs, 

 we cannot be too careful. While this 

 is all true, we should not cry down a 

 thing that might be worthy an inves- 

 tigation, without knowing something 

 of the footing upon which we stand. 

 I have read Mr. Gresh's article on 

 page 107, and I am inclined to think 

 that he will still look in vain for the 

 desired method. He states, too, that 

 he is glad that Mr. Simmins has given 

 his non-swarming method to the pub- 

 lic, etc. IE I am rightly informed, 

 Mr. Simmins did not give his method 

 to anybody ; he published a pamphlet 

 on the subject, and it is for sale. Let 

 some man ask Mr. Gresh to give him a 

 hundred pounds of honey ; would not 

 Mr. Gresh be a little non-plussed V 

 Would he not say, " my honey is my 

 labor, and must bring the cash." 

 Then he would cast a smile at the 

 stranger, as much as to say, " you are 

 awful green 1" It is just the same 

 with a non-swarming plan that is 

 genuine; it costs money, and takes 

 labor to experiment, and the man that 

 discovers such a plan as is mentioned 

 above, will not give his time, labor 

 and money for unappreciated glory. 



Many bee-keepers, too, want in- 

 crease in their apiaries, and think that 

 a non-swarming plan prevents in- 

 crease. This is just exactly as the 

 bee-keeper wants it. He can have all 

 the increase he wants, or none, and 

 can always have his bees in good con- 

 dition, which is impossible where 

 swarming and contraction is prac- 

 ticed. I have tried the contraction 

 method to my sorrow, and consider it 

 the most impractical plan in apicul- 

 ture. It is unnatural, and ruination 

 to an apiary for at least a year there- 

 after. Any plan of manipulation that 

 is calculated to violate the God-given 

 laws of nature in handling bees, will 

 prove a failure every time. Let the 

 bees follow their own instincts, ar- 

 range the hives accordingly, and you 

 have the non-swarming plan described 

 above ; and I will insure your bees 

 not to cast 4 swarms in 100 colonies, 

 in a normal condition, and get every 

 pound of honey in the surplus depart- 

 ments, if you want it so. It does away 

 with two-thirds of the labor, and 

 makes happy bee-keepers. 



A hundred years ago railroads, 

 telegraphing, telephones, and thou- 

 sands of other woQderful inventions 

 were unknown, and if any man could 

 then have looked into the future and 

 revealed the wonderful things that 

 have transpired, he would have been 

 looked upon as in conspiracy with the 

 evil one. In all the literature on bee- 

 culture of the present day, there is 

 not a single process recorded where 

 artificial fertilization of queen-bees 

 has been made a success, and most of 

 the authors claim it is an impossi- 

 bility to produce fertile queens in 

 confinement. 



I have queens that were hatched in 

 cages, and their wings were clipped 

 before they ever had the possibility of 

 a chance for a flight. They were 



