THE AMERICAI^ BEE JOURNAL. 



327 



horse-power physique. His nervous 

 tension and mental energy have al- 

 ways been vexed that their dwelling- 

 house were not bigger and stronger, 

 and are determined to destroy it ; and 

 it behooves our friend to look sharply 

 or they will succeed. 



Mentally Mr. Heddon is exception- 

 ally vigorous and gifted. The Eev. 

 Mr. Gage once told me that he was 

 especially interested in a certain 

 young man in his village, who with an 

 opportunity, would certainly make a 

 scientist. Years after, I became ac- 

 quainted with this same promising 

 young man in Mr. Heddon. 



As a speaker, Mr. Heddon is un- 

 usually vigorous. His sentences are 

 always to the point, and his figures 

 and illustrations are often irresisti- 

 ble. I have known him at our State 

 convention to hold every person spell- 

 bound as he explained, often at great 



He has had as many as .550 colonies 

 of bees" at one time, which were kept 

 in three separate apiaries. He now 

 has 450 in two apiaries. In 1877 his 

 Glen wood apiary, worth $1,.500, and 

 numbering 99 colonies, gave him a 

 cash income of $1 ,070, and increased 

 to 207 colonies, all hut two of which 

 came through the following winter in 

 good condition. The expense in car- 

 ing for this apiary that year was $200. 



One year, with 16 colonies, he in- 

 creased to m;j, and sold $800 worth of 

 honey. All of the 33 colonies win- 

 tered well during the succeeding win- 

 ter. At that time honey sold for a 

 very high price. His largest yield for 

 one season, of a single colony, was 410 

 pounds, all but 48 of which was ex- 

 tracted. He once secured 29 pounds 

 and 13 ounces of unripe extracted 

 honey as the result of a single day's 

 gathering of a single colony. 



MR. JAMES HEDDON, DOWAGIAC, MICH. 



length, his experiments, views and 

 methods. The same spirited, forcible 

 style characterizes his writings, as all 

 who read the bee-periodicals know. 

 His nervous energy, excessive love of 

 fun, and desire for hard-earned vic- 

 tory, miike him an eager controver- 

 sialist. He fairly grows fat (mentally) 

 in a good, square, honest, intellectual 

 wrestle. 



Mr. Heddon told me that he com- 

 menced bee-keeping with nothing ex- 

 cept a stout heart. He has been a 

 specialist all the time, except for a 

 brief period of late, when he has sold 

 supplies. This diversion, he has told 

 me, was a loss to him. Now he is 

 worth thousands of dollars. He went 

 into the supply business in 1879, in 

 hopes that, by a circular, he could 

 answer many of the questions that 

 now came to him in letters, and save 

 time to his business. His present 

 capital he credits almost exclusively 

 to honey production. 



Mr. Heddon is very neat and me- 

 thodical. It is a very great pleasure 

 to visit bis place. I think I never 

 visited an apiary where more taste 

 and good judgment were displayed in 

 all the arrangements of the bee-yard. 



The valuable improvements which 

 Mr. Heddon has given to our indus- 

 try are many, and will most interest 

 the readers of this sketch. All that I 

 shall name. I feel certain are original; 

 and nearly all I know to be excellent 

 from actual experience. 



I have found the slatted honey- 

 board a very valuable adjunct to the 

 Langstroth hive. This, when made 

 just right, keeps the sections per- 

 fectly neat. The spaces must be just 

 over the centre of the top-bars of the 

 frames in the brood-chamber, and the 

 spaces between the top-bar and slats 

 no more nor less than a bee-space. 

 This prevents the brace-combs, and 

 such a honey-board needs only to be 

 tested to be retained in every apiary. 



His modification of the Langstroth 

 hive, omitting the portico, the tele- 

 scopic upper story and cover, and the 

 bevel of the Simplicity, have so 

 pleased me, after a two-years' trial, 

 that I would never think to return to 

 the old styles. Those who condemn, 

 surely have never tried it. The shade- 

 board is also much superior to a tree, 

 evergreen or grapevine. 



Like myself, Mr. Heddon used sec- 

 tions before he ever saw them else- 

 where. Though original with us, 

 their use in our apiaries may not have 

 priority. 



Mr. Heddon's shipping-crate, as I 

 state in my book, is neat and cheap, 

 and was the first substantial improve- 

 ment in that article. 



The section-crate, with bee-space 

 above, will probably never be ex- 

 celled in securing comb honey with- 

 out separators. After two years' use 

 I pronounce it simply perfection. It 

 is in his new hive. 



I have already reviewed his new 

 book, and there spoke of his new hive 

 and system. There can be no ques- 

 tion of the originality of these, and 

 hardly less that they are a marked 

 improvement, and will soon come into 

 general use. I have never tried these, 

 but the experienced bee-keeper does 

 not need to try every invention to be 

 assured of its excellence. 



Mr. Heddon has also practiced the 

 principles of breeding, as followed by 

 our successful breeders of other do- 

 mestic animals ; that is, he has 

 crossed two valuable breeds, and by 

 selection has secured a strain with the 

 excellences of both the original races 

 and without their undesirable quali- 

 ties. He claims this; and while I 

 have not tested his improved strain, I 

 am certain that the above is the 

 metho4 which must be employed to 

 secure the best bees. 



Lastly, Mr. Heddon suggested the 

 " Bee-Keepers' Union," which may 

 and will be of great service to our 

 industry. Each of us is liable to 

 prosecution by those ignorant and 

 prejudiced, and we need just such an 

 organization to aid us in protecting 

 our rights, and in maintaining the 

 high position which our industry 

 deservedly holds among the pursuits 

 of the world. 



Mr. Ileddon has been President of 

 the Michigan Association, and a very 

 poor one he made. A President must 

 be staid and serene, and without 

 nerves, which does not describe our 

 Dowagiac friend. 



When at his house, some years 

 since, among the many attractions I 

 saw, were three beautiful children, 

 those best ornaments in every home. 



Agricultural College, ? Mich. 



[Mr. Heddon is well known the 

 world over, as a successful apiarist 

 who has thoughts and methods of his 

 own, and that he is not afraid to ex- 

 press them, even if the multitude 

 favor the opposite. His fort and 

 special success lies in the direction of 

 mechanical invention. Nearly all of 

 his devices are practical, and will live 

 after he is gone.— Ed.] 



