AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL; 



621 



is going on daily around ns. Take for 

 instance dental electricity, and see how 

 heretofore unnoticable cavities in the 

 teeth are brought to light by means. of 

 the miniature incandescent lamps. By 

 means of it, the hidden recesses of the 

 stomach are brought to light, so that 

 the doctor can perceive what is going on 

 therein as easily as though there was an 

 invagination of that organ. 



Board the electrically equipped 

 steamers, and there, even upon the 

 bosom of the mighty and heaving deep, 

 the electric light is at your bedside. Go 

 down into the mines, and see the train 

 of cars running along at a jolly rate 

 under their burdens, at the command of 

 the motor man. Here you will see elec- 

 tric percussion drills, operating under 

 power brought 5 or 6 miles from its 

 primal source. What before were un- 

 profitable regions and unoccupied, are 

 now teaming with life and mechanical 

 activity. The mines are lighted by 

 electricity, thereby avoiding all danger 

 from the explosion of methane or fire- 

 damp. 



But on the other hand, suppose that 

 the apiarist has only a few colonies. He 

 can at an inexpensive expenditure pro- 

 cure one of the many small portable 

 motors now on the market, which, in 

 connection with open circuit batteries, 

 will operate his extractor at high effi- 

 ciency. The case of the chemical fuel 

 for the batteries would cut but a small 

 figure. From 15 to 20 cents would be 

 the probable amount for 12 hours' con- 

 secutive running ; and then think of the 

 time and labor saved ! 



Let us suppose that the motor, extrac- 

 tor and batteries are all connected up 

 and ready for operation. Having put 

 the first set of uncapped combs in his 

 extractor, he throws the switch, and 

 having standardized or regulated the 

 motor to the right speed for the ex'trac- 

 tor, he leaves his honey-house and 

 secures another relay of combs from the 

 hives. By the time he returns to the 

 honey-house it is time for a reversion of 

 the combs. It takes but a jiffy to do 

 this, when the switch is thrown again, 

 and by the time his second set are un- 

 capped, his first set are ready for the 

 hives. Supernumary laborers are done 

 away with, and the apiarist is able to do 

 his work frugally and expeditiously, 

 thereby avoiding the tendency to create 

 robbing, and its concomitant troubles in 

 times of drouth or poor honey-flow. 



And I desire to say right here, that I 

 believe as yet apiculture to be in an 

 abacial attitude. The old hand-turning 

 process must be relegated ; time is 



money to the bee-keeper, especially 

 when there is a shower of honey, as in 

 the case of apple bloom, locusts and the 

 linden. We must keep apace with the 

 times. We live in an age of inventive- 

 ness, and heneo I believe in the saying 

 of 



" Be not the first by whom the new are tried. 

 Nor yet the last to throw the old aside." 



If you are convinced, after a thorough 

 trial of the advantages of new inventions 

 in the way of hives and bee-fixtures, and 

 you see that the time and money gained 

 will make up for the cost of the new 

 inventions in a short time, by all means 

 relegate the others to the rear. 



You may consider honey a luxury, but 

 I think as the price of sugar decreases, 

 there will be less and less of it bought 

 by the poor and needy, because the dif- 

 ference in price between the two will 

 represent too much money. About 25 

 pounds of sugar and 10 of honey at a 

 dollar each ; how are you going to rec- 

 oncile them for the vox populi f I main- 

 tain that honey, in view of its medicinal 

 properties, should be on the table of 

 every man. 



Now, if new inventions would reduce 

 operating materials and expenses to 

 such a minimum of cost as to allow of a 

 scaling down in the price of honey pro- 

 portionate to the droppiug in sugar, and 

 at the same time allow the apiarist to 

 make a fair commercial profit, honey 

 would not be held in the light of a lux- 

 ury as it now is, but would be consumed 

 to a greater extent, and treated more in 

 the nature of lard and butter. That is 

 the way to secure a market for our 

 honey. 



We want people to sweeten their cof- 

 fee and oat-meal with it ; spread it on 

 their bread and buckwheat cakes ; use 

 it for medicinal purposes; put their 

 fruits up in it and what not. But if the 

 difference in price between sugar and 

 honey is allowed to increase, I do not 

 see how we can attain that much sought 

 after desideratum, i. e., a ready market 

 for all the honey we can produce, at a 

 fair commercial profit. 



We should not forget that under the 

 " McKinley Tariff Bill " a bounty of 2^^ 

 cents per pound is paid to the sugar 

 producers of this country. Senator 

 Sherman feels that the beet sugar in- 

 dustry, like Eli Whitney's cotton gin, 

 will revolutionize the production of 

 sugar in this country, and that it will 

 only be a matter of few years, under 

 wise and discriminating legislation, that 

 we will produce all the sugar we need, 

 and at a cheaper price than we can buy 



