120 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



On the Supply Maker's Trail- 

 No. 2 Smokers and Un 

 capping Knives 



By Frank C. Pellett. 



READERS of Uncle Tom's Cabin 

 will remember that Topsy 

 "just grew" and that she had 

 no idea that she ever had any 

 parents. So it was with the Wood- 

 man Company, of Michigan, it just 

 grew, also, without any definite in- 

 tention of establishing a supply 

 house, on the part of its founder. 

 Not only did it grow in the beginning, 

 but it kept on growing, and still con- 

 tinues to grow. 



A. G. Woodman was engaged in 

 beekeeping, in combination with fruit 

 growing on a farm near Grand Rap- 

 ids. He used to start to town before 

 3 o'clock in the morning, so as to 

 get his load of fruit on the market 

 by the time the first buyers appeared. 

 Whether he was more a fruit grower 

 or a beekeeper would be hard to tell, 

 since he grew up in daily contact 

 with both. As his bee business grew, 

 he found it necessary to buy supplies 

 in quantity, in order to insure that 

 he would always be ready when the 

 honey-flow came. Some of his neigh- 

 bors were less provident, and made 

 no provision for securing supplies 

 until they were urgently needed. 

 They soon found that Woodman al- 

 ways had them on hand anyway, and 

 that he never refused to meet their 

 urgent needs. He soon found that 

 nearby beekeepers were looking to 

 him for supplies, and increased the 

 amount of his orders. Every year 

 the number of his customers in- 

 creased, until he began to get small 

 orders from other towns. Thus it 

 was that the Woodman Company 

 "just grew," without special effort on 

 the part of anybody. 



It was not long until the barn on 

 the farm was no longer big enough 



for a warehouse, and it was too 

 much of a task to haul all the sup- 

 plies out to the farm, repack them 

 for shipment, and take them back to 

 town to the freight depot. It ac- 

 cordingly became necessary to 

 choose between his farming and go- 

 ing to town. Woodman was a farm 

 boy who had married a farm girl; 

 they were doing well with their fruit 

 and bees and liked the life. The 

 problem, however, was what to do 

 with the business which "just grew." 

 Since it had outgrown the farm and 

 had developed with so little effort, 

 there seemed to be no way to get rid 

 of it, so they decided to leave the 

 bees on the farm and take the busi- 

 ness to town. It looked much easier 

 to run out to the farm to care for 

 the bees than to keep the supply 

 business in the country, and so it 

 proved. 



Once the business had been moved 

 to town it was no longer allowed to 

 "just grow," but it was pushed with 

 all the energy that heretofore had 

 been expended in growing fruit and 

 producing honey. The proprietor de- 

 cided that the best opportunity in 

 the supply field lay in the pushing of 

 specialties. As a' practical beekeeper 

 he had developed a double-walled 

 hive which he named the "Protection 

 Hive." For a time he occupied him- 

 self particularly with introducing 

 this hive, which has since become so 

 generally known as to require no de- 

 scription here. Later he offered the 

 section fixer, which has been very 

 generally used for folding, and put- 

 ting foundation in sections. 



When the late T. F. Bingham was 

 ready to retire he selected Woodman 

 as the man to continue the manufac- 

 ture of Bingham smokers and knives, 

 which are known among beekeepers 

 the world over. Mr. Bingham made 

 the first really practical bee-smoker 

 in 1878, and, although it has been im- 

 proved from time to time, it is still 

 recognized as one of the best in 

 the market. 



THE APIARY THAT WOODMAN LEFT ON THE FARM: 260 COl 

 IN PROTECTION HIVES. 



A. G. WOODMAN STILL LIKES TO GET 

 OUT TO THE ORCHARD AS WELL AS 

 TO THE APIARY. 



When a fellow buys a bee-smoker 

 he gets a good deal for his money. 

 If we stop for a moment to think 

 how much we owe to the smoker, 

 we will appreciate what Bingham and 

 those who came after have done for 

 us. By its use we can control the 

 bees so nicely, that the necessity for 

 veil and gloves is done away with at 

 certain times. We not only are able 

 to work with more comfort and sat- 

 isfaction, but an immense amount of 

 time is saved, because we can con- 

 trol conditions within the hive. Hun- 

 dreds of bees are saved, which would 

 be crushed in spite of our utmost 

 care. If one will try to work with- 

 out the smoker for only half an hour 

 during the height of the season, he 

 will wonder how it was ever possible 

 to produce honey successfully before 

 its invention. Beekeeping, as we 

 know it now, was not possible prior 

 to the invention of the smoker and 

 a few other contrivances which were 

 developed at about the same time. 



Then the cost of the smoker is in- 

 significant, entirely out of propor- 

 tion to its importance in the apiary. 

 It thej lost ten dollars each instead 

 of a dollar, we would have to buy 

 them. Yes, if they cost twenty dol- 

 lars, I am sure that no commercial 

 honey producer would do without 

 one. It we take time to look one 

 . ei i arcfully, we will wonder how 

 it is possible to make it and sell it 

 50 cheaply. The price is accounted 

 for by the fact of its universal use. 

 \nv article can be made at a low 

 there is a demand for enough 

 of them. Each of the pieces that 

 enter into the finished article is 

 made by hundreds and even thou- 

 sands. The legs arc stamped out of 

 sheet metal faster than one can 



