164 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



new things, either those of our own 

 invention or as suggested by other 

 thinkers', we would not become wiser, 

 we might stand still and never make 

 any progress. We must do a certain 

 amount of experimenting. I myself 

 have in my yards several styles of 

 hives; one has the jumbo feature, an- 

 other the standard L, another the 

 half-story frame or interchangeable 

 sectional feature. Yes, and I have 

 used the box-hive. Any of these 

 hives have their valuable feature, but 

 if I might begin beekeeping anew, I 

 would not hesitate one moment but 

 what I would select the regular sin- 

 gle-walled Langstroth hive with its 

 tiering up principle. I verily believe 

 that all those successful honey pro- 

 ducers who are now using other 

 hives, jumbo-framed or miniature 

 half-story hives, would be equally 

 successful with the L-hive. It is a 

 matter of adapting the management 

 to the hive, that's all. In view of the 

 many advantages that uniformity in 

 hive and hive fixtures affords, it 

 would seem to me that the time is 

 now here for our beekeepers' socie- 

 ties, our apicultural writers, our vari- 

 ous bee inspectors and other bee au- 

 thorities to turn their attention to 

 this subject of uniformity, and par- 

 ticularly to standardizing the section. 

 Mr. S. D. House, in his zeal went so 

 far as to demand that the New York 

 State Association of Beekeepers' So- 

 cieties at their last session in Syra- 

 cuse go on record as establishing a 

 standard section, if necessary to ask 

 the legislature at Albany to pass a 

 law making it illegal to offer comb 

 honey for sale in New York State ex- 

 cept same is stored in the. to-be- 

 adopted section. A committee was 

 appointed at this meeting to have 

 this matter in charge. As chairman 

 of this committee I would ask the co- 

 operation of all beekeepers in this 

 and in other states. Let this subject 

 be discussed from an unbiased stand- 

 point; let us put aside our notions, 

 make concessions for the go:>d of the 

 cause. 

 Naples. N. Y. 



^fbod 



A Visit to the Food Adminis- 

 tration 



By Mary < i. Phillips 



ONE cannol help but be im- 

 pressed by the change which 

 has come over Washington 

 since war was declared. It used to be 



that one could stand On the sidewalk 



outside the historic and picturesque 

 Octogon House for hours at a time 

 and sec nothing more exciting pass 

 than an old-fashioned barouche 

 drawn by ancient horses, and driven 

 by a still more aneient colored 

 driver, but now if you stand there 

 for more than a minute or two, you 

 are jostled by the passing throngs of 



hurrying people, and instead of the 

 faded upholstery of the barouche 

 your eye catches glimpses of shiny 

 enamel as the autos speed past. The 

 sleepy, indolent air of the streets is 

 a thing of the past, swept away by 

 officers in khaki striding by, groups 

 of young business women hurrying 

 along, by sailors, civilians, foreign 

 officers in vari-colored uniforms, all 

 wearing the air of going somewhere 

 with a purpose. 



If you follow the stream going 

 south you will find that most of the 

 atoms which make it up are headed 

 for one of the large gray buildings 

 which now form a drab background 

 for the Spanish beauty of the Pan- 

 American building, the classic mar- 

 ble of the home of the D. A. R., and 

 the white simplicity of the Red 

 Cross building. The low, modest, 

 gray structures are unpretentious, 

 and of temporary construction, but 

 what they lack in artistic beauty is 

 made up by what one discovers is 

 going on inside. The streets sur- 

 rounding the tremendous area which 

 they cover are lined all day with au- 

 tomobiles, and up and down the few 

 steps at the entrances someone is 

 always coming or going. One of 

 these buildings is marked "Food Ad- 

 ministration," and the minute one 

 enters, the atmosphere of work is 

 felt — work tremendous in quantity 

 and importance. 



Just inside the door are desks as 

 in a hotel lobby, where you inquire 

 for the person you desire to see. 

 He, or she — frequently she — is tele- 

 phoned to, and a boy acts as guide 

 through a labyrinth of halls, up 

 stairs (there are no elevators), 

 round corners, past innumerable 

 doors, until you find yourself enter- 

 ing a large, light office, where the 

 person you wish to see comes for- 

 ward cheerfully and courteously, 

 ready to tell you anything you wish 

 to know. 



Of course, you wish to know ev- 

 erything, and as you imbibe knowl- 

 edge your respect and wonder for 

 the great mind at the head of the 

 Food Administration increases by 

 leaps and bounds. You learn that 

 there are many divisions of the Food 

 Administration, each division being 

 divided into sections, each with its 

 staff of specialists from all parts of 

 tin country. Every commodity has 

 its section, or if it is specially im- 

 portant, like sugar, it has a division 

 devoted to it. Then there is the Ed- 

 ucational Division, which includes a 

 Women's Magazine Section, a Farm 

 Journal Section, a Library Section 

 and many others. As you meet more 

 and more of the workers, each wear- 

 ing a Food Administration button, 

 you cannot help but feel their tre- 

 mendous earnestness, their enthusi- 

 asm for their work and their devo- 

 tion and unswerving loyalty to Mr. 

 I lo. iver. 



A young girl in the Farm Journal 

 Section said lo me : "You must go 

 upstairs and sec the muffin exhibit 

 that was made for the State men 

 when they came here for a confer- 

 ence this week." Of course you know 

 that each State has its food adminis- 

 trator, but do you know that fre- 



quently these men come to Washing- 

 ton for personal conference with Mr. 

 Hoover? Those are the days when 

 it is wise to keep away from the 

 Food Administration Building, for 

 no one has time for any individuals 

 who are not "State men." We went 

 upstairs and down long halls until 

 we came to the conference room. At 

 the front of the room someone was 

 talking to a group of twenty or thir- 

 ty people ; at the back stood a cam- 

 era man photographing muffins with 

 the help of the artist who had made 

 them and who was carefully cutting 

 them in half to show the texture. 

 There, on plates, were at least fifty 

 different kinds of muffins made in 

 the kitchen of the Food Administra- 

 tion, and not one had less than 50% 

 wheat substitutes, many of them 

 contained 75% wheat substitutes, and 

 some were 100% corn flour, rice 

 flour, barley flour or buckwheat 

 flour. And what is more, every one 

 that I tasted was palatable as well 

 as good to look at. They were ten- 

 der and light and show what we can 

 do if we try. Miss Roberts, who had 

 taken me to see the exhibit, turned 

 to say: "Well, I made chocolate cake 

 with 75% buckwheat flour this week 

 that was delicious, and my mother is 

 now making all her bread with at 

 least 75% wheat substitutes." There 

 is the spirit of the Food Administra- 

 tion workers — they are more than 

 living up to the food pledge ! They 

 are not like the woman who was 

 heard to say recently, "All this talk 

 about wheat substitutes passes me 

 by!" And that woman was knitting 

 socks for her nephew at the front, 

 while talk of wheat conservation 

 "passed her by!" It seems incredible 

 that that could have been said in 

 Washington with those thousands of 

 earnest people in the Food Adminis- 

 tration so near at hand. 



On every office wall in the Food 

 Administration building are posters 

 of food conservation, many of them 

 beautiful pictures, all of them with 

 forceful sentiments — "Food Will Win 

 the War," "Eat Less Wheat, and 

 We'll Beat !" "Serve Simple Food, 

 and Just Enough." Then the walls 

 of the halls are utilized to display 

 posters made by school children of 

 different parts of the country. These 

 are well done and the educational 

 work that they accomplish for food 

 conservation is obvious. Some 

 showed fruits and vegetables in ar- 

 tistic groups with "Hat These" below 

 them; others showed bags of sugar, 

 fat pigs and red cows with "Send 

 These Abroad" beneath. One picture 

 evidently by a small youngster, was 

 a sugar bowl, with "Let Me Alone" 

 printed on it. 



The Library Section is a most in- 

 teresting room where exhibits are 

 prepared tor Public Libraries every- 

 where in the country. While post- 

 ers carry their message, they may be 

 forgotten, but who can forget an ar- 

 ray of tiny toy soldiers with bayo- 

 nets pointing toward a herd of cows 

 ami pigs with the legend, "Back, 

 Meat! Shipping Space all Taken! 

 Near bv is a toy tram, labeled 

 "Wheat," with soldiers in a line be- 

 side it, saying "Forward, Wheat 1 We 



