322 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



took a camera's view of it. On our way back 

 I noticed a deserted dwelling standing 

 among old apple trees and evergreens. Most 

 of the doors and windows had fallen from 

 the casements, but vines made wreaths about 

 the openings and hung in festoons from the 

 cornices. It was romanticly picturesque, 

 even for a deserted dwelling, and how I did 

 long to stop and add it to my collection of 

 photographs, but a stiff breeze kept the 

 leaves in constant motion and I knew the re- 

 sult would be a negative not quite good 

 enough to be satisfactory nor bad enough to 

 throw away, hence I reluctantly drove on. 

 Since beginning to use the camera I find 

 myself noticing every little bit of scenery in 

 a way that sometimes surprises me. Before 

 leaving Mr. Heddon's I made "exposures" 

 of his home apiary, the interior of hie honey 

 house and of his residence, from some of 

 which I may have cuts made and show them 

 to my readers. 



From Dowagiac I went toBuchanan, 

 Michigan, where I visited nothing more nor 

 less than a skunk farm, that is, a place where 

 skunks are raised for their fur and oil. 

 About three acres of a hill side that slopes 

 down to a stream are fenced in with a h gh 

 board fence that extends four feet down into 

 the ground and is surmounted with several 

 strands of barbed wire. Inside this enclo- 

 sure the animals are kept in what might be 

 termed a half-domesticated state. One place, 

 where the bank is the steepest, is fairly hon- 

 ey-combed with their holes. There is a house 

 in which is a brick arch surrounding a huge 

 caldron kettle in which their food, consist- 

 ing of scraps of refuse meat and corn meal 

 is cooked. There is an out door cellar in 

 which the food is kept in winter th t it may 

 not freeze. There have been as many as 380 

 skunks inside the enclosure at one time, but 

 at present the exact number is not known. 

 I made several photographs showing the dif- 

 ferent phases of the business, and, consider- 

 ing that the skunks do not usually come out 

 until dusk, I was fortunate enough to catch 

 three in a group taking their evening meal 

 before it was too dark to use the camera. I 

 may " write up " an account of this visit and 

 send it to some paper for publication. 



I reached Chicago early Tuesday evening 

 and was not long in discovering that the 

 " gathering clan " became rapidly greater as 

 the hours went by. The hotel was soon so 

 crowded that it was impossible to make room 

 for one more to sleep. There was a large 



transom extending the whole length of my 

 room, or, rather om- room, as it contained 

 six bee-keepers, and when I awoke in the 

 night I heard voices down in the hall. I 

 listened a few moments and decided that E. 

 R. Root had arrived, as the conversation was 

 none other than he and C. E. Parks of the 

 G. B. Lewis Co., talking sections. 



There was the largest gathering of bee- 

 keepers it has ever been my lot to witness. 

 There were 22.") in attendance, some .tO of 

 which were ladies. Many were the old famil- 

 iar faces that greeted and made glad my 

 eyes, and many were the faces with which I 

 at once felt acquainted although I had never 

 seen them before. 



While there was a large gathering of the 

 best apiarists of the country, nothing of an 

 unusually valuable character was brought 

 out at the convention. This is not to be 

 wondered at, as all subjects are so thoroughly 

 discussed in the journals that but little of a 

 new character remains to be said at a con- 

 vention. 



As a place for seeing how bee-keepers look 

 conventions are a grand place, but the jour- 

 nals are beginning to rob it of even this 

 feature ; but they never can forestall us in 

 the hand clasp, the sound of the voice, and 

 the glance of the eye. 



One fact was brought out more clearly to 

 me than it had ever been shown before, and 

 that is in regard to the size of hives and the 

 contraction of the brood nest. We of the 

 North, with our short, early honey flow need 

 small hives and contraction or the season is 

 passed before the colonies are ready for it. 

 Farther south where the seasons are longer, 

 or where there is a bountiful fall flow, large 

 hives give excellent results and there is not 

 so much swarming. 



The question of swarming and its preven- 

 tion also turned largely upon this same 

 point. With a short, early flow swarming is 

 undesirable, while a prolonged flow or one 

 that comes late in the season may make 

 swarming desirable 



The fact that a one-fourth inch bee-space 

 practically prevented the building of brace 

 aud burr combs was also given considerable 

 emphasis. 



There are also two points in the manage- 

 ment that I wish to criticise, that is the lack 

 of a programme pro{)erly arranged before 

 the convention was called to order ; and the 

 advertising of a three-days meeting and then 

 cutting it down to two. At least one hour of 



