162 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



and conventions, literary gatherings, the 

 weekly prayer meeting, the Sabbath school 

 and religious Sabbath services &c., &c., I be- 

 lieve it is a duty we owe ourselves, our fami- 

 lies, our neighborhood, our country and our 

 God, to make use of every right influence to 

 help elevate the "standard of excellence" in 

 every direction that lies within our reach. 

 Poor as I am, I would not relinguish the 

 kindly greetings, the pleasant and valuable 

 acquaintance I've made, the information I've 

 gathered and the elevating tendencies of 

 such gatherings for many times what it has 

 cost me in time and money, and if the purse 

 will stand the strain and nothing unusual 

 prevents, my "better half" shall, in the 

 future, share with me, the benefits of our 

 International gatherings, as she does the 

 others I have named. 



There may be a grain of selfishness in my 

 wishing to take Mrs. Mason with me into 

 Canada. Perhaps you know some of the 

 Canucks have been threatening me with 

 some pretty rough handling if I ever 

 put my "foot on Canadian soil," and 

 it may be possible that they will let me 

 alone if Mrs. Mason is with me. 



Let everyone who can afford it, be at the 

 convention at Brantford, and if they think 

 it doesn't pay, I'll see that some one passes 

 the hat for their benefit. 



AuBUKNDALE, ( )hio. Oct. 2, 1889. 



Conventions no Place for Implements— Suc- 

 cess of Conventions Largely Depend- 

 ent upon Their Location. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



fWILL BE brief for two reasons. First, 

 each topic is crowding each number of 

 the Review. Second, you very nearly 

 exhausted the subject in your leader and 

 said so many things that I cannot touch 

 upon without using the same argument you 

 have, that I will only try to make the points 

 you have left out, and then quit. 



I believe our conventions can be improved 

 by leaving at home samples of apiarian sup- 

 plies. Although I have been urged consider- 

 ably to bring implements to conventions, I 

 have very seldom done so. ^Ve naturally 

 talk about hives, smokers, queen-excluders, 

 knives, etc., but cannot we understand them 

 without having to have a lot of traps lumber- 

 ing up the room, most of which are worth- 

 less and which take a good deal of the atten- 

 tion of the members, when they ought to be 

 giving their attention to something else. 

 Touching this point, I will here say that if I 

 have had one, I have had fifty letters from 

 bee-keepers, asking me to send them one of 

 my new hives to exhibit at some fair or con- 

 vention. In every case I have written them 

 that I do not want it exhibited. I want it 

 to win its way, if it can, by actual use hi the 

 apiarii, and if not in that way, certainly in 

 none. You will remember. Mr. Editor, that 

 my break-joint, bee-space honey board was 

 exhibited by different persons at conven- 

 tions in different parts of the country,' over 

 and over again, between five and ten years 



ago. You will remember that I wrote about 

 it, that I illustrated it, that I declared that it 

 was a great advantage to bee-keepers ; in 

 fact, almost an indispensible addition to a 

 hive ; but, for all this, bee-keepers at con- 

 ventions and through the .Journals, said, 

 " No, we don't need any honey board ; it is 

 only an expensive and useless appendage." 

 It took years for it to get to the front, but 

 now it is there. 



Every inventor who really thinks he has 

 something of intrinsic value, very much pre- 

 fers to have it tested by actual work in the 

 apiary, and not piled on a table to be theo- 

 rized over by bee-keepers who happen to at- 

 tend a convention. There are a great many 

 implements in the world, of which a very 

 large majority of users cannot comprehend 

 the value with their brains, half as quickly 

 as with their hands. I mean to say that 

 actual use with the nerves and muscles will 

 find out the advantages of an invention long 

 before the brain can conceive it by theory. 



You have made many good points in favor 

 of conventions. Another important point 

 to be considered is that the value of a con- 

 vention depends largely upon where it is 

 held. The Northwestern Association, as 

 long as it holds its convention in Chicago, at 

 the time of the Exposition, will be, no 

 doubt, the largest and most enthusiastic ; 

 consequently, the most valuable association 

 of bee-keepers to be found in this country. 

 The reasons are obvious. Chicago is a great 

 central point. Every autumn very low rates 

 can be had on all of the railroads leading 

 thereto, and upon those roads reside a large 

 number of practical and successful honey 

 producers ; so it makes no difference whether 

 it is called the National convention, a North- 

 western convention, a Cook County conven- 

 tion, or a Chicago convention, it will always 

 be a good one and draw according to the 

 convenience and nearness of the right class 

 of bee-keepers. Please notice if the conven- 

 tion held there this fall does not prove to bo 

 the best held in the country. 



DowAGiAC, Mich. Sept. 10, 1889. 



Conventions Bring out Practical, Modest 

 men who Don't "Write." — Let the 

 Secretary get paid by Increas- 

 ing the At'endance. 



K. F. HOLTEKMAN. 



'OUR special toiiic for October is 

 ^ an extremely appropriate one. The 

 ' points taken ui) by yourself in the 

 September number are excellent. I 

 will take them up in order. 



I cannot agree with you that bee-literature 

 will enable us to learn all that a convention 

 may teach us. ^V'e glean fresh thoughts 

 from the remarks of others : we liear from 

 our best bee-keepers, those practical men 

 who, with all their knowledge, can never be 

 induced to /;«/ // on pajx'r. We he"-vr there, 

 privately, those who are too selfish or too 

 modest to say what they may have discov- 

 ered, except to a few individuals. I grant, 

 however, that the usefulness of conventions 



