272 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Oatman, then a prominent bee keeper of 

 Dundee, Ills., who had experimented 

 with sections of different sizes, when ask- 

 ed about how small he thought sections 

 might be made, and yet have the bees 

 fill them to advantage, replied: "About 

 the size of a thimble," thus indicating 

 that he thought size had nothing to do 

 with it. The experience of the Colorado 

 people is decidedly the opposite. To 

 show the thoroughness and enthusiasm 

 with which the Colorado people prepared 

 for this occasion, I may say that these 

 small sections were given out to several 

 bee keepers in the spring, notwithstand- 

 ing this, Mr. Harris, as I have already said, 

 was the only man who succeeded in get- 

 ting the bees to occupy them; and he ac- 

 complished this by crowding, b)' giving 

 only one case of the little sections, when 

 other colonies had two cases of the ordin- 

 ary sections. With sections of this size, 

 only about half as much honey was se- 

 cured as in sections of the pound size. 

 This seems to indicate that we bee keep- 

 ers better not try to use smaller sections 

 than we are now using. The pound sec- 

 tion has become the recognized standard. 

 Let us keep it that size unless there should 

 arise some better reason than we now 

 have for making a change. 



^n^n.^<^^^^*jC 



The Banquet tendered the National 

 Association by the Colorado bee keepers 

 was certainly a "feast of wit and a flow 

 of reason." Newspaper reporters some- 

 times see things through rose colored 

 glasses, but the representative of the Den- 

 ver Post, in giving a description of the 

 banquet, told of nothing that could not 

 have been seen with the naked eye. 

 Here is what he said: 



No more representative body of busi- 

 ness men and business women ever stretch- 

 ed their legs under the table of mine host 

 Hodge's inn than assembled at the Wind- 

 sor last night and banqueted, toasted and 

 roasted each other. It was the final blare 

 of the trumpets, the last round up of the 

 State and National Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tions before departing for their respective 



homes, and it was a truly happy occasion. 

 The banquet was a last loving cup from 

 the hands of the State Association to the 

 National body. 



There were covers for 200 guests and 

 none were absent. Toastmaster D. W. 

 Working was both happy and spontaneous 

 and that soon put all the others in the 

 same humor. There was not a dull mo- 

 ment from start to finish. 



Let me give a sample of Mr. Working's 

 work as toast master: "Ladies and gen- 

 tlemen, I have in mind a gentleman as 

 slim as a capital letter I. He came from 

 the East to attend the convention. Since 

 being here he has feasted upon our beau- 

 tiful mountain .scenery, and filled up with 

 our pure, delicious, invigorating air. 

 Witness the change that it has made in 

 him in even these few days. Mr. O. L. 

 Hershiser, of Buffalo, N. Y., stand up 

 and prove the truth of my statements." 

 All who have had the pleasure of admiring 

 the solid and substantial manner in which 

 Mr. Hershiser is made up, can easily im- 

 agine the clapping of hands that followed 

 as he rose to his feet. Cheer after cheer 

 rent the air at this substantial proof of 

 the efficacy of Colorado's wonderful 

 mountain air and scenery. 



But Mr. Hershiser was equal to the 

 emergency. He said: "When I was a 

 boy I remember seeing in a book a series 

 of pictures entitled 'seven views of Den- 

 ver. ' The first was one log house. The 

 second was two log houses. The third 

 was three, and so on to the seventh, 

 which was seven log houses. Look upon 

 Denver now, with her brown stone pal- 

 aces, and tell me if it is men alone that 

 thrive so wonderfully upon mountain 

 air and scenery?" 



Organization is to be the key note 

 of the next great step in apiculture, if we 

 are to judge by the discussion that follow- 

 ed the reading of the President's address, 

 the paper by Mr. Mclntyre, and Dr. Mill- 

 er's address on the most hopeful field of 

 labor for the National Association. A 

 committee was appointed to investigate 

 and make recommendations regarding 



