114 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



will »&y I did just right ; but I have been feel- 

 ing of iatc, that perhaps I have not done just 

 right. The cause may have been a just one, 

 l)ut have 1 really any right to dictate as to 

 what my neigbors shall or shall not do? If my 

 advice is asked, to be sure I should give it, and 

 even it it is not. if I feel that money is being 

 paid lor something that is valueless, and will 

 prove so, perhaps it is my duty to protest a- 

 gaiust such waste, but it can and should be all 

 done pleasantly ; the kind feeling should ex- 

 tend to the party who is wronging, as well as 

 to the one heing wronged. It may be said 

 that I am taking a greatT responsibility, in pre- 

 suming myself capable of deciding what is 

 right, and what wrong. The only reply I can 

 inake, is that my opinion is asked either direct- 

 l}"^ or indirectly in almost half the letters I 

 open. A few years ago, large sums of money 

 were paid out in our county for a receipt for 

 making soap; anil as the ingredients could all 

 be found at any druggist's, the question arose 

 as to how the owners of the pat- 

 ent, could tell who infringed and who did not, 

 for every one soou knew what the ingredients 

 were. AVho is going down cellar poking into 

 our soap barrels to see if we are infringing on 

 their patents V You all agree with us do you 

 not, that the idea is simply ridiculousV Yet 

 our patent office has granted hundreds of pat- 

 ents for soap, and although as the years pass 

 by, and one after another decides that these 

 great discoveries that were going to "revolu- 

 tionize" are of no value at all, still it goes on 

 granting patents. Every few years it grants a 

 patetit to some Ijright genius tor ihe combined 

 hen-roost and bee-hive, and this is a signal for 

 the newspapers to take up the idea and laud 

 "Yankee ingenuity". Perhaps we should not 

 l)lame them, and may be we tlo equally foolish 

 things where we know no Ijetter. Ours is a-. 

 great, country, and it is a hard matter to know 

 all that has ever lieen invented. We are all 

 law-abiding and peacelul citizens are we notV 

 We also wish to do as we would be done by. 

 Well now, what .^hall we do about paying for 

 rights to make hives as we may happen to 

 choose V As an illustration, we will take the 

 tin separators — friend Wheeler is every inch a 

 gentleman, and I know he will excuse me — for 

 keeping the combs straight in the section box- 

 es. Must we pay you friend W. for a right to 

 put these strips between our honey boxes i' We 

 can do it without saying a word, and it would 

 never pay you to go all rouud and look into 

 our hives to nee if we were using them. If 

 they really prove valuable, would you wish to 

 do this? or is it really necessary that we go 

 over the past and see how nearly just like it 

 something has been usedV I know that Mr. L. 

 years ago, tried tin division boards for getting 

 straight combs in the brood-chamber, and he 

 gave an account of it in the A. B. J., Vol. 1. I 

 leei as if it Would be almost small business to 

 go and hunt it up, and yet if I am asked if I 

 would advise buying a right of you to use it, I 

 catniot honestly say 1 would. It is the same 

 with friends Isham, and Barker and Dicer, in 

 regard to their honey boxes. Wlieu I received 

 their advertisements, I felt that perhaps their 

 circulars v/ould advise my readers to buy a 

 right of them, instead of nice boxes at a fair 

 price. Is it not as honorable to sell rights as 



to sell boxes V I cannot feel that it is, and yet 

 I may be mistaken. Heal inventions come 

 about so slowly, and so many have a hand in 

 their developement, that I cannot feel that it is 

 ((Uite right for one to .sW? such a privilege. Is 

 it not much like selling rtceipts to do some 

 great thing? If one mnn starts a factory, it 

 would certaiulj' be wrong for his neighbor to 

 build one across the way, and copy all his ma- 

 chinery that he might have labored yiar.s to 

 perfect ; and here is where llie good of the pat- 

 ent laws comes in, but I cannot feel that we 

 should sell rights for doing simple tilings that 

 we can easily do with our tools at home. The 

 question now comes home to us with force ; 

 shall we respect the right of our beloved Mr. 

 Wagner, or shall we take all the liberty the 

 law allows? IMr. Perrine frankly stated that 

 he could not prevent home manufacture for in- 

 dividual use, and that he did not care about 

 it, but that he dnl not think it right after all he 

 he had paid Mrs. W., for anyone to make and 

 advertise the foundations, and that he 

 should protect himself accordingly. While I 

 am sure I could furnish the foundations at the 

 price I had put upon them, T know that there 

 are many difficulties to be surmounted before 

 good foundations can be made "by the mile." 



If it should transpire that every patent 1 

 have mentioned could be picked in pieces, (and 

 I really do not believe any of the parties will 

 nrake as much mouey clear of all expenses, as 

 they would to Sell their goods right out at a fair 

 price, and tell their neighbors if they could do 

 as good work at a less figure, to do so), and 

 that even the Wagner patent was a mistake, 

 and should never have lieen granted, had we 

 better not agree among ourselves in a friendly 

 way, and decide to call patents unfashionable 

 in bee-culture? ■ Do you wish to hear some- 

 i tiling about the metal corners? Well, I should 

 ' never have olfered them one cent cheaper if 

 they had never been patented ; and as the ma- 

 chinery for making them is quite expensive 

 1 very much doubt if any one would have at- 

 tempted it, had it never been patented. There- 

 fore I cannot claim any great magnanimity 

 should I join with the others in telling our 

 friends if* they can make our wares cheaper 

 than we do, to do so by all means. I had for- 

 gotton our friend Van Deusen, but I think it is 

 the same with his feeder. If after getting a 

 sample you should decide you could get them 

 made at home more cheaply, nothing would 

 prevent your so doing. Almost every one can 

 make his own goods cheaper than anybody 

 else, and your protection Irom ruinous compe- 

 tition would be your ability to do nice work at 

 a moderate price. 



Does one really feel as pleasantly over the 

 sale of a patent right, as he does over a nice 

 crop of honey, or some neatly and well made 

 bee-hives? It is not to get much money that 

 we live, but rather to be deservedly held as good 

 neighbors and citizens by all around us; and 

 when we buy or sell, to have our transactions 

 such that we are pleased to meet our custom- 

 ers afterward. Shall we sell rights friends, or 

 shall we invent all the good things we can, and 

 feel glad that they may help our fellows? If 

 any of my advertisers feel that I have injured 

 the efl'ect of their advertisements, I will refund 

 the money they have paid me for this No. 



