1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



145 



affair, but this brings in other complica- 

 tions. I can not think of adopting any cov- 

 er, that I can not readily lift off with one 

 hand. 



One object I have in giving these ingeni- 

 ous devices, even if I do not advise them, is 

 to prevent the unscrupulous from making 

 capital out of them, by pretended patents. 



The objection to your division board, is 

 that the thin lumber will warp by the damp- 

 ness of the liive, unless it is securely cleated. 

 In view of this, I have as yet found no 

 cheaper or better way, than to make them 

 as I have directed. 



Pertaining to Bee Oviltnre. 



[We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in 

 conducting this department, and would consider it a 

 favor to have them send us all circulars that have a 

 deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at 

 all times maintained to prevent injustice being done 

 any one.] 



fpIERE are two persons, whose 

 names, for aught I can see, I shall have 

 — ' to keep standing in this department all 

 the time. It takes too many postal cards, 

 and too many back numbers,' to give appli- 

 cants the particulars of their different games 

 and dodges. Both have been shown up ev- 

 ery few months, for the past live years, and 

 yet they find new victims, year after year, 

 among tiiose who are just commencing. 

 These two notorious thieves and swindlers, 

 are Mr. N. C. Mitchell, of Indianapolis, Ind., 

 and Mrs. Lizzie Cotton, as slie calls herself, 

 of West Gorham, Maine. Of the former, 

 enough has been said, and enough of his 

 letters, and those of his victims liave been 

 printed. Both of them receive money, but 

 it is only at rare intervals, that they return 

 any equivalent, of any kind. AVe sent Mrs. 

 Cotton money for a wonderful book that 

 told how to do great things with bees, over 

 two years ago. She acknowledged the re- 

 ceipt of it, and has promised several tinies 

 to send the book or send the money back. 

 Others have sent her money for hives and 

 other things, but with just about the same 

 •'luck." They never get any back again. 

 She too, like Mitchell, deals in wonderful 

 receipts. In a flaming circular full of false- 

 hoods, without date, but I suppose sent out 

 recently, for it looks new, she winds up with 

 the following : 



If any of the patent bee hive fraternity doubts my 

 ability to perform what I promise with my hive and 

 system of bee manairement, I invite them to deposit 

 one thousand dollars with some responsible bee- 

 keeper, and I will deposit a like sum, and if I fail to 

 verify my statements after a fair test, I will forfeit 

 the amount deposited; but if 1 prove my statements 

 true, then the amount ilrpcisitcd sliall be forfeited to 

 me. Now let these patent l)ee hi\ e speculators cease 

 their slander against me, and if they believe I can 

 not perform what I promise with my controllable 

 hive, and new system of bee management, let them 

 deposit the money and test the matter. I challenge 

 them to a trial. 



All right, Mrs. Cotton, we will finnishthe 

 SIOUO.OO, but one of the conditions must be. 

 that you are first to pay back our hard 

 earned money that we sent you. I rather 



think I would prefer to have that part "ad- 

 justed," before Ave go into the larger specu- 

 lation. .Mrs. Cotton claims that her hive 

 will make the bees give 380 lbs. of comb 

 honey in a season. 

 She says : 



"For many years I have written articles on bee cul- 

 ture, for the leading Journals, and my success with 

 bees has become known throughout the country." 



We are only too well aware of it Mrs. C, 

 and the worst feature of it is that many of 

 these "leading journals" do not know 

 enough about bees to know that your im- 

 reasonable statements, are only a bait to in- 

 duce the unsitspecting to send to you for 

 more information, that you may beguile 

 them out of their money. Still farther we 

 read : 



In 1874, I purchased a stock of bees in an old box 

 hive. They had not given their owner a single dollar 

 in profit for years; some seasons they would not 

 swarm or make any surplus honey, but cluster idle 

 on the outside of the hive in large numbers, while 

 in other seasons they wrmld swarm and fly away to 

 the woods. I changed these bees in April to my con- 

 trollable hive and they gave me that season over 

 forty dollars worth of surplus honey in glass boxes, 

 and they have done as well or better every season 

 since, and are now in a healthy, prosperous condition. 



It was the hive that did it, and nothing 

 else sure ; for, else, why did they not give 

 such results in their old hive ? 



I tell you, my friends, it is not the hive, 

 that secures the honey ; it is the bee-keeper. 

 You might as well "expect a fancy pocket 

 book to make yoii rich, as that yoti could 

 have a hive that would insure, of itself, a 

 profitable crop of honey. 



In the A. B. /., for both March and April, 

 a Mr. William Thompson, of Detroit, Mich., 

 advertises a patent hive with the following 

 statement : 



This is the cheapest and best two-story hive ever 

 invented, and merited the $25.00 premium offered by 

 "Novice" in Gleanings. 



As our readers are all well aware that no 

 hive has ever yet merited the $2-5. according 

 to the offer, I can, with justice, call Mr. 

 Thompson a humbug and swindler. If the 

 editor of the ^1. B. /., never reads the adver- 

 tisements sent him, we can, I presume, ex- 

 cuse him on that grotnid. As many other 

 publications allow their advertisers to tell aU 

 the falsehoods they please, providing they 

 pay the advertised price per line for the 

 privilege, I presume we had better not be 

 too severe on friend Newman. 



On page 104 of the Ajnil A. B. J., men- 

 tion is made of making fdn. on linen or a 

 similar fabric, and the editor says a i)atent 

 has been applied for on the same. The idea 

 has been suggested in the Journals at differ- 

 ent times during the past 10 years, and a 

 fine kind of tracing linen was used in Ger- 

 many, almost as long ago as tlie fdn. was 

 invented, ily own experiments in the mat- 

 ter were giveii in the ]Marcli No. of Glean- 

 ings, over a year atro. I would let this all 

 pass, without a word, but tiie blackmailing 

 business seems to be breaking out with a 

 new vigor of late, and if Gleanings has 

 any influence at all. it shall be used in try- 

 ing to check this fashion of patenting well 

 known devices, and of obtaining money 

 from the unsuspecting by threats of prose- 

 cution. Right in my drawer, is a letter nar- 



