riATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 169 



the vice-president of the Association. Mrs. Stow, what can 

 you answer to that? 



Mrs. Stow — Bee-keeping has been very pleasing to me. 

 whether it has been profitable in all respects I don't know, 

 but I don't think I would say that it has not been. I have 

 enjoyed the work with my bees for the last 20 years more 

 than anything else that I have known of, except my own 

 family duties; and the only objection I can see is that there 

 is some hard work about it; that unless she can have the 

 help of a man once in a while, or a big boy, it would be a 

 little too hard for her. But there is so much of the work 

 that can be done by a woman just as well as by a man, that 

 I think it is all right for a woman, if she has the taste to 

 go into the business. I like outdoor work, and enjoy nature 

 and studying it; and it is one of the advantages that any 

 woman going into this business has, as it is done at home, 

 and she can interest her own family in it; it is not like 

 going out to work. But if a woman went into it by herself 

 with the idea of making a living by it, I don't know whether 

 I could say she would be able to do so. 



Mrs. Glessner — I am such an amateur bee-keeper that 

 I don't believe anybody that keeps bees would want to hear 

 anything I have to say. Let me tell a story. I have only 

 a very small number of colonies, as I have taken entire 

 charge of them myself. One day when I was busy, and very 

 much engaged — I have a little house down in the White 

 Mountains — I saw a little skunk down the path coming to- 

 wards me. I was so much engaged I simply went right on 

 with my work, and kept an eye on him. After a while he 

 came down another path, and it was so tempting, he was 

 so close to me, that I thought I would see if I couldn't 

 capture him. So I picked up an empty bee-hive without a 

 bottom-board, but with a cover on it, and I walked out very 

 gently and clapped it over the "gentleman," and then piled 

 some stones on top so that he couldn't lift the cover up; 

 then I went away. My son's house is up in the woods a 

 little wav, and I went to the telephone and called him up, 

 and said, "I have a little skunk in a bee-hive down at the 

 bee-yard, and I would be very glad if you would come down 

 and help me." There was quite a little pause, and quite 

 a little snicker, and finally he said, "Of course. What shall 

 I bring?" I said, "You might bring some fire arms of some 

 sort." So I armed myself with a bottle of ether and chloro- 

 form, and a little, long syringe. We pushed the cover off 

 a little bit and I threw in tlie ether and chloroform. Then 

 we tied a string a string around the bee-hive and he put 

 me off to one side and said, "Now, when I say 'Pull,' you 

 pull." I pulled, and he fired, and we had one dead skunk, 

 and no odor at all. [Applause.] 



Miss Wilson — I don't know that I have anything new to 

 say, except I think it very much depends upon the woman, just 

 the same as it does upon the man. Not all men will make a 

 success of bee-keeping, and not all women. If a woman is in- 

 tensely interested in bees, and has a good deal of pluck, and 



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