“novice’s” gleanings in bee culture 
DDE KEEPERS' CONVENTIONS. || 
*3% BE KEEPERS’ CONVENTIONS 
JJL& -where organized in your own im- 
mediate vicinity, without doubt, should be 
attended, and those large affairs, which 
we are expected to travel over whole 
States to reach, may be a good idea for 
those possessing ample means; but to 
the mnsses, thoss who keep bees ns a 
source of income, and not for pastime 
merely, we should unhesitatingly recom- 
mend some other investment of the 
money, so far as money is concerned. 
IIow much real good have conventions 
accomplished? The National Conven- 
tion at Cincinnati was well worth the in- 
vestment to see Mr. Langstrotk and hear 
him speak, but a vast amount of time 
was wasted in useless controversy scarce- 
ly pertaining to bee culture. At Cleve- 
land we ready cannot find that all the 
good accomplished, was sufficient to 
overbalance the injury done by the pro- 
mulgation of erroneous theories ; and at 
Indianapolis there seems to have been 
nothing left but patent hive men and 
theorists who hud as little acquaintance 
with bees or bee culture, as the late N. V. 
h’armers’ Club had with farming, and still 
worse, no one seems to have discovered 
their mistakes in time to prevent their 
going out before the world through the 
press. Candor compels us to go so far as 
to state of the numerous reports of dif- 
ferent conventions sent us, (for which we 
hereby tender our thanks), that we have 
found nothing contained in them suf- 
ficiently new or important to entitle it to 
a place in “Gleanings,” unless we except 
t he address of Mr. Quinby, alluded to in 
our March number. The expense of at- 
tending distant Conventions would gen- 
erally much more than cover the cost of 
all the Bee Journals published — perhaps 
Langstroth’s and Quinby’s work besides— 
and we must think a careful perusal of 
these wonid be a more profitable invest- 
ment of the money. 
One of the health journals hns an arti- 
cle on the adulteration of sugar. Now 
the only part of it that concerns us is the 
possibility that our A coffee sugar may be 
other than chemically pure, say ninety- 
nine per cent. pure. We can conceive of 
no substance with which it could he 
adulterated, having the taste of sugar or 
no taste at all, having the appearance of 
sugar, and being at the same time per- 
fectly soluble in water; and shall accord- 
ingly consider it sale bee food, for all 
times, places and uuder all circumstances. 
Some of these "Health Journals” in their 
fll 
Perhaps it may be as well to state that 
our article on Conventions was written 
and sent to the printers for last month’s 
Journal, hut was crowded out. Mr. 
King’s report of the Michigan Bee Keep- 
ers’ Association, in some respects, would 
rather corroborate our opinion of their 
value. If there is no misprint about it. 
Pres. Bingham in his address said : 
“Patent right men were that class of 
persons who have made bee culture what 
it now is, as a pursuit, and were the first 
to demonstrate the possibility of profita- 
ble bee keeping. Yet they are misrepre- 
sented, abused and maligned by a class of 
persons of which is the represen- 
tative type, who are a hundred times 
more unprincipled than the patent right 
men themselves.” 
And before he gets eight lines further, 
in the same strain, he eloquently sums up 
thus : 
“And what has been the result? Sim- 
ply this, that bee culture as an occupa- 
tion, is a failure. This is no idle assump- 
tion. Statistics aflord ample proof of 
tliis. Ninety, of every one hundred per- 
sons, who keep bees, have utterly failed. 
Nine out of the other ten, will no more 
than pay expenses, while the remaining 
one is moi-e or less successful. " 
Mr. B. was certainly driving vehement- 
ly at some idea, and we should give it ns 
above to our renders as Problem No. 111. 
were we not in doubt ns to whether it re- 
lates to bee culture at all. If patent 
hive men have made our pursuit what it 
j noil' in, and ninety-nine out of one hun- 
dred (bee keepers not “patent’’ men) 
“don’t pay expenses,” why . lmt wo 
give it up; our venders will have to 
“puzzle” it out for themselves. 
The first subscriber on our hooks, 
for 187-1, is Adam Grim, who has 
netted §22,000 in five years. The 
next is It. Wilkin, Cadiz, Ohio, wo 
don’t know how much he has realized 
from bees, but do know he has a pleasant 
way of paying cash dou-n on some pretty 
large hills for queens, etc. Now as we 
have no idea that our pages would contain 
the list of successful ones, we would re- 
spectfully solicit (lie names of all of our 
subscribers who have lost money in bee 
keeping during the last five years. Tell 
us all about it and we'll give you a depart- 
ment, and call it "Repository of Blasted 
Hopes.” If it don’t unfold some tales of 
“deeds to make and use,” our name ain’t — 
“Now, Mr. Novice, if you don’t stop, 
there won’t be any room for ‘Heads of 
Grain’ this month.” 
“Never mind wc are soon to have mir 
