Nov. 17, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



773 



be freely discussed. It seems that I made a mistake in this 

 matter, and some decision should be arrived at that others 

 may avoid similar mistakes. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



We fear Mr. Hutchinson emphasized that word 

 " selected " a little too much when reading the item on 

 pag-e 740. We did not mean to intimate that he was work- 

 ing a scheme on the membership, and yet when we learned 

 that quite a number of the more prominent ones had not 

 received his circular letter, it did look as if it had been sent 

 to a " selected list ". In reality it amounted to that, even 

 though the list was made up for another purpose a year or 

 two before. But we do not see that there was any particu- 

 lar scheme about that. 



In reply to Mr. Hutchinson's remark that there ought 

 to be some way to make it known when an officer does not 

 want to be re-elected, we would say there are at least two 

 ways that we think of now. One is for such officer to mail 

 a circular letter to the membership and say that he will no 

 longer serve as an officer. The other, and more economical 

 way, is simply to send such notice to all the bee-papers, and 

 they will doubtless publish it without charge. They will 

 be glad to do so especially if thatoflicer is unfit for the posi- 

 tion, and should be superseded by a better one. 



Again, as to a man desiring an office, and also desiring 

 to make it known, the best way to do in that case, we think, 

 is for him to confide it to his wife. That's the safest way. I 



For if the membership of an organization desires a certain 

 man for any ofllice they will see that he gets it. It's ever so 

 much better for it to come in that way. Let the office seek 

 the man, not the man the office, is a must excellent method 

 to follow. 



So far as we can recall, the National Association has 

 never suffered in its officiary except when an attempt was 

 made to use political tactics. Then there was trouble, and 

 we predict that there always will be when such methods are 

 resorted to. There is no necessity for it in the National. 

 There is no office in its gift that any one need worry about, 

 whether he secures it or not. 



The National Association belongs to the whole of the 

 2000 or more members, and we believe the great majority 

 will see to it that justice is done those who are worthy. No 

 one man or coterie of men are essential to the success of 

 any organization. Oflicers are always servants, and not 

 masters, of their constituents. 



Personally, we feel grateful to the National Association 

 for the honors it has conferred on us, and also for the oppor- 

 tunity we have had to help make it what it is to-day. We 

 want only to see it go on to greater numbers and larger 

 usefulness, not alone to its membership but to the whole bee- 

 keeping fraternity. And we expect to continue to aid it in 

 fulfilling its high mission. We are willing to trust its 

 great rank and file. They are all right. 



Life of the Worker-Bee— Some Stories. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



AN apiarist writes me concerning the article by Mr. 

 Doolittle, on page 710. He wants to know whether I 

 think Mr. Doolittle right in placing the life of the 

 worker-bee, in the summer, at so short a period. I wish to 

 say that my personal experience on this matter is almost 

 identical with that of Mr. Doolittle. All who have had any 

 experience with the introduction of queens in colonies of a 

 different race have noticed over and over again that, within 

 three summer months, the bees will be entirely changed. 

 So it is evident that the average life of a bee does not ex- 

 ceed 40 days when she is at work. Accidents kill them, or 

 they wear themselves out. 



I will also concur in his statement concerning super- 

 seding queens. We used to go to a great deal of trouble in 

 superseding old queens, but at present we change a queen 

 only if she is considered of no value, for lack of prolificness. 

 The bees attend to this matter themselves before the queen 

 gets too old. 



There are, however, some things on which my experi- 

 ence does not tally with that of Mr. Doolittle. Perhaps it 

 is owing to location. For instance, I have never been able 

 to find any evidence that bees traveled more than two or 

 three miles usually in search of honey. We have a very 

 varied flora here. A portion of our bees are located on the 

 hills or in the prairie away from the river, while others are 

 close to the lowlands that abound along the Mississippi. 

 We have invariably found that apiaries located four miles 

 apart in different conditions harvest different kinds of 

 honey. For instance, we have had an apiary about three 

 miles from the Mississippi lowlands that never harvested 

 any quantity of honey frcim those lowlands. On the other 

 hand, bees located near the lowlands where white clover 

 was scarce, would almost invariably fail to harvest a white 

 clover crop. 



It is quite possible that this difference in results is due 

 to the configuration of the country. There may be other 

 reasons, but I believe thi- to be the principal one. The 

 direction that the winds take usually has something to do 



with the direction in which the bees travel. A bee will go 

 more readily in the direction in which it is easiest to fly, 

 where the shape of the hills and the location of the woods 

 least interferes with its flight. It will also go more readily 

 against a fair breeze than with it, this because it gets the 

 odor of the blossoms from the direction whence the breeze 

 comes. But in this location, with everything the most 

 favorable, as far as I could perceive, I never met any of our 

 bees to a number worth mentioning at a greater distance 

 than three miles. Though it is perhaps likely that the bees 

 may be attracted farther, I do not believe that in Illinois, 

 along our streams, it is worth while to depend upon the 

 bees harvesting any crop worth mentioning at a distance 

 exceeding three to four miles. 



MANUFACTURED COMB-HONEY STORIES. 



The stories concerning the manufacture of comb honey 

 have at last crossed the Atlantic and reached the shores of 

 Europe. The June number of the Bulletin of the Society 

 Apiculture of the Somme, contains a quotation from the 

 Journal desconfiseurs (the confectioner's journal), mention- 

 ing the existence of a honey manufactory making comb 

 honey with paraffin cells. It is said that only a practiced 

 eye can detect the fraud, and that the honey has the appear- 

 ance and the flavor of true honey. Such reports ought to 

 be branded with the denunciation of falsehood. Yet the 

 paper does not make any protest. 



It is true that the supposed adulteration of comb honey, 

 which we fight here, has not the same importance in 

 Europe as it has here, for most of the honey is sold in the 

 liquid form. The production of honey with the extractor 

 ought to make rapid strides in those countries since ex- 

 tracted honey brings about as high a price there as comb 

 honey, but the Europeans are so slow in taking hold of 

 new things that people are still to be found who dispute 

 and discuss the advisability of extracting the honey by 

 centrifugal force, and saving the combs for future use. 



I find in the same journal a little story that seems to 

 have been going the rounds of European bee-journals, and 

 is worth repeating. Here it is : 



"Lord Cecil is a lover of bees, but his pet pursuit gave 

 quite a little trouble to the folks in his city. It appears 



