^ERICA]^ 



41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, FEBRUARY 21, 1901, 



No. 8, 



\ * Editorial. * I 



Slow Cooling of Beeswax and its ef- 

 fect upon color has attention again iu tlie Bee- 

 Keepers" Review. Editor Hutchinson says: 



The American Bee Journal admits that the 

 slow cooling of wax simply allows the dirt to 

 settle, and that is the only way that slow cool- 

 ing can have any effect upon the color. But 

 it still clings to the idea that the dark oolor of 

 wax comes from its impurities. Here is where 

 our old friend is making its mistake. The 

 color is in the mijt itself. Dark wax will re- 

 main dark, no matter how slowly it is cooled : 

 yellow wax will be yellow altho so full of dirt 

 that the particles can he seen. Any one who 

 cares enough about this can easily satisfy him- 

 self. Let him get a cake of dark, black wax. 

 melt it and keep it iu a vessel surrounded by 

 sawdust, so as to confine the heat, and cause 

 it to cool very slowly. AVhcu cool it may have 

 a cleaner look, the dirt having settled to the 

 bottom, but it will still be dark. If you doubt 

 it. just try it. 



Next, take a cake of the brightest yellow- 

 wax, melt it, and stir into it a lot of the 

 refuse, or slumgum. or dirt, scraped from the 

 bottoms of other cakes of wax ; mix these in 

 well, then cool it .just as i{Uickly as you pos- 

 sibly can. The mix will still be yellow, but 

 full of foreign matter. Again I say. if you 

 doubt this, try the experiment. 



All of which goes to show that there is no 

 liarticic of difference in actual belief on either 

 side. Our good friend of the Review wants 

 us to say that different samples of beeswax 

 have different colors independently of the 

 amount or kind of dirt in them, so that there 

 may be a very dark color in wax that does not 

 come from impurities. If Mr. Hutchinson 

 will turn back to the first number of this 

 .journal for this year, he will find on page 4 

 Ibis .sentence: "There is no desire whatever 

 ti> deny that two specimens of wax entirely 

 free from impurities may be very different in 

 color.'' If he had kept in mind that sen- 

 tence, he would hardly have said. '-But it 

 still clings to the idea that the dark color of 

 wax comes from its impurities." for that con- 

 veys the idea that all dark color conies from 

 impurities. There is no real difference as to 

 lielief at that point. 



Let us get right down to where the point of 

 divergence conies. Take Mr. Hutchinson's 

 last illustration— some bright yellow wax 

 melted with a lot of dirt stirred in and sud- 

 denly cooled. To make the illustration 

 clearer, supjiose a lot of lampblack is stirred 

 into the wax. We both believe exactly the 

 same thing about it. We both believe that 

 the wax that is in the cake, separated from 

 ihe foreign particles, is bright yellow, and 

 that altho no yellow color appears to the eye. 



the black color is entirely due to the lamp- 

 black that is there. When askt. " What is 

 the color of that cake of wax?'' he says, 

 "Yellow:" we say, "Black." Of course, he 

 may say that it isn't the .wax that is black, 

 but the lampblack. But we believe our an- 

 swer is more in accordance with the every-day 

 talk of people. Put the cake of wax before a 

 witness in court and ask him its color. He 

 looks at it on the outside, and then breaks it 

 in two. and he testifies that it is black outside 

 and in. Take a white haudkereliief and rub 

 soot all over it. Mr. Hutchinson would say. 

 "The handkerchief is white. The soot only 

 is black." Common people would say, " The 

 handkerchief is black.'' 



If Mr. Hutchinson should contract for a lot 

 of bright yellow wax. and when it arrived he 

 should find it one-fourth dirt, he would hardly 

 feel satisfied if the consignor should say, 

 " That's bright yellow wax, just what I con- 

 tracted to send you :'' neither will he be satis- 

 fled if he is told that a fourth will be deducted 

 for the weight of the dirt. 



Referring to the issue of this journal for 

 Jan ITth, the American Bee-Keeper says: 



" Editor York now asserts that his ' journal 

 has never pretended to claim for slow cooling 

 anything more than that it allowed the for- 

 eign particles time to settle.' " 



We do not believe that Editor Hill is a man 

 who would intentionally misrepresent, but 

 that statement, " now asserts,'' might be un- 

 derstood to mean that some change had been 

 wrought in the views or the statements of 

 this journal. So far from that being the case, 

 it is true that precisely the same assertion was 

 distinctly made in this journal the first time 

 any editorial belief on the subject was given, 

 as Editor Hill will see it he turns to the issue 

 tor Nov. 2m\. 



Mr. Hill then asks, " Why, then, has the 

 Journal so emphatically opposed our assertion 

 that slow cooiing has nothing to do with 

 rendering dark wax a bright yellow '." 

 Simply because the assertion is not believed to 

 be true, 



Let us see it we can express, in as few 

 words as maybe, just what we do believe. 

 The most of the wax in this country is of a 

 bright yellow if properly cleansed, but when 

 rapidly cooled, as is likely to lie the case with 

 the inexperienced, it has mixt in it more or 

 less foreign particles that give it a dull or 

 dirty color. It allowed a tong time in cool- 

 ing, it will be kept a long time in that liquid 

 state suitable tor the settling of the foreign 

 particles, and thus the dirty-looking wax will 

 become bright yellow. 



A Mioliigun Foul Brood liaw. An- 

 other attempt is now being made in the Michi- 

 gan legislature to secure the passage of a law 



providing tor the appointment of a bee-in- 

 spector for that State. Editor Hutchinson, in 

 the January Bee-Keepers' Review, had this to 

 say about it: 



Once more have the bee-keepers of Michi- 

 gan, in convention assembled, appointed a 

 committee to labor for the passage of a needed 

 foul-brood law — a law that will empower the 

 governor to appoint an inspector who has 

 been recommended by the State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, and who will have authority to 

 destroy foul-broody colonies when the owner 

 can not or will not properly treat them. There 

 is also to be remuneration for colonies that 

 are destroyed, the same as the owners of cat- 

 tle diseased with tuberculosis are reimburst 

 for their property when it is destroyed for the 

 general good. A resolution was also unani- 

 mously carried recommending the passage of 

 the law, and this resolution will be read be- 

 fore both houses of the legislature. 



There was an attempt, two years ago, to 

 pass a similar law, but it failed, principall.v 

 because of the apathy of bee-keepers. I am 

 informed that only 30 letters were received by 

 members asking them to vote for the measure. 

 The simple introduction of a bill will not 

 secure its passage; the members must be 

 iir.i/eil to vote for it, and i/ood j'ensuns must be 

 .given. shoH'ing why the measure is needed, 

 it must be remembered that the majority of 

 people know very little about bees or bee- 

 keeping, and the members of the legislature 

 must have explained to them the contagious 

 character of foul brood, how it spreads from 

 hive to hive, and from apiary to apiary, and 

 from county to county, and that it is impos- 

 sible to prevent this spreading until there is 

 some one in authority to compel careless, 

 ignorant or willful bee-keepers to rid their 

 apiaries of the disease. 



Members should also have their attention 

 called to the value of the bees to the fruit- 

 grower and horticulturist by their work in 

 fertilizing the blossoms. The loss to the 

 country from this source would be even 

 greater than the loss to bee-keepers. It bee- 

 keepers will only wake up and do their duty 

 in this matter, the bill can be past. There 

 are hundreds of bee-keepers in this State, and 

 yet only 20 of them had sufficient interest in 

 this matter to write to their representative 

 and ask liini to vote for this measure, giving 

 the reasons why the law is needed. If there 

 is no foul brood in your apiary, it may be in 

 your neighborhood, nearer than you think. 

 You little know how soon you may need help. 



In order that the bee-keepers of Michigan, 

 who should be more interested in this matter, 

 may know just who are the members of their 

 State legislature, we append a list herewith. 

 When writing your senator, address him, 

 "Senate Chamber, Lansing, Mich.;" address 

 your representative, " Representative Hall. 

 Lansing. Mich.'' Do this at once, and besides 

 giving reasons why the law should be past. 

 let him know that .vou fully expect him lo use 

 his infiucncc and vote in favor of it. 



LIST OF SENATORS. 



Xmiic Jifs'tdence 



Arthur L. Holmes Detroit 



James (). Miirfin Detroit 



lliiratio S. Karle Detroit 



Solon (HKidcll Canton 



James W. Hclme, Jr ...Adrian 



