212 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 4, 1901. 



to pay his taxes all the same. If his bees are to be exempt because in 

 some years they make no return, then his swine should be forever 

 exempt because some years the cholera strikes them. 



Those who believe with Mr. Tracy probably reason something like 

 this: •• There are years in which my bees not only pay me no prolit, 

 but are an actual expense, so that I would be better off at the end of 

 the year if I had no bees. Manifestly I should not pay taxes on a 

 thing of no value, and as the failure maj' occur any year, the easy way 

 out of the difilculty is to liave the bees exempt from taxation every 

 year." 



This has a somewhat reasonable look on the face of it, but one 

 may imagine an assessor replying something like this : " Everything 

 is assest according to its valuation, not according to its profitableness 

 to the owner."' 



" But," says the bee-keeper, " this year if the bees yield no harvest 

 they are of no value, and should not be taxt." 



"At what price do you sell colonies of bees iu years of failure ;" 



"Why, just about the same as other years." 



" Then they have a marketable value, and rightly, because even 

 altho they may yield no return you do not give them away for noth- 

 ing, holding them of value because of the possibility of what they may 

 do in the future. And you seem to lose sight of the fact that you 

 already have reduction of taxes because of the uncertain character of 

 your bees. If you could count on getting each year straight along 

 more than $W from each colony, as you did one year, then bees would 

 readily sell for a much higher price than now— perhaps three times as 

 much— and your tax on them would be three times as much. But the 

 very fact that bees are uncertain property brings down their value, and 

 60 their price. If you insist that no tax should be paid in a year of fail- 

 ure, then in a good year when the profit on a colony of bees is as much 

 as the profit on a cow, you ought to be willing to pay cow-tax on bees. 

 When you are ready te give away bees for nothing, it will be time for 

 you to say they have no value." 



Mr. Tracy closes by saying, " I believe that all property should be 

 tixt. But I do not believe from my experience that it would be right 

 or justice to call bees taxable property." Which is equivalent to saying 

 that bees are not property, or else there is a direct contradiction. 



A New Honey-Eater.— Mr. Walter R. Ansell, of Ramsey Co., 

 Minn., has sent us a sketch of a little animal which has been recently 

 discovered in western Australia. It has been named Tarsipes 

 Hostratii^. and, tho only as large as a common field-mouse, belongs. 



like the kangaroo, to the Marsupial order — animals that carry their 

 young in a pouch. It enjoys the unique distinction amongst mam- 

 malia of obtaining its living exclusively by robbing flowers of their 

 nectar with its long, thread-lilie tongue. 



We have reproduced our new honey-loving friend for the benefit 

 of our readers. 



than appears on the surface. The exact methods described may not 

 be suited to many readers, but the thoroness with which the writer has 

 studied out the conditions of his locality, and devised a system of man- 

 agement adapted to those conditions, furnishes an encouraging ex- 

 ample for us to follow." 



This is what Editor Hutchinson says of the article by Mr. S, D. 

 Chapman on page 31.5 of this number of the Bee Journal. 



"The Best Article that was ever publisht in the Review it 

 ■would be diflieult to point out. I doubt, however, if very many better 

 ones have been publisht than the one by S. D. Chapman, that appears 

 in this issue. It is somewhat lengthy, but not more so than is war- 

 ranted by the magnitude of the subject. There is more in that article 



j * The Weekly Budget. ^ | 



To Our Delinquent Subsckibers. — We often wish we could 

 sit down in the homes of all our subscribers who are in arrears on 

 their subscription to the Bee Journal, and try to explain to them that 

 in all fairness to us and to themselves thej' ought to do their best to 

 pay at least all arrearages, and if possible a year in advance. It 

 should be remembered that our expenses in connection with issuing 

 this journal are regular, and must be met. We can not put off our 

 paper house, our printer, or our employees, with promises — they all 

 must have their money. Hence, it is absolutely necessary that we 

 should have the cash due on subscriptions in order to meet the neces- 

 sary and constant expenses from week to week. 



After we have favored several thousand subscribers by sending to 

 them the Bee Journal for over two to four years without receiving any 

 remittance, nor any acknowledgement of our requests to them to pay 

 their subscriptions, we feel that we are justified should we decide to 

 take some other means in order to hear from them. While we 

 would like to have every bee-keeper read the American Bee Journal 

 regularly, we would not willingly and knowingly continue to send it 

 to any one who does not want it. But we must insist that all arrear- 

 ages, if any, be paid. We shouldn't think that any one would wish to 

 discontinue a paper of any kind without being clear on the publisher's 

 books. 



So many of us are careless about these matters. Of course, no one 

 really intends never to pay his subscription. But do you know that 

 when several thousand subscribers owe for say an average of three 

 years at only one dollar, it amounts to a very large sum .*• And is i' 

 right that the publisher, who has faithfully furnisht the paper right 

 along, should be compelled to go without that much-needed and very 

 large sum, which belongs to him, and which could just as well as not 

 be paid ? for it means only a few dollars to each one who owes, but in 

 the aggregate, to the publisher, it means the difference between a 

 small profit and a big loss ! 



Reader, are you in arrears on your subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal, or to any other paper that you are reading '. If so, will 

 you not do the proper thing, and " pay that thou owest ?'' 



it * * * * 



The Hint for Errors in magazines, or in any publication, for 

 that matter, is au interesting and profitable investment of time. 

 Every article that is publisht in the Ladies' Home Journal, for in- 

 stance, is read at least four times in manuscript form, and all state- 

 ments of fact verified before it goes to the printer. Then it is read 

 and revised by the proof-readers ; goes back to the author for his revi- 

 sion : is re-read by the editors three or more times, at different stages ; 

 and again by the proof-readers possibly half a dozen times additional. 

 Thus, each article is read at least 15 -and often 30 times after leaving 

 the author's hands until it reaches the public eye. But with all this 

 unremitting vigilance, errors of the most obvious kind occasionally 

 escape observation until perhaps the final reading, but it is rare, 

 indeed, that an inaccuracy hides itself in the pages securely enough to 

 go thru that magazine's edition. 



The improvement in the proof-reading of most of the bee-papers is 

 encouraging. Yet there is' still room for the exercise of more care 

 along this line in nearly all the periodicals devoted to bee-keeping, the 

 old .\merican Bee Journal included. 



The Rocky Mocxtain Bee Joi'rnal is the name of the latest 

 claimant to the patronage of the bee-keeping public. It purports to 

 be publisht " For Colorado and the Great Inter-Mountain Region." It 

 is to be issued monthly, is neatly printed, and presents a good general 

 appearance. 



